How was the Vedas remembered before they were written?

Answer 1

Before the Vedas were written down they were passed by memorization and oral transfer. People with last names such as "Dwivedi" or "Trivedi" are a refernce to this, ancestors who would have memorized two (dwi) or three (tri) of the four Vedas would take these names.

Answer 2

Consider the basic Original Meditation exercise. This Meditation involves isometric exercises of muscles around the tongue.

1. Harden the front end of Geniohyoid muscle

This would make us to come from our dream world into our real world.

2. Harden the upper end of Styloglossus muscle

This would make us more conscious

3. Harden the upper end of Stylohyoid muscle

This would make us more active.

The three steps put together should make us as alert like an animal that is ready to hunt

Interestingly, this meditation would produce the same effect as the famous Upanishad mantra Asatoma Sadgamaya, (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.3. 28)

The Mantra means,

Lead me from dream to reality

Make me more conscious

Make me more active.

MEDITATION AND MANTRAS:

The Vedic people had little knowledge of anatomy. Therefore, they had difficulty in repeating a meditation technique. Therefore, every time they evolved a beneficial meditation technique they evolved a mantra that would produce the same effect as the meditation.

Thus, Vedic people studied the effect of Isometric contraction of skeletal muscles around the tongue and stored their effects in the form of Vedic mantras. The infinite possibilities enabled them to write about 72, 000 mantras.

VEDAS - HEARD FROM GOD:

The Vedic people believed that the Vedic mantras were heard from god and not of human origin. This is because they knew that it was not enough if they hardened a pair of muscles around their tongue and that they had to harden and soften their entire skeletal muscular system as a single unit. They called the entire skeletal muscular unit acting as a single unit as Brahman and considered it as the supreme god.

It has to be mentioned here that the Vedic people never gave a name to their technique of meditation. Therefore, it is called as Original Meditation here.

Thus, Vedas contain Mantras that produce the same effect as Original meditation techniques, a kind of isometric exercises of muscles around the tongue, that the Vedic people practiced.