Recitation is not ‘Learning by Rote’

Daily recitation of poems, ballads, sloka, keerthanas, vachanas, gamaka are very beautiful. It soothes your mind. It keeps you as a company while doing your daily chores. It is an ancient method for remembering things, conveying social messages, spirituality, divinity, even science & maths which we’ll discuss later how. Education in the ancient times included a whole lot of recitation in Samskrutha & our vernacular languages. Isn’t it almost removed from our modern education today? Even in our school times in 80’s and 90’s we used to mug up a whole lot of poems. Any stanza could be asked in the exam. Any poem could be asked in the class randomly. Kids could give their own music to recite it & render it.

But today’s education scheme almost bars school children from poem reciting. Why? Is it considered a burden? Will it hamper child’s growth? Is it considered superstitious? Do they consider that there is No Learning in poem recitation? Does our educators consider the recitation as a bad influence or a bad culture? Do they fear society awakening? Do they fear upraising like how ‘Vande Mataram’ did to the ruling class running fear down their spine?

My guess is today’s educators consider all of this is true and hence have removed the recitation for the Kids in schools. What a pity! What a big loss for the individuals & society for growing up bland children!

Learning by Rote method

Recitation is also unfortunately equated to the ‘Learning by Rote’. And it is considered as a burden on young minds! They argue the children would become dumb by recitation without understanding the meaning of the Poem!! You check your Children’s note book on what do they teach for a poem in the text book. The child has to write answers for the following questions typically for the poem:

Theme of the Poem

Tone of the Poem

Rhyming Scheme

Message/ Moral of the Poem

And obviously, the child simply mugs up the answers rather than the poem itself. The theme, tone, morale etc., will dawn on the individual over the years if he recites. Every time the child recites that poem he derives a new meaning of it. Poem recitation is like slowly munching & enjoying the peppermint. But if you ask him to mug up the meaning of the poem as directed by the teacher, we are cutting his imaginative capability. Also Q & A he learns on the poem remains in his memory only till the exam. So it serves only marks scoring purpose and not serve the long term memory.

Learning by Rote method is a method of learning by repetition. This is specifically for memorizing things for short term. For example, What are the various types of bone joints? What are the rivers of Karnataka? What policies were people centric by the King? Whats the meaning of this poem? Etc., for which one of the technique is to learn by Rote. This helps short term memory. It serves marks scoring in the exam. That’s it. 2 weeks after the exam, everything will be lost. They wont even remember the heading of the chapters or scheme of the text book.

Other types of ‘Learning’ are by practical means & experiments. For example, you go to a postoffice and see by yourself how posting, sorting, packaging etc., work. You go to a farm and you learn tilling, sowing, watering, harvesting, processing etc., But this requires a lot of travel, coordination, discipline etc., for a school to do. Instead they teach all of this in classroom board. The only way child remembers these is by mugging up the notes by Rote! It further burdens the children. They hate it. Parents hate it.

The Beauty of Recitation

Recitation is there in every culture, every religion, every part of the world. By recitation in a musical way, it gets registered in the Musical memory of the brain. In my another blog I had given the Human Memory Tree: https://npraveer.blogspot.com/2014/09/time-memory-character-building-in-child.html

Science says that the musical memory is expandable and unlimited. In vedic culture, all things are musical. The vedas, Upanishads are musical. Panchatantra, Kathasarithsagara etc are beautiful ancient tales of morals education for the kids. It was also made of verses for reciting followed by prose of story elaboration.

Mathematics, Science, Economics & Political Science:

Even the mathematics, scientific books by Bhaskaracharya, Aryabhatta, Varahamihira are in shloka-roopa followed by the prose explaining further. For the engineers building tanks, tank bunds, temples and various complex architecture, it was easy for them to recite and recall for formulas. There is a very nice book brought out by the Samskrita Bharati giving simple snippets of key slokas from these books along with comparable European scientific developments. Similarly, the Ayurveda texts of ancient times had easy to recite and recall slokas for describing body parts & medicinal imparting procedure. Even the famous ‘Arthashastra’ by Chanakya is in recitable slokas helping the administrators for economic policies, political treatises etc., In those era the constitution was in the form of Smrithis like – Manu Smriti, Parashara Smriti etc., which were also in easily recitable slokas.

History & Vedic Philosophy:

Our Bharata Itihasa (Indian History) is our own Ramayana & Mahabharata. Ramayana has 24000 slokas. Mahabharata is the largest single book in the present world with 1lakh slokas. All our puranas are in the recitable sloka form describing many historical events. That is how it is passed on generations over generations and survived.

