Writing is a central part of human activities today. Mostly everyone has to write something to manage their lifestyle. It makes life perfect and helps the development of human society. As a result, there is only progress in the world with a writing system.
According to social science, writing is advantageous for mental health, and some recommend writing journals to prevent cognitive problems. However, there is a story in the writing system, like in other human behaviors.
Accordingly, as there was no existing modern writing system like today, there was no proper educational system to learn about the world in the past. People believed what their ancestors told them, whether right or wrong. As their knowledge was limited to their own world and they lived in a dark period, they could not under- stand the outer world.
According to human history, people built houses in caves and rocks to protect themselves from wild animals and rain. Archaeologists and geologists named them Homo habilis, Homo sapiens, Neanderthals, and Homo erectus. Mr. Barry McGuinness has proved it by reviewing Momo Erectus: “Homo erectus reached the Indonesian island of Java between 1.3 and 1.5 million years ago.” According to research published on January 8 about science, that’s around 300,000 to 500,000 years later than the previous estimate, which was established by Rutgers archaeologist Carl Swisher in 1994. At the same time, they reviewed their intelligence as follows: “Homo sapiens are modern humans, and it means ‘wise men’. Neanderthals were the first to develop religious beliefs and rituals. Cro-Magnons: Identical skeletal remains to modern humans.
Planned hunts, advanced language, surviving winters, and replacing Neanderthals. “In each development, the brain capacity increases.” In addition, according to this description, we can understand that they were the first inventors of fire. History shows they made the fire by scratching together some dried wood.
Meanwhile, they learned gradually to draw some objects like human beings, animals, trees, and rocks on the walls of rock caves during their free time. It was beneficial for them to make a writing system by using various objects they faced in daily life. This method was changed to some kind of art of writing and drawing, according to historians. They used to write letters of some sort to introduce certain objects. Sometimes, they depicted ideas with pictures. Therefore, historians thought that was the beginning of the writing system. Human history says that after that era, people formed small villages and gradually converted to cultivating paddy and vegetables. So, those ancestors used to eat vegetables instead of flesh. That was good news for human beings. Soon, they learned to write letters on stone flanks and sand. Even today, we can see scripts on the stone planks, but not sand writings. It later evolved into the use of portable slates. A slate pencil was used to write on the slate board.
It was made from a softer and lighter stone, such as shale. Usually, a cloth could be used to wipe off what had already been written on the slate. It was such a cheap writing mode that educational institutions quickly adopted this convenient innovation.
Therefore, this era was significant for the education system of the whole world and the Eastern hemisphere. Many famous universities, including nearly all prominent institutions like Na ̄landa ̄ University in Nalanda Pradesh, are in India. Besides that, there were many institutions called Pirivena administered by temples in some Buddhist countries, including Sri Lanka. In them, religion, disciplines like medicine or Ayurvedic treatment, astrology, mathematics, and oriental languages were taught.
According to this information, we can make out that there has been a rich writing system in the east. At present, this writing system has been developed to teach many subjects and many languages. The advent of the printing industry. On the other hand, it revolutionized information and education across the planet. As a result, these educational systems helped the current generation develop their writing system from sand or stone planks to writing on the most recent computer and many writing techniques, such as email, WhatsApp, and Twitter writings.
It brought about the present writing and education systems and paved the way for the development of so-called human beings. They are rich in everything and can experiment on the moon and stars far from the earth. Though they are rich in new science, the new generation, or Z gen, has been wealthy with the latest technology. But the biggest question is how far their inventions have contributed to the happiness of present-day human beings. Scientists say they fear new atomic products that can destroy the whole world within one second, including all humans and the green world.
On the other hand, environmentalists are protesting the new economic development, which destroys the green world and the world’s environment. Who is right? Finally, the great question is whether the innocent ancestor could kill even one human being with the weapon they were using at that time, as today’s human beings do.
Ven Diyapattugama Revatha Thero (B.A., M.A., M.Phil.)
Expert Psychological Counselor and Meditation Instructor Siriwardhanarama Buddha Dhamma College
Mano ̄daya Meditation Center Mano ̄daya Asapuwa (Facebook) Siriwardhanaramaya, Temple Lane, Kollupitiya sirirevathad@gmail.com dhammavedi.com
