We live in a world of sound and light-that of music and cosmic energy.This universe is a harmony of several lives,of several sounds and lights which interact and vibrate together filling the great silence of Brahman.Every one should ask “Is my life creating harmony or discord in this universe?? “
We are making either music or noise in this silence.Music is positive pole and noise is negative pole.The divine resonance of positive pole fill us with resonances ,open up transparencies in us ,enlarge our horizons of thought and help us feel the beautiful and inspiring .It nourish and strengthen us .It has powerful waves of life energy and leads us to the unfathomable source ,which we call God or a Supreme power.
Noise makes us insane,in chaos,disconnected with everything,disharmonious,and only music can bring peace,beauty ,synthesis,integration and transformation into this chaotic world of noise and balance it .Depending upon our deepest sensititvity we choose the sounds best for us.If someone fails to choose the sound and music best for themselves,a Music therapist helps him/her.
I had been a doctor,a Pathologist and a Medical teacher throughout my life and I had several occasions to observe the effects of music on developing normal and abnormal children,on adults healthy and unhealthy.Music has helped me to learn more with concentration and to age gracefully ,and to withstand all trials and tribulations,to perform my domestic as well as official and social duties with satisfaction.Specific music selections and portions have been observed to contribute in changing attunement,behaviour and productivity of individuals .A single piece of music ,carefully played can alter entire atmosphere .Wisely used ,music can clear and purify body and increase our immunity and protect us against illnesses and stress which is causing exacerbation of many a disease state ,in addition to causing disease states .Though all of us are born equal,we are born into each lifetime with different upbringings,tastes and temperaments and personalities and inclinations to harmonize.Each has a unique personality and a unique type of music that suits ,though music is universal for all.
Music brings healing streams of electric charges.But if we are not attuned to it,if we are not prepared and concentrated it need not reach us.If we are well attuned the music will play through us and enter us ,not remain as a external thing.So learning how to relax and link great melodies is a key for healing with music.The Naadalayayoga begins with such a preparation.
.Take a comfortable position –either on your couch,floor or a chair .If outside ,you can lie down on grass .In Yoga practice whatwe call Sukhaasana is thus chosen .
The 10 keys for listening:-
1.Sit quiet and perfectly silent for at least a minute.Control body(so that it is relaxed)mind(so that it is calm)and listen to our own inner voice which we call Athman or soul.That perfect silence will be felt in a meditative silence.
2.Before you listen to the music of your choice ,think of it as the grace of divine presence within your silent soul-space .
3.Thus we are able to surrender totally to the music we hear .Be openminded to what you hear and do not try to analyse it with intellect .Be emotionally,intuitionally one with it
4.While listening to music,immerse totally in it with thoughts,mind and body .
5.Feel the music is embracing and filling you completely.The sound of music enters you and you enter into it in that moment.
6.Enjoy the music wherever it takes you without inhibitions.Whatever visualizations come to you will heal you .
7.With that joy of music and its visualizations praise the power which gave you such creative listening .And ofcourse such creative music.The music and listener are one and not different .Feel that oneness.
8.After playing the music ,take time to absorb it .Sit quiet for some more minutes and note your feelings ,given by the musical experience.
9.Keeping a diary and writing down what came to your mind after these minutes of silence ,you can decide which music gave you more happiness,relaxation and healing and which did not give that.(whether the image is a place,person,colour,nature,presence,shape,archetype ,idea or a creative work truthfully record it).What feeling does the music awaken in me?What feelings it evoked in me ?
10.If needed ,you can also play the music when you do housechores,or dancing or learning or working etc ,that is you can see hat it feels with and without music during other periods of activity.
Where you hear the music?
1.Let it be a beautiful place to enhance the beauty of music.
2.Let it be a quiet place free from distractions
3.Be sensitive to sounds of nature
4.If using an equipment ,let the stereo and sound system have clear tone with minimal distortion.The brand name or advertising may not help you.Trust your own ear for choosing
5.Take care of your musical system .Clean records when dusty.Play one record at a time.Clean tape heads regularly .Remove dust from equipment.
For increased therapeutic value,you should not be overcritical about the music you listen to.Once you choose your music pieces Love them unconditionally for what they have to offer .Emphasise the treasures of music ,not the defects in them.Different pieces of music stimulates different areas in our brain and body .Melodic music ,with minimum or solo instrumental accompaniments ,and devotional music are quietening and soothing than the full orchestral and choral pieces according to my experience and I find Hal A Lingerman recommending the same for healing .But being accustomed to western music only he gives only the instrumental music and its effects on us .According to him bass,percussion and electronic notes are stimulating only physical body parts ,(Marches,Overtures,lively songs,epic soundtracks,dances and songs from Broadway shows)string and wouldwinds affect emotional aspects (quiet music to ease and calm anger,ballads,devotional gospels folk music for emotional catharsis melody with slow rhythms and pacing for relieving tensionquiet music for depression,fear and for insomnia ,galwanising powerful music for strength and courage ,wistful nostalgic piece for relaxation,reverie and removing stress)and string instruments affect mental aspects(melodies for eternal love and devotion which appeal directly to our heart ,clear melodic ,rhythmis music for intellectual power and thinking ) and harp ,organ,wind chimes and high strings are for soulwhich is meditation music..(The healing energies of Music .Hal.A.Lingerman page 24-37)).This is a restricted view from the point of view of the vast musical repertoire of the world,the varieties of musical forms and also the uniqueness of each individual .Yet can be used as a base for our building upon our regional musical repertoire with client needs.
Mediatational music and Yoga have everything to do with Indian Classical and Hindusthani music .It also has the Intellectual and emotional aspects .The stimulation of the physical is minimum ,but in Indian popular music there are enough of it .So Indian music has all the required elements from time immemorial and what we have to do is to implement use of it in educational,developmental and hospital situations with proper data collections.
In meditation,the listeningtime is Holy and is a musical meditation.We listen with attitude of reverence and prayer.We are open to spiritual energy of music .
Hal Lingermans idea of Finding out our music is based on Astronomical teaching and the elements .
Fire:- Aries,Leo ,Sagittarius
Earth:-Taurus,Virgo,Capricorn
Air:-Cancer,Scorpio ,Pisces
Water:-Cancer,Scorpio,Pisces
Music is used to cultivate and activate the expression of energy as they emerge through these temperaments.
Fiery natures like power,competition,surging sounds,strong rhythms,romantic yet dynamic melodies ,music of strength and responds to music of victory.
The earthy signs love warm melodies,homey traditional and evocative of friendships and earthly comforts.Music of nature appeals to it with nostalgic and suggestive of repose.It loves music with definite lyrics and meaningful poetry.Loves literal statements to mere suggestiveness.Simple themes often repeated ,beautiful and restful tunes appeal to it.Warmth and poignance ,domestic happiness ,delights of earth and heaven ,warm melodies suits them.
Air sign is independent and resents restrictions.It needs rhythmicity ,variety and clear melodies.It loves music that moves ahead in a certain direction ,yet encompassing a wide spectrum of style and colour.It respond to experimental music ,extroverted music,current songs and promotional hit songs contemporary tunes and textures fascinates it for a period and then it get bored and discard it.I don’t know why Lingerman included Indian Ragas in this category.Possibly he thought that since there is a wide variety of Ragas in India it is of this category alone or ,his knowledge of Indian raga music is very very limited and also of Indian astronomy and yoga and chakra music.
Water sign seeks pieces with deep feeling and contrasting polarities of emotion which bring a total response from heart.It feels before it thinks.If you tend towards dramatic ,melancholic music and tragedy will appeal to you.Melodies of power,victory which drive away fears ,tears and suffering is suited.Great love themes,deep passions,and human striving arouse the watery signs and their many moods.
Visualization of music as colours,designs,patterns etc is important.Great music stimulate imagination and creativity .The imaginary picturisation of the music or its visualization is more meaningful for each person .Therefore the narration of each person on his/her musical experiences is part of narrative medicine.
Music is an art that express the inexpressible.It is beyond all words and all colours.Yet for communication of our experiences we have to use these .We are taken to other levels of consciousness by great music and deep memoirs of an unknown life may come to you and faithful ecording of tehse experiences for posterity is creative as well as experimental dat collection .Thus it is both science and art .From my experience I can say that beautiful music had always taken me to the grandeour of the universe and cosmos and to music of spheres and then beyond,to that great silence what I call the realm of God .Indian classical and devotional music has this quality .
Another important aspect is that great music help us discover and if needed change some habits and behavioural patterns we kept from childhood.The memories of past hurts and past sorrows are erased.The memories of past loves and past enjoyments are stored forever in our musical experiences and their memories.By music therapy ,the therapist can try to enhance the positive side and decrease the negative side by allowing the person to experience and decide which is best for him/her.Music is a real revelation of one’s soul.Performance of a Musical Raga or a Kutchery in India is a rite in festival ,not just for enjoyment but for initiation into mysteries of human soul.
Dr John Diamond ,in his book “Your body doesn’t lie “ say that rock music has made the muscles of his clients go weak.(Response of muscle to rock music) and that each muscle is related to an organ in our body.The abnormal rhytm of rock music and its loudness are causing this harmful effect according to him.It is only noise ,a sound which at some intensity decrease body energy.Good music and nature sounds increase or strengthen ,while detrimental music decrease it .Even a good music ,if played loudly for a long time can decrease body energy.Therefore judicious use of volume of music is needed.
What is distinction between music and noise?Melody and words are being replaced by shrieks with frenetic rhythms and a collective hysteria is produced .This temporary savage trance is not therapy or healing .Destructive music deteriorates our physical,mental ,intellectual powers and leave us weak in all respects .
The Music therapists are practicing one of the most ancient forms of healing and are reviving a lost art and science .The willful person has the power to focus,to concentrate,perceive selectively and most importantly to transform material existence.The therapist fills role of a listener/observer who helps people to see,listen and observe ,feel themselves ,assist in decoding the complexities of life and dreams andth ecryptic indirect messages people send to themselves and to others.The music therapist as a psychotherapist ,learn to create an identity (musical )and a snes eto what they really are within the multiplicity of roles that they play in the work and personal life.They find support,self-validation,group inclusion and guidance and to healing through an ancient traditional art.Though art therapy was introduced separate from Psychotherapy,at present the realms are merging and fusing and transforming the field of psychotherapy practice for its betterment.Professional associations and publications by them still separate them but instead of emerging as a hybrid of the two,and instead of remaining as a separate discipline ,the universality of music has allowed the integration of all human beings and their physical,mental,intellectual and spiritual healing and the distinctions have faded .Individaul art works are not mere commodities ,and audiences are not mere consumers and musician is not just a professional earning his livelihood with an art .The creation of good music by a musician amounts to social service because the wide range of music created by him/her is having more ability to heal people and society than the various social reforms of a Government.The judicious recognition of such music and its role and its use for society and its healing is an art and science and a psychotherapeutic transformation of entire society with its illness of separatisms.
Psychology has not yet incorporated the space-time relations of modern astrophysics but Indian music had done it and therefore integration of science and art through music had been a process as old as Indian culture.
Community and Music therapy:-
The verbal communication and narrative MLP of each person will reach the primordial levels of group unity and rhythm and this is achieved with relative ease .Music,arts and drama lends themselves naturally to formation of a collective natural Unity and identity of a people .Therefore the Indian music and dance and other art traditions have to be viewed as a unifying force of entire subcontinent .This is also true of all Indian scientific and philosophical traditions.The integration of all these is possible and then using this geographical cultural and artistic and scientific knowledge ,applying the modern levels of scientific research to them gives a unified integrative corroborative process .It is a total transformation by wholistic movement of integration and corroboration.How this is implemented is what is important .
