Consumption of siddha medicine in TN

Ethnobotanical Leaflets 12: 1102-07. 2008.
 

Consumer Behavior in Selection of Buying Source of Siddha Medicine in Tamilnadu, India from the Perspective of Age

A. Krishnan,1* P. Bagyalakshimi,2 S. Ramya,3 and R. Jayakumararaj3

1PG and Research Department of Commerce, Government Arts College, Dharmapuri - 636705, TN, India.
2Department of Computer Science, Government Arts College, Dharmapuri - 636705, TN, India.
3Department of Botany, RD Government Arts College, Sivagangai - 630561, TN, India.
*Corresponding author: Prof. Krishnan, PG and research Department of Commerce, Government Arts College, (Periyar University, Salem), Dharmapuri - 636705, TN, India. Phone: +91 4343 230008, Email: krishdr_66@yahoo.co.in

Issued 01 December 2008

ABSTRACT
            With the increasing usage of traditional medicines as complementary alternative therapy, possibilities that would ensure its successful integration into the public domain of health care services needs to be evaluated. India is one of the countries with rich traditional knowledge base. Its ethnic ethno-medical practices had paved way for the evolution of several indigenous systems of medicine. Siddha is one of the oldest systems of medicine in India. Siddha holds close association with nature and has been validated in the laboratory of life, even before the advent of formal modern western system of medicine. This paper discusses the interrelations between usage of Sidhha as complementary alternative medicine and its implications on public health care related issues. We explore the impact of age of respondents in the public domain as a criterion in relation to selection of buying source of Siddha medicine in Tamilnadu, India.

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Study on Usage of Traditional System of Medicine in Tamilnadu

Current Trends in Usage of Traditional System of Medicine in Tamilnadu, India -From the Perspective of Occupation

A. Krishnan, 1* P. Bagyalakshmi, 2 S. Ramya, 3 and R. Jayakumararaj3


1.PG and Research Department of Commerce, Government Arts College, Dharmapuri - 636705, TN, India.

2.Department of Computer Science, Government Arts College, Dharmapuri - 636705, TN, India.

3.Department of Botany, RD Government Arts College, Sivagangai - 630561, TN, India.

*Corresponding author: Prof. A. Krishnan, PG and Research Dept. of Commerce, Govt. Arts College, (Periyar University, Salem), Dharmapuri - 636705, TN, India. Phone (O): +914343230008, Email: krishdr_66@yahoo.co.in

Issued 30 January 2009

ABSTRACT

Socio-economic parameters have significant impact on consumer’s attitude towards the usage of traditional system of medicine inTamilnadu, India. Though traditional systems of medicine have made significant contributions towards fulfilling healthcare needs of the people in the past, impacts of modern medicine have been so large that traditional medicine witnessed a dark period in India. While such practices are common in the rural/ remote areas, off late, change in the trend with respect to the usage of Siddha medicine as complementary alternative therapy among urban population has been observed. Present study aims to evaluate the resurgence of interest in Siddha medicine

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Siddha medicine and its usage in mental illness

ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR AND ITS REMEDIES IN THE VIEW OF SIDDHA MEDICINE

ABSTRACT

The main objective of study is to find the abnormal behavior and its remedies in the view of Siddha medicine. As one of the oldest system of Indian, the Siddha medicine has several branches. The abnormal behaviors

described in the name of Kirukai Vaithyam. The primary data have been collected from Siddha Physicians through a questionnaire and personal interview. The secondary data have been collected from Siddha medicinal literatures. Type of research is descriptive and type of approach is quantitative.

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International Herbal Water Foundation

International Herbal Water Foundation is a non-profit organization formed by experts from Bottled water industry to represent, help and assist Flavored Water Industry. The foundation aims at developing, implementing and monitoring quality & hygiene standards for Flavored Water and offers technological assistance and other resources.

IHWF is a society registered in year 2006, having more than 150 members from all over the country including the states of Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Maharashtra, Gujarat. Under inquiry counter Srilanka, Malaysia Singapore. IHWF is also a member of

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Inscriptions throw up evidence of Ancient Siddha hospital

Chennai, Aug. 30: The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has found evidence of a hospital that existed 900 years ago. This discovery was made while studying stone inscriptions at the ancient Venkatesa Perumal temple, situated in Thirumukkudal village, in Kancheepuram district.

According to a senior official of ASI, the inscriptions say that a 15-bed ayurvedic hospital (athura-salai) functioned alongside the temple 900 years ago.

The purpose of the hospital was to serve the students of the temple Veda school and the temple employees, the official said.

The ancient temple, which is a protected monument under ASI, is built at confluence of three rivers, the Palar, Seyar and Vegavathi.

“The name of the hospital was ‘Veera Cholan’ and it had a large number of staff, including physicians. There was also a surgeon called Kothandaraman Aswathaman Bhattan, who performed operations at the hospital. Besides them, there were many nurses to attend on the patients, servants who performed the task of procuring medicinal herbs, and barbers. While proving the existence of an efficient infrastructure, the inscriptions further say that all the employees earned monthly salary. We also got information regarding the 20 ayurvedic medicines that the hospital used to store,” the official said. He brought to notice that the hospital followed the Tamil model of Siddha system of medicine.

The ASI official added that an important fact was that the inscriptions of the temple were the longest belonging to the Chola period.

“While this fact makes the sacred site a monument of national and historic importance, the inscriptions also give us some of the earliest known definitions for ‘doctor’ and ‘nurse’.”

