The most authoritative Hindu scriptures are called shruti, “that which is heard.” Texts of the second rank are smriti, “that which is remembered.” The Vedas are the core of shruti. Traditions of Vedic chant are “often considered the oldest unbroken oral tradition in existence.”
UNESCO first proclaimed the tradition of Vedic chanting a masterpiece of oral heritage in 2003. It inscribed it on its list of intangible heritage in 2008.
In the Ramcharitmanas, Tulsidas’s retelling of the Ramayana, King Dasharatha has promised Queen Kaikeyi two boons. She asks that her son Bharat be crowned and that Rama be sent into exile for fourteen years. Dasharatha is broken by grief, but he keeps his word.
The poem explains it in one line: Raghukul reet sada chali aayi, pran jaye par bachan na jaai. It has always been the rule in the house of Raghu. Life may go, but a promise may not.
“Ek baar jo maine commitment kar di, fir main apne aap ki bhi nahi sunta.” Once I have made a commitment, I do not even listen to myself. Salman Khan says it as Radhe in Wanted (2009).
The film site Filmibeat lists it among the 16 most famous Hindi film dialogues. The wording varies slightly between sources.
In a 2008 column for The Economic Times, the mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik wrote: “Indians prefer to say things, and hear things, rather than read things or write them down.” His conclusion for managers was direct: “Verbal communication is the key to success in the Indian business environment.”
He traced the habit back to the Vedas. “Revelation came to the Rishis in the form of a divine whisper: an auditory communication.”
Under Section 10 of the Indian Contract Act of 1872, an oral agreement is a valid contract if it meets the usual conditions, such as free consent and a lawful object. “A sale agreement can be oral also and valid,” the Supreme Court held in Alka Bose v. Parmatma Devi, as quoted by the legal site iPleaders. The Delhi High Court has called oral agreements “valid and enforceable.”
The difficulty is proof. An oral agreement is hard to prove if a dispute arises later.
In 1933, at the age of 11, Bhimsen Joshi left his home in Dharwad to find a music teacher. He traveled to Bijapur, Pune, Gwalior and across North India, until his father found him in Jalandhar.
In 1936 the singer Sawai Gandharva accepted him as a student. Joshi lived in his teacher’s house, in the guru-shishya tradition, the bond of teacher and disciple. He later received the Bharat Ratna.
On October 3, 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi began to speak to the country by radio in a program called Mann Ki Baat, “words from the heart.” It airs on the last Sunday of every month at 11 a.m. Radio was chosen because television does not reach everywhere, and an estimated 90 percent of Indians can be reached by radio.
Audience figures conflict. A survey by IIM Rohtak put regular listeners and viewers at no fewer than 230 million. A CSDS study in 2022 found that about 5 percent listened monthly and that at least 60 percent had never listened.
Pandavani, “stories of the Pandavas,” is a sung and acted telling of the Mahabharata from Chhattisgarh. The singer holds a tambura, which becomes Bhima’s mace, Arjuna’s bow or Draupadi’s hair as the story moves.
Teejan Bai learned the epic by listening to her grandfather recite it. She first performed in public at 13, standing, in a form that had belonged to men. She received the Padma Vibhushan in 2019 and died on July 5, 2026.
In the villages of North India, the chaupal is the meeting place. It is often a raised platform in the shade of a large tree. People sit there and discuss their problems, and village councils usually hold their hearings there.
Wikipedia calls it “the hub of community life in villages” and notes that it has been a space especially for men.
Zabaan is the Hindi and Urdu word for tongue. It also means a promise. The Rekhta dictionary gives vachan and vaada, both meaning promise, among its senses. Zabaan dena, to give one’s tongue, means to give one’s word.