Written by London Swaminathan
Post No:–1070; Dated 28th May 2014.

A strange story about Yajur Veda is repeated like parrots by all the scholars. Nobody has explained the meaning behind it. Yajnavalkya and his Guru Vaisampayana had difference of opinion. As a result of a quarrel, Vaisampayana ordered him to return whatever he learnt from him. Immediately Yajnavalkya “vomited out” the knowledge he possessed. Other students who were present there became Tittiris (parrots) and “ate all the vomit”. Then Yajnavalkya prayed to the Sun God and received a new Yajur Veda what is known as Shukla Yajur Veda. After giving this story, all the scholars proceed to explain the great philosophy in the Upanishads. Nobody explained the meaning of the story. Probably they thought the meaning is obvious and there is no need to explain. Actually it is a story of an amazing memory feat.

Vaisamapayana and Yajnavalkya had an argument. Yajnavalkya decided to leave his Guru. Guru asked him to teach his fellow students before he left. But Yajnavalkya would have told him that he had no time for it, but ready to recite only once .This would allow anyone to pick up whatever possible, if one has an amazing memory. In the Vedic days students had an amazing memory power. That is what happened. When Yajnavalkya recited it for the last time all the students became parrots and grasped it (Tittiri= parrots, vomit= recitation, ate the vomit= grasped and memorised.). So this must have been the greatest memory feat in the ancient India.

Parrots are famous for learning human voice. We have many stories of parrots reciting Vedas in Brahmins’ houses in the history of Adi Shankara and Tamil saint Tirujnana Sambanda. So the Vedic story of Tittiri eating the vomit of Yajnavalkya is nothing but memorising it as and when the Veda is recited! Such people are known as Ekata or Ekagrahi.

Sri Ganapathy Sachidananda Swamy with hsi parrots.

Hindus in ancient India, learnt by rote a lot of things. Vedas are taught and learnt by word of mouth until today. Ancient scholars were famous for their superhuman memory. In Tamil Nadu there were scholars who can remember eight or ten tasks done at the same time. They were known as Ashtavadanis or Dasavadanis.

Second Story : Nyaya Sastra
Pandit Vasudeva Sarvabhauman who wanted to get mastery over Nyaya Sastra approached the top most people in the field. Mithila was a great centre of Nyaya Studies (Logic). The professor who had the best logic book there did not allow anyone to copy it. So Pandit Vasudeva went there and learned the whole text book by heart and started his own institution in Navadweepa to teach logic.

Third Story: Intelligent Poet
Dharana matrka is one of the ancient arts of India. Dharana means to remember. To make everything easy to remember, Hindu saints gave most of the science in Sutra (aphorism) form or in verses. There is an interesting story about it. A king had announced a reward of thousand gold coins to the poet who would satisfy him with a new, self composed verse. He had in his court seven scholars who were masters of memory. The first could reproduce anything on hearing it only once, the second twice, and the third thrice and so on. When any poet came to the royal court with his newly composed verse and recited it aloud, the first pundit stood up, challenged its originality and reproduced the whole verse himself. The second pundit then stood up, challenged and reproduced for he had already heard it twice; then the third and the fourth and so on. All the poets who came to the court left the court without getting any reward and they were utterly confused as well.

One day a poet came and recited a verse which meant that the king’s father had borrowed hundred thousand gold coins from his father. The king was completely taken aback and asked his pundits if they knew anything about it. Then the poet smiled and said, “You must admit that this is an original verse, though the purport is not true. Now give me the promised amount”. The king was highly satisfied and gave him the reward.

Contact: — swami_48 @yahoo.com