Inscriptions as read  (Thanks to REACH foundation)

Text no. 1

இராசேந்திரசோழன் மெய்கீர்த்தி

திருமன்னிவளர இருநிலமடந்தையும் போர்செயற் பாவையுஞ்சீர்தனிச்செல்வியும் தன்பெரும் தேவியராகி இன்புற நெடுதியலூழியுன் இடைதுறைநாடும் தொடர் வனவேலி பிடர்வனவாசியும் சுள்ளிச்சூழ்மதிய் கொள்ளிப்பாக்கையும் நண்ணற்கு அருமுரண் மண்ணைக்கடக்கமும் பொருகடல்மீழி முத்தரையர் தம் முடியும் ஆங்கவர்தேவியர் ஓங்கெழில்முடியும் முன்னவர் பக்கல் தென்னவர் வைத்த சுந்தரமுடியும் இந்திரன் ஆரமும் தெண்டிரல் ஈழமண்டலமுழுவதும் எறிபடைக்கேரளர் முறைமையிற்சூடும் குலதனமாகிய பலர் புகழ் முடியுஞ்சேர் செங்கதிர்பாலையுஞ்சங்கதிர்வேலை தொல்பெருங்காவல் பல்பழந்தீவுஞ்செருவிற்சினவி இருபத்தொருகால் அரசு களைகட்ட பரசுராமன்மேவரும் சாந்திமற்றீவரண் கருதி இருத்திய திருந்தகமுடியும் பயங்கொடு பழிமிக முயங்கியில் ஒதுகிட்டு ஒளிந்த செயசிங்கன் அளப்பரும் புகழொடும் பீடியில் இரட்டபாடி ஏழரையிலக்கமும் நவநிதிக்குலப்பெருமலைகளும் விக்கிரம சக்கரக்கோட்ட முதிர்பட வல்லை மதுரை மண்டலமும் கரமிடை வளைய் நாமிணைக்கோணையும் வெஞ்சிலவீரர் பஞ்சப்பள்ளியும் பாசுடைபணைய மாசுடைதேசமும் அயர்வி வெண்கீர்த்தியாதிநகர் அவையில் சந்த்ரிரன் தொல்குலத்து இந்திரரதனுந்தன் விளையரர்களத்து கிளையொடும்பிடித்து வலத்தொடு குலதனக்குவையும் கட்டரண் செறிமிளை ஒட்டவிஷியமும் பூசுரர்சேய்நல் கோசலை நாடும் தன்மபாலனை வெம்முனையழித்து வண்டுறைச்சாலை தண்டபுத்தியும் ....

Text no. 2

ஆதுரசாலை வீரசோழனில் வியாதிப்பட்டு கிடப்பார் பதினைவர்க்கு பேரால் அரிசி நாழியாக அரிசி குறுணி எழுநாழிக்கு நெல் தூணி ஐந்நாழி உரியும் வியாதிப்பட்டு கிடப்பார்க்கு பலபடி நிபந்தக்காரர்க்கும் கிடைகளுக்கும் பாத்திரர்க்கும் சிவஸ்யஞ்சொல்லியாணியாக தனக்கும் தன் வர்க்கத்தாருக்கும் பெற்றுடைய ஆலப்பாக்கத்து சவணன் கோதண்டராமன் அசுவத்தம்பட்டனுக்கு நாளொன்றுக்கு நெல் முக்குறுணியும் காசெட்டும் சல்லியக்கிரியை பண்ணுவானுக்கு நாளொன்றுக்கு நெல் குறுணியும் ஆதுலர்க்கு மருந்துகளுக்கு வேண்டும் மருந்து பறித்து விறகிட்டு பரியாரம் பண்ணுவரிருவருக்கு நாளொன்றுக்கு நெல் குறுணியாக நெல்பதக்கும் காசொன்றாக காசிரண்டும் ஆதுலர்க்கு வேண்டும் பரியாரம் பண்ணி மருந்திடும் பெண்டுகளிருவருக்கு பேரால் நாநாழியாக நாளொன்றுக்கு நெல் குறுணியும் பேரால் காசரையாக காசொன்றும் ஆதுலர்க்கும் கிடைகளுக்கும் பாத்திரருக்கும் வேண்டும் பணிசெய்யும் நாவிசன் ஒருவனுக்கு நாளொன்றுக்கு நாநாழி ஆதுரசாலை வீரசோழனில் ஆண்டொன்றிலருமருந்து ஸ்ரீப்ராஹ்ம்ய மகருக்கு இப்படியொன்றும் ... இப்படி ஹரிதகி படி இரண்டும் கோமூத்திர ஹரிதகி படியிரண்டும் தசமூலஹரிதகி படியொன்றும் பிப்லாதக ஹரிதகி படியொன்றும் கண்டீரம் படியொன்றும் பலாகோரண்டதைலம் தூணியும் பஞ்சார்கதைலம் தூணியும் ஸ்ரீலஸ்ரத்தா கோரண்டதைலம் தூணியும் கண்யாதிதைலம் தூணியும் ..... பதக்கும் சாக்ருதம் பதக்கும் வில்வாதி க்ருதம் பதக்கும் மண்டூரவாகம் இரண்டாயிரமும் மஹாசுமனத்ரி இரண்டாயிரமும் தந்த்ராதி இரண்டாயிரமும் பஞ்சகல்பம் தூணிபதக்கும் கல்யாணலவணம் தூணி பதக்கும் இவையடுகைக்கு வேண்டும் மருந்துகளுக்கும் நெய்யும் ... வும் உள்ளிட்ட .... ஆண்டுதோரும் புராண.. சர்வ பசுவிநெய் பதக்கும் கொள்ள காசுநாற்பதும் ஆதுலசாலையில் இரா எரியும் விளக்கு ஒன்றுக்கு எண்ணெயாழாக்காக நாள் முன்னூற்றறுபதுக்கு எண்ணெய் நாற்பத்தைந்து நாழிக்கு காசிரண்டேகாலும்.. ஜனநாதன்... ல தன்யனுக்கு பங்குனி உத்திரம் தொடங்கி புரட்டாசி திருவோணத்தளவும் பரம்பாலூர... தண்ணீர் கொடுவந்து வைத்துச் சாய்ப்பான் ஒருவனுக்கு நாளொன்றுக்கு நெல் குறுணியாக நாள் நூற்றெண்பதுக்கு நெல் பதினெண்கலமும் ஏலத்துக்கும் இலாமிச்சத்துக்கும் நெல் இரு... ண்ணியாஹம் பண்ணின பிராமணர்க்கு தக்ஷிணாகம் வெற்றிலை வெருங்காய்க்கும் நெல் கலனே தூணி இருநாழி முழக்கே முச்செவிடும் வயலைக்காவூர் காணியுடைய மாதவன் தாயன் வர்க்கத்தார்க்கு புரட்டாதி திருவோணத்து நாள் உடுக்கும் பரிசட்டம் இரண்டுக்கு காசொன்றே எழுமாவும் மூவாயிரத்து இருநூற்று நாற்பத்து முக்கலனே இருதூணி பதக்கு அறுநாழி உழக்கே முச்செவிடுக்கும் காசு இருனூற்றொருபத்து ஆறறையே இரண்டு மாவுக்கும் இக்காசு பத்ராவிடில் காசொன்றுக்கு தண்டவாணி ஒன்றோடொக்கும் பொன்காசு நிறைகால் இடுவதாகவும் இப்படியாண்டு ஆறாவது நிபந்தம் செய்தபடி இந்நிபந்தம் தழுவக்குழைந்தானான அபிமானபேரு பிரம்ம மாராயன்

