Most awaited database of Siddha Medicinal plants and herbs

Plant Info Centre is creating database of around 11122 spicies in India and 5676 in Tamilnadu alone. For remaining plants the process of tamil naming is going on.

In tamil,out of 697 plants 90000 tamil names are there. In each plant, Plant Info Centre will provide
Classification Search, Family Name, Genus, Botanical Name, Author Name, Tamil Name -தமிழ் பெயர், Vernacular Names in English, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannadam, Tulu, Telungu, Hindhi, Konkani, Sanskrit, Marathi, English / Trade Name Habit, Propagation, Flower Colour, Flowering Season, Fruiting Season, Useful Parts, Centre of origin, Distribution, Economic Usage, Morphological character, Length Search

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Massive health boost with Integrative Medicine

At least 10,000 people in 10 neighbouring villages at Vagat in Hoskote will soon enjoy a sustainable health system. Children here will not only be taught yoga at school, but all villagers will have access to an integrated health system, including homeopathy, Unani, Siddha, Ayurveda, Naturopathy, Yoga and much more. 

The Rural Holistic Health Centre at Vagat is a first of its kind in rural India. The foundation stones for this centre and also the Soukya International Institute of Holistic and Integrative Medicine were unveiled on Sunday at the Soukya health centre in Whitefield. 

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Traditional knowledge meet on next month

Geneva-headquartered WIPO is responsible for promoting and protecting intellectual property rights worldwide. The World Intellectual Property Organisation, a specialised UN agency, along with Indian government will organise a three-day meet on traditional knowledge, including ayurveda, siddha and unani, next month. The meeting, to be held here, would help in creating more awareness about intellectual property rights and patents, that are crucial for protecting traditional knowledge.

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Relax ban on Indian Medicine, herbal drugs

India is not taking European Union's ban on the sale of its over-the-counter Indian Medicine and herbal drugs across Europe from May 1 lying down. A delegation of officials from India's department of Ayush and commerce visited Brussels in end-January to persuade EU to relax its decision by another 10 years. According to EU's Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive (THMPD), companies making herbal products will have to provide clinical data to demonstrate its safety through use of those products within the EU for a minimum of 30 or 15 years within the EU, and 30 years outside the Union.  

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CRISM launches efforts to get wider acceptance to Indian medicines abroad

Mississippi-based Centre for Research in Indian Systems of Medicine (CRISM) has launched a process to ensure scientific validation and wider acceptance to Indian systems of medicines through collaborative efforts, in America and other countries.

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Herbal products will be banned from EU soon.

Thousands of kilometres away from their fractious border, India and China face a common threat. From May 1, a Brussels diktat known as the herbal directive, will effectively outlaw ayurvedic and Traditional Chinese Medicines (TCM) from the 27-member countries of the European Union.

The directive in question was adopted in 2004 but it granted a seven-year grace period to manufacturers of herbal medicines to register, a deadline that expires on April 30.

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"Sowa Rigpa" got recognition among Indian systems of medicine

“Sowa-Rigpa” commonly known as Amchi system of medicine is one of the oldest, Living and well documented medical tradition of the world. It has been popularly practice in Tibet, Magnolia, Bhutan, some parts of China, Nepal, Himalayan regions of India and few parts of former Soviet Union etc..

History

There are various schools of thought about the origin of this medical tradition, some scholars believes that it is originated from India, some says China and others consider it to be originated from Tibetitself. The majority of theory and practice of Sowa-Rigpa is similar to “Ayurveda” . The first Ayurvedic influence came to Tibet during 3rd century AD but it became popular only after 7th centuries with the approach of Buddhism to Tibet. There after this trend of exportation of Indian medical literature, along with Buddhism and other Indian art and sciences were continued till early 19th century. India being the birth place of Buddha and Buddhism has always been favorite place for learning Buddhist art and culture for Tibetan students; lots of Indian scholars were also invited to Tibet for prorogation of Buddhism and other Indian art and sciences. This long association with India had resulted in translation and preservation of thousands of Indian literature on various subjects like religion, sciences, arts, culture and language etc. in Tibetan language. Out of these around twenty-five text related to medicine are also preserved in both canonical and non-canonical forms of Tibetan literatures. Many of these knowledge were further enriched in Tibet with the knowledge and skills of neighboring countries and their own ethnic knowledge. “Sowa-Rigpa” (Science of healing) is one of the classic examples of it.Gyud-Zi (four tantra) the fundamental text book of this medicine was first translated from India and enriched in Tibet with its own folklore and other medical tradition like Chinese and Persian etc. The impact of Sowa-Rigpa along with Buddhism and other Tibetan art and sciences were spread in neighboring Himalayan regions. In India this system has been practiced in Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh,Darjeeling (West Bengal), Lahaul & Spiti (Himachal Pradesh) and Ladakh region of Jammu & Kashmir etc. In 2010 Sowa-Rigpa got its legal recognition among Indian Systems of Medicine under the Department of AYUSH^[1][2].

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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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