Why were vedas only passed through verbal chanting and not writing

Why were vedas only passed through verbal chanting and not writing

The word Veda (वेद) is made from the word ‘Vid,’ which means “knowledge” in Sanskrit, the oldest sacred text available in the world. This is why Vedas as known as ‘Anantha vai Vedaah’ (अनंता वै वेदा:), i.e., Vedas are infinite. You can write and document everything, except infinity. There are millions of words in Vedas, each with a different meaning, and even if it is slightly altered and modified, the meaning of the word will change.

Then, why were the Vedas preserved orally for so many centuries?

It was done to avoid manipulation. The knowledge that is written and documented can be read. Cunning readers can use the knowledge they read to manipulate the masses. This has happened with laws around the world. This has happened with ideologies that have been written, read, abused, and exploited. Knowledge, if made available to all, will merely become a source to exploit the masses. Indian scholars (rishis) knew this, so they chose not to write it down and make it available. If you jot it down, the followers will not comprehend it – they will merely refer to it as a guide and will replicate their own versions of it in time. You can’t have different versions of facts, right? This is why even though our Gurukul was available free for learners; the students were chosen based on ethical values, and the knowledge was orally transmitted. Students trapped in ‘Maya Jaal’ were first pushed to come out of the greed cycle, and then Gurus imparted the knowledge.

Maya Jaal means illusion, mirage, and delusion.

This is why the Vedas thrived in oral form and were passed down from Guru to Disciple for generations. Gurus carefully preserved them orally as teachers would have students memorize them forwards and backward, emphasizing exact pronunciation to keep what was initially heard intact.

Gurus created many chanting styles to maintain the exact word order, keep the pronunciations, and memorize the Vedas. They even chanted the Vedas in the reverse order. This is why the knowledge was never manipulated, and mantras stayed unchanged. Mind energy was used to its maximum in guaranteeing that this knowledge was transmitted for thousands of years with excellent integrity, up until the 12th Century.

The entry of the invaders changed everything. Various reasons, like the dark days of colonization and foreign invasions, resulted in the loot and digestion of our knowledge systems and wealth. This is why there was a systematic decline in the oral recitation of the Vedas. Invaders focused on killing our Gurus and destroying the Gurukuls. This is where some of the fundamental knowledge was lost forever.