GRAHANYAYADEEPIKA OF PARAMESWARA an old astronomy text from Kerala

Grahananyaayadeepika of Parameswara

In this short work Parameswara speaks of the principles of eclipses in detail.The first thing he mentions is the distance between the central point of Sun and moon and earth.
The distance from earth to sun is 459585 yojana.To moon it is 34377.These are respectively multiplied by the karma or radius of the orbits of each ,and then divided by Thrijya (3438)and thus the real distance from earth to sun and moon obtained.This is depending upon the time and position of earth in its orbit.3438 is in minutes.Divide by 60 to get 23 Hora and 58 minutes.(the dinadairghya)and this number is used as the chandravyasa in Indian astronomy right from the beginning.Till 18th century Europeans did not know why such a fixed number is used by Indians in calculations ,yet we teach students that India had borrowed its astronomy from outsiders.Now modern scince of astronomy uses chandravyasa as 34375,while Indians were using 3437.5 as decimal and made it a complete number by making it 3438.
The ratio of distance of earth to sun and moon is 1:13
34377:499585
499585 yojana multiplied by 8.8 gives 302517.6
Divide by 3438 we get 1176.3 and 87.9(which is written as 88 and in decimal as 8.8)
This is to measure the lightray,its distance,time of spread,the gathi of it,and its shadow cast which is all about the knowledge of eclipse.

Ravisasibhoovyasam

Suns vyaasa is 4410,moon’s 315 and earths 1050.To make yojanaas into kala (karma or thrijya being in kala)we have to see the sphutayojanakarna and multiply by thrijya.
For sun 4410/459585X 3438
For moon 315/34377X 3438
Ratio of Moon;earth;sun=315:1050:4410
That is,earth is 3.3 more than moon and sun is 14 times than moon.in the size of the gola.Thus the 3 gola and their distance,and bimba and the ratios between them are first obtained.
Distance earth :moon 1
Earth :sun 13
Bimba moon :earth:sun=1:3.3:14
In grahana or eclipse the gathy and kaala of sunray and moonray are calculated with the same numbers as the modern astronomers now use is significant .To demonstrate that see below the modern units of lightyears (kpc,mpc,kiloparsec,megaparsec)
One parsec=3.1 X 10 13=3.3 yrs
One kpc=3.1 X 10 16 =3.3 thousand years
One mpc=3.1 X 10 19 =3.3 million years
It is in this way the 33 crores of prakaasadevaas or light rays are calculated by Indian scientists.If one have to make a diagrammatic representation of this ratios of earth,sun and moon,one has to show earth as center and sun in the periphery.Figure below.
But if this is being communicated to people who do not know the basic rules of grahana ,it is misunderstood.Ptolemy when he learned from India made this mistake perpetuated by several astronomers for a long time.Since the observer sits in earth ,the dinadairghya or 23 hours 58 minutes is constant for him,and hence 3438 as karma in minutes is constant for all calculations of all structures as far as the observer is concerned.Therefore the bhookendrasthithy of the observer is important for calculations.This is a basic lesson for astronomy which the Ptolemian astronomers of west could not grasp and they said that earth is central ,whereas Indians knew that Sunis central but for calculation one has to take a geocentric view .15 thithi X 24 hours gives 360
Thithy X raasi or 15 X 12 gives half of it
If thithy is multiplied by 23.58 the exact value is 359.5 not 360,and this shows how accurate they were in using Thrijya for calculations.In Panchasidhanthika also we find the same rule.
The bhoochaaya or image of the earth is measured by a sankudeepa.The vyasadala of sun is the same as the height of the deepa.That of earth is the same as the height of sanku .The distance between sanku and deepa gives distance between earth and sun in yojana
The distance between sanku and deepa multiplied by sanku ,and divided by the difference in their heights gives sankuchaaya which is the difference between bhoochaaya and difference between heights of sanku and deepa.

In the moola or base chaya is equal to bhoovyasa.In the end it is elongated as the tail of a cow (gopucha)since sunrays fall everywhere equally.If sun is a deepasthamba or a dwaja or yupa of 12 feet ,earth is a sankhu or a conch of 12 angula only.One is light and the other is naada.The sanku should be made as a sreeyanthra in thrikona,pyramid shape.
To see the length of chaaya at chandrasthaana
Formula is chayadairghya +distance between moon and earth at center X bhoovyaasa divided by chaayadairghya,multiplied by thrijya and divided by distance from moon in yojana we get chayavyasa in kala.

Suppose the chayavyasa from chayagra is same as bhoovyasa ,how to find its vyasa at chandrasthaana?First see the kala as we saw for the moon.bhooovyasa and thamovyasa are same since thamograha is Rahu or earth itself.The statement that the earths shadow has a gopucha like elongation is noteworthy here.Earth has a tail and with its vyasa the eclipse of moon and sun happen was known to astronomers of India(see the word ulka as used in Dravidadesa and Indonesia described in previous chapter)From the diksoothra of an observer from earth how much time sun and moon stay ,will be the time or duration of an eclipse.How much moon stay in earths shadow will be duration of lunar eclipse.In pournami moon travels through center of chaaya.The yoga of sun and moon will be just before or after the new moon in amavasi.This is because of lambana or parallax.
Madhyahnalagnam or point of ecliptic on meridian is traditionally by Lankodayapramaana natanaazhika ,by adding or subtracting surya rekhansa from lagnakhanda according to Parameswara ,just like Varahamihira and the astronomers before him.That means whether the observer is in Ujjain or in Kerala,whether it is in 5th century AC.E or in 14th century ,Lanka was accepted as the meantime just as we calculate GMT after we became colony to British.Drikshepalagna is praaglagna minus 3 raasi .
See local meantime and lanka rasimaana and natanaadika according to it.The segment of ecliptic or madhyakhanda to it is seen and reduced from suns rekhansa,and in afternoon madhyalagna is added to suryarekhansa just as described by Varahamihira and the earlier astronomers like vasishta and Paithamaha.
Madhyajya is the jya of madhyalagna.It is obtained by adding or subtracting declination of madhyajya and akshamsa.Madhyajya is madhyadrikjya or the highest distance of madhyalagna.Its sanku is called Madhyasanku,(cos madhyajya)
Madhyajya=madhyalagna,akshamsa (either addition or subtraction as the case may be)The sine of the sum or angle thus obtained
Drikshepasanku is the sanku of drikshepalagna or the cos of drikshepalagna
Madyasanku X thrijya/madhyalagna minus praaglagna

Golathrikona being a samakonathrikona the rule of cos and sine is applied here just as Varahamihira did.
Madhyalagnajya minus Harijam is madhyasanku.Then how to find drikshepasanku with thrijya?
Mahaachaya =drikshepajya
It is height of karma and mahachaya of graham .Driggathijya is its bhuja.
The vargamoola of drigjya minus the root of sin drikshepa gives sine driggathy
The position of observer is different because of the change in position of earth .Therefore one has to calculate driggathijya considering change in rekhansa.The difference in akshamsa due to drikbheda is measured with the drikshepajya.It is same as the chaya or sine uchabhedam.Therefore drikshepajya is the same as drikjya.Drikshepalagnajya minus sine zenith distance of nongesimal.
Inkhamadya drigbheda is soonya or zero.In harija and in antharala the the bhoovyasa in its kakshya is found.according to sine of zenith distance.and its ratio.
The picture for this calculation in its poorvaroopa is seen in the Harappa/Mohenjadaro pictographs.Which shows the antiquity of the knowledge of astronomy and of zero in Indian subcontinent.
When the observer is the center point of observation (local time)the direction of drikbheda is upside down.(sloka 23)
Lambana or parallax is according to distance of zenith distance and its sine(difference of mahaachaya)But rekhansalambana can be obtained from driggathijya itself.Drikshepajya or lambanam from akshamsa(parallax in latitude )is called Nathy.
Lambanaamsa of rekhansa is ansa of ecliptic.Nathy is the parallax which is at right angles to ecliptic.Drikshepajya,driggathyjya,are multiplied by half of earths vyasa and divided by thrijya to get akshamsalambana or nathy and rekhansalambana or lambana respectively in yojana in orbits of the planets.
Since drikshepajya and driggathijya are equal to thrijya ,their nathy and lambana are equal to half of vyasa of earth.To see nathy and lambana of any drikshepajya and driggathijya respectively divide by sphutakarna (distance from earth)and multiply by thrijya .The results will be for the particular graham in the same thrijyavritha.moons akshamsalambana minus suns akshansalambanam gives the nathy used for calculation of eclipses .Those of moon have to be found out from those of sun.The lambana and nathy of moon and sun are equal in yojana but different in kala or minutes.Kala will be more for moon than sun.

driggathijyaX bhoovyasardha/mean distance of earth to moon X 60/mean gathy of moon in a day gives lambananaadika of the eclipse
Therefore driggathijya /863=lambananaadika
Parallax in longitude in naadika is driggathijya
The errors due to usage of moons madhyamadoora is removed by division with mean daily motion.To remove all the errors (samasthalambanadosha)one can just divide with the samasthagathi of moon for one day.
There are 3 different methods used by astronomers
1.akshamsa of drikshepalagnaja plus highest distance of drikshepalagna to get drikshepalagna in chandrakakshya
2. others add chandralambana
3.adding akshamsa,rekhansalambana respectively
Drikshepajya/863 X difference between moon and suns dinagathy/60=sphutanathy
In the morning Parvaantham minus lambanam
In the afternoon parvaanthum plus lambanam
Because moon is always below relative to sun
Parvaantham is lunisolar yoga or the end of amavasya.To calculate lunisolar yoga ,lambana is to be found by adding lambana if moon is on western side of sun and subtracting if on the eastern side.
Here poorvahna,aparahna are to denote whether the position of sun is to the east or west of the drikshepalagna (if east poorvahna)
To do lambanasamskrithakriya one has to find the lambana for yogavela upto a point when there is no difference between two results (either x-y =0 or x=y )That is one has to see the integer to the nearest.
Thus the samskrithalambana is equalized and called sphutalambana.Sphutalambana does not mean the lambana at yogavela.From the very first lambanavela there is parallax for the graham and it is not sphutalambana.Or it is not parallax but the calculation without lambana or parallax that is called sphutalambana.The madhyagrahana of sun happens at yogavela where there is lambanasamskrithy is done without parallax.At that time the straight line(ray)that pass through center of sun and moon also passes through the observers eye in straight line.The moons akshamsa used for suns eclipse is akshamsa of grahanamadhya added with drikbramsa of that period.If they are both in same direction.If in opposite direction ,minus them.See chandralambana from moons position at akshamsa agra.and from the nathy from there.The direction of madhyajya is direction of drikshepa and of akshamsalambana also.According to the kshepa of a bamboo the thread fastened to its end also changes.Similarly the lambitha of akshamsa also changes with drikshepa.(same is said in Panchasidhanthika of Varahamihira in 5th century)The bimba that is grasped,the bimba that grasps and their touching(sparsa)and at that time the distance between their centers which is the sum of their radii are to be known.Contact circle(samparkamandala)is drawn with this sum as radius.
When sun is in center and moon is within samparkamandala ,it is solar eclipse.In lunar eclipse the the time of eclipse is from the first sparsabindu to the last sparsabindu.Sun is always considered at center of samparkamandala.Moon in grahanamadhya is at equal distance from samparkamandalakendra to his own kendraakshamsa.Moon is in the paridhi during first and last sparsavela.This statement shows that the real suns position as center (heliocentric)has to be known for eclipse prediction .And Indians knew it.

The successive approximation method of Parameswara and of Varahamihira shows how scientific Indian astronomers had been in their approach to problems of the cosmos and its laws.
Valanam and akshavalanam are described in detail by Varahamihira and by Parameswara.Valana is the deviation in direction of the ray of light which is now called geodesic .Akshamsavalana is is the difference we feel due to akshamsa difference
Sine of latitude X sine of colatitude divided by 3438=akshavalanamThis is curved to north in morning and to south in evening.In the center there is no northsouth difference .Maximum difference is at Harija or horizon (according to Bhaskara 2 in grahanavaasana this nyaya is wrong)
The fact remains that Miletus of Thales in Greece who predicted a eclipse for the first time according to textbooks believed that earth is flat as a mat ,and such a man could never have predicted a eclipse (only if earth is shherical or gola it can cast a shadow on other gola like moon and sun is basic knowledge).Varahamihira and Parameswara lived 1000 years apart.Yet we find them using the same traditional Indian methods used by astronomers before them.Both have discussed the laws in detail and emphasized the importance of constant observation.It was during the time of Varahamihira 2 the Romance of Alexander was written in Greece and an Armenian copy for it came in 14th century.In this bookthere is a picture showing Alexander was born on a eclipse day.In it a triangle like a sanku and saptharshimandala with Arundhathy and 8 planets with lunisolar yoga of earth are shown.

