Recipes for Immortality by Richard S Weiss

Author:Richard S Weiss
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
ISBN: 9780195335231
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2009-02-19T07:00:00+00:00

Tamil Language, Siddha Medicine, and the Root of Things

For Maraimalai Adigal, other Tamil revivalist authors, and siddha vaidyas, the genius of the Tamil people and their success in early scientific endeavors was reflected in, and partly due to, the nature of the Tamil language. They argue that as the original language, Tamil was formed in accordance with nature, and therefore is the ideal language for communicating scientific truths. Rama Dharmaniti, in his work on the Kumari Kandam civilization, attributes the loss of rationality of the Tamil people to the loss of their respect for, and knowledge of, pure Tamil language. The Aryans blinded the rational nature of the Tamils with their “magic and illusions,” tainted their original purity, and made them indifferent to their language.96

With the change of the times, foreigners entered the Tamil country, attained a high social place, made the Tamils slaves, dug a hole and buried the Tamil language and Tamil civilization. The majority of Tamils, seeing the magic and illusions demonstrated by the foreigners, were mentally corrupted (putti keṭṭa tamiḻarkaḷ), and bit by bit they lost the four good qualities and became arrogant like animals. No longer knowing the incomparable greatness of Tamil, Tamils, like beggars grasping onto spit, took an interest in the poison [foreign] language. They regarded Tamil as insignificant, and forgot it, rejected it, despised it.97

Dharmaniti holds that it will be the recovery of the Tamil love of their language, and the subsequent restoration of their rationality, that will reunify the Tamil race, reveal to them the greatness of their traditions, and set them on the path to a new, ideal Tamil society.

For siddha vaidyas, this restoration involves the purification of siddha medicine of its foreign elements. K. N. Kuppusami Mudaliyar recounts that as he was collecting books and information for writing his introduction to siddha medicine, every Tamil book he came across had many Sanskrit words. The names of diseases were in Sanskrit, for example, and so the common people would not be able to understand the meaning of these books. He questions the appropriateness of considering the medicine of these books “ancient Tamil medicine,” and asks “how is this of use to any Tamil person?” For this reason, Mudaliyar wrote his book rendering the names of all medical words in Tamil, so that all Tamils can understand them. “My goal is that many others will try to compose books with pure Tamil words, without mixing Sanskrit.” He criticizes those Tamils who “use many Sanskrit words in their books, in order to show their facility in the northern language. This is disastrous and cause for offence. Those who write books in pure Tamil demonstrate their courage and their patriotism. The excellence of siddha medicine, the relationship between siddha medicine and Shaiva science, and the pride in Tamil Nadu, all of these shine through in this preface.”98 Mudaliyar skillfully avoids using Sanskrit words, except for a few that are indispensable, such as Caiva Cittāntam (Sanskrit: Śaiva Siddhānta), or Ākamam (Sanskrit: Āgama), for example.

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