Art of Memory (A.K. Ramanujan)

About the Author: A.K. Ramanujan (1929-93) was a poet, folklorist, critic, translator, and cultural historian. His poems reflect his traditional Hindu upbringing as well as the experiences that he encountered in a Western culture. His poems are poetic sketches with inherent comments on people and situations.

Introduction: In the essay, “Art of Memory”, A.K. Ramanujan describes how ‘arts of memory’ are closely connected with the ancient classical and oral traditions. He wonders at our forefathers who were able to recite “Vedas” and “ragas” by-heart. It means that many of our narratives of ancient period had multiple functions and they triggered the memory part of the brain of our ancestors. But, according to Ramanujan, amnesia or ‘Apasmara” is a curse on mankind. So, he recommends ‘meditation’ – ‘an exercise to recall’ to keep everything in one’s memory.

Multiple Memories: One’s remarkable feat of memory can be assessed based on his ability to remember many things at a time. For example, if one is “Astavadhani” then he can do eight different tasks simultaneously and if one is “Satavadhani”, then he can perform hundred different tasks simultaneously. This is possible if one should have “mindfulness and memory.” Such “art of memory” was part of our ancient classical and oral traditions. In ancient time, “Vedas” were orally transmitted from one generation to the next through the ‘art of memory’- exercise. Various gestures and bodily movements were also exerted by the reciters of “Vedas” which along with the phrases stored in the receivers’ motor memory.

Meditation: According to Ramanujan man can remember and recall even his previous birth, if he practises meditation. To justify his point of view, he gives many examples from our ancient texts. The enlightened sage like Buddha is said to be called “trikalanjani’ because he was able to see the past, present, and future in clear details. Hence, according to Ramanujan ‘remembering’ is not “a mere show off” but it was the means for “enlightenment or salvation”. Meditation can be done by ‘remembering and recalling’. For example, one must remember the happenings of the day, one by one, in reverse order and about the previous day, and about the week, and about the month and then about the year and so on. Such practice is called ‘exercise of recalling’ which is humanly possible. The concept of “Karma” given in the Hindu Buddhist and Jain texts say that one’s memories have a pattern called “Samskaras” or “Vasanas” which means the past deeds can be remembered and recalled in the present birth. Plato calls this process “anamnesis.” But many of us forget the “Vasanas” of the previous birth. So, we are alienated from our ‘self’ because our ‘self’ is largely constituted in our ‘memory’.

Apasmara: Madness or Apasmara is a misremember or a disorder of memory. Lord Siva stepped on a demon called Apasmara during his cosmic dance. This shows that one should overcome ‘apasmara’ for his salvation. However, Gods themselves fell preys to ‘apasmara’ or disorder of memory. For example, “Marchan” is the wonder tale found in “Kathasaritasagara” in which Indira Peterson points out that celestial beings were cursed to born as human beings through the act of ‘apasmara’ but later they returned to their original forms through ‘remembering’. One of the tales in “Kathasaritasagara”, states that the celestial beings were cursed by Goddess Parvati to born as geese, king and queen. But by performing meditation they could recall their previous birth and flew back to their heavenly abode.

Like this, when Lord Vishnu took the incarnation as a boar to save the earth goddess, he became the father of many piglets and remained in that state for many years. In fact, he forgot his godly position and so Siva released Vishnu from that incarnation by making him remember and recall his original godly status. In the same way, Lord Vishnu was released from all his avatars such as Rama, Krishnan and Balarama through meditation or remembering.

Conclusion: Thus, in this essay, Ramanujan highlights the ancient classical and oral traditions of India which enabled people to remember or mediate things in life. So, he recommends ‘mediation’ to overthrow ‘apasmara’ and to find out one’s ‘self’.