Parameswara or Kunnathur Naagalassery Vadassery Parameswara called Drigganithaparameswara lived in 13th-14th century in Kerala and he did Drigganitha and parahithaganitha and wrote many books on eclipses and their laws.His observations were from the banks of Nila in thirunaava /Alathhiyur .Vadssery is the vadasreni of south Malabar(sundararajas vakyakaranaavyakhyana ed T.S.Kuppannasasthry ,K.V.Sharma Madras 1962 pp 8,23,93)He was born in Brighuvansa ,Aswalaayanagothra.Cheri ,sreni ,etc were names given to a group or samooha.The northern banks of river Nila ,where it joins Arabian sea we find Vadassery .It was a branch of kudallur mana.Parameswaran lived in Alathiyur.He has said that from the samarekha 18 yojana west ,in 647 akshamsa (10.51 N)in sakavarsha 1360 Goladeepika was written by him.Smarekha is here Lanka ,not Ujjain as many people have misinterpreted.9 yojana(correctly 8.8 -8.9 yojana)is one degree in gola.18 yojana west of Lanka thus means 2 degree west of Lanka or with 8 minutes time difference ,and it is a wellknown golaniyama.The guru of Parameswara was Rudran and also Golavith samgramagama Madhavan ,Narayanan .Damodaran was his son and disciple and Neelakandasomayaji was another disciple.Parameswara did 55 years of observation from an observatory in South Malabar continuously and after that in 1353 saka(CE 1431)wrote Drigganitha.In saka 1365(CE 1443)Goladeepika 2 came.In CE 1445 (kali 4536)he wrote a major work according to Neelakandasomayaji.That is from 1431 backwards 55 years ,when he started his observation he must be just a child (in 1375)Somayaji was born in 1442.Parameswara lived from CE 1360-1455.
His works were
1.drigganitha a karanagrantha
2Goladeepika 1
3 Goladeepika 2 Both these are on spherical geometry
4Grahanamandana
5grahananyayadeepika
6 Grahanashtaka (these 3 are on eclipses)
7 vakyakarana(astronomical tables)
8 bhatadeepika a commentary to Aryabhata
9.Parameswara Laghubhaskareeyabhashya
10.sidhanthadeepika mahabhaskareeyabhashya .These 2 are commentaries to Bhaskara 1
11sidhanthadeepika is a commentary to the commentary of Govindaswamy for Mahabhaskareeyabhashya
12 laghumaanasabhashya of Munjala
13.vivarana suryasidhanthabhashya
14vivarana leelavathy commentary to Bhaskara2
15vrithy vyatheepaatha ashtaka ,laatavaidhritha
16.vrithy bhashya to goladeepika 2
17.Acharasamgraha
18 jaathakapadhathy
19 muhurtharathnabhashya
20 bhashya to sreepathys jathakaadesa
21commentary to prasnasathpanchasikha of prithuyasa
(from 17 to 21 are astrology books)
22muhurthashtakadeepika
23 vakyadeepika
24 bhaadeepika
(22-24 are not yet obtained)
In Aryabhateeyabhashya of Neelakandasomayaji it is said that Paramesara had yanthra for his observations .Varahamihira and Parameswara used yanthra and both used beejaganitha for sphuta of calculations.Both gives the importance of correction by observations.Both call the sanskaara as Kaalaantharasamskaara though they lived 1000 years apart and one in Ujjain and the other in Kerala.

The kalidinasamkhya of eclipses observed by Parameswara are given .The first was observed from Gokarna and Nilaathada,the second from Nilaathada and Samgamagraama,the 3rd from Naavakshethra and all others from Nilaathada.In 12262 days he saw 14 eclipses of sun.


Varahamihira has spoken about the lunar and solar eclipses as given by the ancient five astronomers in his work Panchasidhanthika.In chapter 7 we get the solar eclipse in Poulisasidhantha.The rule for calculating parallax in longitude ,(Rekhansadikbramsa)is to ascertain the hour angle multiplying the given naadikaas by 6(six degrees going to each naadika)and establishing the proportion
Radius:greatest parallax = sine hour angle:desired parallax in longitude (the bending of the thithi is the corresponding sine ‘s thirtieth part).The greatest parallax being assumed as equal to the mean motion during four naadikaas ,we have
Desired parallax=4 X sine hour angle/120=sine hour angle/30
(since the mean movement per day is 24 degree in 4 nazhika,for every naazhika 6 degree)

What is the science of calculating the nathajya or the sine of hour?
Consider a unending(anantha)journey through cosmos where the two points between the journey is 864 000000 Kilometers (compare with Dwaaparayugasamkhya)and the speed is 240000 KM /second the time taken by the traveler to travel that distance is one hour.It is in cosmic scale ,not in our usual day to day understanding ,that the cosmic time of travel of a lightray in an eclipse is calculated.And this was known to Indians is the point I want to emphasise here. .That is why the nathajya is important from a cosmic point of view.This was found out only by Einstein in modern astronomy…
Sloka 2-6 are the samskaravisesha of Raahu in sthithisaadhana according to Hindi commentator Sudhakaradwivedi and he explains them.But the English translator Thibaut says sloka 2,3,4 are unintelligible and he describes only the rest.
Sloka 2 and 3 specifically says to reduce 26 minutes from the longitude of Raahu and find the degrees between Raahu and moon.If it is within 13 degree a lunar eclipse and if it is within 8 degree a solar eclipse will happen.(2nd sloka of 6th ch and 5th sloka of 7th chapter are comparable)For moon the 169 or the varga of 13 and for sun 64 or the varga of 8 is subtracted .1/4 of it reduced from the squareroot of the balance gives the duration of the eclipse as the case may be.
For the moons eclipse,
If the greatest latitude is 270,not 240 minutes,we obtain
Latitude=270 X 21/10 X degrees of interval divided by 120=
270 X 2 X degrees divided by 120=
9 X degrees divided by 2 appproximate.
Having found the approximate latitude,assume half the sum of diameter of moon and the shadow to be equal to 58 minutes ,we find
Measure of half duration of eclipse =√58 to the power of 2 minus latitude square=
9/2√13 square minus degrees square approximately.
From this to find the whole duration in Naadika multiply by 2 X 60 and divide by difference of the daily motion of sun and moon and thus we derive at
9 X 6 /73√169-degrees 2=
3/4√169-degrees 2

For solar eclipse an analogous process ,assuming the half sum of diameters of sun and moon to be equal to 35 minutes.
Measure of half the eclipse=√35 square -81/4 X degrees 2
=9/2√(35 X 2 /9)2-degrees 2
=9/2√64-degree 2 approximately
For duration of eclipse in naadikaas
2 X 9 X 60/730 X 2√64-Degrees 2
=3/4√64-degrees 2 approximately
This shows Poulisasidhantha knew the shape of the earth,the principle of eclipse as well as the parallax laws and the geodesic of the lightray and how to calculate it approximately .
Chapter 8 of Panchasidhanthika gives solar eclipse according to Romakasidhantha.Multiply ahargana by 150,deduct 65,divide by 54787 to get the mean longitude of sun in due succession (revolutions ,signs etc)Here the yuga fraction of 2850/1040953 as the lunisolar yuga of Romaka its reduced fraction 150/54787 is employed.65 is the kshepa (quantity allowing the calculations to start from epoch chosen.)True place of sun and moon is found measuring half signs of anomaly of sun and moon and arranged in direct as well as inverse order.Of the sun the mean longitude has to be reduced from half of Gemini ,that is two and a half signs from Aries first degree.Romakasidhantha calculates the equation of center of sun and moon for each half sign ,that is progressing from 5-15 degrees.The 6 quantities thus obtained for the first quarter of the circle are employed for the second quarter in inverse order .To get the Kendra that is the anomaly of the sun we have to take the mean longitude and the longitude of suns apogee which is estimated as 2 and a half signs or 75 degrees.
Anomaly and equations thus given by Varahamihira,according to Romakasidhantha is as below.
Anomaly in degree 15 30 45 60 75 90
Equations in mts ,sec 34’ 42’’ 68’37’’ 98’39’’ 122’49’’ 137’5’’ 143’23’’

Sloka 9 of the chapter gives the same rule as sloka 1 of 7th chapter just described in Poulisasidhantha that as many naadikaas elapsed till midday are to be multiplied by 6 and the 30th part corresponding sine is the displacement of the thithi (parallax in longitude).A process preliminary to calculation of parallax in latitude is given here.For that in Hindu astronomy we require the zenith distance of that point of the ecliptic which has the greatest altitude (which point is called vithribha or thribhona)the sine of which distance is technically called the drikkshepa,TZ in figure.AC is ecliptic,ac is moons orbit,P’ZTD the projection of a great circle passing through pole of ecliptic ,the zenith and the thribhona T ,and cutting the moons orbit in t.See below the diagram given by Thibaut in page 51 of his translation.(which is actually the figure given by the Hindi translator for slokaas 19-23 in suryasidhantha ,in the next chapter of Panchasidhanthika.(both figures given below for comparison.
Romakasidhantha makes calculation of drikshepa on the sine of tZ,not on the parallax of latitude.For this it first calculates tT ,after ascertaining dT (interval between thribhona and moons node,).The following proportion is obtained,
Rad:sine greatest latitude of moo=sine dT :sine tT
Greatest latitude is assumed equal to 240’,
Sine tT=240 X sine dT divided by 120=2 sine dT(It is interesting to note that in the commentary of 10th sloka ,Sudhakaradwivedi points out that the result after multiplication with 6 ,is the jya and its thrimsaamsa is the thithy called Lambanam and that from the praaglagna bindu,the last bindu of the 9th raasi of kraanthivritha called apakramakraanthyansa is obtained and it is known to all ganakaas of India.Then he says how Lagna is obtained in astronomy/astrology by lambanasamskaara or lambanaayanavidhi.
Nathaghatika X 6=jya
Thrijya =120=ParamalambanLambana=4 X nathajya /120=Nathajya /30 is the law.
Lagna -3=lagna -3 +12=lagna +9 is the law given in Paithamahasidhantha as a simplification of it.And Paithamahasidhantha ,the oldest sidhantha even knows the basic rules of Grahana /cosmic gathi of light etc.)
Resulting minutes turned into degrees dividing by 60.
To tT found,TZ has to be added to find zenith distance of t.But instead of TZ .LZ which is known from the declination of L and terrestrial latitude is taken.
Multiply daily movement of moon by the sine of that(zenith distance)and divide by 1800.The result is parallax in latitude.The mean measure of sun is 30’and that of moon 34’(4 mts difference).Multiply sine of distance of moon which at the time of yoga/conjunction has the same longitude as the sun,from the node by 21 and divide by 9.Take sum of the result and the parallax in latitude ,if the direction is same.If in opposite direction,difference is taken.
Rules for finding the parallax in latitude and the moons true latitude.

The rule for finding parallax in latitude is founded on supposition that greatest parallax is equal to 15th part of the moons daily movement.
Therefore the proportion,
Radius=daily motion /15=sin zenith distance of thribhona :parallax
Therefore parallax=daily motion X sin zen.distance/15X 120
=daily motion X sin zenith distance /1800












In order to get latitude of moon ,
Radius :sine of greatest latitude (which is 270’)
Moons distance from node :desired latitude
We therefore have,
Latitude=270’ X sin distance /3 X 4=
21 X sin distance /12 X 21 /27=
21 X sin distance/3 X 3 approximately.By increasing or decreasing the latitude thus found,by the parallax we get the true latitude.
Multiply the true motin of sun and moon by their mean measure ,and divide by mean motion.The result is true measure.(in minutes)of the two bodies at a given time.
Deduct the square of the avanathi(latitude of moon as corrected for parallax of latitude)from square of half the sum of the measure of sun and moon..From the double square root of the remainder determine the time (of eclipse)as in the case (of calculation)of the elapsed portion of a thithi.

Rule for determining duration of an eclipse is then given.Take the right angle triangle of which half the sum of diameter of sun and moon form the hypotenuse.The moons corrected latitude is the perpendicular.Base of the triangle represents half the time of the duration ,expressed in minutes of arc.Thus establish the proportion,
Minutes of difference of suns and moons gathy or motion:60 naadika=minutes of arc of duration of eclipse ;naadikaas of duration .As many minutes as there remain on the correted latitude being deducted from half the sum of the measures of sun and moon,so many angulis of the sun know to be obscured by the moon.Describe the circle of the sun with half its diameter and mark off from its center the true latitude ,in its appropriate direction.From the end of that latitude describe the circle of the moon with half her diameter ,and thereby show the amountof obscuration.



Here ,the Hindi translator Sudhakaradwivedi says with the helpof the above figure ,that Ra is the center of sun,and cha that of moon.Racha is the true latitude of moon.The obscured or overlapped amount(ta ka) is therefore equal to suns radius minus ra rata.It is equal to true latitude minus radius of moon.Hence obscured amount equals to sum of two radii minus the latitude.The rule for delineating the eclipse .
This shows that what Parameswara in later centuries was trying to establish was experimental proof for his ancestral lands knowledge,just as Varahamihira was doing by comparison and experimentation and observations .The law was there since antiquity in India and the Rahu of Indian astronomers had always been the Ahorathra (day and night on earth)and the middle letters taken in inverse order (Hora as hour and Raho as earth)as Varahamihira points out in his Horasasthra,and they very well knew the rules of eclipse,of geodesics,bending of lightrays and observation of relativistic laws during a solar eclipse well before Europeans had any idea of it.The above picture is seen in some of the IVC/Harappan relics showing that this knowledge was there from at least 3000-3500 BC onwards in India.(see pp 206 Parpola for the intersecting circles and its relation to Rohini asterism,reaching vernal equinox, during 3054 BC .This was the early Hrappan period and according to Mahabhagavatha and Mahabharatha ,the period of Sreekrishna,born on a Rohini star corresponds to this period).It is noteworthy that the same picture is seen as an adaptation in Euclids text book.

Solar eclipse in Suryasidhantha.(ch 9 of Panchasidhanthika)

Mean place of sun is found successively (in revolutions,signs etc)by multiplying the ahargana by 800,442 and dividing by 292207.The place is thus found for midday at Avanthi by Varahamihira.
180000 revolutions of sun in 65746575 days according to suryasidhantha.Therefore in one ahargana,180000 X ahargana /65746575 which fraction is reduced by 225 to 800 X ahargana /292207.The kshepa quantity -442 introduced to enable us to start calculation from epoch of Panchasidhanthika ,427 saaka.
Multiply ahargana by 900000,deduct 670217,divide by 24589506.Result is mean place of moon.