Text no. 3

கோவிசய நிருபதுங்க பல்லவ விக்கிரம வருமக்கு யாண்டு இருபத்து நாலாவது காடுபட்டிமுத்தரையர் மகனார் அரிகண்டப்பெருமானாருக்கு ஊற்றுக்காட்டுக்கோட்டத்து சீயபுரத்து சபையோமொட்டிக்கொடுத்த பரிசாவது திருமுக்குடல் விஷ்ணுபடாரர்க்கு நுந்தாவிளக்கெரிப்பதற்க்கு தந்த எங்கள் கையிற்றந்த முப்பதின் களஞ்சு நாலுப் பொலியூட்டு ஆண்டுவரை களஞ்சின் வாய் மூன்று மஞ்சாடிபொன் ஆயனப்படியால் நாற்களஞ்சரையாலும் ஏறிலும் கறுங்காலும் நாற்பது நாழி எண்ணை நூற்றின்பதி ...

Original sources (with thanks)

Article from: deccanchronicle.com

Images from: harekrsna.com

Tamil inscription text from : REACH foundation

Further reading:

Detailed review of Thirumukoodal Sri Venkatesha Perumal Temple

An article about 

Field trip of epigraphy students to Thirumukoodal

Article from THE HINDU

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Research on Transport of Medical Knowledge from Tamilnadu

The Medical Skills of the Malabar Doctors in Tranquebar, India as Recorded by Surgeon T L F Folly, 1798

The research paper on the medical skills of Tamil people of 17th century AD was recorded by A Danish surgeon T L F Folly. NIKLAS THODE JENSEN, a PhD scholar of Department of History, The Saxo Institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark traced out the foot prints of the interesting story of documentation of the Danish surgeon and has been retold facts of Medical knowledge of Tamil people on those days.

Click on image to enlarge

Map of Tranquebar, by Peter Anker, governor of Tranquebar from 1788 to 1807, c. 1800. (© Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo, Norway; photo: Ann Christine Eek)

Excerpts from the paper

"The literature about Tranquebar under Danish rule is primarily in Danish and has not previously dealt with issues of health and medicine. The main focus has been on either political history or the history of the Protestant mission in Tranquebar. An excellent account of the former is found in the standard three volume history of the Danish East Indies by Gunnar Olsen, Kamma Struwe and Aage Rasch,² and inKolonierne i Asien og Afrika by Ole Feldbæk and Ole Justesen.³ These sources are old but offer a comprehensive history of the Danish involvement in India; while an excellent account of the Christian mission in Tranquebar is given in Anders Nørgaard's PhD thesis Mission und Obrigkeit: die dänisch-hallische Mission in Tranquebar, 1706–1845.⁴ A more recent approach to the history of Tranquebar—at least for the issues of health and medicine—has come from anthropology. The Danish anthropologist Esther Fihl has written about the social, political and economical interactions between the Indian society and the Danish colonial power.⁵A similar approach from a historical vantage point has been used by the Danish historian Niels Brimnes. In his book Constructing the colonial encounter, he uses caste conflicts in colonial Madras and Tranquebar to untangle the complex interactions between the Indians and the colonial powers.⁶ Very recently, and of interest for the issues dealt with in this article, Brimnes has moved on to deal with indigenous doctors in South India. In his article ‘Coming to terms with the native practitioner: indigenous doctors in colonial service in South India, 1800–1825’, Brimnes reveals how European doctors and administrators came to perceive South Indian physicians during the first twenty-five years of the nineteenth century.⁷Presumably, these Indian physicians in British service originated from the same group or culture of south Indian physicians as those described by Folly in Tranquebar in the 1790s. Thus Folly's remarks on the south Indian physicians in Tranquebar are an early contribution to the European perceptions of south Indian physicians revealed and discussed by Brimnes."

Download the full paper

Email the author ntj@hum.ku.dk

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Spinal cord regeneration success in mice

By Emma Wilkinson

Health reporter, BBC News

US researchers have for the first time encouraged substantial regrowth in nerves controlling voluntary movement after spinal cord injury.

By manipulating an enzyme involved in cell growth, researchers were able to regenerate spinal cord nerves in mice, Nature Neuroscience reports. It follows similar work on repairing the optic nerve to restore sight.

UK experts said the next challenge would be to turn the findings into a treatment suitable for humans.

The ability to grow new nerve cells is present at birth but then diminishes with age.

It means that after injury or illness to the spine, the nerve cell fibres, known as axons, cannot regenerate.

START QUOTE

Until now, such robust nerve regeneration has been impossible in the spinal cord”

Professor Oswald Steward

Researcher

In the latest study the researchers attempted to switch back on the signalling pathway that encourages this new growth in young mammals.