According to Shaun Mc Niff (The arts and psychotherapy pp 4-5)) the drama and music(theatre) started form shamans for visualization and group identity and transcendent oneness of a group.He says the Shamanic healing is a right hemisphere phenomenon and the teacher(voice within oneself) is the illness and individual by a dialogue with this teacher (communication of organism with itself)reestablish balance and order.This selfhealing and balancing is initiated by a shaman ,the psychotherapist of the group/community .The value of placebo effect was fully appreciated by tehse early healers and in 1978 I.M.Lewis described Psychiatry is a latent shamanism and shamanism is often more than Psychiatry.(Ecstatic religion:An anthropological study of spirit possession and Shamanism New york Penguin 1978).Both aim at balancing the individual and environmental relationships,but psychiatry lacks ability to relate to transcendental source of life and dynamic pulse of creative action.The integration of music and arts to modern psychotherapy allows us to have benefits of both,but without having to go back to savage practices of shamanism.The shamanic way of dream power is made use of by modern psychology .A circular enclosure of sacred place is always chosen by ancient cults to do healing .In artistic musical and dance performances the performer and the audience together make the circle ,thus uniting the powers of entire community for group healing.Circular imagery is the mandala in Jung and this was used by India at least from Indus Valley/Harappan times as we see from the archeological evidences and also before that from the cave pictures dating back to 10000 BC .The musical circles of Melakartha raaga in Classical music is in the same pattern.Accordin to Gestalt psychology the experienced order in spacetime is always structurally identical with a functional order in the distribution of underlying brain processes.(Kohler wolfgang.Gestalt psychology New york.Liveright 1970 pp 61.)
Both in psychotherapy and shamanism the training of the healer have direct effect on healing process.He/she has to keep the client’s mind to positive thoughts by art and science of his/her discipline.Sigmund Freud contributed greatly to renewal of a shaman’s role in society by a psychotherapist .His dream interpretations had several things accepted from Shamanism .Jung vitalized the spiritual and archetypal ancestral memories in each human being as a collective memory of the whole race .Freud’s discoveries were those of an archeologist of mind and emotion.Jung’s discoveries were more wholistic and ntegrative of entire human race and its spiritual and intellectual,emotional heritage.Slavery to the Freudean ideas have made psychotherapy very limited in its use.Because the therapists are always thinking about a hidden feeling(a hidden agenda) and give inadequate attention to explanations offered by the artist (by the client ).Creativity and creation itself is a motive and everyone loves to create a unique style and express it or communicate it as a mark or symbol of identity.So is every society.To try to find out any other hidden agenda for art is like distrusting everything and that is a neghative aspect of Freudean psychotherapy.The series of motives or one motive above the other is always individualistic and unique for each oen of us and mere generalization is not correct.The motivation theories are
1 Equalibrium/order/Balance
2 Competency/mastery /skill/expertise
3.Exploration/resolution of uncertainty/knowledge /discovery
4.Aesthetic pleasure /intensification of life
5 communication/relationships
6.Ahievements/social recognition
7.Emotional recognition/sublimation
8.Fear /fearlessness
9.Mortality/Immortality
All tehse and any one or more of it in combination exists in each individual and his/her symbolic expressions in word,art,deeds and in thoughts .
The therapist should know that each individual has an artistic healing power within .And should believe in that healing power.If you don’t believe in that power within yourself,you are not fit to be a music therapist .Unless you believe in it yourself,how can you help others with it?So self-experience is the first thing to achieve.So before you start teaching others or healing others,teach yourself,heal yourself is the first advice.The attitudes and values of the therapist has a definite effect on people/clients (Frank Jerome;Persuasion and healing.A comparative study of psychotherapy .Baltimore.The John Hopkins Pr 1961)
Obstacles felt:- The most consistent factor is time and emotional drain of the other jobs .Demands and responsibilities to others,to profession,to families etc. For students the demands of professional study also has the same problems .The distractions of such demands makes the total involvement and dedication difficult ,says many a professional and a student alike.To overcome this ancient India had some systems of free education for students at Guru’s residence and the Guru was given facilities for providing free accommodation,food for the student ,through state allowances of temple lands and the like.The system is continued now in universities with state grants ,but not entirely free as in ancient times.What we can now do is to manage our time efficiently without making the obstacles rule over us,but ourselves being in perfect control of all obstacles.This I say from my own experience of a bust professional and domestic life of responsibilities of manifold nature.Our effectiveness as expressive art therapists come directly from our involvement in and personal explorations of that particular art.Our ability to support the value ,respond to intensities,of a client’s needs and art will be directly proportionate to the extent we feel these forces within ourselves.
Emotionally troubled people tend to complain of loneliness ,emptiness,depression ,confusin,and a very negative sense of self (Page 64. The Arts and Psychotherapy.Mc Niff).If a creative artist(novelist/poet etc)always express such thoughts a psychotherapist should realize his/her needs for balance of emotion.The visualization techniques of the western music therapy to give suggestions to think of a part of body(with disease)as a still lake ,floating cloud or any such fantasy imagery is good for such people .These guided imagery or fantasy techniques used by west is no needed in India since each Raga in itself contains such imageries .And just leaving the client to immerse in a raga ,natural feelings of the raaga can be used without any suggestions from therapist ,according to the clients choice and only in extreme cases (where no creativity is possible due to severity of disease) a suggestion from therapist be used.The children and adolescents may be helped to control and direct their expressions of emotions by their own natural ability in this method.Scribbling the experiences,thoughts with or without an accompanying drawing may be attempted as exercises with each music session.The spontaneous creativity is stimulated by this.
Use of rhythmic music as stimulus for creative action existed in shamanic cultures as drumbeats(percussion instruments) which summon the spirits.In people with lack of consciousness and in slow reactors etc this can be of use to invoke creativity and for a warming up of energy .Repetetive rhythms are for warming up and in concerts the Varna rendering is such a warming up operation.Predictable sounds and movements in beginning help people to relax ego controls and flow with the music.Consistent rhythms help support the emergence of synchronous movements and a sense of group unison.Chanting also have a similar effect because of repetition of sound pattern which sustain attention while relaxing participants and enabling them achieve a trancelike state of concentrated mind.
Warming up exercise limit perception by focusing attention on a particular object.This type of exercise sharpen the figure-ground perception and demonstrates how contact can be made with different objects in environment by the same technique .Similar exercises can be initiated with selective focusing on sound patterns and movement qualities.Figure-ground perceptions can lend themselves to creative writing warm ups by having clients write the visual descriptions of the music they experienced.Metaphorically by freely associating the listened music with the various images that enter the consciousness the person is freed from all obstacles of self-expressions and enjoy the creativity and wants to explore more into such experiences and this has to become a part of life .That is the therapy rather than a temporary activity,becomes a way of life to the community as such .
With this the client finds more easy to contact and communicate with therapist as well as others .The music that evoke emotional memories engage the person in dialogue with external world and they become more self expressive and open .Smetimes a great musician who had wanted to freely communicate but found it difficult to do so ,becomes very communicative after a few sessions with a music therapist and the transformation in him brings good to the society he/she lives in.A creative music therapist can achieve this,even without the musician ever suspecting that he/she is made an experimental model by the therapist ,in the interest of the entire community .(If he/she knows it he may resist change/transformation due to ego or some other conscious reason which undermines the whole use of music therapy on a musician which aims at healing of the society as a whole).The totality of the therapy can be seen as the warming up for life .
Spontaneous writings ,prose and poetry ,that come out of musical experience in itself has a healing power .Whether you call the creative expressions as poem or not they are creations of a human soul .The clients poetry need not be frist class poetry.Their music need not be first class music .But by expressing their arts ,their music they are healing themselves and you as therapist is motivating them to do so.That is a community work and not something which you are doing for getting an award or a Nobel prize or for a monthly professional wage/fame as musician.Reading poetry,reciting Aksharasloka,filling up samasya,playing group and solo music and dance and folk arts and drama ,reciting stories and narratives our ancestors had this healing touch to entire community .We think that ,every thing they did were religious according to our modern concept of semitic religion and pseudosecularism .But the modern experimental evidence coming from all over the world in fields of human consciousness,ideas,arts and healing show that they were not so .They were efforts through which ancient human consciousness devised educational system so that entire society benefit and no single person is left out of the scheme.Every single person and his/her needs are integrated in the educational art psychotherapy of the ancients and a deep study into this educational system may sometimes shock us because w ehave an ego tha we alone are superior and ancients were inferior to us .This ego may get a shock if we compare modern and ancient knowledge systems and the practices.Within th eclient’s personal language system and understanding the therapist has to devise his/her schemes.Thus when I used the Melakartha raga schemes I used Malayalam lyrics (which unfortunately was not available till that time and so my own poetry had to be used) .Unless we have geographical and language contexts of the population on whom we are using therapy with music ,our efforts may not succeed .Though universal,music has some regional pecularities which makes it popular in some groups .India having all sorts of music suited for all its population the selection is not a problem .When we use vocal music with sahitya in it we are combining creative approach of language psychotherapy as well as that of music and this is the most useful for a person who has already developed language skills(adults)and also for children whom we want to develop language skills .In people with no language skills (mentally or intellectually or physically deficient) one can resort to rhythms ,to instrumental music etc as the case may be according to te hclients needs and liking.For others the language and music combined therapy is more wholistic and integrated when compared to that without language.Th enature of language and music centers in our brain is such tha both function mutually for cognition and understanding and processing of memories.
Sound is a sense modality directly connected to expression of emotion.Making and listening to music is cathartic,gently stimulating and calming.Music can summon life from the dead,calm the most aggressive of the beasts,motivate even a malevolent force to act benignly towards society(others).The integration of artistic and spiritual realities into psychology happen as study of behaviour evolve from its earlier and very exclusive focus on parental conflicts and other forms of psychopathology .Music is the universal language of the soul in all traditions and cultures all over the world.Because of the invisible nature of sound energy as vibrations this divine nature is ascribed to it.The human mind transforms this invisible unmanifested divine vibrations into expressions of joy of nature by musical expressions of a great singer .The sound of nature is also music.But it differs from either rlive or recorded music from a singer.
The music therapy sessions are not just listening to music ,but speaking about what we felt and recording or creatively expressing and sharing those thoughts with others too.It is exploration and improvisational expression of feelings of the musical moments .Music being a rich source of personal associations,stimulates recall of personal emotional memories.Recordings of your favourite singer can be used to facilitate guided fantasy or imagery experiences .The selections made by you and the therapist in a scientific integrated way has to relax and tehn make creativity bloom within you for a positive effect of healing.Music followed by sharing of emotions,discussions and interactions unify people for positive results .Music listening may vary from on eminute to 15 or 20 mts or more depending on attention span of person/groups and after that I usually ask them to give what they felt in writing.Such written feedback data has been used in my research extensively .Since my audience have a varied population (from astronomers/astrologers/other professional groups of different modalities of medical practices,philosophers/historians/teachers/students and music lovers)the feedback has shown me the unity and universality of all tehse diversities and also the uniqueness of creativity and healing power in each person .I have found that the egocentric scholarly people are having more resistance to selfhealing than any other group because they fail to get involved in music).My orientation towards the working of sensory awareness and listening skills,interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligences and interactions/dialogues/discussions/sharing of musical life panorama and musical feelings and resolution of conflicts through a musical medium has been discussed in detail in my previous works on music therapy.
Sound dialogues between client and therapist,between individual group members or subgroups within a large group happen with musical healing.
Withdrawn ,unresponsive people: just echo the therapist’s opinions like mirror movements in a dance .Just show that they have heard and understood and likes the concept .This is part of dance therapy and music and dance being inseparable has to be taken as the integrating principle between these two .(Kinetic intelligence of body in Gardner Multiple theory of intelligences).
