Literacy in Himalyas - a post by Zoller

[Guest guest]

Indo-Eurasian_research , Claus Peter Zoller

<peter_zoller wrote:

 

Dear List,

 

I have been working for some time in the Central and

Western Himalayas, and in Northern Pakistan. My main

interests are Indo-Aryan linguistics and folk

traditions. I want to say a few things on the issue of

literacy in connection with the Indus civilization.

These comments are not meant as an addition to the

question whether the Indus civilization was literate

or not – for which I am not a qualified person. I only

would like to point out that such a dichotomy –

literate or illiterate - is potentially too coarsely

meshed. For instance, in the Western Himalayas there

are societies whom one might call _a little bit_

literate: the great majority of people living in the

Bangan area around the Tons valley (a tributary of the

Yamuna) are traditionally (but now no more so, of

course) illiterate. Then there is a quite small group

of Brahmins living there who are traditionally (but

now no more so, of course), a little bit literate.

With this I mean that they traditionally possess just

one book with which they work. This book, called

saanca, is, as it were, their field manual. Most of

its portions consist of series of mostly very short

text passages to which they might refer when

performing auguries. Other portions are collections of

yanta " matrices " which they use for making amulets or

which they employ in witchcraft. Some of these

" matrices " look quite weird, like abstract animals,

human or divine beings. Frequently they are surrounded

by abbreviations, words or short sentences. In short,

even though the saancas are physically (quite thick)

books, they cannot be said to contain long texts, a

common topic or a uniform representation. I may add

that, as a rule, all long texts of this area – epics

and other stories – are transmitted orally only. And,

at least until recently, people resisted attempt in

tape recording their sacred (and oral) texts. Still it

would be a wrong conclusion with regard to this

geographical area to simply associate orality with

sanctity and books with ordinary objects. There seem

to exist different types of saancas, and some of them

are regarded sacred. There is a village in which there

is a saanca in possession of all the village's

Brahmins. The saanca is said to be a " form of the

Goddess " , and if it is taken from one village to

another, people are warned on the way to retreat,

otherwise they would be badly hit by its power.

However, to arrive now at a conclusion: If it should

happen that this culture would disappear in the

future, then, I am sure, future archaeologists will

describe it as an illiterate one, although it was _a

little bit_ literate. This guess must not, please, be

understood that I favour the " lost texts " hypothesis

for the Indus civilisation. I only wanted to point out

that there might be quite a lot between the two poles

of literacy and illiteracy.

 

May I add one more point. " Shamanism " : the inverted

commas need no comments, but I would like to point out

that there are many areas in the Himalayas where all

kinds of " shamanism " live happily together in

symbiotic union with " high culture " Brahmanism (or

Lamaism).

 

I am presently In New Delhi and have a lot of problems

with my Email. I thus may not be able to react

instantly to comments or questions.

 

Claus Peter Zoller

 

 

PD Dr. Claus Peter Zoller

Südasien-Institut

Abt. Moderne Indologie

Im Neuenheimer Feld 330

69120 Heidelberg

BRD

 

 

 

 

 

 

_________

Gesendet von Mail - Jetzt mit 250MB Speicher kostenlos - Hier

anmelden: http://mail..de

 

--- End forwarded message ---