They did it by knocking out a gene called PTEN in mice which in normal circumstances puts a halt on new nerve growth.

The team, from Harvard Medical School and the University of California, Irvine, reported substantial regrowth in severed spinal cords in the animals.

They are now working on tests to see if the technique can actually restore spinal cord function.

Potential treatment

Study author Professor Oswald Steward said: "Until now, such robust nerve regeneration has been impossible in the spinal cord.

"Paralysis and loss of function from spinal cord injury has been considered untreatable, but our discovery points the way toward a potential therapy to induce regeneration of nerve connections following spinal cord injury in people."

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Breath test may help detect cancer

A breath test could one day be used to detect four of the most common types of cancer, say scientists.

Researchers have developed sensors that can spot chemical signs of lung, breast, bowel and prostate cancer in a person's breath.

They believe further work could lead to a cheap, portable "electronic nose" that can help doctors diagnose cancer at an early stage.

The scientists carried out tests on 177 volunteers including healthy participants and patients with different cancers. They showed it was possible to use sensors to detect chemicals emitted from tumour cells that appear in the breath.

Professor Abraham Kuten, one of the researchers from the Technion Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel, said: "This study shows that an 'electronic nose' can distinguish between healthy and malignant breath, and can also differentiate between the breath of patients with different cancer types.

"If we can confirm these initial results in large-scale studies, this new technology could become a simple tool for early diagnosis of cancer along with imaging. It could also be an easy way to assess and monitor the effectiveness of cancer treatment and detect relapses earlier."

The research is reported on Tuesday in the British Journal of Cancer.

Dr Lesley Walker, from the charity Cancer Research UK, which owns the journal, said: "It is important to say at the outset that this is a small study at a very early stage and much more research is needed to see if breath can be used in the detection of cancer. These results are interesting and show that there is the potential to develop a single breath test to detect these cancers.

"Strengthening the methods for early diagnosis of cancer as well as improved treatments will have a significant impact on cutting death rates.

"Breast, lung, bowel and prostate cancers are the four most common types of cancer in the UK. They often go undetected until the disease is well established and are the most common causes of death from cancer."

Original news from:

 

Download full Research article 

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On the Golden spice!

Turmeric, a recipe for trouble too?
Divya Gandhi

Curcumin boosts certain pathogens to fight off defense mechanism
During Salmonella infections, avoid taking curcumin!

Bangalore: That indispensible ingredient in Indian cooking and known equally for its therapeutic properties, the ‘golden spice' turmeric may not be entirely as benevolent as we once thought, going by a new study by faculty at the Indian Institute of Science here.

Contrary to conventional wisdom about the rhizome, the main molecular component in turmeric, curcumin, actually boosts up certain pathogens such as the typhoid bacteria to fight off the body's defence mechanism, says a research paper published in the latest edition of PLoS ONE, a scientific journal published by the U.S. Public Library of Science.

In an experiment conducted on mice, scientists found that the Salmonella bacteria (that cause typhoid and other food-borne diseases) grew three times faster when exposed to curcumin.Salmonella proliferated especially in the spleen, liver and mesenteric lymph node, said the paper authored by Sandhya Marathe, PhD student, and Dipshikha Chakravortty, Associate Professor at the Centre for Infectious Diseases Research, Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology at the IISc.

'No panacea'

“This data urges us to rethink the indiscriminate use of curcumin especially during Salmonella outbreaks,” the author cautions. Although curcumin is known for its action against several diseases including cancer and Alzheimer's, and is even sold as tablets over the counter, it “is not a panacea” and that during Salmonella infections “the consumption of curcumin should be avoided,” says the paper.

The scientists hypothesis that the high intake of curcumin could be one of the reasons for the widespread Salmonella infections in Asian countries, where typhoid kills close to five lakh people every year. In certain Asian communities, each person consumes an average of 1.5 gm of turmeric a day (corresponding to 0.03-0.12 gm of curcumin), says the study.

Curcumin activates certain genes in Salmonella, making it more robust and increasing its resistance to its host's defenses such as antimicrobial peptides, the paper says.

In 2009, Dr. Chakravortty demonstrated the Salmonella bacteria's ‘stealthy' modus operandi to colonise its host's cells, dodge and finally paralyse the immune system.

Download the original research paper

Thanks:

Article from THE HINDU
Image from topnews.in

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India beats back bio-piracy bid

India beats back bio-piracy bid

Kounteya Sinha | TNN

New Delhi: India has foiled a major bio-piracy bid on the use of ashwagandha (Withania_somnifera), a wonder plant used in the treatment of a range of illnesses including depression, diabetes, insomnia, convulsions and gastritis.

On March 25, the European Patent Office (EPO) decided to withdraw American multinational company Natreon Inc's patent applications on the plants medicinal properties after India submitted documented proof confirming how medicinal formulations using ashwagandha were being used in the country as far back as in the 12th century.

Called Indian ginseng, ashwagandha is used extensively in ayurveda, siddha and unani, India's traditional systems of medicine. But on July 27, 2006, Natreon filed patent applications in the EPO on ashwagandha's (Withania somnifera) ability to treat or manage anxiety-induced stress, depression, insomnia, gastric ulcers and convulsions.

The head of the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL), Dr VK Gupta, shot off a letter to the EPO on July 6, 2009, submitting evidence to confirm that ashwagandha's medicinal properties against the mentioned conditions were long known. Interestingly, the letter also contained 15 pieces of evidence and documents dating back to the 12th century. Excerpts from age-old texts of ayurveda, unani and siddha, where such formulations were mentioned, were also attached.

The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research's letter to EPO in 2009 said, Patent application EP 1906980 titled Method of treatment or management of stress may kindly be referred to wherein treatment of anxiety-induced stress,depression-induced stress, sleep deprivation-induced stress, thermic change-induced stress and gastric ulcer-induced stress with Withania somnifera has been claimed to be as novel.