Observe a singer.The bodily expressions of the singer while singing and while not singing or while making improvisational voice sounds.We will find that his whole body tends to move in synchrony with the sound pattern ,giving them a visual form of expression.The voice comes from within the person’s entire being (body,mind,intellect and soul)and not just body alone .But the body organs and the visible and audible and felt parts being accessible to our sense organs of cognition we start from that .We start from the seen and heard and travel to unseen,unheard and unmanifested true being of the singer.This improvisation with a singer needs a lot of listenings with his performances and also out of performances in his natural settings in a friendly atmosphere and deep understanding ,which is mutual between the listener and the singer .I have been doing this experiment for the past several years with my favourite singer and I can say how important it is for both listener as well as singer to bring out his/her total personality development for community as a whole.The only test for it is what happens to both these individuals after such a sharing between them and how it becomes useful for community/society they live in.
There are four primary factors of movement relating to use of space by an individual.The space means the quantitative measurement of one’s body’s angles and patterns when moving .The same applies to movement of swara,words etc in music also.The space,weight(measurement of strength and force of action/words /letters etc) the time(temporal span of a movement )and flow (continuity ,pauses,interruptions,of a specific movement)are the four primary factors we listen to .But there is in addition the gestalt of the entire person,the actions consistently performed ,transitions from such actions influenced by some other force /or individual,and evaluation of all these together makes up a response of a person to a music therapist .The effort and shape of entire sensory expression gives us a clue to how significant is therapeutic application of art ,especially music in healing.The regular observation of a single singer’s performance and actions closely needs patience and an intense involvement and love for what research you are doing on that singer.In the last 10 years I closely followed Padmabhooshan Yesudas as my favourite singer and attended (between 2000-2010 )150 of his classical concerts to do this research on musical repertoire.The time,energy,effort and involvement ,nothing to speak about the expenses of such an activity has shown me how important it is to love what you are doing as a research to do justice to it .Many students coming and asking for guidance in Music therapy ,I find are not prepared for concentrated involved research at least for an year .They are not willing to do a project with real patients or children or any chosen group of their liking,following the standards of accepted research and wants to be spponfed by what we have aquired .That is not the correct attitude to genuine research in any field.
Hal Lingerman has suggested that each artist gives out a particular quality of energy to a particular listener ad he has also studied the elemental signs of a few western artists to analyse their music. He gives a short account of sound and colour relationship called synesthesia and that sound is visualized by people as colours.All these I have already discussed in my own experience in all my writings and these western ideas of music have all their roots in ageold Indian concepts .The potential power of music to integrate personality and temperament,to awaken our soul,to link us to enlightenment and greater intellectual,mental levels with perfect body health has been recognized by 20th century researchers just like those ancient stalwarts of Indian music thousands of years ago.What,we in India needs is the integration of music into all wakes of life ,into professional life and domestic life and into developmental strategies of human resources and for solution of problems of the ailing society and human beings .Ultimately the music as universal language is for peace of entire living world ,by integration,corroboration and compassionate understanding .Music is Love and Compassion.And that is God itself.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Census and its purpose in ancient India From William Logan and Arthasasthra of Koutilya
Indian secularism and census
Dr suvarna Nalapat
India is considered to be a secular country,after Independence.But is it really so? The
Indian Parliament ,it is told ,all the political party members of it,opted for Caste being
recorded in the census.Already it is being recorded in schools .
NarayanaGuru has asked us “Not to think,ask or say caste “and we have to add not to
record caste in any records too.But,if it is not recorded the political leaders cannot make
vote banks out of it,and play power games .They need a separatist strategy for
survival.What else is the reason for such a decision from all political leaders of
parliament about the recording of caste in the census?
What we need?
1 All our children should get primary and secondary education,freely in our villages and
towns irrespective of caste,creed,religion,gender or religion.
2.All our villages should achieve food self-sufficiency so that each adult and child gets
nutritious calorie-rich food and free of anemia ,leukemia and malnutrition,so that each
can put the best of his/her efficiency in learning and in building of the nation.
3.The surplus agricultural products from villages should reach urban centers,and in return
the villages should get the help from urban centers by way of higher education and
employment facilities.
4.The recording of census should be for giving extrafacilities for the economically and
otherwise backward communities and providing them help to come up in life.
The recording of castes during census was a mistake committed by the British officials
and some of them had pointed out the mistake .But,unfortunately the warning was not
taken into account by those who implemented it,and now after Independence,boasting
that we are a Secular Republic,the leaders vote contrary to the secular nature of
constitution. There is a saying :The public are donkeys.Yes .We are donkeys.And we,the
donkeys have elected greater donkeys from amongst us to attend parliament,so that such
things happen.A nation of donkeys deserve only a donkey as a leader. So are we all
donkeys?The rulers,and those who are being ruled-Think for a while.What do we
want?Separatisms forever on caste,creed,gender and language ?Or a United Indian
subcontinent on the basis of equality for all?
Kerala had a very brilliant British Collector Sir William Logan.I would just quote what
he thought of census of India on a professional basis.This,if it opens the eyes of all
concerned , we will be saved from further deepening of class and caste.A classless and
casteless society cant be created if people are always being separated on these basis.
Castes according to Logan:-
William Logan’s Malabar Manual quotes some observations in Madras census 1871
report of Surgeon general Cornish which is very important for us to understand .The great
division of labor into professional,personal,commercial,agricultural,industrial and non-
productive services has been noted. And rightly observes that the people of India
originated from a common parent stem and due to division of labour,and regional
languages were divided into several tribes and castes. If it were necessary to sum up the
law of the country as it stood before the Mohammedan invasion(1766AD)and British
occupation(1792 AD)that word would undoubtedly be the word custom(not caste),Logan
says. In Malayalam it would be Maryada.margam,aachaaram all signifying established
custom .There is no indigenous word either in Malayalam or in any other Dravidian
languages to denote caste.Jathi ,in Sanskrit is from janma or birth and that law which is
natural custom to each birth .(For example manushyajaathi,mrigajaathi,pakshijaathi etc
).The Tamil and Malayalam word for it is Peru, as in nir-atti-peru(right from water
deed)and is equivalent to janmam.It does not define caste .Kaaraalar,kaaranmai is a trust
and a co-operative duty ,which is entrusted to certain citizens according to a deed ,and
they are supposed to fulfill that duty in a body politic. The nayars were the protectors of
the country ,crystallized readily into this duty with several branches of them. Their
function of supervision(kaanam)remained unimpaired down to the time of British
occupation. Logan observes that due to the ignorance of the British courts of justice ,the
term has quite lost its proper signification.(pp 111 vol 1 Malabar Manual))The nayars
were also the vellalars (irrigators).They had to respect the kon,or perumal,and was a
protector of the interests of guilds of the nation and all such rights were given to Jews,
Christians and later to Islamic people with sanction to make their own palli (educational
and religious center for such guilds ) which shows the tolerant view of the Administration
.The system of sharing has survived in agricultural industry alone at present. Logan notes
that it extends to all classes of community ,no matter how humble they are. Logan feels
that question of caste and occupation has to be addressed together. He says:-It is
unfortunate that such an essentially European classification of occupation has been
adopted in the census returns ,for it is only confusing .What ought to have been done was
to have adopted the four great divisions into which the Hindus themselves say they were
originally divided:
1.The sacrificers ,men of learning(Teachers by Profession of different subjects)
2.The protectors and governing classes (Law and order,administration,defence)
3.the traders and agriculturists
4 the service classes. To this a fifth is added
5.mechanics and handicrafts men.
6.Those who does not fall into such groups should have been grouped as a miscellaneous
group.
Logan attempted such a classification (see page 114 -115 vol 1)as follows:-
Division 1.The sacrificers (God-compellers)and learned (Teachers) .
Brahmins .Malayali and foreign 47683
Division 2 protectors and governing classes
Maravan (watchers/temple sweeper/musicianTamil 136
Mutratcha (watchers)Tamil 6
Nairs(militia) 321674
Rajputhra 362
Total 322178
Division 3
A.Traders
Balija (telugu) 1466
Komati (tamil) 1096
Shetty(tamil) 20945
Vaniyan and gandlu 42781
Vanniyan(tamil) 1259
Total 67547
B.Agriculturalists.
Agamudayan (tamil) 184
Golla(Idayar)herdsmen 2889
Gouda(herdsmen) 1062
Kurumbar(shepherds, jungle men) 2062
Kuruba golla (herdsmen) 16
Padayachi(tamil) 1008
Reddi(telugu) 119
Chanan,idiga,thiyyan,ilavan(planters) 559,717
Telugalu (vadugar)North countrymen 7811
Vellalan(irrigators) 7525
Yadavulu(telugu) 24
Total 582417
Division 4 service classes
Palli(ploughmen)or pallichaan 40809
Parayan ( labourer/leather worker ) 93612
Ambattan(barber) 8347
Odder(east coast tank diggers) 1682
Upparavan (same) 1
Vannan (washerman) 37556
Total 182,007
Division 5 Mechanics and handicraftsmen
Devangulu(telugu) 10
Kaikalar(weavers) 20465
Kammalar(asari,moosari,karuvan,thattan,kollan) 51553
Kummara(kusava)potter 11770
Madiga (leather worker) 181614
Saleeya(weaver) 21589
Seniyan (Tamil weaver) 486
Total 287487
Division 6 Miscellaneous
Ambalakkaran(Tamil chief of the Kallars) 27
Valayan /besta(fishermen) 16024
Lingadhari 71
Kallan (Tamil .Chora/chola robber in hilly areas ) 47
Shembadavan(fishmonger) 167
Others 162175
Not stated 1441
Total 179952
Grand total 1,669,271
If this was adopted many of the present confusions would have been avoided regarding
the caste system which was created unnecessarily to divide the nation .Page 117 gives a
table of occupation of the census 1881 .It is interesting that the women participation in it
as house wife is only very minimal.(The number of Brahmins and Kshathriya are
minimal .Kottayam and Parappanad are called Porainaat adigal and Logan thinks that it is
because they are foreigners.Actually,Porai means hill ,and they are kings of the hills
(Betta raja or veda kings )and the Parappanad family provides consorts to all other royal
families of kerala.Thalappalli was part of this but since one of the kakkad kaaranavars
murdered a perumal,according to the wish of the naattukoottam,he was downgraded from
his sooryakshthra/Brahmakshathra status to a Nambidi and after that they ceased to have
intermarriage with Travancore and perumpadappu ,their cousins.The downgrading came
,not because of birth,but because
of a dishonest act and Killing(Himsa)is significant.
Occupation census 1881:-(Table)
Occupation Male Female Total
1.professional
Government
Defense
Learning, literature etc
Total
7206
2274
27657
37137
57
-
14588
14645
7263
2274
42245
51782
2 Domestic
Wives
Personal offices
Total
-
5793
5793
866
6001
6867
866
11794
12660
3.Commercial
Money,house,goods,dealings
Carrying goods
Total
16968
32299
49267
2304
2133
4437
19272
34432
53704
4.Agricultural
Occupancy of land and agriculture
Care of animals
Total
346868
13082
359950
228631
3948
232579
575499
17030
592529
5.industrial
Art &mechanics
Textile fabrics, dress
Food ,drinks
Animal substances
Vegetable substances
Mineral substances
Total
19673
30097
72632
705
27830
65708
216645
417
61973
52998
1599
14030
6742
137759
20090
92070
125630
2304
41860
72450
354404
6.indefinite & nonproductive
Labor(specified)
Rank and property(swastham)
No specified occupation
Total
GRAND TOTAL
29066
31
476385
505482
1174274
18081
30
776336
794474
1190761
47147
61
1252721
1299956
2365035Census during the Mourya period as told by Koutilya:-
(prakarana 54 55 ,Ch 35 of Arthasasthra):-
Janapada is first divided into 4 equal parts. Each of these 4 parts have villages which are
classified as Uthama,madhyama and kanishta.Also divided as pariharakam(without
tax),Ayudheeyam(which give honest soldiers as tax),Dhanyaprathikaram(which gives
grain as tax),pasuprathikaram(that give cattle as tax),Hiranyaprathikaram(that give gold a
tax),Kupyaprathikaram(that give objects of kupya as tax),Vishtiprathikaram(that give
service or labor as tax).These are recorded in a nibandhapusthaka and kept.
