I mean literally. The way our Telugu books print the script for Hindu rituals, I think, makes it more complex than it ought to be. This is especially complex for people who do not perform the same ritual too often. They are neither easy to read nor are they properly pronounced for that reason.
Case in point, the way I struggle to do the Ganesh pooja every year. The challenge to read well is so high for me that I start fearing well before several weeks of the festival day. (It's a different point why wouldn't I practice ahead of the festival then.)
Rather than elevate me as the festival approaches, I get concerned. Even if I do not read or write Telugu on a daily basis, it is not difficult for me to do either. So that's not the factor. The challenge is at places where a word contains three sounds in one alphabet. And in a few cases even when they are lesser.
The difficulty I observed is not so much of my ability to read aloud those sounds correctly either. It is that when they don't make immediate sense, they are harder to read. When one understands what is being read, he/she can say it not only more fluently, but also accurately. If one does not understand what he/she is saying, what's the difference between us and a parrot or a child who is simply reciting?
The words when printed should be split in a way such that each word has a meaning independently. The person is able to read correctly even if it were for the first time. Currently they are garbled often. Imagine you reading this blog if I had written two or three words together without spacing. But stop. It gets even worse. Imagine I split the words such a way that I have split mid-word and joined the second part into the first part of the next word. Then a reader struggles to read. And they would finish reading without understanding what was read.
Yes, they would be recited properly by a priest or experienced ritual performer. My concern is about the way the books are printed. If someone is expected to recite accurately, then why not print them exactly the same way they were supposed to be read or recited? Luckily we have a wonderful language that, unlike English, what we write is the same as what we say. There is no confusion about how a letter should sound irrespective of where it was used. It is unfortunate that a language as bad as English has become a global language.
If all the pooja procedures were originally passed on orally from guru to disciple, then whoever wrote them up for printing books made these mistakes. And it is equally possible that during the manual publishing era using typefaces, the typesetter wanted to conserve typesetting for his own ease. Don't laugh. It is quite possible if you know what went into typesetting in the old manual publishing days. And perhaps each subsequent publisher made more such mistakes, along with a few genuine typos like printing Brahma as Bamha and so on.
Yes, one could question the ability of the reader to read properly and I know that 'practice maketh a man perfect,' in Shakespeare's words. My question is: if anyway these were supposed to be pronounced in a certain manner, splitting alphabets as needed, why not print them exactly the same way? Don't tell me that for the sake of the sonic benefits these were written that way. Mind you, I am not asking anyone to split all phrases into single words. I am just asking to print as we speak, literally.
The authenticity of a ritual or practice comes more from how it is actually implemented than from what was written in a book. I feel any ritual loses its benefit when the performer does it blindly. If someone like me who has extensively studied Telugu for several years as part of the curriculum in academia has difficulty in reading these ritual books, then what do we expect from our next generation who are much less familiar with Telugu script in their daily use? If this modern generation is to imbibe our culture in future times, then we ought to make it possible in the first place. I think all these religious books have to be written more legibly. They should not make it harder and discourage performing the rituals described in the ancient scriptures. And this should hold even if a festival occurs only once in a year.
A prayer that is made to God without understanding or calling Him out incorrectly is bad. I like people to pronounce my name accurately when they call me. If not, I may not even respond!
PS: I want to re-write at least one book and print it for the sake of my own use in the future, and for my children. One more project in the offing!
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