The letter added, But in TKDL, several references are there,wherein Withania somnifera is used for the treatment of depression, insomnia, gastritis, gastric ulcer and convulsions since long. Hence, there does not seem to be any novelty or inventive step involved in the claims made in the above patent application.

News Courtesy: Times of India 27.03.2010

Image courtesy: Wikimedia commons

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Weaving the Body with Words

Weaving the Body with Words

March 1, 2006

Kutti Revathi discusses her fraught position as a Tamil woman poet in a male-dominated literary tradition, and her view of poetry as a protest against “the silence into which the female body has been coerced”.

In conversation with N. Kalyan Raman.

NKR: For over fifty years since its founding in the 1930s, the tradition of ‘modern poetry’ in Tamil - ‘pudhukkavidhai’ - has been shaped and sustained exclusively by male poets. With this background, could you say something about choosing poetry as your mode of creative expression, and about the struggle to create a new and hitherto unexplored space for women in the arena of modern Tamil poetry?

KR: My first collection of poems, Poonaiyai pola alaiyum velicham (Light prowls like a cat), was a fortuitous effort; it was not planned consciously. Going to college to study for a degree in Siddha medicine was a very imporant milestone in my life. The underlying principles of Siddha medicine are all written in verse form. It was due to my passion for the language that I, who had joined college to study law, left to take up the study of Siddha medicine. Richness of language, diction, tone, style and form — for all these and more, the verses of Siddha medicine are a rare treasure of the Tamil language. I can feel the gifts from this body of work – robustness of language and fertility of ideas – still churning inside me. I wrote those early poems, one by one, out of my sheer love of poetry; and later, I compiled them into the collection, Light prowls like a cat. That first collection of mine, with its particular images, created a minor uproar in the Tamil literary milieu.

Words are like miraculous feats, really. Poetry, though it remains a frozen form, shapes language with emotion and at the same time, hones emotion through language. Moreover, unlike a novel or short story, a poem does not begin to disclose its meaning in just one reading. A poem takes a long time even to enter the mind; and in the same fashion, to leave it. As it languishes on the mindscape, a poem reveals itself, image by image, as a powerful tableau of emotions. Further, any word that emerges from a poet’s mind comes forth with the imprint of the poet’s blood. It is possible to say more, much more, about how poetry happens and works.

My reading of world literature in the interval between my first collection and the second, Mulaigal (Breasts), was truly wide-ranging. One by one, I read most of what are considered enduring classics of world literature, giving my mind and body over to the chemical changes they seemingly wrought in me. That would be one way to describe my journey. A man forges his early creative work from the expanse of his imagination and from the world of abstractions traversed by his mind. In contrast, a woman, I believe, mines the boarded-up space that is her body for words and offers them to the world. As a means of protesting the silence into which it has been coerced, the female body keeps imprinting on itself all the seasonal changes being wrought continuously by Nature.

NKR: Which of the following contributed significantly to your arriving at the language of your poetry and its thematic expanse:

– The tradition of women poets in Tamil, dating back to the classical Sangam period and beyond
– The inception and growth of the ‘modern poetry’ movement in Tamil and the new possibilities it has established for poetry over the past sixty years
– The feminist movement and its discourse related to the female body
– The works of western women poets in the latter half of the twentieth century – Sylvia Plath, Adrienne Rich, Anna Akhmatova, Gwendolyn Brooks, Maya Angelou (to name just a few)
– In general, the achievements, setbacks, aspriations and struggles of Tamil society

KR: I look upon all the factors you have cited as ancillary. I believe strongly that giving oneself over fully to life’s experiences and subjecting it to keen and relentless observation are what gives a person the language for poetry and a fertile expanse of ideas. However much one may be impacted by knoweldge of world literature, the Tamil poetry tradition or by one’s acquaintance with the discourses of feminism, poetry in its entirety demands an endless enquiry into the self, and endless cycles of the self’s destruction and renewal. In particular, it is vitally important not to distance oneself from life’s struggles. Travelling to distant places and meeting different people are equally important. I believe that so long as you remain a poet, you must make yourself heir seemingly to several hundred strands of feeling and more; that you must observe keenly the tremors these emotions set off inside you. There are still many landscapes and realms of experience that women are yet to traverse; and many mindscapes that they never could.

NKR: “Poetry makes nothing happen,” said the famous poet, Auden. In some sense, this is true enough. Do you see the disturbances set off by some of your poems as a societal ‘event’, necessarily? How do you make sense to yourself of these ‘protests’ and ‘condemnations’?

KR: That “poetry makes nothing happen” can only stem from an objective, materialist conception of the world. The evolution of modern poetry as a form to be read in silence must imply that it is a form strongly capable of engendering subjective epiphanies. Modern women poets write poetry imbued with the capability of producing inner tremors. These tremors can be made sense of in various ways. To minds seeking liberation, they could connote the joy of freedom. Minds sufffering under oppression could perceive them as fantasies about the space they have yearned to traverse but could not so far. People always ask my why I do not write poems about societal concerns and issues, as though attempts to bring about inner renewal and inner transformation were not acts of social concern. I use my language only to loosen the fetters that have bound and shrunk a woman’s body. I have experienced poetry enter the beings of women in much the same way as performing arts do.

NKR: The ongoing ‘controversy’ about your poems (and those of other woman poets in Tamil) are largely based on male response to certain aspects of these poems which touch upon the female body. The debate revolves entirely on this axis. It is rather strange that the response of women readers to these poems about the female experience is not spoken of at all, and therefore, it largely unknown to the general community. Have women shared with you their response to your poems? Do you think it is a political strategy to exclude their response – even references to it, let alone exposure – from the current debate?