Gopan is the accountant of a smallest unit of 5 to 10 villages employed by the
Samahartha ,for this purpose. Each Gopa takes a survey of the area of the 5 to 10 grama
under him and give the details to the Samahartha to be entered into his nibandhapusthaka
for further reference. What he surveys are given below:-
1.The pramaana of graama with its limits or boundaries.
2.The total area under cultivation in village( Krishtam)
3.Total area not under cultivation(Akrishtam).
4,Fields(kedaram)
5 Sthalam (Land which is not a field but is garden land for fruit trees)
6.Araamam( Upavanam)
7.Shandam (Plantain and such cultivations )
8.Vaadam(sugarcane and such cultivations)
9.Vanam(forest )
10.Vaasthu (where people live with their houses/constructions
11.Chaithyam
12.Devalayam
13.Sethubandham(Bundh for irrigations)
14.Smasaanam(funeral ground)
15.Sathram and feeding places for public
16.Prapa(thanneer panthal for travelers)
17.Punyasthaana
18.Viveetham
19.Vetttuvazhi (paths)
20.Kshethragram(Bhooparimaanam or measurement of the land)
21.Maryada or avadhi(boundary)of each depending upon the Bhooparinmaanam
22.Aranyam forests of natural type
23.Vazhi or transport facility
24.Pramaanam or area big or small
25.Sampradaanam or details of previous deeds and daana or gifts to Brahmins, Temples
Etc
26.Vikrayam .sales deeds if any
27.Anugraham
28.Parihaaram
29.Houses which are karada(taxpaying) and not(akarada),the distance between each .
30.A census of how many people belonging to the each varna .
How many does agriculture and of what crops
How many does goraksha
How many are Vaidehaka(Merchant class)
How many are kaaru(artisans)
How many are karmakara (service class)
How many are daasa (servants)
How many dwipada(human beings)
How many chathushpada ( cattle with 4 limbs)
How much hiranya,vishti,sulka and danda(army)is given per year to the king from each
of these .
How many women and how many men and children are in each house
How many are old and weak
What is the job of each of the member of the house
What is their aachaara or history /origin /from where did they come originally
What is their ajeeva(gain or aayam)
What is their vyaya (expenditure)
These are provided by Gopa to a Sthanika (The one who looks after 1/4th of the
janapada.).Sthaanika gives all details to the samahartha,the officer of all the four
divisions of the janapada.In the territory of the gopa and sthanika ,the samahartha has to
employ pradeshta(who does tests or experiments )karyakarana(to punish corrupt
pradeshta),and if needed people to forcibly extract bali/tax. (balipragraha).
Thaapasavyanjana are goodapurush of the king to check the functions of the
Karshaka,Gorakshaka,Vaidehaka,Grihapathy etc and thus exert a check on adharma by
all class of people. It is important to note that Koutalya says that the disciples of the
Thaapasa who are the main aids of the Kings were the puraanachoravyanjana (The oldest
community of thiefs )and they know all chaithya(the junction of four paths of
transport),soonyapadam(places where no one lives or enters as hiding places),udapaanam
(places where water resources exist),origin of rivers,nipaanam(lakes),theerthasthana (old
sacred waters),asrama in forest,aranya or deep natural forests,sailagahana or caves in
mountains,vanagahana or deep forests and can travel in all these areas alike .Thus they
are the best aides for the king and the thapasa to find out the secret ways of enemies ,of
thiefs ,their place of hide outs,their travels ,and cause of their arrival etc and are the best
intelligentia and best allies for protection of country. Thus the Puraanachoravynjana
were given a most venerable place for their service and honesty and were the best army
and police and intelligent service during Koutalya period. These are the oldest forest and
mountain dwellers of the Indian subcontinent as they are called the
Puraanachoravyanjana and it was from this race that all the Indian dynasties
originated . The race is now called Piramal kallar and its gene is about 70000 years old as
shown by genetic study. The rule of perumal in Kerala from this chora /Chera lineage of
Tamil population (They existed all over South India and concentrated in Konguchera,and
in Malayamnadu which is present kerala) and enjoyed the rank of most honest tribe
which they proved during PazassiRaja period .Pazassi (old tribal king) and Payanghat
Raja(as the old Arcot was called in pre-British period) have the same lineage and same
ancestry. And Indian subcontinent has same ancestry. The word kallar or chora does not
designate them as thiefs ,but as old race which occupied a wandering and cave dwelling
forest life as Adivasis of the land and loved it as dearly as their own jeeva and it was
from them the Kshathriya,Brahmakshathra and the vaisya class were born .Therefore it is
the most ancient Aranyaka class and most veneered (Pithru or ancestral status).
The Gopa in an urban set up has to think of 10 kula or families ,or 20 kula(families)or 40
kula (families)as the case may be. He has to record the names, the colour,the signs and
birthmarks, the functions, gender ,gothra,ancestral origins,etc and keep a
Jamghaagra(Janasamkhya or census) maintainance.All their functions, gains and losses
should be recorded by the urban Gopa.Similarly in a town 1/4th of the town is taken for
care by a sthaneeka.The authorities of dharmasaala should inform the gopa and the
sthaneeya if a pashandi or a unfamiliar person come there .They have to first test them
personally and if there is a doubt the information passed on to higher authorities.
Similarly the kaaru and silpi and thapaswin grihastha etc test people who come to their
house for learning or for trade ,commerce etc and keep them in their place as guest only
after testing.Vaidehaka also has to do this with travelers for safety of villages and towns.
In greeshma in the 3rd and 4th part of daytime no one should light up a fire .If someone
wants to cook food at that time do it outside the house so that the house does not get a
fire. In these times ,for 5 khatika time each house should have kumbham(water
pots),droni(water baths),nisreni(ladder),parasu(axe),soorpam(woven
muram),ankusam(thotty),kachagrahani(to pull hay from housetop),druthy(bladder with
skin to fill water) should be ready at hand because these are times when one can get a fire
and each house should have a at hand fire extinguishing devise like this.
In greeshma season the houses with thatch of grass should be removed. The people like
ironsmith ,goldsmiths etc who use fire for job should live together in a
neighbourhood.The head of each family should be available at home in night in case of
any emergency. In pathways, in junctions, in doors of towns etc and in palaces(big
houses) 1000 kumbha should be kept ready with water to quench a fire in emergency.
For one who burns a house killing by burning is the punishment. If one puts dirt or
rubbish in pathways/roads 1/8 panam and if with dirty water ¼ panam is fine .If the road
is a royal road for public transport fine is doubled.
If one do excretion in temple premises, in premises of water (river.tank,lake,well)etc
from 1 panam to depending upon the extant of pollution increasing fines should be
given. If the dead body of an animal or of a human being is disposed in the town
premises there is fine depending upon the animal.
Cat,dog,serpent,mongoose etc carcass disposal in town/village premises:- 3 panam fine.
Ass,camel,mule,cow etc 6 panam fine
Human carcass 50 panam fine
People have to take the dead body through the gate meant for corpse to the burial
ground. They should not dispose dead body anywhere except the burial ground decided
for them.(And people for disposal of such wastes therefore should be located near burial ground in each grama /urban city at the periphery .).The place at that boundary is called a Cherikkal (chery or sery means the side or belonging to that particular kings service ).
9th chapter says that any place except Brahmaranya,Somaranya,Devalaya,Yajnasthana,punyasthana, can be converted into
fields for growing grains.Because food sufficiency was important for agroeconomy.
About irrigation rules this chapter gives some guidance.:-
Suppose there is a lake in the heights (uparithataaka) from which a land is irrigated and a lower lake is newly made in the lower plane(Adharathataka).One should not use water
from the new lower down lake for cultivation in the upper field that is being already irrigated by the existing lake. Similarly if a lower lake exists already and is in use ,and a new upper lake is constructed for storage and irrigation, by that newly available water source one should not obstruct the already available water source below. Any one who dries up the entire lake should be given proper punishment.
Suppose for three years the lake could not be used for irrigation of a field for agriculture, in that case the first two laws mentioned need not be considered valid. If a water source is not used for 5 years by someone(except in exceptional cases of calamities and disease etc) the ownership on that sethubandha and water source is lost for the owner.
When a new lake or canal is built for irrigation ,for the first five years a pariharam(tax free)is to be allowed. When an old lake is being made use of by reconstruction, a
pariharam for 4 yrs is given. If a water source is lost by growth of grass and it is being reclaimed ,then tax-free state is for 3 years. If the ownership changed due to sale or another reason, then the time required for the new person to reclaim and start production is two years as tax free.
Lands are irrigated by various methods which include artificial
Vaathapravrithimam(Windmill driven irrigation) ,Nandyayathanam(with oxen from
canals, large ponds ,wells etc),Nibandhayathanam(by a sethubandha or a Bund as we call now) and directly from lake( Thataakam).Depending upon such methods and the produce and effort taken by the person who does agriculture ,the part of the produce has to be given and the tax to be fixed. If a lake or a sethubandha become in a repair state ,the people who sell or leave the land irrigated by them etc should be made responsible for the repair cost, tax etc .Those who enjoy the benefits without paying tax or share also are liable to give a share for repair either by money, things or by service. It is a combined responsibility of all to produce food and be self-sufficient in food production.
Their motto was:-All citizens should co-operate in having food sufficiency and in the welfare of village/urban centers and the numbering of humans,cattle,other domestic animals,different types of grain etc was to ensure the food production is sufficient for all its living things.The morphological character and origin of each species,whether it is a hybrid or a pure race was also recorded,but no religious tag was placed on it.The practical equal society planners of the Vedic and Prevedic India were concerned about the townplanning,its disposal of wastes,population control,food sufficiency and co-operative Republican behaviour of society .
We need not go back to prehistoric times.But we should at least be able to think what is good and what is bad for our Nation ,for our coming generations .For the entire world .
Do we want to be separated on several grounds like
language,caste,creed,religion,gender,money,power and our egocentric inferiority and
superiority complexes ? Or do we really want to be a united Nation which can see entire humanity and entire living organisms (even nonliving things)under the Unified Theory of Advaitha? The choice is ours to make.United ,we Stand. And divided……?.
Dr suvarna Nalapat
India is considered to be a secular country,after Independence.But is it really so? The
Indian Parliament ,it is told ,all the political party members of it,opted for Caste being
recorded in the census.Already it is being recorded in schools .
NarayanaGuru has asked us “Not to think,ask or say caste “and we have to add not to
record caste in any records too.But,if it is not recorded the political leaders cannot make
vote banks out of it,and play power games .They need a separatist strategy for
survival.What else is the reason for such a decision from all political leaders of
parliament about the recording of caste in the census?
What we need?
1 All our children should get primary and secondary education,freely in our villages and
towns irrespective of caste,creed,religion,gender or religion.
2.All our villages should achieve food self-sufficiency so that each adult and child gets
nutritious calorie-rich food and free of anemia ,leukemia and malnutrition,so that each
can put the best of his/her efficiency in learning and in building of the nation.
3.The surplus agricultural products from villages should reach urban centers,and in return
the villages should get the help from urban centers by way of higher education and
employment facilities.
4.The recording of census should be for giving extrafacilities for the economically and
otherwise backward communities and providing them help to come up in life.
