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It may have been for memorization or recitation purposes if the text was passed down orally before it was written down. That's the reason given by philologists
by guerrilla 6y ago
It may have been for memorization or recitation purposes if the text was passed down orally before it was written down. That's the reason given by philologists of the Pali canon for some anomalous regularities and inconsistencies anyway.
- dbatten 6y agoYes, absolutely. Good point. Though one would still need to describe the pattern and how it was helpful as a memory aid... None of the proposals I've seen are simple enough that they seem useful for that purpose. But I'm admittedly from a different culture and time, so maybe what was obvious to them isn't obvious to me/us.