Pravacana

Pravacana (Sanskrit: प्रवचन) is a term for any exposition of a doctrine or treatise, or to the recitation of a scripture or text in Jainism and Hinduism traditions.

[3] Pravacana (Sanskrit: प्रवचन) refers to "exposition, expounding, reciting, orally explaining, speaking or talking" about a spiritual idea or doctrine or treatise in Hinduism, particularly eloquently or excellent expression.

[1] The term is found with this sense of meaning in the Rigveda verses 10.35.8 and 4.36.1, in the sense of recitation of Vedic texts in the Yajurveda, in various Brahmanas, Gryhasutras, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, various sutras, as well as the Puranic literature such as the Bhagavata Purana.

For example, in Kerala, a pravacana is spelled pathakam, and generally refers to spiritual and moral-filled folklore recital such as Purana-pravacana, according to Raghavan.

[8][9] During the four-month rainy-season period, when the mendicants must stay in one place, the chief sadhu of every group gives a daily sermon (pravacana, vyakhyana), attended mostly by women and older, retired men, but on special days by most of the lay congregation.