The recording of castes during census was a mistake committed by the British officials
and some of them had pointed out the mistake .But,unfortunately the warning was not
taken into account by those who implemented it,and now after Independence,boasting
that we are a Secular Republic,the leaders vote contrary to the secular nature of
constitution. There is a saying :The public are donkeys.Yes .We are donkeys.And we,the
donkeys have elected greater donkeys from amongst us to attend parliament,so that such
things happen.A nation of donkeys deserve only a donkey as a leader. So are we all
donkeys?The rulers,and those who are being ruled-Think for a while.What do we
want?Separatisms forever on caste,creed,gender and language ?Or a United Indian
subcontinent on the basis of equality for all?
Kerala had a very brilliant British Collector Sir William Logan.I would just quote what
he thought of census of India on a professional basis.This,if it opens the eyes of all
concerned , we will be saved from further deepening of class and caste.A classless and
casteless society cant be created if people are always being separated on these basis.
Castes according to Logan:-
William Logan’s Malabar Manual quotes some observations in Madras census 1871
report of Surgeon general Cornish which is very important for us to understand .The great
division of labor into professional,personal,commercial,agricultural,industrial and non-
productive services has been noted. And rightly observes that the people of India
originated from a common parent stem and due to division of labour,and regional
languages were divided into several tribes and castes. If it were necessary to sum up the
law of the country as it stood before the Mohammedan invasion(1766AD)and British
occupation(1792 AD)that word would undoubtedly be the word custom(not caste),Logan
says. In Malayalam it would be Maryada.margam,aachaaram all signifying established
custom .There is no indigenous word either in Malayalam or in any other Dravidian
languages to denote caste.Jathi ,in Sanskrit is from janma or birth and that law which is
natural custom to each birth .(For example manushyajaathi,mrigajaathi,pakshijaathi etc
).The Tamil and Malayalam word for it is Peru, as in nir-atti-peru(right from water
deed)and is equivalent to janmam.It does not define caste .Kaaraalar,kaaranmai is a trust
and a co-operative duty ,which is entrusted to certain citizens according to a deed ,and
they are supposed to fulfill that duty in a body politic. The nayars were the protectors of
the country ,crystallized readily into this duty with several branches of them. Their
function of supervision(kaanam)remained unimpaired down to the time of British
occupation. Logan observes that due to the ignorance of the British courts of justice ,the
term has quite lost its proper signification.(pp 111 vol 1 Malabar Manual))The nayars
were also the vellalars (irrigators).They had to respect the kon,or perumal,and was a
protector of the interests of guilds of the nation and all such rights were given to Jews,
Christians and later to Islamic people with sanction to make their own palli (educational
and religious center for such guilds ) which shows the tolerant view of the Administration
.The system of sharing has survived in agricultural industry alone at present. Logan notes
that it extends to all classes of community ,no matter how humble they are. Logan feels
that question of caste and occupation has to be addressed together. He says:-It is
unfortunate that such an essentially European classification of occupation has been
adopted in the census returns ,for it is only confusing .What ought to have been done was
to have adopted the four great divisions into which the Hindus themselves say they were
originally divided:
1.The sacrificers ,men of learning(Teachers by Profession of different subjects)
2.The protectors and governing classes (Law and order,administration,defence)
3.the traders and agriculturists
4 the service classes. To this a fifth is added
5.mechanics and handicrafts men.
6.Those who does not fall into such groups should have been grouped as a miscellaneous
group.
Logan attempted such a classification (see page 114 -115 vol 1)as follows:-
Division 1.The sacrificers (God-compellers)and learned (Teachers) .
Brahmins .Malayali and foreign 47683
Division 2 protectors and governing classes
Maravan (watchers/temple sweeper/musicianTamil 136
Mutratcha (watchers)Tamil 6
Nairs(militia) 321674
Rajputhra 362
Total 322178
Division 3
A.Traders
Balija (telugu) 1466
Komati (tamil) 1096
Shetty(tamil) 20945
Vaniyan and gandlu 42781
Vanniyan(tamil) 1259
Total 67547
B.Agriculturalists.
Agamudayan (tamil) 184
Golla(Idayar)herdsmen 2889
Gouda(herdsmen) 1062
Kurumbar(shepherds, jungle men) 2062
Kuruba golla (herdsmen) 16
Padayachi(tamil) 1008
Reddi(telugu) 119
Chanan,idiga,thiyyan,ilavan(planters) 559,717
Telugalu (vadugar)North countrymen 7811
Vellalan(irrigators) 7525
Yadavulu(telugu) 24
Total 582417
Division 4 service classes
Palli(ploughmen)or pallichaan 40809
Parayan ( labourer/leather worker ) 93612
Ambattan(barber) 8347
Odder(east coast tank diggers) 1682
Upparavan (same) 1
Vannan (washerman) 37556
Total 182,007
Division 5 Mechanics and handicraftsmen
Devangulu(telugu) 10
Kaikalar(weavers) 20465
Kammalar(asari,moosari,karuvan,thattan,kollan) 51553
Kummara(kusava)potter 11770
Madiga (leather worker) 181614
Saleeya(weaver) 21589
Seniyan (Tamil weaver) 486
Total 287487
Division 6 Miscellaneous
Ambalakkaran(Tamil chief of the Kallars) 27
Valayan /besta(fishermen) 16024
Lingadhari 71
Kallan (Tamil .Chora/chola robber in hilly areas ) 47
Shembadavan(fishmonger) 167
Others 162175
Not stated 1441
Total 179952
Grand total 1,669,271
If this was adopted many of the present confusions would have been avoided regarding
the caste system which was created unnecessarily to divide the nation .Page 117 gives a
table of occupation of the census 1881 .It is interesting that the women participation in it
as house wife is only very minimal.(The number of Brahmins and Kshathriya are
minimal .Kottayam and Parappanad are called Porainaat adigal and Logan thinks that it is
because they are foreigners.Actually,Porai means hill ,and they are kings of the hills
(Betta raja or veda kings )and the Parappanad family provides consorts to all other royal
families of kerala.Thalappalli was part of this but since one of the kakkad kaaranavars
murdered a perumal,according to the wish of the naattukoottam,he was downgraded from
his sooryakshthra/Brahmakshathra status to a Nambidi and after that they ceased to have
intermarriage with Travancore and perumpadappu ,their cousins.The downgrading came
,not because of birth,but because
of a dishonest act and Killing(Himsa)is significant.
Occupation census 1881:-(Table)
Occupation Male Female Total
1.professional
Government
Defense
Learning, literature etc
Total
7206
2274
27657
37137
57
-
14588
14645
7263
2274
42245
51782
2 Domestic
Wives
Personal offices
Total
-
5793
5793
866
6001
6867
866
11794
12660
3.Commercial
Money,house,goods,dealings
Carrying goods
Total
16968
32299
49267
2304
2133
4437
19272
34432
53704
4.Agricultural
Occupancy of land and agriculture
Care of animals
Total
346868
13082
359950
228631
3948
232579
575499
17030
592529
5.industrial
Art &mechanics
Textile fabrics, dress
Food ,drinks
Animal substances
Vegetable substances
Mineral substances
Total
19673
30097
72632
705
27830
65708
216645
417
61973
52998
1599
14030
6742
137759
20090
92070
125630
2304
41860
72450
354404
6.indefinite & nonproductive
Labor(specified)
Rank and property(swastham)
No specified occupation
Total
GRAND TOTAL
29066
31
476385
505482
1174274
18081
30
776336
794474
1190761
47147
61
1252721
1299956
2365035Census during the Mourya period as told by Koutilya:-
(prakarana 54 55 ,Ch 35 of Arthasasthra):-
Janapada is first divided into 4 equal parts. Each of these 4 parts have villages which are
classified as Uthama,madhyama and kanishta.Also divided as pariharakam(without
tax),Ayudheeyam(which give honest soldiers as tax),Dhanyaprathikaram(which gives
grain as tax),pasuprathikaram(that give cattle as tax),Hiranyaprathikaram(that give gold a
tax),Kupyaprathikaram(that give objects of kupya as tax),Vishtiprathikaram(that give
service or labor as tax).These are recorded in a nibandhapusthaka and kept.
Gopan is the accountant of a smallest unit of 5 to 10 villages employed by the
Samahartha ,for this purpose. Each Gopa takes a survey of the area of the 5 to 10 grama
under him and give the details to the Samahartha to be entered into his nibandhapusthaka
for further reference. What he surveys are given below:-
1.The pramaana of graama with its limits or boundaries.
2.The total area under cultivation in village( Krishtam)
3.Total area not under cultivation(Akrishtam).
4,Fields(kedaram)
5 Sthalam (Land which is not a field but is garden land for fruit trees)
6.Araamam( Upavanam)
7.Shandam (Plantain and such cultivations )
8.Vaadam(sugarcane and such cultivations)
9.Vanam(forest )
10.Vaasthu (where people live with their houses/constructions
11.Chaithyam
12.Devalayam
13.Sethubandham(Bundh for irrigations)
14.Smasaanam(funeral ground)
15.Sathram and feeding places for public
16.Prapa(thanneer panthal for travelers)
17.Punyasthaana
18.Viveetham
19.Vetttuvazhi (paths)
20.Kshethragram(Bhooparimaanam or measurement of the land)
21.Maryada or avadhi(boundary)of each depending upon the Bhooparinmaanam
22.Aranyam forests of natural type
23.Vazhi or transport facility
24.Pramaanam or area big or small
25.Sampradaanam or details of previous deeds and daana or gifts to Brahmins, Temples
Etc
26.Vikrayam .sales deeds if any
27.Anugraham
28.Parihaaram
29.Houses which are karada(taxpaying) and not(akarada),the distance between each .
30.A census of how many people belonging to the each varna .
How many does agriculture and of what crops
How many does goraksha
How many are Vaidehaka(Merchant class)
How many are kaaru(artisans)
How many are karmakara (service class)
How many are daasa (servants)
How many dwipada(human beings)
How many chathushpada ( cattle with 4 limbs)
How much hiranya,vishti,sulka and danda(army)is given per year to the king from each
of these .
How many women and how many men and children are in each house
How many are old and weak
What is the job of each of the member of the house
What is their aachaara or history /origin /from where did they come originally
What is their ajeeva(gain or aayam)
What is their vyaya (expenditure)
These are provided by Gopa to a Sthanika (The one who looks after 1/4th of the
janapada.).Sthaanika gives all details to the samahartha,the officer of all the four
divisions of the janapada.In the territory of the gopa and sthanika ,the samahartha has to
employ pradeshta(who does tests or experiments )karyakarana(to punish corrupt
pradeshta),and if needed people to forcibly extract bali/tax. (balipragraha).
Thaapasavyanjana are goodapurush of the king to check the functions of the
Karshaka,Gorakshaka,Vaidehaka,Grihapathy etc and thus exert a check on adharma by
all class of people. It is important to note that Koutalya says that the disciples of the
Thaapasa who are the main aids of the Kings were the puraanachoravyanjana (The oldest
community of thiefs )and they know all chaithya(the junction of four paths of
transport),soonyapadam(places where no one lives or enters as hiding places),udapaanam
(places where water resources exist),origin of rivers,nipaanam(lakes),theerthasthana (old
sacred waters),asrama in forest,aranya or deep natural forests,sailagahana or caves in
mountains,vanagahana or deep forests and can travel in all these areas alike .Thus they
are the best aides for the king and the thapasa to find out the secret ways of enemies ,of
thiefs ,their place of hide outs,their travels ,and cause of their arrival etc and are the best
intelligentia and best allies for protection of country. Thus the Puraanachoravynjana
were given a most venerable place for their service and honesty and were the best army
and police and intelligent service during Koutalya period. These are the oldest forest and
mountain dwellers of the Indian subcontinent as they are called the
Puraanachoravyanjana and it was from this race that all the Indian dynasties
originated . The race is now called Piramal kallar and its gene is about 70000 years old as
shown by genetic study. The rule of perumal in Kerala from this chora /Chera lineage of
Tamil population (They existed all over South India and concentrated in Konguchera,and
in Malayamnadu which is present kerala) and enjoyed the rank of most honest tribe
which they proved during PazassiRaja period .Pazassi (old tribal king) and Payanghat
Raja(as the old Arcot was called in pre-British period) have the same lineage and same
ancestry. And Indian subcontinent has same ancestry. The word kallar or chora does not
designate them as thiefs ,but as old race which occupied a wandering and cave dwelling
forest life as Adivasis of the land and loved it as dearly as their own jeeva and it was
from them the Kshathriya,Brahmakshathra and the vaisya class were born .Therefore it is
the most ancient Aranyaka class and most veneered (Pithru or ancestral status).