KR: This question makes me reflect deeply on the issue. To ignore women’s responses and to suppress expressions of their minds are not new to the Tamil tradition. A woman is always considered to belong to the third – and lowest – category of human beings. Because women’s reactions and ideas are suppressed in our society, they fail to evolve into a robust discourse. Even today, the debate continues to be based solely on western feminism, with the intellectuals in Tamil Nadu making a continued efffort to assimilate its ideas. Even ideas on sex are perceived from the vantage of western feminism. But the politics of women’s bodies in Tamil Nadu is unique in itself. Therefore, ‘Tamil feminism’ must formulate itself, taking into account Tamil culture, and the nature of women’s existence in a Tamil Nadu which is no more than a unit enjoying the benefits of the Indian republic’s larger political arena. Further, there is a need for continuous exchange of ideas on Tamil feminism between women writers in Tamil, on the one hand, and the community of intellectuals and academics in Tamil Nadu, on the other. And there must be an integrity to this exchange. Women readers shake the dormant images in my poems into wakefulness through their sustained effort and joyfully share this experience with me. Even the act of denying women’s responses an active existence in society is nothing but a cunning ploy of patriarchal society to conquer and defeat the ability of women to think and act.

December, 2005, previously unpublished.

N. Kalyan Raman


Thanks:
Original article from http://india.poetryinternationalweb.org/
Image Courtesy dhalavai sundaram (photograph by R.SHANMUGAM)


More about Kutti Revathi

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Swine flu Vs Vitamin C

The cure for swine flu

(article from: http://clouddragon.wordpress.com/)

The current ”pandemic” of swineflu is hugely exaggerated by the global media. Actually I have been scanning what else is going on right now that needs to be covered up with a ”Deadly-Pandemic”-scare. I’ll put it as simply as I can trying to keep it short. (I still recommend you make yourself a cuppa tea and sit down comfortably)

• N1H1 is the most common influenza
• ”Swine-flu” is a recent mutation but still just a flu.
• Virusses mutate all the time, all the time, nothing new.
• You don’t die of swine flu but of complications, and only if you are weak or your health is compromised to start with
• Influenza is to be taken serious, but swineflu is not more deadly than other flu’s
• Tamiflu does not cure flu, it slightly alleviates symptoms and may shorten the disease by one day, but only if taken within 24 hours of being infected
• Tamiflu can have very severe side-effects
• Fluvirusses are allready becoming resistant to Tamiflu
• replication of all virusses can be decreased or even completely blocked by ascorbic acid (vitamin C)
• the pharmaceutical companies are lobbying very hard to keep this information from the public knowlege. Vitamins cannot be patented, and therefore cannot be used as a cashcrop.
• Viral deseases are virtually unknown in the animal world, because most animals, except humans, produce high levels of vitamin C in their own bodies
• Al virusses spread in the body by using the same enzymes (collagenases) which can be partially or completely blocked by means of the natural amino acid lysine. (also not produced by the human body)
• The WHO, (World Health Organisation) does not prioritise human health, it doesn’t promote your health, it promotes the interests of the pharmaceutical investment interests

As virusses can be either slowed down consederably, or even blocked alltogether by ingesting large amounts of vitamin C, and other micronutrients, I wonder why I should bother with artificial expensive medicines, which do not stop the virus from spreading but merely alleviate some symptoms. And, according to many patients who have taken Tamiflu, the side-effects from Tamiflu have been far worse than the flu they suffered from before taking the Tamiflu.

Read how a virus uses the cells of the body to spread.
In this open letter dr Rath explains about natural (and cheap) protection from SARS. Hours later the WHO changed their own policy 180” and declared Sars under control.

All virusses use the same method to infiltrate the body. All Steps of Influenza Infection Can Be Blocked by Micronutrients:

1.Influenza virus gets inside the body cells with the help of the enzyme neuraminidase (N), which is located on the surface of the virus.

2.Within the infected cell,the virus reprogrammes the genetic software in the cell core to allow its own multiplication. The infected cell now continuously produces more viruses as well as the biological scissors (collagenases) for their spread.

3.Millions of viruses are released from infected cells.With the help of collagen-destroying enzymes, the viruses expand through the connective tissue and invade other cells. The influenza infection has turned into a disease.

So if Vitamin C, and other micro nutrients can stop this from happening, you are actually stopping the disease on it’s onset. You don’t get ill!
That seems to me a lot more effective than a slight alleviation of symptoms, with, as may people report spme very, very serious side effects which may even last long term.
Patients who take Tamiflu as a precaution only, so without having been infected, experience the same severe side-effects. In their cases the symptoms cannot be blamed on swine flu, as the manufacturer is trying to make out. One patient, who had taken Tamiflu only as a precaution, so without being sick, not only suffered from side effects, but the doctors have told him he might now be suffering from auto immune disease!

A list of the side effects as reported by patients who have taken Tamiflu, some of these side effects started within hours or even minutes of taking their first dose. Some report these side effects lasting for many weeks after stopping taking the Tamiflu and still continuing. Most patients experience several of these side effects simultaniously.

• nausea
• delusions
• nightmares
• extreme stomach cramps
• depression
• suicidal thoughts
• extreme fatigue
• chills
• swollen and painful joints
• difficulties to breath
• pressure on chest
• feeling of doom
• moodswings
• high bloodpressure
• high fever
• heart palpitations
• severe headache, with no alleviation from painkillers
• skinrash
• no appetite
• upset stomach
• disorientation
• severe vomiting
• crippling pain in legs
• hives
• anxiety, severe anxiety
• insomnia
• dry mouth
• tingling and numbness in hands and feet
• ”taste” of Tamiflu, recurring after many weeks
• dhiarrhoea

Now not everybody will experience these, only a percentage, estimated at 5% will be the losers, but many of those who did suffer these sideffects were very sorry to have taken the drug at all, and considered the side effects many times worse as the flu they experienced before they took the drug.
I find the recent reports of its use in Japan very disturbing, in Japan Tamiflu prescriptions are ten times higher than in the US, the reports describe bizarre psychiatric problems in children, even leading to death.
I know I’m not going to take the risk, especially as Tamiflu is not a cure anyway.