(The figure he uses to describe the laws till 12th sloka of this chapter is the same as that Thibaut adopts as that of Romakasidhantha).In sloka 15 the sphutabimba of sun and moon,kaalasphuta and bimbakalaaparimaana are explained.When sun is ucha the bimba is alpa(small)and when neecha it is vipula according to this sloka which shows the relation of distance,mass and velocity which now we attribute to Newton.
If a system completes 61 revolutions in 60 yrs,and thus neutralize the difference of 6 degrees due to its movement ,(360 degree in 366 days according to Paithamahasidhantha),one can divide the kranthibhedanabindu of 6796 of Romaka(adopted by Ptolemy also)with 366 paithamhadina ,
6796/366=4531/61=74 17/61 or 74.3.
This figure with observation of Dhoomakethu (+ or – 2)which appears in every 76 yrs as observational sphuta,61 bramana or revolution,7 times happen in 427.(60X 7=420 yrs ,61 X 7 =427 )This is the Saka 427 selected by Varahamihira for his calculation.
From Aslesha to Dhanishta (yugadhi of Varaha to Paithamaha)427 X 27 /2 =11529/2=5764 yrs.This is the time of the Romakayuga of Americas and it is 343 yrs after Paithamahayuga and hence (6107 yrs before Varahamihira was the time of Paithamaha.)The yuga of Rome on the other hand is 850 yrs before saka 427(varahamihira)and it corresponds to BC 343.This way,Varahamihira is actually pointing out the timescale of various sidhanthaas including the Yavana(Romaka of the Americaas)and Yavana (Romaka of Rome)and its relation to the old method of calculation of the Indian astronomers .
The number of revolution of the kraanthibhedanabindu /paithamahadinasamkhya=6976/366=19.22 which is closest to the squareroot of time (19 X 19 being 361)and this multiplied by 4 gives the 76.88 yrs ,as the appearance of the comet .Indians noticed that though by calculation it should be 76 ,it is not so and it varies .(see the list of observation from BC 240 to AD 1986 TO VERIFY THIS STATEMENT)
The dhoomakethu of 1986 ,for the era which started in BC 6080,is the 79th time of appearance of it being watched by humanity.In 1986 this was visualized in the last point of Krithika and first point of Rohini,and this shows the ayana has become as before .It has come a full cycle for the Indian astronomers.76 is the chaayaamaanam of Raahu in Indian astronomy.One sakavarsha has 1673 samvatsara and 7 such has 11711.It is the same as that of Paithamaha and poulisa because they take 22 X 76 =1672 .And + I is the 1673 of saaka.1672 X 7 is only 11704 which is taken by Poulisa and the difference of 11711 and 11704 is 7 .This type of difference is seen in the calculation of Kaliyuga of India and that of the Maayan calendar also showing a common way of understanding the cosmos.(Yukathan has a calendar starting from BC 3114 August 11th.The Indian Kaliyuga starts in BC 3104 August 11 when the sun is in the asterism of Aslesham or Ayilyam star .)The way of determining the movement ,the diameter of the planet,the orbit,its eclipse and the geodesics of light etc and the concept of light as wave and paramaanu makes Indian thought equivalent to modern astrophysics in many respects.Only difference is in the language(Sanskrit instead of English) and the lack of evidence of whether they were using the modern technological devices.

Perspectives on education

Changing perspectives on education in India

There are several definitions on education.This(which Chiropractice people have given) is only one among them.We will consider here three terms they used in the definition.
1 Growth.Education is a powerful tool in growth and progress of a person and through him/her the society/nation/world is important.Growth is not the physical growth alone,but mental,intellectual,spiritual –a total personality development for human resource development of entire humanity.The total healthydevelopment of such an individual gives a dynamics to entire world.All facets of life of person and society are enriched by the overall development and growth-that is intra and interpersonal successful relationships,bonds,alone with success in professional,sociopolitical,economical,artistic,scientific fields of entire humanity happen through the contribution of a welleducated developed mature human being.Such a person is an ornament to society and to world.(I can quote Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi as a jewel of India in this context).
The question is does our present day curriculum provide such a development to people? Does it allow total personality growth or just remain something for getting a job,and making money by the easiest methods?And does all the educated people come out as committed citizens of society and of humanity? If not,the aim of education is not yet fulfilled and one has to find out alternatives for achievement of this goal of education.

Growth is definitely a goal of education.But it should not be uncontrolled growth of one cell(person) or a clone of cells over others(pathological) but a physiological natural growth of all cells according to needs of the entire body (physiological) and this similie from medical language distinguishes normal and abnormal growths .The growth of one person should assist in growth of entire society,nation,world and only then the growth is natural and valuable and perfect .Education envisages such growth.

2.The term formal.Formal means as an adjective correct,serious,and conforming to accepted conventions.Or an official ,publicly currently recognized method.(which need not be correct or may be correct-either ways can happen).As an adverb formally means a legally approved,or official ,prescribed procedure through regular formal chaanels like schools,colleges,universities etc.This is decided by a Governmental agency in power .

But human education is not only formal but informal training and growth is a process ,due to informal education (or partially due to it)is an accepted fact by all educators,teachers,parents,and students (by all people alike).Therefore that term is slowly being replaced by educationists for a better definition.Most of them now include both formal and informal learning in education.
3 The term empirical.Developed as philosophy of Roger Bacon mingled with St Augustinian tradition ,by about 13th century in Oxford .But in 13th century the Oxford teachers came for education to Bologna and Paris ,the important centers of Christendom ,and return to Oxford and taught the spirit and idea of Paris papal court.And even those who never went to Paris ,and who learned in Oxford were under the influence of this Parisian influence .This intellectual supremacy and authority of a single orthodox tradition over international intellectualism is personified in Empiricism.
Indian educationists (Changing perspectives in Education Ed Denis Coelho .Indian Social institute of New Delhi 1995) noticed that every one is trying to define education on subjective objectives/aims and spelt out that the true education has some aims which allow both individuals as well as nations to which they belong,and through them the emtire world has to become strong and mature and self-reliant .

The value-based education has to be a human-oriented,universally acceptable one for progress of human race as a whole and on a eco-friendly basis .For this an integrated curriculum –oriented formal as well informal awareness is needed .This is the Grand unification of entire cosmos ,sciences,arts,humanity and other life forms,nature in its ecological multidiversity .This is the value based education for entire human race .
In the introduction to the above mentioned book it is rightly said that Education goes beyond ,academic excellance ,cognitive growth and aims at human growth which calls for involvement of the whole person ,mind,heart,and will in learning process .HRD aptly sums up higher aims of education.It should initiate a social change for betterment of humanity and nations.Brazilien Paulo Friere said learning is to critically analyse and deepen self-perception leading to conscience building.Mode of learning is a dialogue,in which love,humility,hope,and faith prevail.This is called the process of liberation by Freire.We are in this world ,to transform,rather than to adapt ourselves to it.For Gandhi also the education was not just a system nmaintainance but system change.Whole life and practice is needed for that type of valuebased,valuebuilding education.Education is that which allow a person to manage entire life ,survive problems and crisis,and in that experience and problem solving and survival,be productive and helpful to entire nation and humanity and nature.There is no limitations for such an education and ability to respond to whole of life and nature in a positive way.It is an integral life partnership with environment in which we are placed as dynamic organisms.The eco-friendly education alone can save the world .Thus total literacy is not just reading and writing ability,but it includes the ability and growth to decide sociopolitically what we need and how we can achieve it.To prepare for such a education ,the formal ,empericist ,authoritative and moneymaking- oriented ,job and degree oriented education alone is not enough .This understanding has lead to the discourses of alternative methods like integrated curriculums,value-based education etc.
I had been a teacher for medical students (undergraduates/postgraduates)and have seen the problems of education that lead to social evils .And how to diminish them and give a positive impetus to my profession (Medical science)and the Medical teaching curriculum ,and thus improve the human life had lead to the value-based education I am advocating.
This does not negate the formal studies.But supplement it with informal value-based integrated learning so that each human being is useful to him/herself,to family,society,nation and world .This is a goal which I have devised from my own experiences in life,personal and professional and as a social and philosophical thinker .This is not a theoretical discussion .But a practical method which if implementd would lead to a visible positive change in society.But ,as said earlier,only if one has political powers and decision-making powers one can implement such plans in a formal curriculum .

Dr Malcolm S.Adiseshiah has given the following headings to his chapter on Philosophy of education :-
1.Education is holistic
2.Education is learning
3.Education is work
4.Education is a dialogue
5.Education is service
6.Education is character building.
And in fact education is all these and beyond.
Thomas V.Kunnunkal is concerned with education as nation building.He mentions four goals –all interlinked as a composite goal.
1.Education for Integral personal development
2.For national development
3.For community
4.For culture and values.Kothari commission(National commission on Education 1964-66)had introduced social dimension to objective of education.The title of its report itself is Education and national development.1986 National education policy envisages education that promote national cohesion,scientific temper,independence of mind and spirit,goals of socialism,secularism and democracy –fundamental to allround development ,material and spiritual.National selfreliance can only be attained by such growth.
The question again is have we reached that ?If not,why?Have we become a highly productive,selfsufficient nation,humane,caring for others, a modern nation,a united India ?If not ,is our formal classroom education satisfactory?Have our formal education failed to infuse the enlightened citizenship ideals and values in our people ?If so is it not necessary to change the definitions and the methods?And what alternative suggestions ,we as educated and experienced citizens of this land and of this earth(as members of human race)can contribute for that ?It is this constant reflection and experiences and experiments that had given rise to these ideas of mine.
For transformation of mindsets ,our Governments started decentralization programmes as part of NEP .But ,each decentralized part is showing separatist tendencies and showing that they are not yet mature enough to be responsible citizens of a democratic nation .Only if this state level decentralization is successfully undertaken,the second and third levels(district/local Panchayath levels) can be successful.But a simultaneous decentralization from local Panjayath levels will be better undertaken with the state decentralization so that the low and high levels can meet at middle levels.This majr area of action also has been slowly being implemented.
What should be included in a value based curriculum?Can any one say that what he/she thinks as value is acceptable to all?No.But there are universal values .Justice,equality,freedom,fraternity ,unity beyond all differences of caste/creed/sex/sociopolitical class etc,truth and nonviolence,honesty .
This modern,Indian,Humane values are also the most ancient ,global and ecological values .This if any institution/person accepts and puts to practice one can accept.Otherwise not.

Human resource development involves Relationship of a person to oneself and to society.Whether I am an asset or liability to myself and to society depends upon the development of my skills ,abilities,my ideas,my virtues,values and my practical life.Without such values a nation cannot build up its valuable HR .Therefore ,it is not mere reading and writing ability but ability to analyse and cognize the present situations,ability to change them for betterment of entire humanity which distinguishes a person from others.For this knowledge of past is needed.History is for that purpose.If education(formal) has failed in this respect,we have to seriously think of its causes and make a change for the betterment of our society.Without values ,if we produce moneymaking luxury loving machines with academic titles of doctors and engineers and IT professionals ,does our nation improve?If we produce them with all the academic excellence +values would not that be ideal for us ?
In the integral pedagogical paradigm Louis Xavier regards PROCESS of education as a cultural TRANSMISSION from generation to generation.It is accumulated wisdom transmitted through ages by humanity.The academic excellance is replaced by human excellance in valuebased approach (which also includes academic excellance).Academic excellance do not include human excellance,but humanexcellance includes academic excellance as well.In the pedagogical framework are 5 steps.Context,Experience,Reflection,Action,Evaluation.
1.Context of learner.The life situation from which the learner comes.How they have affected /influenced him/her
2.Experience.Beyond the intellectual grasp education ,has ability of using imagination ,feelings etc .
3.Reflection:- Thoughtful reconsideration of a subject matter ,experience ,idea,purpose of spontaneous reaction to grasp its significance fully .Memory,imagination,feelings,cognition are used in this step by us.
4.Action
That which makes the learner decide that this is my point of reference on which I wil act .The interiorized choices become externally manifested in our actions .Our actions show our convictions .Practical use of our values are manifested only when we act in a certain manner.
5.Evaluation.Effective feedback make us explore further ,and find out alternative methods/solutions for the accepted /formal current ones .Every teacher/learner/educationisthave experience of all these steps in their process of education.
The evaluation and further growth ,by reexamination of whatever had happened ,and reflection on it leading to improved actions has an effective cyclical pattern .