The Gopa in an urban set up has to think of 10 kula or families ,or 20 kula(families)or 40
kula (families)as the case may be. He has to record the names, the colour,the signs and
birthmarks, the functions, gender ,gothra,ancestral origins,etc and keep a
Jamghaagra(Janasamkhya or census) maintainance.All their functions, gains and losses
should be recorded by the urban Gopa.Similarly in a town 1/4th of the town is taken for
care by a sthaneeka.The authorities of dharmasaala should inform the gopa and the
sthaneeya if a pashandi or a unfamiliar person come there .They have to first test them
personally and if there is a doubt the information passed on to higher authorities.
Similarly the kaaru and silpi and thapaswin grihastha etc test people who come to their
house for learning or for trade ,commerce etc and keep them in their place as guest only
after testing.Vaidehaka also has to do this with travelers for safety of villages and towns.
In greeshma in the 3rd and 4th part of daytime no one should light up a fire .If someone
wants to cook food at that time do it outside the house so that the house does not get a
fire. In these times ,for 5 khatika time each house should have kumbham(water
pots),droni(water baths),nisreni(ladder),parasu(axe),soorpam(woven
muram),ankusam(thotty),kachagrahani(to pull hay from housetop),druthy(bladder with
skin to fill water) should be ready at hand because these are times when one can get a fire
and each house should have a at hand fire extinguishing devise like this.
In greeshma season the houses with thatch of grass should be removed. The people like
ironsmith ,goldsmiths etc who use fire for job should live together in a
neighbourhood.The head of each family should be available at home in night in case of
any emergency. In pathways, in junctions, in doors of towns etc and in palaces(big
houses) 1000 kumbha should be kept ready with water to quench a fire in emergency.
For one who burns a house killing by burning is the punishment. If one puts dirt or
rubbish in pathways/roads 1/8 panam and if with dirty water ¼ panam is fine .If the road
is a royal road for public transport fine is doubled.
If one do excretion in temple premises, in premises of water (river.tank,lake,well)etc
from 1 panam to depending upon the extant of pollution increasing fines should be
given. If the dead body of an animal or of a human being is disposed in the town
premises there is fine depending upon the animal.
Cat,dog,serpent,mongoose etc carcass disposal in town/village premises:- 3 panam fine.
Ass,camel,mule,cow etc 6 panam fine
Human carcass 50 panam fine
People have to take the dead body through the gate meant for corpse to the burial
ground. They should not dispose dead body anywhere except the burial ground decided
for them.(And people for disposal of such wastes therefore should be located near burial ground in each grama /urban city at the periphery .).The place at that boundary is called a Cherikkal (chery or sery means the side or belonging to that particular kings service ).
9th chapter says that any place except Brahmaranya,Somaranya,Devalaya,Yajnasthana,punyasthana, can be converted into
fields for growing grains.Because food sufficiency was important for agroeconomy.
About irrigation rules this chapter gives some guidance.:-
Suppose there is a lake in the heights (uparithataaka) from which a land is irrigated and a lower lake is newly made in the lower plane(Adharathataka).One should not use water
from the new lower down lake for cultivation in the upper field that is being already irrigated by the existing lake. Similarly if a lower lake exists already and is in use ,and a new upper lake is constructed for storage and irrigation, by that newly available water source one should not obstruct the already available water source below. Any one who dries up the entire lake should be given proper punishment.
Suppose for three years the lake could not be used for irrigation of a field for agriculture, in that case the first two laws mentioned need not be considered valid. If a water source is not used for 5 years by someone(except in exceptional cases of calamities and disease etc) the ownership on that sethubandha and water source is lost for the owner.
When a new lake or canal is built for irrigation ,for the first five years a pariharam(tax free)is to be allowed. When an old lake is being made use of by reconstruction, a
pariharam for 4 yrs is given. If a water source is lost by growth of grass and it is being reclaimed ,then tax-free state is for 3 years. If the ownership changed due to sale or another reason, then the time required for the new person to reclaim and start production is two years as tax free.
Lands are irrigated by various methods which include artificial
Vaathapravrithimam(Windmill driven irrigation) ,Nandyayathanam(with oxen from
canals, large ponds ,wells etc),Nibandhayathanam(by a sethubandha or a Bund as we call now) and directly from lake( Thataakam).Depending upon such methods and the produce and effort taken by the person who does agriculture ,the part of the produce has to be given and the tax to be fixed. If a lake or a sethubandha become in a repair state ,the people who sell or leave the land irrigated by them etc should be made responsible for the repair cost, tax etc .Those who enjoy the benefits without paying tax or share also are liable to give a share for repair either by money, things or by service. It is a combined responsibility of all to produce food and be self-sufficient in food production.
Their motto was:-All citizens should co-operate in having food sufficiency and in the welfare of village/urban centers and the numbering of humans,cattle,other domestic animals,different types of grain etc was to ensure the food production is sufficient for all its living things.The morphological character and origin of each species,whether it is a hybrid or a pure race was also recorded,but no religious tag was placed on it.The practical equal society planners of the Vedic and Prevedic India were concerned about the townplanning,its disposal of wastes,population control,food sufficiency and co-operative Republican behaviour of society .
We need not go back to prehistoric times.But we should at least be able to think what is good and what is bad for our Nation ,for our coming generations .For the entire world .
Do we want to be separated on several grounds like
language,caste,creed,religion,gender,money,power and our egocentric inferiority and
superiority complexes ? Or do we really want to be a united Nation which can see entire humanity and entire living organisms (even nonliving things)under the Unified Theory of Advaitha? The choice is ours to make.United ,we Stand. And divided……?.
Thoughts on Akshayathritheeya
16.5.2010
I was reading the two volumes of “Rare facets of Ancient Indian History and culture”by S.SankaraNarayanan which I received from the Theosophical society’s bookshop in Adyar.Then ,my nephew called and asked: “What is Akshayathritheeya?”
I said :”That is birthday of Balarama,the Seshnaag ,during Dwaparayuga.
He asked:“Then why do people buy gold on that day?
I replied.:The practice in India was to give alms to people .Usually clothes,money and valuables or whatever they need ,according to one’s ability.The sacrifice of everything ,or something for others is the principle,because Anantha,the Seshnag was a great Yogi who sacrificed everything for Yoga and Gnana.
My nephew said: But now,everybody rushes to buy gold,not to give away.
I laughed .It is only part of our consumeristic society culture which developed quite recently and it has nothing to with our heritage or religion.People misunderstand such consumerist business techniques for religion and run after that superstitiously without thinking logically .That is a common human psychology of the modern times.
He said: Why don’t you write something on it ?
I told him: I have lived my life in the Gandhian way ,but with a modified 21st century outlook ,because of my profession.I have seen the plight of thousands of poor patients in the general wards of Calicut Medical college and how they struggle to get the money for medicines,food and for even the busfare to go back from hospital.The people who had become just thin skin and bone,people with torn old dirty dress,and people with cankerous growths bringing out even the bone and flesh out ,and without a single person to help and women who after delivering twin baby girls request the house surgeons with tears in eyes to take away at least one of the kids so that she will be relieved of future economical problems of rearing them .
I have seen parents struggling with poverty to rescue children from grip of Leukemia ,and selling whatever they have for treatment ,at last succumb to the law of death and loose everything .I remember a very sad incident from Ernakulam.I remember the child’s name because it was Vishnupriya.The girl was diagnosed as having cancer and the parents were not very poor .They tried their best to make the child live but failed.Then next morning in the Mathrubhoomi daily ,I saw a report that the parents ,had ended their lives together to be with the child.What is the use of money and luxuries in life when these are all fleeting and temporary?Just to help others .
My experiences with such people have made me strongly against all women and men who show vulgar display of wealth ,in front of such poverty/in front of such sad incidents.One has to be aware of what is happening around .It is this gross gaps in wealth which makes our consumerism thrive and also our revolutionary movements thrive.(These are only two sides of the same coin).Only if the people understand that their acts have social repercussions they will become real responsible citizens of India.But that is said easily.To make them aware of it one have to adopt a lifestyle which has a model in it .To create that model,individually and by our own life principle is what makes us different from each other.My article 20 years back titled “Gandhi in the land of Ravana”was a satire about such occurrences.(It had appeared in a daily called Express from Trichur).
I have modeled my life on the principle of learning and teaching by giving a life model.But how many will understand that?And even if they understand that how many will feel that this is a good model for our nation?And how many will have a desire to serve the nation ?How many will think that it is worth sacrificing their luxurious ornamental and silky exhibitionistic ways of living for the sake of millions of poor people?Human nature is too selfish and the consumeristic society is exploiting that selfishness for their benefit,and the fault is placed on religion .How sad it is that a ancient culture is made to look like a pack of superstitions in the name of consumeristic religious exploitations?
I am a deeply spiritual individual and have my own sadhana,dhyana,and spiritual experiences ,but I never succumb to the propaganda of consumeristic religions of any sort .But being a person following principles of vedantha,I also realize that majority of people are not like me .How can I expect all of them to be like me? World is not a monoculture plantation.But ,I do expect all people to develop some sort of logical self-analysis and give away what they have in surplus (if not all, as Gandhi did) to others who are needy.This may be Vidya(knowledge),wealth,ornaments,clothes,job opportunities,social service of any kind according to what one can offer ,in one’s own sphere of activity.That would give a socialistic equalitarian or nearly equalitarian concept and lessen the gap between haves and have nots .This is what I try to create with my books,speeches,life and all my integrated educational systems based on values for a enlightened citizenship.
When my nephew asked what Akshayathritheeya is I just remembered that in my youth as a young professional in Medical college ,Calicut ,I had decided to sacrifice all luxuries (ornaments etc) for the sake of helping the poor patients which my husband had in plenty in his general wards.Together we had tried to help as many people as possible.I don’t even know them personally.They are all unknown faces,unknown names from all over North Kerala and Malabar ,most of them Adivasis whom my husband helped .If I insisted on having gold jewellery,diamonds and silks for myself he could never have helped them as he did.But how many women will think that way ? That is the problem.Unless we are able to introspect and see ourselves no one can help us . .
The four Purushartha are Dharma,Artha,Kaama and Moksha.The kaama or desires if more than necessary make us consumeristic fools and we will go on increasing worldly pleasures which are temporary.Therefore as Gita says ,one has to control desires of senses with a intellect like a efficient charioteer ,holding and harnessing the horses so that he leads it to the goal.If not the senses like mad horses will crash the chariot(the body)and create harmful effects.The artha is not bad,provided the wealth accumulated is not spent on selfish motives but for unselfish developmental activities of one’s society.That economic strategy is needed for any nation.And a nation means its individuals,its citizens.If the citizens have no desire to make the nation grow and develop who else will have it? The people say : The people in power.Yes .They have great responsibility.But we,who are not in power also has great responsibility.We are the people who elected those in power.If we don’t know who is who and who will help nation and who will not ,we are not doing our duty efficiently.And if we are not responsible how can we expect the people whom we have selected will be responsible?The people deserve the type of leaders they have ,because it is the people who select them.If people are donkeys,(Pothujanam Kazhutha,says a Malayalam proverb)the rulers are bigger donkeys only selected by lesser donkeys.If rulers are lions,the people are also lions because birds of the same feather flock together.
