05-02-2007, 02:19 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-SwamyG+May 1 2007, 02:13 AM-->QUOTE(SwamyG @ May 1 2007, 02:13 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->Mudy said:
<!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Our knowledge or experience came from grandparents not from books.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
B I N G O, B I N G O, BINGO was his namo!!!
One reason why so many Hindus (including yours truly) are aware only of the most often talked about ancient texts.
[right][snapback]68075[/snapback][/right]
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I think this is true. But the significance is deeper IMO. The Indian ethos and morality are largely based on the Hindu memes that have been transmitted orally. Oral transmission of such narrative is dependent on a settled society. For One thousand years Hindu society has been raped and unsettled by the wanton destruction of temples, village life and economy and now family life (by modernization).
So while Mudy is right in speaking about the oral transmission in her family, the unsettling of life has ensured that hundreds of thousands have had no access to similar oral transmission.
Every time I read about the caste system nowadays - I read about how the syetem was "rigidified" and made nepotistic rather than the original skill based classification. I believe the rigidification was a direct consequence of social upheaval when the transmission of oral knowledge such as that which Mudy refers to stopped being widespread and was transmitted merely to one's own descendants. That is the difference between a Guru teaching all entrants at a gurukulam versus the same Guru being able to teach only his own children because he has been driven out of his village. So also a stonemason who might have been able to transmit his skills to all those who wanted to learn in his settled town was displaced and was later able to transmit his life skill to only his kids.
<!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Our knowledge or experience came from grandparents not from books.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
B I N G O, B I N G O, BINGO was his namo!!!
One reason why so many Hindus (including yours truly) are aware only of the most often talked about ancient texts.
[right][snapback]68075[/snapback][/right]
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I think this is true. But the significance is deeper IMO. The Indian ethos and morality are largely based on the Hindu memes that have been transmitted orally. Oral transmission of such narrative is dependent on a settled society. For One thousand years Hindu society has been raped and unsettled by the wanton destruction of temples, village life and economy and now family life (by modernization).
So while Mudy is right in speaking about the oral transmission in her family, the unsettling of life has ensured that hundreds of thousands have had no access to similar oral transmission.
Every time I read about the caste system nowadays - I read about how the syetem was "rigidified" and made nepotistic rather than the original skill based classification. I believe the rigidification was a direct consequence of social upheaval when the transmission of oral knowledge such as that which Mudy refers to stopped being widespread and was transmitted merely to one's own descendants. That is the difference between a Guru teaching all entrants at a gurukulam versus the same Guru being able to teach only his own children because he has been driven out of his village. So also a stonemason who might have been able to transmit his skills to all those who wanted to learn in his settled town was displaced and was later able to transmit his life skill to only his kids.