The only problem in implementing this is when educational institutions adopt fragmented approaches ,narrow specializations, sidestep the central concern for the human person/personality development as a whole .When values are neglected and a child/person is subjected to education just for the sake of formal training to be a specialized professional (with no commitment to values/nation/world)this happen.We have witnessed this already .
A spiritual version of world over materialism
Concern for others over selfish egoisms
Simplicity in face of consumerism
Cause of justice in face of social injustice
These are the ideals /values which teachers and students of modern world need to inculcate in a valuebased education for positive change in society and world .
For this we need
1.A unifying vision .(A grand unification theory or Mahaa advaitha as I call it)
2.Enrichment of dynamics of pedagogy by insight gained from contemporary educational psychology (which one gains from practical experience as well as from books on the subjects and compare both)
3.Development of a wide range of course materials for implementing this pedagogy.These are to be viewed as models to facilitate a teaching-learning process.
4.Staff development programmes involving in-service traing .Training the trainers programmes .
5.Exchange of expertise and experience among people who practice this .This open exchange will develop and let the discipline grow .
Thus education(life long including informal and formal) leads to generation of a new society which believes in high values.This has not occurred with the current method of education we are following as Dr William Madtha points out in his article.He writes:-Lust for money ,awards and sex at the cost of values has become the fashion of the day ,even among academicians.The corruption and misuse of finances by administration is also pointed out by him as a result of this .He points out how the Nishkaamakarma (selfless service)can make individuals mature and capable of assuming their responsibilities.Only such a qualitative education which inculcate this can restructure society .
He mentions that core curriculum has to be designed so that it connects with life,viz,to promote national values such as Indian common cultural heritage ,egalitarianism,democracy,secularism ,equality of sexes,ecological sensitivity,freedom ,observance of family norms and scientific attitudes to life,that is spirit of enquiry,creativity,objectivity,courage to question,methodology and an aesthetic sensibility.National unity (Oneness )should be felt by all by such education.In restructuring institutions,in giving autonomy to institutions accompanied by their accountability and in selecting educators etc one has to exercise extreme care.
Educators with personal qualities,educational qualifications,and professional competence are needed .(pp 49 Education fro generating a new society).They will be assets to the institutions they work as well as to the nations they serve.Instead of that electing people who have educational qualifications but no values will do harm to institutions as well as nations.State incentives for accountability of teachers and educators will increase their performance .Sociopolitical awareness is needed in a democracy to succeed.Without allowing free expression of such ideals at local levels ,and without giving awareness of its importance at all levels no educational system is complete .that is why adult education and continuing education are important.
Jesudasan (a Gandhian studies expert)gives the importance of Gandhi as an educator .He observes that his analytical thinking was as radical as that of Marx but mor econstructive than Marx in search of solution for the whole problem.Both are social philosophers and activist reformers ,concerned with reconstruction of an ideal society.But methods were very dissimilar when it comes to gross alienation and violent reaction of labourer to exploitations(Marx)and subtle exploitation and method of nonviolent non-co-operation of the exploited.(Gandhi)As part of the social educational pedagogy to remedy the evil Gandhi tried to introduce at formal educational structural level ,productive and life-sustaining work experience as center of the whole learning process.Work is basic and central to education,not as an employment or money-generating activity ,but as sustaining life in the whole superstructure of society.This is more scientific than any other theories of education.But India did not experiment with this vision of our own educationist Gandhi ,but adopted the system of the Europian whitecollar job oriented system .Even with that we can start implementing te ideals of Gandhi-Simple living,high thinking,and equality of all and nishkaamakarma as service to all.

The importance of ecological education is not to be neglected.Nature is common property resource of us.Shared by all alike.Therefore it is heritage of all ,not only of humans but also of all living creatures.Therefore ,Think globally and act locally to conserve nature should be taught right from childhood to all human beings.And this cannot be done without awareness of our biodiversity,our traditional ways of conserving it and all these are learned from generations of oral tradition.Not from a formal classroom alone .Though each teacher can facilitate this way of learning by inculcating a desire to know more about our environment and how to protect it etc.Practice of a ecofriendly life right from beginning is inculcated in children by parents themselves and school teachers can augment it .Thus formal and informal education makes one grow and mature and become an asset to oneself,to ones family,society,nation and world .Though we have not visited all continents by thinking as a world citizen and acting at our own little sphere of activity(local environment)we can contribute and be a valuable citizen of world.This is the value-based education needed for every human being .
It integrates all the love,compassion,scientific temper and artistic talents ,cognition and imagination in one person for the sake of the entire living and nonliving world of existence.
This may seem a Utopian dream.But is not.It is a practical dream,for each one of us to internalize,enjoy ,practice in our life and be happy thereby making others also happy.

Alternative,complementary or Integrated Medicine?

Complementary and Alternative Medicine are two terms used synonymously fot practical purposes.Whenwe ask the question Complementary to what ? Or alternative to what ?We get the answer to Western Allopathic practice of Medicine.This term therefore takes western modern medicine as the principal method of treatment .A better term is Integrated Medicine where we can use all types of medical practices simultaneously or side by side depending upon the need and the situation concerned .
In India if we take a survey ,we will find that over the past 400 years western medicine is taken by population in general,but still the ways of life,the food and the systems of indigenous medical practices go hand in hand in each and every province and it has never been disrespected by people ,whatever the Modern Medicine doctors think or say about these practices.In 1995 a survey in UK showed 9000 subscribers (surveyed)were taking alternative medicine at least once in their lifetime and a survey in 1995 showed people wanted complementary medicine introduced in NHS .The several reasons for the popularity included the side effects of modern drugs like NSAIDS (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs)to relieve simple pain.Another source of dissatisfaction was long waiting time for treatment and lack of time of busy medical practitioners and their attitude to patients.That is both the type of treatment and the approach of the practitioner were causes for its unpopularity in Britain.The same was true of America.But the main reason for acceptance of other systems of medicine in these developed countries was the research which showed that they are equally able to heal several disorders.It was not just disillusionment with modern medicine but also the effectiveness of the other systems in real life practice that made it very popular in developed countries.A holistic approach to nature,energy and integration developed as a result.
In 1986 BMA had dismissed all modes of treatment other than modern medicine as “primitive beliefs,outmoded practices,almost all without basis.”.But 7 years later BMA was thinking about new approach of accepting other types of treatments also for good practice.In 1991 NHS had complementary medicine accepted into its practice.Foundation of Integrated Medicine (FIM)analysed primary care group(PCG)plans for complementary medicine from 1999-2000.As more and more PCGs became PCTs or primary care trusts that manage and control their own budgets more opportunities for such integrated medical practices opened up.In 65 % of British hospitals doctors have accepted the role of other modalities of treatment in mainstream medicine.In residential homes this has been of much use.
Integrated services are set up and run as collaborative for people ,that is both types of therapies are given side by side .The initiative of establishing a learning collaborative and in participation with a university provides a support and information network.Its aims are to support joint learning between a set of projects representing different models ,to find out the steps and resources,to develop resources that can be used by others seeking to develop integrated primary care (especially knowledge and information about the several modalities and how to use them in integrated practice),to gather evidence about successful models and development strategies and to share the learning from that work with a wider network of people.
The Foundation will have to provide support to the various projects taking part in the collaborative in a number of ways.
These include among others:
Funding for participation in seminars
Towards cost of development activities and their evaluation
Expert advice on service development
Models of integrated working and evaluation strategies
Information about possible sources of funding
Relevant research on effectiveness of complementary therapy in primary care.

Stardardising ,accrediting ,validating the training courses with an ethics and code of practice
Continueing professional development
The best organizations should haveet of validated ,accredited,educational training standards,a code of practice and ethics,an accessible fair and effective complaints procedure,open disciplinery procedures and a requirement for indemnity insurance.
FIM was established in UK in 1997 as a result of initiative of Prince of Wales.NCCAM is the national center for complementary and alternative medicine in USA.In our own Kerala ,it is proposed to have an integrated medical practice quite recently .

WHAT A THERAPIST SHOULD KNOW
1 what are methods that one use
2.What is the basis of the process with which the treatment works
3.what type of disorders have effect with this
4.How many sessions one needs depending upon one’s condition and one’s temperament to the treatment modality
5 Am I having enough training in the process to start treating a patient and have I got attached to an educational training institute for the purpose
6.Is the modality that I give cost effective and free of side effects

If these questions are analysed by oneself and if one is able to answer these from experience and practice one can be considered a good practitioner.One has to understand the limitations of one’s profession,of oneself as a human being and also about the differences in each patient/individual as a unique one.What works well for one need not work for another and therefore a variety of treatment modalities under a common umbrella of institution helps a lot.The Umbrella organization under which the modalities come has to give definite directives for all these.
We must understand that western medicine evolved after Europe had access to India directly.The Portuguese,the Dutch and the French came and learned a lot of Indian medicine and its regulated nature .Then there was a renaissance in entire Europe .The first Medical Act of 1512 was the attempt to regulate the medical profession.It is also interesting that the license was first given by the bishop of the Diocese in which the practitioner lived.(Just like the Indian system of the Brahmin Guru of a region).In 1542 it was amended and is called the Herbalist’s charter supported by Henry V111 .This was designed in protest to physicians and surgeons who allowed the patients to rot,unless they pay heavily.(That shows the business mercenary attitude of the first western doctors ).The charter allowed any one to practice if they have knowledge and experience of nature of Herbs,roots and waters according to their cunning(meant ability)experience and knowledge .This right of practice freely and legally was guarded and by herbalists and supported by Government.For four hundred years this persisted .In 1977 The Herbal remedies order defined the circumstances under which a herbalist can prescribe certain toxic drugs like belladonna.
Herbal medicines are of three category
Licensed
Unlicensed
Food supplements
In India all herbs are used as medicines .And most of tehm are food ingredients and fod supplements .Therefore only a few prepared mixtures come under the licensed category .If we insist that all herbs should come under license ,even rice and wheat will have to be licensed because Ayurveda use each and every food item as Oushadi.The argument that each drug should be submitted to a RCT is therefore inapplicable in India .Then people wont be able to take any food and will die of starvation before the Government certify and give a licence for it.Therefore we have to be practical in devising rules.

There is no problem in finding a theoretical issue and experimental design for research in complementary medicine .The most important issue is the lack of funding and the lack of research skill as far as music therapy in India is concerned.This I say from several years of experience .People are interested in the discipline but do not know where to find an institution where they can do proper research under a proper guide .And the so-called self-proclaimed music therapists are not able to answer the several questions the students ask or the doubts the public have.Systematic reviews and metaanalysis are not coming up simply because of this barrier.I have been trying to give awareness on these matters both to students and public through several communication media .
What we need is an environment that supports and values the development of research skills and experience ,enable access to research training opportunities and resources to undertake research activity ,provide secure and attractive career pathways for our new generations and encourages development of high quality research projects.
An important point I want to stress is Music research and music therapy research are different .Training in classical music or light music singing is not training in music therapy.It is only part of the entire integrated process.Just as one limb cannot make up our entire body ,music alone does not make up music therapy .But that limb is definitely very very important .Everything has a place and a design in our system.Just like that recognize each knowledge system in its own unique way and give it its share .

Integrated curriculum for world peace

A grand unified theory for a multicultural,integrated curriculum using music for world peace.

The music therapy and a curriculum of advaitha for world peace ,which I advocate,is based on the following :- I do admire Albert Einstein ,not for his contributions to science alone.But for the way he outgrew all the marginalisations he faced during his lifetime so that he emrged as the Person of the century in 2000 selected by Times magazine,as against Roosevelt and even our own Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.Why this special admiration for him ?


The example of Einstein who was born in a marginalized community of the time ,but came up in life with all those marginalisations should be our model,not of some feminist women(from Kerala itself,whom I do not want to name) who even after being famous and well acclaimed ,still goes on increasing the gaps in society by repeated complaints about the society,the loved ones, and the male-dominated power games.Even if the trials and tribulations exist,I would prefer to overcome them by my cheerful countenance at all odds and by my achievements ,rather than complaining forever against injustices as they have been doing .(real as well as imaginary!!)

This admiration of mine , is also applicable to personalities like Yesudas,who came up in life and profession,as a colossus ,against all odds in life.Apart from musical contributions,he has given a model of such rare courage and of a character of stability.It is not just a person’s fame,wealth or professional contributions,but also the life and the ideals in life which the next generations see and emulate and admire.Therefore,intellectual women like me admire men like Einstein and Jesudas,rather than the above mentioned women writers and activists .For me,the male/female divide is only a construct and intellectually in advaithic framework all Athman/Brahman/Souls are One .This practical advaitha or grand unification is applied in all my projects and ideas and in curricular plannings.
What is the aim of life and education?
Happiness is the aim of all human activities ,including learning.Happiness is dependent on contingencies like health,wealth,reputation,friendships,love etc.But ,for all these to have in a balanced way,humans need an intellect to think,and reason and do accordingly in a systematic way.This contemplative thought about the greatest bliss and the means to achieve it ,is thus the aim of life and education and whether our educational curriculum is giving this faculty of developing happiness becomes important for a educationist.This is the intellectualist position of all curriculums .In Indian education this was important as the Upanishads say all meemams(research or enquiries)are due to the Aananda (bliss/happiness)that one derives from it.Aristotle also believed that theoretical or contemplative thought and capacity for it is happiness.There the east and west philosophy meet.Happiness is not the subjective wellbeing(SWB)of contemporary psychology and it is not a temporary phase of happiness that one seeks.When one does not have wealth ,he/she feels wealth is needed for happiness.When health is lost ,then people say that health is the most needed for happiness.The fact is that all these contingencies can be achieved by a judicious systematic life and thoughtful logical way of conducting in the world and this is the valuebased education system which gives continuous happiness ,including food sufficiency , agroeconomy bringing in its turn a socioeconomical system where people have a healthy life.The here and hereafter are thus harmoniously blended in a valuebased education where science and spirituality have no difference..This is a platform where both atheists and God-believers can meet since atheists like Bertrand Russel and H.G.Wells were awed by the mysteries of universe just as any traditional spiritualist .The order of universe is something that harmonises all living things into a bond of comradeship ,and it does not include only labourers or any one community ,let alone humans alone.The birds,animals,and the smallest life form has a place on this orderly universe and its oneness with the inanimate world is science as well as spirituality.Thus entire chara and achara worlds (moving and nonmoving ) are one in the thinking mind of a person who has come to the classroom of my valuebased education system.There we have to find a meaning of all meanings.Happiness is not just absence of pain as Stuart Mill wrote,just as health is not merely absence of disease.
Hume said celibacy,fasting,penance,self-denial,humility ,silence and solitude are virtues of monks and they serve no purpose for human beings and these does not make a person a valuable member of society.But we have found a living example in Gandhi contradicting Hume’s statement.Gandhi demonstrated all such monkish virtues quoted by Hume and had proved himselves to be the most valuable individual the world had produced in the last millennium .How his values had been valued by entire world and how it had been useful to all who came near him itself bear testimony to this.It had served a purpose to millions of people in more than one continents ,as all of us know.
Hume includes humour,recreation,enjoyments of fun in his definition of happiness.But to have them,one needs to be permanently happy as Gandhi was.Gandhi had a rare sense of humour which no one else had.And about recreation and enjoyment of fun that is relative to different individuals depending upon their tastes and temperaments.Different games and pastimes are for that .And the individual as well as regional differences are there in them.(Which one can learn just by being in a special region and culture without any difficulty as we will see below regarding kolam etc by south Indian girls).Robert Lane noticed that in western societies income,education,health and intelligence have increased after the second world war ,but they have not made them more happier than their ancestors.So happiness is something related to the internal thoughts of bliss and its understanding ,rather than external factors which we can aquire by positive thoughts.
The need for money is never satisfied by individual or by policy makers of Government as we see from their request for more and more funds.So how can one achieve happiness with money ?When will new luxuries and technologies and commercialism which require more and more markets cease to satisfy all human beings to be happy with them ?And about health ,after all the years of costly research tools and discoveries what had medical science done to increase happiness of humanity?The cost of treatment does not give the result which they are expected to give and people are left penniless with a hospital stay and new disorders are detected as sideeffects of new research processes and medicines.And even doctors are unhappy and unhealthy.How can such a community give health and happiness to all ?The health propagandas are making people fearful and maniacs only.Satisfaction from health needs also is unlikely in such a background.How much the educationists,social workers and Governments areable to cope with such situations when they themselves are in a dilemma not knowing what to do except taking aids from center,world bank or from any other source they get hold of.(knowing very well that it will only save their faces for the short period of their political power and it is not a permanent solution for the nation or world).As a doctor I started to think about these from 1972 onwards.I was concerned about the problems my region as well as my profession and my nation face in these fields.The lack of nutrition,use of chemicals causing diseases in children and adults naturally leads one to food production,agroeconomy and its status in our nation.The waterborne diseases and impure water supply and problems concerned with water conservation and judicious use is also related subject .The poverty and lack of education and the cost of living and of medicines were directly felt by me and my husband while we were working in Calicut Medical college.And we worked out a system of helping as many people as possible by spending one person’s salary for it .If Humes definition is correct we would be considered as people who sacrificed enjoyments of fun,recreations that cost money and also luxuries (so that we can help another soul)and we are not useful citizens of society.But if we take Gandhi’s definition we are the most useful citizens to this nation and world.That we can leave for posterity to debate and decide.We will return to our integrated multicultural curriculum and valuebased education with music therapy as its inseparable part .