Society is made by individuals .The nature of the individuals reflect upon society.So what each one of us has to do is to make the society develop,by developing ourselves.Make us grow into fuller personalities,mature in outlook and compassionate to others and unselfish .This total personality development,which is value-based has to be the aim of each one of us .
The life of giving alms and sacrifice is not for one single day .But for entire life .It is a Thapasya each one has to adopt with one’s available resources and needs .
Let us grow physically,mentally,intellectually and spiritually.That growth will definitely enrich the nation since we are the precious “Golden diamonds”of our nation and nothing is more valuable for a nation,than its citizens ,its human resources.
Lalithajeevitham ,Udaathachintha(simple life,highly noble thought processes).Let that be our motto.
Thanks to my Nephew Vijay Nalapat for stimulating these thought processes as a message on this day to my blog.
I was reading the two volumes of “Rare facets of Ancient Indian History and culture”by S.SankaraNarayanan which I received from the Theosophical society’s bookshop in Adyar.Then ,my nephew called and asked: “What is Akshayathritheeya?”
I said :”That is birthday of Balarama,the Seshnaag ,during Dwaparayuga.
He asked:“Then why do people buy gold on that day?
I replied.:The practice in India was to give alms to people .Usually clothes,money and valuables or whatever they need ,according to one’s ability.The sacrifice of everything ,or something for others is the principle,because Anantha,the Seshnag was a great Yogi who sacrificed everything for Yoga and Gnana.
My nephew said: But now,everybody rushes to buy gold,not to give away.
I laughed .It is only part of our consumeristic society culture which developed quite recently and it has nothing to with our heritage or religion.People misunderstand such consumerist business techniques for religion and run after that superstitiously without thinking logically .That is a common human psychology of the modern times.
He said: Why don’t you write something on it ?
I told him: I have lived my life in the Gandhian way ,but with a modified 21st century outlook ,because of my profession.I have seen the plight of thousands of poor patients in the general wards of Calicut Medical college and how they struggle to get the money for medicines,food and for even the busfare to go back from hospital.The people who had become just thin skin and bone,people with torn old dirty dress,and people with cankerous growths bringing out even the bone and flesh out ,and without a single person to help and women who after delivering twin baby girls request the house surgeons with tears in eyes to take away at least one of the kids so that she will be relieved of future economical problems of rearing them .
I have seen parents struggling with poverty to rescue children from grip of Leukemia ,and selling whatever they have for treatment ,at last succumb to the law of death and loose everything .I remember a very sad incident from Ernakulam.I remember the child’s name because it was Vishnupriya.The girl was diagnosed as having cancer and the parents were not very poor .They tried their best to make the child live but failed.Then next morning in the Mathrubhoomi daily ,I saw a report that the parents ,had ended their lives together to be with the child.What is the use of money and luxuries in life when these are all fleeting and temporary?Just to help others .
My experiences with such people have made me strongly against all women and men who show vulgar display of wealth ,in front of such poverty/in front of such sad incidents.One has to be aware of what is happening around .It is this gross gaps in wealth which makes our consumerism thrive and also our revolutionary movements thrive.(These are only two sides of the same coin).Only if the people understand that their acts have social repercussions they will become real responsible citizens of India.But that is said easily.To make them aware of it one have to adopt a lifestyle which has a model in it .To create that model,individually and by our own life principle is what makes us different from each other.My article 20 years back titled “Gandhi in the land of Ravana”was a satire about such occurrences.(It had appeared in a daily called Express from Trichur).
I have modeled my life on the principle of learning and teaching by giving a life model.But how many will understand that?And even if they understand that how many will feel that this is a good model for our nation?And how many will have a desire to serve the nation ?How many will think that it is worth sacrificing their luxurious ornamental and silky exhibitionistic ways of living for the sake of millions of poor people?Human nature is too selfish and the consumeristic society is exploiting that selfishness for their benefit,and the fault is placed on religion .How sad it is that a ancient culture is made to look like a pack of superstitions in the name of consumeristic religious exploitations?
I am a deeply spiritual individual and have my own sadhana,dhyana,and spiritual experiences ,but I never succumb to the propaganda of consumeristic religions of any sort .But being a person following principles of vedantha,I also realize that majority of people are not like me .How can I expect all of them to be like me? World is not a monoculture plantation.But ,I do expect all people to develop some sort of logical self-analysis and give away what they have in surplus (if not all, as Gandhi did) to others who are needy.This may be Vidya(knowledge),wealth,ornaments,clothes,job opportunities,social service of any kind according to what one can offer ,in one’s own sphere of activity.That would give a socialistic equalitarian or nearly equalitarian concept and lessen the gap between haves and have nots .This is what I try to create with my books,speeches,life and all my integrated educational systems based on values for a enlightened citizenship.
When my nephew asked what Akshayathritheeya is I just remembered that in my youth as a young professional in Medical college ,Calicut ,I had decided to sacrifice all luxuries (ornaments etc) for the sake of helping the poor patients which my husband had in plenty in his general wards.Together we had tried to help as many people as possible.I don’t even know them personally.They are all unknown faces,unknown names from all over North Kerala and Malabar ,most of them Adivasis whom my husband helped .If I insisted on having gold jewellery,diamonds and silks for myself he could never have helped them as he did.But how many women will think that way ? That is the problem.Unless we are able to introspect and see ourselves no one can help us . .
The four Purushartha are Dharma,Artha,Kaama and Moksha.The kaama or desires if more than necessary make us consumeristic fools and we will go on increasing worldly pleasures which are temporary.Therefore as Gita says ,one has to control desires of senses with a intellect like a efficient charioteer ,holding and harnessing the horses so that he leads it to the goal.If not the senses like mad horses will crash the chariot(the body)and create harmful effects.The artha is not bad,provided the wealth accumulated is not spent on selfish motives but for unselfish developmental activities of one’s society.That economic strategy is needed for any nation.And a nation means its individuals,its citizens.If the citizens have no desire to make the nation grow and develop who else will have it? The people say : The people in power.Yes .They have great responsibility.But we,who are not in power also has great responsibility.We are the people who elected those in power.If we don’t know who is who and who will help nation and who will not ,we are not doing our duty efficiently.And if we are not responsible how can we expect the people whom we have selected will be responsible?The people deserve the type of leaders they have ,because it is the people who select them.If people are donkeys,(Pothujanam Kazhutha,says a Malayalam proverb)the rulers are bigger donkeys only selected by lesser donkeys.If rulers are lions,the people are also lions because birds of the same feather flock together.
Society is made by individuals .The nature of the individuals reflect upon society.So what each one of us has to do is to make the society develop,by developing ourselves.Make us grow into fuller personalities,mature in outlook and compassionate to others and unselfish .This total personality development,which is value-based has to be the aim of each one of us .
The life of giving alms and sacrifice is not for one single day .But for entire life .It is a Thapasya each one has to adopt with one’s available resources and needs .
Let us grow physically,mentally,intellectually and spiritually.That growth will definitely enrich the nation since we are the precious “Golden diamonds”of our nation and nothing is more valuable for a nation,than its citizens ,its human resources.
Lalithajeevitham ,Udaathachintha(simple life,highly noble thought processes).Let that be our motto.
Thanks to my Nephew Vijay Nalapat for stimulating these thought processes as a message on this day to my blog.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Solution to an Astronomical problem
In an ecliptic calendar there are five types of Samvatsara.
1 Solar year:-This is based on the distance between earth and sun.Since earth revolves faster when it approaches the sun,the rate of revolution is faster in those months.So the length of day changes in ratio to that of the nights .Becaus eof this days in Utharayana period will be less .Similarly days in Dakshinayana period has to be longer.Because then earth is away from sun.The midpoint of these two is the samamandala or equal days,and this is calculated from the equator in India.India has the nearest landmass to equator in Lanka and southern most tip of South India and therefore the samarathradina of LANKA is considered as standard .The rasipramana given by old Sidhanthas were aware of this means they were aware of the eccentric nature of sun in relation to the orbit of earth .(see my book page for Rasipramana)
2.Brihaspathivarsha .It is based on revolution of Jupiter around sun in 12 years on which we condust Mahakumbamela,Mahamakham and elect a new sytem of administration .This is for our sociopolitical administrative and customary practices as well as protectionof knowledge of the revolution of graham.
3.Savanavarsha .From a particular place on earth,observe the sunrise and from one sunrise to another sunrise is taken as a day (saayana or moving day of earth around sun) due to rotation on its axis,and decide 360 degree for a circle and divide each Rasi into equal 30 day and make it 360 days.This is a practical way for easy calculation and used for political and social functions.The Bharanavarsha of a king ,or the time after a particular event(coronation,birth etc)is calculated in this way .The Christian calendar and western savanna calendar follow this method. They didn’t know the problem of the astronomical calculation and hence several problems did the encounter before they discovered what it really meant (almost a millennia they took to discover it).
4.Chandravarsha. Count from one Amavasya(new moon)to next amavasya. You get 12 fullmoons in 12 rasi .For this only 354.367 days are needed and it is 11 days less than the 365 days soura year.
5.Nakshathravarsha : stellar year.The span of one star in zodiac is 13.20 .The moon cross one star each and in 27.3 days does a circumambulation of earth,as observed bya observer sitting on earth .That is 27.3 X 12=327.6 days only is needed for this .This is 27 days lesser than the Chandravarsha and 38 days lesser than the savanavarsha .The sidereal year is based on relation of the position of the fixed star clusters and the movement of the graham in relation to that.For knowing this the observer on earth(since he cannot directly perceive his own planets place in space in relation to star)depend upon the nearest shining object ,the moon ,and thus the observation of moon and his movement in relation to the stars , is important for fixing the sphuta of the observed planet.The sidereal day is only 23 hrs 56 minutes and 4.0953 seconds and for practical purposes it is taken as 24 hours.But it is 4 minutes 55 seconds less than the 24 hours which we take as a day.
A synodic period is the the time between two subsequent grahayoga.In the case of earth and lunisolar graham ,it is from one amavasya to another amavasya.
In Mahabharatha there is a great prediction of a Grahana.And it was predicted that a Grahana will happen within 13 days .And Vyasa says it happened during the war.The scholars of the west and east have been quarrelling over this for several years .Their argument is a new moon happens only in 15 days and how could a new moon happen in 13 days?And because of this argument some even thought that the entire Mahabharatah is a myth.In the modern computer yuga ,no one suspects the possibility of such an event.But the greatness of Vyasa is that without a computer,without the modern scientific equipments the prediction was done,recorded .And the littleness of modern science is that to know the truth of it ,they had to wait for millennia .
Actually sayanavarsha is aillusion felt due to movement of earth around sun.Sun is not moving.The time from on samarathra to another samarathra ,in a particular place is 359.864 days .
The suryavarsha is 19.50 degree less than the nakshathravarsha due to inertia(nirayana)The difference between the seeming saayana and the real nirayana is the reason for the precision of equinox.Seasons/heat /cold etc have geographical differences .The feeling that the position of Sun in relation to star clusters move 0.0136 degree backward is only a Maaya/illusion felt by humans who sit on the earth,a moving sphere.In fact the relationship of fixed stars does not change at all.Therefore what one needs to do is just count Ahargana (as we do in Kaliyuga),observe the Chaya ,the movement of celestial objects reguarly .record them and keep for the Astronomical Gurukula(which took the place of the modern astronomical chairs of the world) and give the predictions etc from time to time to public as well as educate them to observe and know their nature scientifically and control life accordingly.The changing of the calendar is a foolish procedure.Observation is needed but changing day as Gregorian calendar makers did and even now the calendar makers are doing is creating all the trouble.They change the calendar according toeach persons or regions fancy and make confusion for all concerned and this started with Romans and then Europeans and now has spread to Indian astrologers as a disease.