Read this:

• interesting article on how the SARS-epidemic was one large media stunt to devert attention from the war in Iraq and the use of weapons of mass destruction, by a fully media-controlled global scare for SARS. After dr Rath publicised his report on the efficacy of vitamin C and other nutrients on combatting the disease, the WHO made an immediate 180” turn around, and proclaimed the disease under control.

After having launched one of the largest media stunts in the history of planet earth, the pharmaceutical cartel and its allies within the WHO had to withdraw it within hours of Dr. Rath calling their bluff.

Dr. Rath comments: “I have been fighting the pharmaceutical cartel for more than a decade now, but this success overshadows everything. The pharmaceutical interest groups – ex-posed as conducting an organized fraud business that risks the life of millions of people and drains the economies of this planet – are apparently extremely nervous. There can be no other reason why they reacted so fast following my exposure that the pharmaceutical cartel is the organizer and benefactor of this man made hysteria. This fact should open the eyes of every intelligent person: How scared must they be if $30,000 in public health advertising is all it takes to stop an epidemic that has been dominating the news around the world.”

Thanks:

Original article from: http://clouddragon.wordpress.com/ by Aafke

See also:

Side effects from Tamiflu are worse than the flu

TAMIFLU in the Askapatient database

More evidences for Vitamin C against Virus:

http://www.orthomolecular.org/

http://www.seanet.com/

http://www.newsswineflu.com/

http://wiki.answers.com

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Timeline: Swine flu

A chronology of the H1N1 outbreak

A new strain of swine flu - influenze A (H1N1) - is spreading around the globe. This timeline will be continually updated with key dates, drawing on authoritative information from the World Health Organization (WHO), the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other sources. For more on the situation see the Nature News swine flu special, and read updates on The Great Beyond blog.

18 May 2009: The day it confirmed that 8,829 H1N1 cases have been reported in 40 countries, the WHO has cautioned against complacency.
"This virus may have given us a grace period, but we do not know how long this grace period will last," said Margaret Chan, WHO director-general. "No one can say whether this is just the calm before the storm."
However the pandemic alert level is still at five today, one level below a full pandemic.
13 May 2009: As of this morning, 33 countries have reported 5,728 cases of H1N1 to the WHO.
12 May 2009: The CDC notes that it is seeing some severe complications in cases of H1N1 in pregnant women, including one death in the US.
11 May 2009: The WHO has confirmed swine flu deaths in Canada and Costa Rica, bringing the total number of countries where fatalities have occurred to four.
Mexico has reported 48 deaths and the United States three. Worldwide, 30 countries have officially reported 4694 cases.
A modeling study in Science suggests that the virus spreads at a rate comparable to that of previous influenza pandemics.
8 May 2009: Brazil reports four cases, bringing the number of affected countries to 25. Deaths now stand at 44 worldwide, with 2,500 confirmed cases. Most newly reported cases in new areas, the WHO says, come from travelers returning from affected areas. The CDC reports that hospitalization rates in the US are coming down, to 3.5%, as testing expands to include milder cases.
The Harvard School of Public Health releases a poll in which 83% of Americans polled say they are satisfied with the way public health officials have managed the outbreak. Still, 48% of parents with children in school think they or a family member will come down with H1N1 in the next year.
7 May 2009: Worldwide confirmed cases are now at 2,371.
6 May 2009: WHO confirms swine flu cases in Sweden and Guatemala.
5 May 2009: Mexico's H1N1 shutdown should begin to ease tomorrow, with restaurants and cafes set to reopen.
The latest WHO figures say the virus has now spread to 21 countries. Mexico has reported 590 cases and 25 deaths while the United States has reported 286 cases and one death.
However, the Texas Department of State Health Services has confirmed a second person has died in the United States. The DSHS says a woman with "chronic underlying health conditions" died earlier this week.
The following countries have reported cases but no deaths: Austria, Canada, China (Hong Kong Special Administrative Region), Costa Rica, Colombia, Denmark, El Salvador, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
4 May 2009: Colombia joins the club. There are now 985 cases in 20 countries. Mexico is up to 25 deaths, but officials there say the disease seems to be on the decline.
3 May 2009: Ireland and Italy each report one case. 898 cases are now reported.
2 May 2009: China (Hong Kong special administrative region), Costa Rica, Denmark, France, and the Republic of Korea join the list. Total cases reported to the WHO are now at 658 in 16 countries.
Canadian authorities announce that H1N1 has been detected in a swine herd in Alberta. The pigs likely caught the virus from a Canadian who had recently visited Mexico, making this the first known case of human-to-animal transmission.
1 May 2009: As of this morning, 331 cases of H1N1 have been reported in 11 countries. According to the WHO, the worst outbreaks are still in Mexico (156 cases and nine deaths) and the United States (109 cases and one death).
30 April 2009: Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands join the WHO list of countries with confirmed cases. The agency also announces it will refer to the virus not as swine flu but as influenza A(H1N1).
29 April 2009: The WHO raises pandemic level alert to phase 5, "a strong signal that a pandemic is imminent". First swine-flu death outside Mexico reported as a baby dies in Texas. Germany joins European countries with H1N1 and confirms three swine flu cases. The WHO confirms 7 more cases in Canada, bringing the total number there to 13.
28 April 2009: Seven countries are now reporting confirmed cases of H1N1 swine flu: the United States, Mexico, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Israel and Spain.
27 April 2009: Canada reports six cases of swine flu and Spain reports one. In the United States 40 people have flu confirmed. In Mexico 26 cases are confirmed, with 7 deaths resulting. Estimates for the true number of deaths hover around 80.
The WHO raises pandemic alert level to 4 having confirmed human-to-human transmission able to cause 'community-level outbreaks'. "Phase 4 indicates a significant increase in risk of a pandemic but does not necessarily mean that a pandemic is a forgone conclusion," says the organisation.
25 April 2009: WHO director-general, Margaret Chan calls the flu problem "a public health emergency of international concern ".
23 April 2009: Officials issue orders to close schools in Mexico City, beginning a process of limiting public crowds. Three major soccer [futbol] games around Mexico City close stadium gates to all fans the weekend of April 25-26, with games broadcast on television. Stadium closures continue through May 2-3.
21 April 2009: CDC laboratories confirm two cases in California. Three additional cases confirmed the next day, with two more in Texas added the day after.
28 March 2009: Earliest onset date of swine flu reaching the United States, according to the CDC.
18 March 2009 : Federal District of Mexico begins to pick up cases of swine flu.