When we are thinking about a multicultural integrated curriculum for entire humanity we have to define some aspects of it and how they are controlled by the political powers.This we can call the politics of education,because ultimately it is the political power which determines what is to be taught or not taught.
In his article on “Beyond Eurocentrism”Prof Ram Mahalingam of Uty of Michigan(ch 10 pp189-198.Multicultural curriculum Mahalingam Mcarthy Routledge 2000) has observed that Indian Mathematics had always been a product of the elite ,hierarchical society and Brahmins and Kshatriyas were mathematicians of India while labourers and women were not given Mathematics education.Unfortunately this is not a truthful observation.He quotes from Manusmrithy (translated by Doniger 1991) but that translation alone cannot prove anything.Especially since he himself has quoted two examples (One of Kolam and other of Pallamkuzhi,both sports of women of South India )which requires lot of mathematical skill and geometrical awareness and abstract thinking.In North India the play called Leela(Gyan-Choupad) and the Dhooli chouki and other types of Chowki also are of this type .And the study of Music which involves abstract mathematics also is well documented from ancient times.The labourer class were responsible for counting and reporting and making complex calculations of the grain produce,cattle ,classification of weight and measures and also of taxation etc and these were taught right from Kudipallikooda level to all children by a local teacher.The children learned all these as games (due o their age this is the best educative method) and that is how kolam and pallanghuzhi and Lela,Chowki,stories (purana,Ithihasa)were taught in primary level schools of India .This was available to all alike .The secondary education they had from a local Guru according to their talents and practical needs .That is what we now call a professional education so that the person will have a job and a livelihood (Vocational).This usually starts at home with his own father/uncle/mother etc and then if the child is enthusiastic the best Guru is selected by parents themselves so that they get trained.The abstract subjects like mathematics,science etc were always chosen by only a few .It never had been a mass popular subject.It is taught only to those who are really receptive and to pursue a graduate/postgraduate level training in that particular subject.It is this specialized study that was lacking among women and labourers.This is not because of any hindrance to study but because majority does not like subjects like that.Even today it is like that.
The articles I wrote on Indus valley culture ,the weights and measures used by them etc show how the labourers and women have to know mathematics of utilitarian type and how the abstract concepts had been devised by the elders with more specialized knowledge in the subject.Manu’s laws can be equated to the rules and regulations of the civil and criminal courts and not to religion or spirituality of India.But unfortunately Manu is quoted by many as the spiritual/religious authority of India.The laws and regulations of any nation have a precedence of experience of disturbance of law and order by certain procedures and a defencive to prevent such occurrences further .The law is made for human beings to ensure peaceful living and not for disrupting it.So,the laws are applicable only to conditions/cases where there is a disputed situation.

What Mahalingam says about Kolam and Pallanghuzhi is my concern here.Kolam artists learn it from their mothers,sisters(traditional family transfer of knowledge) and to become competent kolam artist one has to have geometrical knowledge,strategic understanding of how to transfer knowledge to actual practice,make decisions on the spot depending upon available space so that she can reduce or increase size in proportion.Thus a complex abstract thinking and its practical application is taught as a traditional transfer of knowledge as an art,and a game for each girlchild.So how can we say that such knowledge was denied?
Then about Pallankuzhi:-Played by 2 people.Eachhas 7 cups and each cup has 6 beads .(42).Each has to distribute beads,one in each cup in clockwise direction.Then pick up next cup and start agin until she reach an empty pocket.The player can take beads next to empty cup.The game continue till all cups emptied.With whatever beads won ,they restart game.
This game involves distribution and regrouping of numbers and an excellent memory for recognizing various positions of game as in chess. The distribution and regrouping is what is called a prasthaara ,and this is done in both music and astronomy in advanced mathematics.This is taught as a game means it is an educational excellence of the teacher who devised it ,is my view.But Ramalingam considers it is a gender marginalization for women .Probably being a male (as well as a Brahmin himself from the name)he is misunderstanding /misrepresenting the ability of a girlchild to pick up such abilities earlier and faster than a male and he fails to see that even a lowborn labourer can play and understand suchhigher functions of mathematics through a simple game .The educational psychologists were really good in their selection of teachers from each household(as traditional/parent to offspring)so that the brain development starts at home as a primary school.
Such subaltern or region-specific teaching methods occur in all regions,all languages and all communities and when sage Mathanga speaks of Desi Tradition he means this(Brihadhesi of Mathanga .Dr .V.S.Sharma 2009 KeralasangheethaNataka Academi).When such dsi practices are codified and made universalized by proper theories and proper order then it is called Margi and this is what is done by curriculum committees /universities etc which have finally to be agreed and implemented by the Government (whether modern or ancient).Therefore ,when a regulation comes it is after ceveral millennia of development of a cultural tradition transferred by local people /men and women.Unless we know this the separatisms will go on and gaps between classes will remain and a classless glbal society will remain a dream.Hence the philosophy of advaitha came up in India for all to be loved and valued equally.That is the spiritual tradition of India .
Social epistemology being an enquiry to improve knowledge production and distribution,the way of distribution to all alike ,even to children as games etc has to be appreciated and valued in Indian mathematical consciousness.As Mahalingam suggests the native subaltern mathematician also is an active participant in multiculturalist discourses and our cultural legacy and knowledge systems are equally important and we know it perfectly well ,and instead of complaining perpetually about some imagined marginalization,by some imaginery elite class ,we (Women of India,like me )are taking up our issues boldly and with a knowledge that if we were marginalized it was not because of any one else,but by our own lack of interest to pursue such subjects as mathematics .Only by this step the marginalized societies(whether women or labour class)can make the classless society a reality .By self-marginalisation and complaint forever the separatism and gap will remain forever.Thus the concept of Eurocentrism is not an issue for a globally thinking mathematician of India who has studied both systems and compared it.This is my personal experience and opinion.I don’t feel a marginalized woman ,but I acknowledge the fact that many women do not like the subjects which I address to because of their own choice and not by the restrictions of Government or society to pursue them.People love a life of easy going.To pursue sciences seriously one needs a concentrated one-pointed devotion to that .That is the reason for self marginalization in many groups now and this must have happened in ancient societies as well.
When we devise a multicultural integrated curriculum ,it is meant for all ,but who is interested in it and who pursue it is not in our control is what I mean as a modern educationist.If we are efficient,we should therefore introduce games,musical experiences etc into curriculum which will give the desired effect to all .The theoretical aspects will remain always the fields of the elite.But its practical effects will reach all.
Ethnomathematicians recognize at least 2 areas of mathematical literacy.
1.School mathematics
2.Mathematics of a given cultural group
As small children have mathematical knowledge of their cultural group from parents and Kolam,Pallanghuzhi etc are reflections of those.When this is replaced by the modern school mathematics (as in India)the ancient traditional mathematical knowledge is left as a game and not pursued further as a system of mathematics.This is a natural outcome of replacing ethnomathematics by a new Eurocentric one as Mahalingam calls in his article.The traditional mathematical knowledge is not included in the curriculum of modern Indian schools/universities.Therefore ,it is now that the marginalization of Kolam,Pallankuzhi etc as ethnical curiosities ,has happened if we think logically.Not by the Brahmin/Kshathriya times .The kolams patterns in Indus valley civilization sites show how important this had been even in those remote times .The modern technologies and modern weights and measures etc when compared to Indus valley system gives us evidence of how human consciousness and knowledge has evolved beautifully over several millennia in a region ,and how that had stimulated technology and advancement of sciences in another rregion(when Europe came in contact with India).Thus we realize how an indigenous knowledge has given rise to Eurocentric knowledge.One is a continuation of another and there is no gap between them.But to know this one has to come in contact with both.study both.The cultural gaps are only differences in knowledge and communication,related to languages and to specialized interests of each human being and society from one another.The professional specialization is another factor in separating us.But ,with a little bit of compassion and love for all we will be able to overcome such gaps .This is the basics of my integrated,interdisciplinary ,multicultural curriculum which is a practical way of a grand unification of all sciences,arts,cultures etc for world peace.

The curriculum is guided by health,fundamental processes,a worthy homelife,a vocation for livelihood,a enlightened citizenship ,and worthy use of leisure time ,and a humanitarian value of compassion to all creation.These increase our selfesteem and are important for satisfaction and happiness.The nonending desire is the cause of sorrow while a fruitful life like this is the doorway for happiness.It educates one to be useful to society,home,nation and world at the same time remaining happy and facing life with courage and with a compassionate heart,enjoying every moment of it .It should come from a co-operative effort of all citizens of world and from all of us alike and every single person is valued for being a contributor to this cause and it is not money alone which is contribution,but ideas,thoughts,suggestions,service to community and also commitment and model one gives to posterity which is valued by all alike.

Education is for happiness and peace of individuals and of society and of entire world.
We have seen people who are never satisfied with anything in life ,even if they have everything-Money,power,good education,god family ,good husband/wife and children .Yet they go one complaining about everything .There is another group who are really deprived of such things and need them .The complaints they raise are for their rightful share on this earth.Only if an educator/administrator can differentiate between these two we can achieve a balanced economy and a balanced wellshared system of rights and duties.This must be the first aim of any educative system and administration.How to strike a balance is the real question that one should address oneself.All our strategies should be based on this.All human beings need basic amenities and for that each one should have enough food ,health and energy for work and job opportunities.The food reserve depend upon food productionand in a world with increasing population food production cannot be neglected.The decision to make a tropical country with enough geographical features for natural vegetation,biodiversity ,and food for all into a concrete jungle is detrimental to entire world.The deserts should be made into construction sites .The fertile lands and forests left as such so that the water tables,the food reserves and the natural resources for all life forms as well as tourism benefits will increase .If we stick on to this policy ,and then give our priorities as food,health,education,and job in a comprehensive way ,we can achive protection of our ecotraditions and culture and yet be global citizens sharing our products for those are not having them.Thus we can make education and sociopolitical awareness into powerful tools for happiness and peace.
Ref
1. Multicultural curriculum .New directions for social theory and practice.Ram Mahalingam ,Cameron McCarthy .Routledge 2000
2.Happiness and education.Nel Noddings .Stanford uty.Cambridge uty press.2003
3.Brihadhesi .Mathangamuni.Translation.V.S.Sharma .Keralasahitya academy.2009.
4.Essential Einstein.Everything you need to know about the world’s most acclaimed genius.Shana Priwer & Cynthia Philips PhD.David & Charles Ltd 2007.