In fact, it was considered that writing down Vedas is a sin. It should be recited and passed on in its purest form through music only. When Vedavyasa segregated Vedas into 4 shakhas (branches), he passed it onto 4 different groups of people asking them to recite it as part of their daily ritual. That’s how we have 4 shakhas in the Brahmins caste now. But today hardly anyone know its importance to preserve it. It is now put down in written form & forgot by many.   

Geography:

Sarva Magala Ashtaka rendered in the Vivaha Mahotsava describes the geography of India very well. It is the invocation of all Rivers, Mountains, Celestial bodies, All scriptures, Rishis, Rajarshis and many divine things describing our beautiful Bharata to come to the blessings for the couple tying the nuptial knot! So we get to learn our Geography. Few examples given below:

Our Ancient Capitals for recitation:

अयोध्या मथुरा माया काशी कांची अवंतिका |
पुरी द्वारावती चैव सप्तैता मोक्षदायिका ||

Ayodhya Mathura Maya Kasi Kanchi Avantika |
Puri Dvaravati chaiva saptaita moksadayikah ||

Our ‘pavithra rivers’ for reverence:

गङ्गे च यमुने चैव गोदावरि सरस्वति ।
नर्मदे सिन्धु कावेरि जलेऽस्मिन् संनिधिं कुरु ॥

Gange Ca Yamune Caiva Godaavari Sarasvati |
Narmade Sindhu Kaaveri Jalesmin Sannidhim Kuru

RSS has adopted a similar set of slokas called Ekatmata Stotra. It extends to even cover our freedom fighters and modern Indian scientists, social reformers. It is very easy for kids to recite and learn about our entire Bharatha.

Recitation in folklore and tribes of India

My uncle says, there used to be a nomadic tribe called ‘Adavi Ramaru’ in central Karnataka who were going around all towns and villages simply singing the songs of Rama in folk language closer to Kannada. Their only job & profession was to render these songs throughout their life. People used to take care of their basic needs everywhere they used to go. Temples used to give them special treatment on special days. Now their kids are modern educated. Full stop.

All steps of the agriculture used to be done in groups through singing folklores. Through these folklores there used to be social message, removal of any social stigma, social reforming message, motivational examples, local heroes eulogizing, local deity’s reverence etc.,

Now with the modern education pervading even the villages and remote rural areas, the kids of next generation are corrupted to think lowly of their own forefather’s tradition. So it fades into history. Some enthusiasts and NGOs record it from surviving folks. That’s it. It gets into the oblivion of recordings. The live performances are hastened to death due to no natural patronage by political powers nor private sector.

Add to this apathy by our own selves, the western religious missionaries erase whatever left out traditions in the tribes filling the void left with their Christian carols and rhymes. Especially since the tribes describe everything they live with as divine, it will be considered religious and cleansing it is a holy mission for the missionaries to uplift them.

Our modern education erases our tradition. Kids naturally grow up ‘educated’ with no sense of gratitude to our traditions, language, culture; Parents don’t entrust their culture with the same fervor they got it from their elders. They think the modern education is an ‘upliftment’ for which they don’t mind sacrificing their tradition. They don’t realize that by not transmitting their tradition down their generations, they are burning to ash a valuable tradition passed down to them from their elders.

Govina Hadu in Kannada; Punyakoti

One such immeasurable treasure is our Kannada’s Punyakoti poem which is getting emphatically killed by our educators. Even in the modern education, this great poem was part of the primary school curriculum till recently at least in state syllabus. Then during Siddaramaiah’s CM period, some crooks removed it altogether. The reason given is two fold. Firstly it is too long for kids of any class! But the second is more bizarre. Only crooked minds can appreciate it. They say, the end line is injustice to the tiger! There is even an attempt to rewrite it. The so called Intelligentsia under whose grips our Children’s education is there are just loathsome! And we are in a pitiable state as there is absolutely no opposition to them. The CBSE, ICSE curriculum of Kannada probably never had it conveniently. Rather inconveniently. 

Every child in Karnataka used to recite this poem. Every school in its school day some year or the other had this performed on stage. Many models were made of the entire story and kept in exhibition. Some of the phrases from this folksong are ubiquitous in our conversation too. SL Bhyrappa wrote a famous novel which was filmed on one phrase from this song. The title is ‘Tabbaliyu Neenade Magane’. Now there is crowd sourcing for a Sanskrit movie being made on this theme. The tale is so touching and so full of meaning. There are many take aways in the whole narration. It lets the imagination of a kid go very wide and wandering. A child can derive a good morale by itself and by its own imagination without any readymade answers and induced mugged up answers. In fact, the song-tale is a reflection of the Kannada culture and its soul.

But alas! Now the primary universal education no longer appreciates it. Just axed it.