Courtesy:Naturenews

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Tamil Literature On The Mobile

Sangam Literature is being converted into mobile format by MobileVeda, a startup being incubated at the Vellore Institute of Technology, reports UNI. 42 books, including Thirukurral, Patthupattu, Ettuthogai and Silapathikaram, are available for download at their site thinnai.info, though it does require registration. The company intends to launch a platform for converting any content into mobile books. The new name for the site is fublish.com!

Thanks:
contentsutra.com

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National Mission for Manuscripts

The National Mission for Manuscripts was established to survey and locate manuscripts wherever they may be found in India. The Mission was initiated in February 2003, by the Ministry of Tourism and Culture,Government of India. Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) is the nodal agency for the execution of this project.

The manuscripts, among the oldest and most extensive in the world, were spread across the country. However, most of them were in a state of decay and damage.By the end of 2008, it hoped to cover all the States to scan manuscripts in the public and private domains, she said.

The University of Madras was collaborating with the NMM in digitisation of records. Releasing the `Catalogus Catalogorum,' CD, S.P. Thyagarajan, Vice-Chancellor, University of Madras, said his interest in manuscripts was connected with his research in jaundice. The occurrence of liver cancer and cirrhosis was related to Hepatitis B virus, which led him to manuscripts for references to the `keezhanalli' leaf, which is used as a medicine.

Indian manuscripts can soon be accessed worldwide in digital form. The National Mission for Manuscripts, Ministry of Culture, plans to release online database of one million manuscripts in its first web edition by October 2006.

Quoting Mission Director Sudha Gopalakrishnan, S. Raghavan, Senior Faculty in Electronics and Communication Engineering, National Institute of Technology - Tiruchi (NIT-T), said the digitised contents of the manuscripts could be browsed at `www.namami.org'.

`Manus Granthavali', the software used by the Mission for digitising palm manuscripts, is globally accepted. To preserve the original state of the document, a non-touch device is adopted for the screening purpose employing a Flat Bed scanner.

For arriving at the image quality, Bi-tonal scanning is used to represent black and white and colour scanning with multiple bits per pixel reflects the true colour.

Image enhancement processes are then adopted for images that cannot be perceived by human eye. Loss-less compression technique is followed with JPEG/JPEG 2000 international standards.

A participant of the National Seminar on `Exploring the Manuscript Traditions' conducted by Mission and co-ordinated by the Saraswathi Mahal Library (SML), Thanjavur, last week,

Dr. Raghavan, who had earlier served as overall coordinator of Libraries at NIT-T, said conserving and digitising the divergent aspects of manuscripts, ranging from conservation methodologies, medicine, cultural inheritance, Buddhist literature and various knowledge systems, will be of immense use to the heritage lovers and researchers.

The SML alone, he said, has world-renowned manuscripts numbering 60,000 and about 26,000 rare palm manuscripts preserved with herbal technique by P. Perumal, an expert.

The palm manuscripts, in Granth, Devanagri, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Nandinagari scripts, cover all branches of arts, science and Engineering.

Links:

Download the Guidelines for Digitization of Manuscripts

Download the Basic Minimum Standards for Conservation of Manuscripts

Go to the downloads page of namami.org

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Tamil Studies in Germany

Tamil Studies in Germany
Prof.Thomas Malten

Institute of Indology and Tamil Studies,
Cologne University and Department of Lexicography,
Institute of Asian Studies, Chemmanchery, Chennai

Lecture at Max Mueller Bhavan, Chennai, 17 March 1998
[see also Proposed Closure of Tamil Studies in Germany, 14 November 2004]


In the preceding lectures we have heard about contributions made by German missionaries to Tamil studies particularly in the field of Tamil lexicography and grammar. The study of Tamil language and literature in Germany today - the topic of my lecture — is pursued mainly at two universities, the University of Heidelberg and the University of Cologne. [This is meant in the sense that people are specifically employed for this particular field of teaching and research in Indology - there are of course many more German universities where Tamil has been taught at some time or other in the recent past].

Academic Tamil studies in Germany are based on the efforts of the missionaries, their establishment at universities, however, is of quite recent origin - about 30 to 35 years back, in the 1960s, when the first two World Tamil Conferences were held at Paris and Chennai, which may have helped in creating an awareness and interest in the subject.

The reason for the establishment of Tamil Studies at the university level in Germany can be found in the recognition of the fact that Tamil is the only classical literary language of India besides Sanskrit and that Tamil language and literature have developed tremendously in many branches, particularly during the last 100-150 years.

The works of Arumuga Navalar, the rediscovery and publication of the ancient classics begun by U.V. Swaminatha Aiyar, the appearance of the poet Cupramaniya Parati, the development of a thriving modern narrative prose literature, beginning with the publication of the first Tamil novel, Vªtan¤yakam Pi¥¥ai's "Pirat¤pa mutaliy¤r carittiram " in 1879 followed by R¤jamaiyyar's "Kamal¤mp¤¥ carittiram" a few years later and a host of prose works in this century have all served to make the study of Tamil a very worthwhile and rewarding academic subject in many countries of the world today.

It is because of this that recently the Institute of Indology in Cologne has been officially renamed as "Institute of Indology and Tamil Studies".

The only explanation I can find for the rather late establishment of Tamil Studies in Germany, is that in the first part of this century the history of Germany was overshadowed by the catastrophies of the two world wars. Only in the past 40 years Germany has enjoyed continued peace and prosperity in this century. But these are the necessary preconditions for the opening and establishment of new academic pursuits in the field of the languages and literatures of Asia.

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