History for peace and wellbeing of entire world.Loka samastha sukhino bhavanthu

History –Introductory chapter


History like politics is an activity for free men and women in a free society .It gives us a sense of a world family.By understanding the past ,we become free from its dead hand.In history ,as in science ,understanding be careful unprejudiced scrutiny of evidence and formation of balanced judgement in the light of that evidence is important.In fact,as Michael Stanford’s introduction to his book (A companion to study of history .Blackwell.Oxford 1994 )1 every man/woman is his/her own historian.
Historiography is the writing of history.One or more of the three aspects of history writing,including descriptive,historical and analytical descriptive historiography is what historians normally do and describe as standard methods and procedures.Historical historiography traces the ways in which history is written in the 2500 years since Herodotus.Analytical or critical historiography discusses the concepts and philosophical problems arising from the writing of history.Here there is some overlap of historians and philosophers thinking.History is the experience of human life extended over time.It is not the past alone.It has everything to do with the present and for the formation of a better future.When we sauy that history is a unity ,it is like a family.The deeds of the family and the records of those deeds are both history.It is the nature of the recorded deeds that shape future deeds.Hence unity is a continuous interweaving of these two strands.-deeds and records.And the oral traditions in history also has to be taken into account for this purpose.
What is the use and misuse of history?
Can we avoid history?
Can we learn from history?
How did prehistorical and historical people act and what was the cause of their actions and their effects?
How do our actions acquire meaning?Analysis of actions include the understanding that actions may be due to total or partial ignorance or due to misguided passions.It is also helpful to distinguish actions from behaviour.Action embody intention.Behaviour does not.The 5 parts of action analysed are
1.Intention
2.assessment of present state of affairs
3.The means we adopt to solve problems
4.Drive or will that prompt us to act.
5The context of action (social,physical,cultural)
Awareness of our ancestors actions,recorded,unrecorded oral transmitted ,and their reasons ,and analysis of that is what we call a national memory (Ref 1 .page 26)and India has such a deep long archetypal memory embedded in its psyche which is very important for any histriographer /historian and philosopher.The cultural context of a nation include its languages ,technology,arts ,religious,spiritual traditions,philosophy,attitudes and beliefs,skills,habits,customs,explanatory systems,and the like included in the social inheritance of individuals living in the society.Symbols and the meanings of themin social ,physical,cultural contexts involve detailed study of these.The historical significance of these are traced along two axes.Horizontal (contemporary)and vertical(preceding and succeeding).There may be different meanings and different consequences for each context ,and one has to analyse them ,critically find out,methods of avoiding physical failures ,human failures etc for a better future.In finding out the consequences and why they happened ,and explaing them ,Murphy’s law(law of unintentional consequences)also has to be applied.

Use of history

1.Learning from mistakes and avoiding them for better future
2.Aiming to preserve the values of the past
3.Aiming to avoid the superstitions of the past
4.use of history as inspiration for progress

Abuse of history

1People perpetuate superstitions of history
2.Tyranny of theory .Subordinating history to a mere theory .For example Hegel.He dismissed all nonhistoric people and thus the intrinsic human value
3.Tyranny of politics.History subordinates to political power.An example is the whig history written by Lord Macaulay.(PP 44-45 Ref 1)
4.Male prejudice that women are inferior and their history is insignificant
5.Danger of prejudices and dictatorial regimes which creates history to sit its needs
To avoid this Stanford suggests that history should be reassessed,critically analysed and rewritten by every generation .
We ar e concerned with the past because history is an outlook of the world with 3 sections.1.Personal outlook 2.public outlook 3 social sciences and history as a help for social science and vice versa
A old photograph may release a flood of memories which may be personal or national.It need not be a memory of a single individual.The memory of an individual ,of parents ,grandparents,all ancestors,which then becomes a memory of the nation or an archetypal memory of an entire community or of the world itself is to be treated in this way.Geneological research ,sense of continuity of generations,of genes is scientific as well as historical.A historical unit is a sequence of events that is intelligible in itself.When this happens personal/archetypal memories become historicity –one is a player in and a specttor of that drama of continuous events.It is in this way,private attitudes become public attitudes in history.Then it becomes a more impersonal honest approach.It becomes more rational,unbiased ,objective,scientific.
The bridges that connect past with present are the evidences.They are of four different categories
1.Natural evidence
The rock is viewed by geologists ,archeologists and historical geographers in different ways.The other natural evidences are the climate,sea,ways of the fishes and migratory birds etc.Rocks are natural evidence for geologists,fossils are for paleontologists,past landscapes and how humans changed them is natural evidence for historical geographers .
2.Artificial. The manmade change in the climate and environment with transformations on it
a tilled field,a cleared forest,a bridged river,a quillpen,a flute,a house or a city,a ship or a raft,all these are included and many more.Whatever is manmade has a history of development of the technique and of the procurement of materials and effort and intellectual growth of humans at that period..
3.Communicative evidence
songs,music,musical notations,mathematical symbols,meters,cave and rock paintings,art ,architecture,inscriptions,weapons,temples ,literary works ,and written documents of law,science,art etc.These are not mere communications of day to day life alone but sometimes of high abstract levels of intelligence even.For example when we find the mathematical formula for an octagon in a cave painting like that of Thovarikai,it tells us that the cavemen were having a very high abstract sense of mathematics.So also musical instruments and musical notations as we find in Saamaveda .
4.Processive evidences are usually overlooked.It is the evidence of the process of growth.A community with lawabiding habits ,relations,living traditions,lifestyles ,knowledge systems incorporated in ones life.These things are to be observed and analysed and understood in a subtle way.
Documents may be altered in course of time.Work of arts destroyed.The processive evidence of a prolonged past ,a ancient culture may survive even after the documents are destroyed.And this survival for thousands of years before the lifestyle was formwed and written down,and even after they were destroyed and altered by power politicas is what is called processive evidence.India is rich in this .
Spoken word and oral historical traditions
What we know of the Pelopponnesian war comes from Thucydides who either saw them or heard it from eyewitness as he records.Mahabharatha also was a war orally described by Sanjaya to King Dhritharashtra .But we teach our students that Peloponnesian war is History and Mahabharatha war is a myth.Entire Mahabharatha and Ramayana are oral traditions communicated over generations before it was finally written down.Veda,other science ,arts and scriptures of India share this character.If one goes through Bhagvan Das’ Pranavavaada 2one will get an idea of this oral tradition and the memory and scholarship it requires to be a bard like that.
The subaltern history of marginalized people ,and women are all in oral traditions only.Hence to ignore such memoirs and negate them historical status simply because they were not written down would be denying the evidence of history of oral and marginalized traditions.The aim of metahistory ,to use Hayden White’s term ,is to single out the terms and codes and conventions of historiography ,with the implicit message that these too have their history .Similarly narrative history is considered part of the same cultural matrix.The social reconstruction of history depends upon all such considerations(Hayden White .Introduction to history and memory in European Romanticism.ed Carolyn springer.Stanford literature review vol 6 .No 1 spring 1989 :12)3.According to Stephan Bann (The invention of history .Essays on the representation of the past .Manchester uty press 1990.)Law ,medicine and theology are siblings of history (pp 12-32)4.A dictionary of 1654 AD lists 4 professions as being medicine ,jurisprudence,theology and philosophy.As an Indian woman practicing western medicine and Indian Dharma (jurisprudence is better termed Dharma in India)and spiritual traditions ,and comparative philosophy of west and east ,I find this very interesting.When I write Indian history all these facts have been of help to me.Thanks to the siblings of history ,I am equipped with a scientific order of events,historical analysis,political thoughts and social sciences ,not to mention anything about the research methods of medical science.Lenin was fond of repeating the term “To cure the society of its ills”.History is able to cure the society’s ills “without having studied medicine”,to borrow from his vocabulary.But if one has learned medicine and then study history to cure the ills of society,it should be doubly effective,I presume.
Comparisons between historiography and medicine have their own historical locations in the ancient world.Polibius compared historians practice to that of a doctor ,both being specialists coleting signs,interpreting them,arranging them in chronological order.Thucydides had kinship with Hippocratus .He was a historian of Pathos,as opposed to Herodotus ,a historian of ethos.The connection between Thucydidius and presentday historian is that between an ancient medical writer and a modern medical researcher,a continuity exists between them.
Hence my endeavour as a Pathologist ,and a woman who touches the pathos and ethos of society ,to study history is a continuation of what ancient scholars have been doing .Moreover,history of women is not given much importance .They are mothers,sisters,wives,companions,concubines,secretaries,teachers,doctors,professionals,and traditionally playing supportive roles and secondary roles in society.This is not for Indian women alone.But all women.Indian women were better of in this regard when we compare the ancient history of Grrece ,Rome and Europe.Pat barrs book The memsabs,the women of Victorian India(Socker and warburg London 1976)5gives a beautiful account of British Memsahibs of India in Victorian era.The sociopolitical and spiritual history of India gives more importance to women in the premedieval and medieval periods.

Concept of Evidence
Evidence is the ground for belief,that which tends to prove or disprove any conclusion.And hence not an absolute proof.Indian darsana call it Pramaana.If something is evident or obvious to our senses and mind,we will not ask for evidence to prove it.The propositions that are not themselves evident only need to be supported by evidence.Historical and medical judgements/diagnosis are considered conclusive when all the arguments are carefully weighed.In Lord Acton’s inaugural lecture at Cambridge 1895,(In Acton 1960 pp 33)6.there is a story of two London doctors who could not make up their mind on a particular diagnosis.The Head of the family insisted that they make a diagnosis,They said,he can find at least 50 doctors who would give a diagnosis,but we two cannot give a diagnosis.The question here is whether the evidence is adequate for a conclusion to be drawn from it,and who is the best qualified to draw the conclusions.The best should naturally possess the technical extertise on the subject ,but also the practical wisdom in human affairs and human nature from wide experience and unfortunately the two are only rarely found in the same person.
Four questions about evidence
1.What sort of problem require evidence for its solution
2 what sort of evidence is appropriate to a particular problem
3.what weight of evidence is adequate for a decision
4 When it must be adequate for history,law,religion,and science or to all.
Traditionally there is a diference between being and becoming as shown below

Being science knowledge certainty philosophy
Becoming opinion probability Appears to be Rhetoric

By 17th century Europe /western philosophy began to search for evidence to prove their problems.In India ,proving problems with Pramaana(evidence)was as ancient as the period of the 6 darsanas.With Pramaana they experimentd and analysed every Prameya(subject)and only after prolonged discussions on them came to conclusions.Therefore,every branch of Indian art,science and history has this researchoriented approach.But the language used is not familiar to modern day Indians after the introduction of the Western type of education

Nature of historical evidence

Need not always be from the same country,as in the case of India.We have to consider the evidences from other parts of the world as well.From summer,Akkadia,Babylon,the Scythian world,China,Japan,Far east ,and Americas,and from Europe and their concepts about this part of the world and then we can read in between the lines.Why all these different parts of the world had a common interest in the same geographical piece of land spanning over several thousands of years continuously and why they wanted to reach here,why the wanted to find the sea route to this particular part,and all such questions if answered systematically and properly we will find the real nature of India in ancient times.And then try to understand the history of India written by the Indians(ancient Indians)in Sanskrit and in your regional languages,and try to add up the regional variations in our particular state /territory ,we will reach a near possible solution by direct and circumstantial evidence and comparison of the various traditions and chronologies.To understand Indias present economic condition,I think it is important to understand its ancient economic conditions/history and the sociopolitical system which made it possible and then reorient our economic policies accordingly for betterment of our own future.

The traditional economy of India was charecterised by (An economic history of India from precolonial times to 1986 by Dietmer Rothermund Croom Helm Ltd 1988)”appropriate technology”geared to smallscale production in family units of peasants /artisans/forest food gatherers etc.Land and labour as factors of production were abundant in this system(Now we lack both ,not because the extant of land has decreased but because of lack of planning).The third factor was capital to substitute when there was a need ,like a floods/famine etc and the means of how this was collected by the state as trade and as tributes from the neighbouring kings etc.The revenue was always kept minimum by such sources and for this the overseas trade was a great innovative method ,though risky.
The agriculture ,construction of wells,tanks,irrigation canals (local)were done by local people and this did not produce capital accumulation(hoarding)and concentration of ownership of the means of production.Tools and implements were made locally and easily available and of low cost to the agriculturist.The rains and the rivers and the irrigation systems made the land very fertile.The tools in some areas were distributed by the state(center/king)as aloan to those who lack it.Arms and luxury goods manufactured for special uses by the artisans could fetch more money to them.Even if merchants and victorious warlords(kings)amassed wealth ,they were having a law of dharma which made it being distributed for the needy as gifts,donations or as construction works which will fetch jobs and money to people.The donations to temples were the revenew for the state to run the system.This system ensured that the wealth amassed by individuals is lost as quickly as gained so that wealth does not accumulate and lead to inflations.
Agricultural land was not a commodity to sell or to buy and make residences as we do now.Whoever cleared and tilled a piece of land can keep the land as his,because the land was for production of food/or cashcrops .There were no landowners in this system.The entire land is Gods.The king and the temple priest is only just another employee doing his share of work for God ,in Gods name and getting the wages for that function.The revenew collectors or landlords were not landowners but those who were entrusted by King to collect the revenew and they had no rights of proprietorship over the land.The land was thus owned by a God (temple of locality)and the revenew was theraajabhogha to that deity.In the medieval period a king could control only a circle in 100 kms around the capital for direct taxation.The distant parts paid tribute directly to the king.And Aswamedha were conducted when there is delay in getting such tributes or when there is some great need for funds.It was more of a display of power to get funds rather than real battle.It was a ritual sovereignty with local autonomy to the subject.Traderoutes and trade centers had to pay special tributes as rajabhogha or tax.There was control of trade and traderoute by the state .Money circulated in tradecenters and in pilgrimage centers.Barter system for materials was used by majority of transactions and the coinage that circulated was controlled and no inflation was allowed.
Till Islamic rule in North India tax collection was done by local headsmen.From that time taxcollectors on horseback were established.A new garrison of cavalry came up,treasury of tax collector increased due to fear of whipping but this crushed the local autonomy.The taxcollectors demanded revenew in cash/jewels and they were all strangers with no local routes(unlike the local chieftain)from Turk/Afghan –warriors of the conquering part.Each commander was thus making a dynasty and the rulers/kings had to keep a military force just to keep them under control.This is how the military feudalism developed in North India according to Dietmer Rothmund.

