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There are also
procedures which indicate that an error is there in the chanting,
but cannot correct it. These procedures are far simpler and do
not involve the elaborate recitation of the
vikrati form. The idea is described in the book "Chandas
- Shastra" circa 200 CE or earlier -
("The Science of poetic metres").
Every syllable in a verse is either heavy or light in
pronunciation. Thus one can associate a binary string for a
verse, the numeral one indicating the heavy
syllable and zero or some symbol indicating the light
one. This binary string is converted into a decimal number by the
usual method namely multiply the kth
digit in the string by 2 raised to the power of k and add all of
them. This number acts like a signature of the verse. The book
mentions recovering the binary string from the decimal number and
vice versa. The person responsible for that portion of chant of RV
memorizes the first phrase of each verse along with its decimal
number. Periodically the reciter
computes this number from his/her current pronunciation and checks
whether it equals its ideal number. If it does not match, it
indicates error. Even though the book mentioned has been
translated into English about a hundred years ago, only recently
did the deep meaning in it was noticed by Professor Van
Nooten [3]. |
