Education in Ancient India c8.s1.3

c8.s1.3

The Method of Study : Vedic hymns were studied in this period as specimens of literature to be understood, appreciated, imitated and even excelled if posssible. New hymns² were being composed and the authors of some of them claimed that they were superior to the compositions of the earlier poets.¹ It is interesting to note that some of the poems of the later poets were selected for inclusion in the Vedic collection when it was made in a subsequent age. As new hymns were being composed by contemporary authors, it is but natural that they were not yet regarded as revealed. It was therefore not at all felt necessary that they should be committed to memory so meticulously as not to render possible a single mistake of accent or intonation. Professional priests must of course have committed the hymns very thoroughly to memory in order to ensure facility in their use during the performance of the different rituals. But the mass of people consisting of the warriors, agriculturists and artisans used to learn by heart only some select Vedic hymns, and these too in the same way in which the songs of medieval saints are memorised by the Hindu masses today. More effort was made to understand the meaning of the hymns than to remember their exact wording.