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Why was hinduism scripture written in poetry format rather than descriptive text?

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Hindu Scriptures are written in poetry format, because they can explain a lot more in fewer words. Narrating the same in descriptive text format would make the narration too lengthy and cumbersome.

However, there are instances of scriptures written in descriptive text form.

The entire Canto V of Srimad Bhagavat Mahapurana is narrated in text format and not poetry except for some prayers.

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    One reason is I found somewhere that Poetry format is more suitable to memorize compare to descriptive text. So it can be easy to remind and to preach the deity every day or on specific occasion or on festival. Is it true?
    – SamSol
    Sep 29, 2017 at 5:48
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    @SamSol yes it is true. Poetry is easy and fluid. But not only that. Poetry has been a great literature science in hindu Scriptures. To understand it- the Scriptures are written in poetic form in particular Chhanda(meter) and each Chhanda contains specific number of syllables. Usually Anustup chanda is used, which has two lines of 8×2 syllables, equalling 32 syllables. And also only particular sound and syllables can fit in particular Chanda. So it becomes easy to learn it, because of specificity of syllables, the learner knows that only a particular word will fit in a Verse.
    – user9392
    Oct 2, 2017 at 18:20
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    @SamSol ....And this makes even such extremely voluminous Scriptures easy to learn. Especially, if you learn the structure of Chhandas, then it is almost as if you can remember the whole Huge Scriptures. Also, one other reason is, that Poetic qualities (called "Kavitva") has been seen as sign of great intelligence. And if you read and understand sanskrita verses in Scriptures, then you would see what an extensive poetry is in Scriptures- Alliteration, Metaphor, Simile, Onomatopoeia, Oxymoron, Hyperbole, Adnomination, Paronomasia,- are just to name a few of a huge number of speech figures used.
    – user9392
    Oct 2, 2017 at 18:34

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