Long distance trade and fragmented markets helped a political unification and integrated market economy.Those merchants /high officers/princes/Meenava/Phanis were the most honest people selected so that the trade secrets are kept for economic benefit of nation and used them for common good and not for selfish motives.That is how the Yogins (Samudrapaalayogin as they were called )and Brahmakshathra of the Agnikula became the protectors of the land and searoutes of India.The credits were based on personal relations ,not on impersonal legal systems.We must understand how much of loyalty,intelligence,educational awareness and nationalism is needed to have such a wide system to be devised and implemented with successs for over 10000 years continuously and also how it was broken by a negative move of just a few selfish individuals so that India was reduced to what it is now.
As an example of mismanagement and inflation of silver rupee ,in 1591-1639 circulation of Spanish silver and silver coins (imported)trebled in India and the Mughal public utilization of money was an additional factor to this spurt of inflation. 60-70 million Rupees in Akbers treasury was spent by Jehanghir alone in 1605.In 1627 when Jehanghir died ShahJahan tried to replenish the treasury at least by 5 million Rs per year.In 1595-1637 the high revenue lead to increased pricehikes in India for the first time in the history of India.Auranghazebs enormous war expeditions added to the new spurt of inflations.Tensions increased and the rebellious peasants took to guns .This appropriate technology cold not be checked by Mughals.The peasants were not against religion of rulers but to the military feudalism and policy of the Mughals.And it was controlled by another military feudation ,by the bourgeois servant of the East India company.
When we are going through inflations at present ,if the political rulers and the people of India understand and remember this history ,and act accordingly we would be able to control our activities and improve our economy.It is human actions which cause inflation .
Maritime trade
In the second chapter of his book Dietmer Rothermund tells us that the south Indian states were participants of the conomic status of the nation without touching the land revenue system ,and the kings made their major income from trade using all resources and routes(land/Sea),arts/artisans and sciences and even the peasants were allowed to partake in it in an autonomous manner.The surplus of their needs could fetch them things/currency through the sea/land trades.Therefore everyone were participants of the trade guilds or sangha .According to hin
M the change occurred only in and around 1000 AD in this situation of the south Indian trade.(pp 8)This was due to the simultaneous rise of powerful local corporate enterprises and empires which destroyed the unity of the national trade and became competitive between these chieftains and each merchant guild in each locality were advising their lord how to do imperial expansion over kings of weak powers .Gulf of Mannar was the monopoly of pearl trade first by Pandya,then Chera and later Chola.Diplomacy was backed up by strong military intervention to get new markets (for example the Chola expansion of empire.)The trade was generally peaceful even in this background and agriculture was not destroyed and hence famines were prevented.During this period the merchants became supporters of any corporate structure not only of India but also of China,Rome and other powerful foreign traders and this has started from the time of early Christian era but became prominent after Kerala lost its Perumal rule in AD 825.It was this that lead to the entry of Europen corporate structures like Portuguese and English east India company .The power of India was based on its ample supply of rice,food,cashcrops in hills,ivory,wood,tea,sugar,spices and navarathna and the splendid and rich ancient culture which was so much in demand in the western world,all of which were lacking in the west.The merchant guilds played with this at stake and it was they who brought the foreign powers here ,disclosing the secrets of searoute which the Phoenicians had kept a secret for several centuries and unless we understand this we will never be able to discover a second chance of getting into traps.The Gulf of Mannar as Ramayana points out is full of pearls and corals and under the sea is a mountain of gold and the Nalasethu marks the central geodesic line to mark the area, and economically this is a place which might yield so much wealth to the company that is given the right to do digging and destroying the sea there and the treasures also will go to them.The question is only who will get the tender to do it.And from the present conditions prevailing in India it is not very difficult to guess what will happen once the project is allowed .The landbased conquerors (Mughals/Delhi sultanate)introduced military feudalism and lead to demise of old corporate empires with strong agrarian economy to back up the trade .The strong empires disappeared ,and the many weak powers offered the free trade zone for west which was not controlled by a strong seapower which could take the united leadership of the whole nation.This happened in Kerala with rupture of Perumal rule.The rise to power of Zamorin (not a royal king but a warrior turned ruler)and of Kunjalimarikkar as his Perumpidakumutharayan was a classical example of this situation.The shipowners supported and raised to power ambitious local chieftains .The example given is that of Sultan Honovans father ,a shipowner and a sea pirate (Ibn Batuta)who subdued all Malabar coastal rulers ,established a port not far from the empire of Vijayanagara.King Harihara was given a tribute by him so that he didn’t or could not destroy him.So when in 15th century the Portuguese entered there was virtually no seapower at all,and they knew all the trade tricks,horse trade and pepper trade and the other powers soon followed.
In page 17 of the book we find that the military success of East India company was not over Indian rulers and not due to their technological superiority either (all their weapons were with the Indian ruling class also)but better organization and discipline and unity were the secrtes of the success.Thus India became a dependent agrarian state under the foreign rule.Plunder of this rich agrarian state contributed to the industrial revolution in Europe .The trade networks,the rapid turnover of goods,knowledge from India on various subjects and a readily available home market (Europe)made the British benefit from the influx of Indian wealth.(pp 19 ibid)But the east India company did nothing to stimulate economy in India.Simply collected the wealth as tribute ,as a very strong military feudal overlord.The earlier military feudal overlords(Mughals and sultans)were spending the tributes they collected in India itself .They didn’t transfer it to their homeland.They became part of India and spent and lived here as Indians.But the company transferred the wealth to their country ,and to their personal family wealth (It was not part of British Govt).The Indian economy totally collapsed under the regime of East India company and its colleagues the Portuguese ,French and Dutch.
Then the Indian peasants were asked to give more revenues ,with this demand they became more and more indebted and more and more poor.When famines/floods/m
Natural calamities came there were no one to support,since the old system of autonomous administration of local bodies under able organization of a central control was totally lost.The export /import relations had all been changed drastically so that the localkings could not raise the funds needed ,nor do the temple trusties provide help as their wealth also was plundered and they were namesake in administration.
Then came the 1847 crisis and 1850 drastic price rise in India.The 1857 mutiny was actually a repercussion of that.And this led to the 1858 proclamation of queen Victoria and the loss of control of the company.But even after the company left,the parameters they had established prevailed.In 19th century the British Indian administrators as a step to political unification of India introduced English as the universal medium of communication .This was definitely a good step.We have gained so much with English language learning.But the British administers of the time did a terrible mistake also ,they did not allow the older language of unification of the country to be learned in schools so that the history ,the culture and ancient knowledge of India became alien to Indians but ,known to the European community through the many translations made by scholars into English.It could have been ideal if both the languages were taught in schools (The Sanskrit,Local language and English –a trilingual method would have been the best possible thing)but this did not occur to the administers and it was an unfortunate event for Indians as a whole .
When the administration made railways for transportation of goods (by 1900 about 25000 miles of land covered at high cost)nothing was spent on irrigation .The demand for steel,engines,wagons,and coal was met from Britain by import while much of it could have been produced in India itself.Between 1865-1941 seven hundred engines were made in India.12000 engines were came from Britain .There was increase in food prices and lack of food.At the same time the peasants were not allowed any decrease in revenew.9When I quote these facts ,I simply want the readers to think and understand in free India also almost similar conditions exists even today .The agricultural front is neglected and revenue and loan interests of farmers increase day by day )Whatever can be swadeshi goods are not purchased ,and people are crazy to get foreign goods .
In page 35 of his book ,is the explanation of how the freight rates of Indian railways prevented regional integration in India.The freight rates were high in 1885.But with 3 different categories of rebates
1.Over long distances
2.Tour from big ports
3.That did not need to be transferred from one line to another.East India railway to Great Indian peninsular railway.
Short distances within the interior had no rebates and therefore it encouraged linkage with world markets and worked against the regional integration within Indian states and farmers .The whole harvest was for export .The farmer has to ask for credit in cash or kind to feed his family and livestock.The agricultural products to Europe including opium,indigo,raw cotton and tea ,and industrial products in exchange to India (like textiles/silver)fetching a double income to the British.
The basic problem of Indian Industrialisation at this stage was its endemic lack of capital.
The economic conflicts in postwar period
With the stagnation at high price levels the rice yield per acre in 1920 was very low.In South India there was expansion of cashcrop (groundnuts).Labour troubles in cotton industry ,and a combination of discriminating protectin and imperial preferences in steel industry .(steel protection act 1924)In 1930 descriminating protection oftextiles cotton also came.Gandhi’s substance of independence(Eleven point programme of 1930 in which Birla was interested too ) and articulation of national interests and his swadeshi movements has to be understood under these basic problems of economy of India at that period.FICCI(1927,Federation of Indian chambers of commerce and industry with Birla as spokesperson had the same 11 point programme)
Till 1920 a great deal of sugar was produced in India and in that year one million hectares of sugarcane was converted to villagemade gur.With consequences of the great depression the imported white sugar from Java became cheaper.The homemade ones were not purchased anymore.The farmers naturally suffered.The burden of debts was increasing day by day.In 1942 Burma,the largest riceproducing area was lost to India.This caused food crisis and Bengal famine and rations were introduced for the first time.In 1943 Bombay and in January 1944 Calcutta also was in the ration list.By February 1944 rationing was introduced in 104 cities of India.Next year 400 towns and cities joined.In 1945 about 42 million urban common men and women were living only on rations.In 1947 India had 900 towns with 152 million inhabitants depending on rationed foodgrains for subsistence.This was the nation which we received from the foreign yoke to put back to its original state of plenty.We should understand that
1.India which was the richest food producer and exporter for over 6000 years with a wellorganised system that persisted so long under the dharma of a rule which was purely Indian in nature,was reduced to a poor nation with no food,no cultural ties,no organized centralized unified language system of its own to unite the people ,and a begging undisciplined lot within a very short period.
2.The major problem was Indias rapid dynamic industrialisation and a static agriculture.If both were looked into with same importance and if the old land revenew systems protected ,with a selfrespect in ones own country’s methods and ancient historical ties ,this would not have happened.
3.Even in postindependent India ,we are still doing the same mistakes committed by the foreign rule.They had an excuse ,that they were foreigners and they didn’t understand our system or our language or our economic equations .But we don’t have that excuse.If we fail ,it is our own ignorance and our own fault.These points I stress ,because study of history is not to find fault,but to understand both our strengths and weaknesses and utilize the strengths for innovative methods for benefit of the entire nation.
Life has a sense of purpose.It has reasons,directions and a change should imply progress.And if we want to follow a path of progress we have to understand our own mistakes and change .This decision should come from within ourselves.A society which does not do selfanalysis and change is destined to go back into ruins.The lesson from history is to make us sit up and plan for a better future for next generations and o progress together and in a unified way.This is what I intend with this book.Understanding the complexity of life itself is understanding resolution of its conflicts (not creating conflicts).Indian philosophy had a strong base of such a sense of unity and search for trut and dharmic living and even the most uneducated tribesmen of India had this quality.Marek Kohn(A reason for everything .Natural selection and English imagination .Faber and Faber Ltd 2004 pp76)quotes a sentence of Wallace about the sandals of India :The Santaals of India have as pure a love of truth as the most moral among civilized men “.Kohn also notices that mathematics,sense of humour and music are the high faculties confined to only a very small percentage of population even among civilized educated men and we Indians should be aware that these three faculties were distinguishing features of Indian culture from time immemorial.

Ithihaasa of India

The 3 major Ithihaasa of India are stories of men (not of celestial beings).And if we neglect these as mere myths we will loose the golden chance of knowing how people (our ancestors )lived,thought and loved and fought in those times.A story has a shared meaning between the narrator and the listener.(A writer/reader)We participate in the basic human instinct to play and tell stories about that play (which is called Leelaacharitha).According to Brown (1990 Quoted by Childrens stories inplay therapy .Ann Cattanach Jessica Kingsley 1997)storytelling is one of the crowing achievements of human development .Though it looks like a play it has a form of social interpretation.It has two modes of thoughts
1.The narrative with concern for human conditions
2.Paradigmatic logicoscientific with consistency ,noncontradictions,and believable historical accounts.
Stories link the exceptional with the ordinary.Viability of any culture inheres in its capacity for resolving conflicts ,for exploring differences and renegotiating meanings.And such stories in cultural perspective are important for the children and adults of a people.Narrative is sequenced in time and convey a meaning.We come to know of ourselves through construction of an extended self(Neisser 1988)According to Bronfenbrenner(1979 Ecology of Human development Cambridge .Mass Harward uty press.)the ecological environmentof every growing child has a nesting arrangement of concentric structures ,contained within the other.These structures are micro,meso,exo and macrosystems.The marosystem is the nation/country and the world as a whole while the innermost microsystem is the home and primary school,and in between are all the other environments which we experience from school to profession and other social structures.The macrosystem and its environment and its history we het from the ancient stories of that culture and if we deny that to children ,they become unaware of the culture of their own ancestors and loose the selfrespect which every child needs for healthy development of mind and intellect.We have to operate simultaneously at all levels as good participants of society useful to ourselves and to the nation and the worlds and for that every nation respects its own traditional stories/Ithihaasa .Indian subcontinent has a rich past and we should be proud of that ecological environment of macrostructure around us and for this a history based on ancient history and chronology is needed for us.That purpose also is fulfilled by this story or history of India from prehistoric times ,I do hope.

When I speak of Indian nationalism ,a few intellectuals at least might think that it is Hindu religious nationalism.I don’t know whether they understand the implication of that.First ,they are agreeing to the fact that if India needs a nationalism,as its historical ancient pastit has to be Indian,whether called Hindu or not.
Second ,they are equating the word Hindu with the semitic religious groups Christian and Islam (which are religions in the name of individuals).Whereas Hindu is a cuture that was present in a region from Sindhu or ocean to Himalayas and is a geographic entity /a culture proper.
Third ,they are also assuming that by denying that traditional culture of India they can achieve secularism and nationalism in India ,which I doubt very much from historic experiences itself.Nationalism is a soft concept ,emerging as a ideological formation ,a means by which social groups make sense of and operate within their social context for the benefit of all .Discourse of Indian nationalism from 1925 had a discourse of modernity and the Indians were debating the strengths and weaknesses of their system in the new colonial atmosphere and by selfanalysis trying to correct the weaknesses .It was not an anticolonial nationalism but a distinctive politically influential ideology.And for its growth communalism was the very antithesis .Communalism and individual selfish motives were a threat to the newly emerging nationalism.The composite universalist nationalism of anticolonial freedom movement with the conception of a nationstate constituted through individual citizenship was at the center of the Indian nationalism.But it never wanted to be violent.From 1920 onwards communal riots became systematic feature in North India the parameters of debate being secularism,national integration,right of minorities,nature of national identity.(It is surprising that our leaders have failed to find solutions to some of these isssues and have worsened it by their careless projects and words).The moderates accepted cultural pluralism and equality among different religions within nation,while radicals saw nation as a community of co-religionists.
Defining communalism ,it is antagonism to another community whether religious,linguistic ,or castebased or genderbased.In modern India we find all these types of communalisms and thus the failure of our leaders in finding out a solution to the problems is selfevident.The antagonism to what is other than itself is a form of selfishness (which was considered as detrimental to nation in the statesmanship of Ramayana/Mahabharatha /and before that the vedic period)which was always objected to by Indian philosophy and lifestyles.The Indian nationalism(Or Hindu nationalism as it is now called by many)is an ideology that seeks to understand (or imagine/construct)a nation as a community of Indians on a basis of Indian culture –The culture of the homeland and this concept was developed by the middleclass Indians ,educated in western style in British India.This imagined /constructed community as anation had a discursive framework that aligns the social cultural political economic interests of this nation,that is India..The universalism of Indian nationalism and its ideology is that all individuals ,all communities living in British India within a framework of ethnicity is seen as a nation.It had an ethnic nationalism and a universalist nationalism as India always practiced from ancient times.Communalism was notits ideology .It was a historical condition which was precipitated later on by mismanagement by leaders and ignorance of administrators and public alike.The 1857 revolt was against the East India company and its trade and commerce policies in India and its power politics tactics here and both Hindus/Muslims were part of it and Bahadur Shaw was accepted as the leader and the Hindu leaders supported him.This itself shows the beginning was not communal .So ,the factors that made it communal by 1920 has to be analysed if we want to remove communal feelings from our intellectual and media circles and from politicians .
In 1858 by Govt of India Act transfer of power to the crown from the company happened.The court of directors replaced by secretory of states to India.(A minister within the British cabinet)Lord Derby when he proclaimed a ssecretory of state that the subjects can practice their religion as legal right as subjects of the British queen ,actually made the 1857 riot /rebellion a religious battle between Christian Britain /and Hindu/Muslim India which was far from truth.
According to John Zavos(The emergence of Hindu nationalism in India .oxford India paperbacks 2000)the massive conversion sof 19th century missionaries and the practice of converting the caste elder so that entire group get converted en bloc as a mass movement and increase in Christian population from 1871-1901 and predominance of low caste converts was eroding the Indian culture from base upwards and the ducated Indians realized that the vulnerability of their culture was due to oppression of certain low castes and it needs immeadiate reformations.And the reformation movements of Brahmasamaj,Aryasamaj,RamakrishnaMission,were in those lines.The horizontal and vertical approaches of cow protection movements and Shudhi movement were as a reformation within the community’s practices not aimed at others.Sarvajanik sabha of Poona(1870)and Indian association of Bengal(1876)by Surendranatha banerjee were closely watched by British Govt thinking that they were threats to their rule.But the educted middleclass had no intention to rise against the British Raj,but the agenda was to unify all Indian races and people upon the basis of common political interests and aspirations and to cultivate a feeling of national unity .Pattern of Banerjees lecture tours from Bengal to Lahore was later adopted by Indian national congress.In Maharashtra Thilak reached out to the common man .In 1894 when he turned his attention to the old Ganapathi festival in Poona to mobiles support in thebasis of collective identity and introduced singing parties(Melaas)to deliver messages it had a subaltern element to enter even the humblest villages .(from urban mainstream elite educated circles)..But the imperialists viewed it suspiciously and thought that it was areactionary politics of an unethical and powerhungry appeal to popular superstitions (Valentine Chirol-imperialist).Thilaks appeal for donations to have a shivaji memorial through his Kesari (Marathi journal)collected Rs 15000,of which 80% came from contributions below Rs 1 ,from common people,and there were 60000 contributors.This prompted the paisa fund to teach people to utilize manpower and money for national objectives ,and fundraising was yoked to raising of national consciousness.It was by such contributions to the sangha/Guilds /Temple the early revenew of India was colleted ans there was nothing unethical in it for India.It was an individual commitment to nation either as service/or as products of labour/or in cash however small it is.Support from both elite and nonelite circles was coming.It was alegitimate representation of the people .(The later Sarvodaya movement in which every house gives one handful of rice to feed the poor came from the same principle.And in Kerala V.M.Nair and his colleagues adopted this tactics to build up a national language daily ,Mathrubhoomi in its formative periods.)

Everyone knows that Hindu is not an Indian word.It was a foreign toungue –a corrupted word for Sindhu ,a geographical area by the Persians .Naturally no one in India thoughtthemselves as Hindoos ,till after 1871-81 census .This term as a religion was introduced and sustained as a political movement by Britishers out of their ignorance of religion.They were familiar only with the semitic religions and their warring nature between each other.In India only poltical powers/rulers do wars . And they are controlled by spiritual Gurus who stop wars.And no one calls it by the name of a particular person.
The column of the enumerator in 1881 census contained a column Religion-Just as we have such a column in our school entry forms at present.The enumerators ,since the people didn’t know to what religion they belonged answered they have no religion and the column was filled up by enumerators by names of certain sects/gothra/clan/even professional groups and that lead to the multiple religions /castes in India(Census of India 1881 vol 1 .pp 17)Then Drysdala ,a provincial census superintendent grouped them under a title Hindooo and thus a list with 30 castes ,4 sects,8 devotional groups ,and 5 groups categorized as others was made.Mr Kitts the census superintendent of Berar complained of vagueness of the term Hindoo.His remark that the hilltribes (the Aranyalog Hindoos)do not know their religion and they are korkus by caste deserves mention.The words of a man of this tribe is quoted in Census of India 1881 pp 17).”I am a korku.But I do not know what my religion is called .Call it what you please.I worship Mahadev,Hanuman,Bairam Bai,Chand and Sooraj and Bhagvath who is the author my religion”Were his words.So religion of the Indians was the problem of the British Christian state who wanted to make a census and to get a religious majority,not of the elite or nonelite Indian native.
Kitts exasperation at the inability of hilltribes to define their religion or even how it should be defined (call it what you please)indicates the uncertainty with which those two categories were applied.(A blurred boundary between Hinduism and Animism)In 1901 census reiteration of same problem was seen.Central province superintendent R.V.Russel said the rural people of Seoni district did not know whetherthey are vaishnava,saiva,saktha,and their knowledge is as much as that of the man in the moon.Russells statement that Hindooism is a type of animism or a historic residue of the most primitive human race and that now they are backward but were a superior race during the vedic period is noteworthy.He located the narrative form of religion in vedic antiquity practiced in his time by great religious centers while the majority of population were following semiprimitive animism.So he grouped all people who are Mahadeo worshippers(whether they worship other deities or not)as Hindoo and all others as tribal with the name of the tribe in the column of religion(pp 95 J Zavos).This uncertainty of the British enumerators and superintendents of census made exacerbated by the modern Govt of India is what we are finding all around.The words of the uneducated Korku and the reforms of the educated elite middleclass to bring India under the single ethnic community was complimentary,but this fragmentation into constructed religious groups by the uninformed census officers undermined it.
The ignorance of the British about Indian systems
Ignorance of people about what is happening around
And the ignorance of a minority of rich bigoted orthodox people who called themselves the Hindoos ,when the census column asked for it .
All these had contributed to the separatisms we find around us today.
When Indians were trying to bring about reform movements and awareness programmes among themselves the census ,a political determinant by quantifying caste/religion inevitably placed emphasis on numerical size as a means of achieving political importance and thus division of Indians on various factors(religion/caste/language/economy/professional status/gender etc)was done not by religion or religious reformers in the initial stages ,but by political powers .Even now the majority vote system is the major single factor which determines the separatism of religions and castes.The introduction of Minto –Morley reforms confirms the communal principle in this way.They wanted to limit the majority of Indians by saying that the low castes are not Hindoos,but even the high castes didn’t know that they were Hindoos and such a word never existed among people 150 years ago.The majority union had been a threat to numerical opinion polls which the colonial power wanted and the religious separatism evoked by the census was a threat to Indian nationalism.The horizontal reorganization making ties between all groups /all languages/all urban and rural people of all professions /gothra was appositive feature of tradition.And widow remarriage,prohibition of child marriage,female infanticides ,oppression of depressed castes etc were social reforms within Indians and not religious.But the colonial inadequacy to distinguish between the two was a great factor.In dian nationalist had to approach in two ways
1.Study and propagation of the intellectual and spiritual texts of the tradition
2.Social reformations on the degenerate practices of the contemporary society.
When both are done ,the state interference occurred because of their suspicion of the movement as sociopolitical and religious against their power and religion.
In 1875 publication of Slavery by Jothirao Phule of Mali caste (the caste to which Ambedkar also belonged)said that Adisoodra is the original kshathriya of previous ages under the legendary king Mahabali ,and that they became downtrodden by the Arya race.The shudraa and adishudra as descendents of golden age of Bali,and Vaamana as an Aryan oppressor was theoretical .But the practical things he said were that all should get access to education and the practice of drinking liquor and meateating is the reason for downfall of the low castes and they should avoid that.The importance of this practical point was forgotten soon,but the theory which is almost amounting to myth is still perpetuated by political groups.From 1882 onwards he shifted his interest from Brahmin/antibrahmin issue to rural poor/educated urban divides.In 1889 congress at Allahabad he actually undermined the cause of nationalist saying that the congress is only a body of handful of upper castes and educated urban elites and is not the whole nation.Between 1880-1890 cow protection as a horizontal organization in Bhojpuri/Nagpur area (according to Catherine Prior)became a cause for tension and struggle because of the British Govts involvement in it as a sign of Hindooism,as they called it.If we look at it,all spiritual traditions including Budhism,Jainism and also the reformers like Phule representing the Mali tribes were for it and it had nothing to be called Hinduism.It was an economic symbol for an agrarian and cattlerearing ethnic community like India and not religious at all,and at the same time it was a symbol of nonviolence of the Indian people as such.
Similarly the vertical organization of Shudhi created a theoretical space for purification rites for any individual who has become an outcaste due to various reasons .The Aryasamaj shudhi first started for people returning from Britain as outcastes ,(for having eaten meat)gave space for all castes to be given a chance of purification if they so desire.But the Government started to talk about its legality of actions like selling,slaughtering,eating ,conveying dead carcass in public space and protecting cow (state descriptions of legality)and the magistrate of Mirzapur during the Id issued a highly religious statement and in 1881 in Bahawalpur riots and destruction of Hindu temples by Muslims happened.
Cow protection aimed at education of proper animal husbandry,economic benefits of an agrarian cattlerearing nation by protection of cattle,became a symbol of Hindu –Muslim riots by just a judgement from the political power .concerned with legality of certain things.Similarly when several chamar,rahtia Sikhs,ods,meghs,and untouchables of Punjab,Kashmere,and U.P were given dwija status by the shudhi rite of Aryasamaj to unify the ethnic Indians the majority opinion poll oriented Govt sectors were worried and interfered .The following points were slowly emerging out as a unification formula
1.Transformation of established structures
2.eradication of oppression
3unification of India as nation
4.maintainance of ethnic consciousness
5 cow as symbol of earth,word/knowledge,agrarian economy and economy of India as a nation..
When these emerged in 19th century India it also evoked fear and suspicion in the hearts of those in power (British)and the separatist movements also set in indirectly and directly.The 20th century India saw its fruits during partition,formation of the republic,and even now as highly tense political and religious problems of our young nation.This is why I narrate the circumstances under which these emerged.
Every one is part and parcel of what happens to a nation.We as voters,and as lawgivers,people who judge and govern the country and teach the younger generation who has to do justice to themselves and to the nation has to know how everything happened ,we have to think collectively as a nation to sort out problems and to manage the crisis we face as nationalistic problems.For this history is important.Not for increasing enmity between groups or for violent revolutions,but for thoughtful meaningful solutions to problems and for the betterment of society,nation and the earth we live in.My history of India deals with ancient India and its cultural/economic connections and seatrade with such an objective.If this can instill a little bit of unity among the warring sociopolitical groups,and religious communities and between warring genders I will be happy .Unite and rule ,we survive.Divide and rule,we fall.This fact should be remembered by both the governed and the governing people of India.This practical advaitha through History of ancient India ,I dedicate to all people of India and to the entire human race because the motto is ultimately Loka samastha sukhino bhavanthu .




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