Since thee is a co-ordinate relation between fixed stars and solar system as a whole ,it is always Nirayana and for man on earth it appears as saayana .In 25800 years only a wobble happens to earth’s axis and since the 9 moolathrikona (like Aswathi,Makha,Moola: bharani,Poora,Poorada etc)are co-ordinates when that wobble occurs the entire co-ordinate system has the same change and therefore it is never felt by earth . or its observers and it does not affect earth and its observer.
Between two Chandrayana points the movement of Chandra is in high speed.With a single nakshathramaasa it moves 360 degree.And the movement circle of the two chandrayanabindu is once in 18.6 years.In 9 years the extend or limit of the moons movement is outside that of the sunrise limit.Inthe rest of the hemisphere or radius moon does not go beyond it.Therefore observation of moons vridhikshaya(waxing and waning)and the paksha are very important.This is for knowing the distance between sun and moon.If we observe the speed of moon depending upon the nakshathra in which he is,one can also guess the movement of its center(earth)and its distance from its center.
Lag(a)na and Lagadha :
Na is Nashta or --and Dha is for Dhana or + and Lagakriya is done for finding out the kshaya and vridhi .(Dhanam and Nadham are spoken in opposites)
Many people(even great scholars ) mistakenly think that Lagadha is a person who lived in 1400 BC and it is from his period the Vedanghajyothisha was first known.
Laghadha is an Aksharasamkhya .Lagna also is an aksharasamkhya.
Laghadham is 333 hours
Laghnam is 330 hours.
They have 3 hours difference.
333/24 =13.21 (almost equal to the nakshathra avadhi 13.20)
In the interval of 13 days a grahana is possible.Without knowing the Nakshathravadhi ,the position of celestial objects and their sphuta and their retrograde movements and the shape of the ecliptic and the celestial objects no one can predict a eclipse ,whether in east or west.
336 hours is 14 days.A grahana(eclipse) followed by another of the same nature can therefore happen within 332-333 hours(less than 14 days or 13 days and shishta).From 3300 BC to 700 BC such couple grahana were observed in North India according to modern computer ganitha.In Rigveda Athri muni says that a complete solar eclipse happened 3 days before the sarad samarathra(samkhyayanabrahmana) which points to a double soalr eclipse.Mahabharatha,Atharvaveda,Rigveda know the law of Laghadha/Lagna (333-330=3).
Athithi and Thithi :-
Athithi is one who comes without looking for an auspicious Thithi and who has to be considered as God and served .Athithi devo bhava: That is a guest for an Indian ancestor.
Thithi is the difference between the longitudes of moon and sun obtained for an observer on earth.That is when a jyothishi says that today is this thithi or that,it simply means that the longitudinal distance between the sun and moon is mentioned.If I say ,today is Prathama ,the distance is between 0-12 degree.
See table below.
Prathama 0-12
Dwitheeya 12-24
Thritheeya 24-36
Chathurthi 36-48
Panchami 48-60
Shashti 60-72
Sapthami 72-84
Ashtami 84-96
Navami 96-108
Dasami 108-120
Ekadasi 120-132
Dwadasi 132-144
Thrayodasi 144-156
Chathurdasi 156-168
Avama /pornami (Vaavu) 168-180
Depending on whether it is Krishnapaksha or Suklapaksha the 180 degrees will beome opposites.Each of the 60 degrees represents 2 rasi .
In 19 years 235 Chandragrahayoga
In 228 years (which is 19X 12 ) 7 Adhimasa .
For 703 chandradina 11 varjithachandradina.
The 16547 varjithachandradina is for 1057500 days.
This is in Romakasidhantha.
The relation of it and derivation of it from Paithamahasidhantha I have discussed in detail in my commentary and comparative study on Panchasidhanthika of Varahamihira.
Figure from my manuscript to show the Zodiac and its relationship
1 Solar year:-This is based on the distance between earth and sun.Since earth revolves faster when it approaches the sun,the rate of revolution is faster in those months.So the length of day changes in ratio to that of the nights .Becaus eof this days in Utharayana period will be less .Similarly days in Dakshinayana period has to be longer.Because then earth is away from sun.The midpoint of these two is the samamandala or equal days,and this is calculated from the equator in India.India has the nearest landmass to equator in Lanka and southern most tip of South India and therefore the samarathradina of LANKA is considered as standard .The rasipramana given by old Sidhanthas were aware of this means they were aware of the eccentric nature of sun in relation to the orbit of earth .(see my book page for Rasipramana)
2.Brihaspathivarsha .It is based on revolution of Jupiter around sun in 12 years on which we condust Mahakumbamela,Mahamakham and elect a new sytem of administration .This is for our sociopolitical administrative and customary practices as well as protectionof knowledge of the revolution of graham.
3.Savanavarsha .From a particular place on earth,observe the sunrise and from one sunrise to another sunrise is taken as a day (saayana or moving day of earth around sun) due to rotation on its axis,and decide 360 degree for a circle and divide each Rasi into equal 30 day and make it 360 days.This is a practical way for easy calculation and used for political and social functions.The Bharanavarsha of a king ,or the time after a particular event(coronation,birth etc)is calculated in this way .The Christian calendar and western savanna calendar follow this method. They didn’t know the problem of the astronomical calculation and hence several problems did the encounter before they discovered what it really meant (almost a millennia they took to discover it).
4.Chandravarsha. Count from one Amavasya(new moon)to next amavasya. You get 12 fullmoons in 12 rasi .For this only 354.367 days are needed and it is 11 days less than the 365 days soura year.
5.Nakshathravarsha : stellar year.The span of one star in zodiac is 13.20 .The moon cross one star each and in 27.3 days does a circumambulation of earth,as observed bya observer sitting on earth .That is 27.3 X 12=327.6 days only is needed for this .This is 27 days lesser than the Chandravarsha and 38 days lesser than the savanavarsha .The sidereal year is based on relation of the position of the fixed star clusters and the movement of the graham in relation to that.For knowing this the observer on earth(since he cannot directly perceive his own planets place in space in relation to star)depend upon the nearest shining object ,the moon ,and thus the observation of moon and his movement in relation to the stars , is important for fixing the sphuta of the observed planet.The sidereal day is only 23 hrs 56 minutes and 4.0953 seconds and for practical purposes it is taken as 24 hours.But it is 4 minutes 55 seconds less than the 24 hours which we take as a day.
A synodic period is the the time between two subsequent grahayoga.In the case of earth and lunisolar graham ,it is from one amavasya to another amavasya.
In Mahabharatha there is a great prediction of a Grahana.And it was predicted that a Grahana will happen within 13 days .And Vyasa says it happened during the war.The scholars of the west and east have been quarrelling over this for several years .Their argument is a new moon happens only in 15 days and how could a new moon happen in 13 days?And because of this argument some even thought that the entire Mahabharatah is a myth.In the modern computer yuga ,no one suspects the possibility of such an event.But the greatness of Vyasa is that without a computer,without the modern scientific equipments the prediction was done,recorded .And the littleness of modern science is that to know the truth of it ,they had to wait for millennia .
Actually sayanavarsha is aillusion felt due to movement of earth around sun.Sun is not moving.The time from on samarathra to another samarathra ,in a particular place is 359.864 days .
The suryavarsha is 19.50 degree less than the nakshathravarsha due to inertia(nirayana)The difference between the seeming saayana and the real nirayana is the reason for the precision of equinox.Seasons/heat /cold etc have geographical differences .The feeling that the position of Sun in relation to star clusters move 0.0136 degree backward is only a Maaya/illusion felt by humans who sit on the earth,a moving sphere.In fact the relationship of fixed stars does not change at all.Therefore what one needs to do is just count Ahargana (as we do in Kaliyuga),observe the Chaya ,the movement of celestial objects reguarly .record them and keep for the Astronomical Gurukula(which took the place of the modern astronomical chairs of the world) and give the predictions etc from time to time to public as well as educate them to observe and know their nature scientifically and control life accordingly.The changing of the calendar is a foolish procedure.Observation is needed but changing day as Gregorian calendar makers did and even now the calendar makers are doing is creating all the trouble.They change the calendar according toeach persons or regions fancy and make confusion for all concerned and this started with Romans and then Europeans and now has spread to Indian astrologers as a disease.
Since thee is a co-ordinate relation between fixed stars and solar system as a whole ,it is always Nirayana and for man on earth it appears as saayana .In 25800 years only a wobble happens to earth’s axis and since the 9 moolathrikona (like Aswathi,Makha,Moola: bharani,Poora,Poorada etc)are co-ordinates when that wobble occurs the entire co-ordinate system has the same change and therefore it is never felt by earth . or its observers and it does not affect earth and its observer.
Between two Chandrayana points the movement of Chandra is in high speed.With a single nakshathramaasa it moves 360 degree.And the movement circle of the two chandrayanabindu is once in 18.6 years.In 9 years the extend or limit of the moons movement is outside that of the sunrise limit.Inthe rest of the hemisphere or radius moon does not go beyond it.Therefore observation of moons vridhikshaya(waxing and waning)and the paksha are very important.This is for knowing the distance between sun and moon.If we observe the speed of moon depending upon the nakshathra in which he is,one can also guess the movement of its center(earth)and its distance from its center.
Lag(a)na and Lagadha :
Na is Nashta or --and Dha is for Dhana or + and Lagakriya is done for finding out the kshaya and vridhi .(Dhanam and Nadham are spoken in opposites)
Many people(even great scholars ) mistakenly think that Lagadha is a person who lived in 1400 BC and it is from his period the Vedanghajyothisha was first known.
Laghadha is an Aksharasamkhya .Lagna also is an aksharasamkhya.
Laghadham is 333 hours
Laghnam is 330 hours.
They have 3 hours difference.
333/24 =13.21 (almost equal to the nakshathra avadhi 13.20)
In the interval of 13 days a grahana is possible.Without knowing the Nakshathravadhi ,the position of celestial objects and their sphuta and their retrograde movements and the shape of the ecliptic and the celestial objects no one can predict a eclipse ,whether in east or west.
336 hours is 14 days.A grahana(eclipse) followed by another of the same nature can therefore happen within 332-333 hours(less than 14 days or 13 days and shishta).From 3300 BC to 700 BC such couple grahana were observed in North India according to modern computer ganitha.In Rigveda Athri muni says that a complete solar eclipse happened 3 days before the sarad samarathra(samkhyayanabrahmana) which points to a double soalr eclipse.Mahabharatha,Atharvaveda,Rigveda know the law of Laghadha/Lagna (333-330=3).
Athithi and Thithi :-
Athithi is one who comes without looking for an auspicious Thithi and who has to be considered as God and served .Athithi devo bhava: That is a guest for an Indian ancestor.
Thithi is the difference between the longitudes of moon and sun obtained for an observer on earth.That is when a jyothishi says that today is this thithi or that,it simply means that the longitudinal distance between the sun and moon is mentioned.If I say ,today is Prathama ,the distance is between 0-12 degree.
See table below.
Prathama 0-12
Dwitheeya 12-24
Thritheeya 24-36
Chathurthi 36-48
Panchami 48-60
Shashti 60-72
Sapthami 72-84
Ashtami 84-96
Navami 96-108
Dasami 108-120
Ekadasi 120-132
Dwadasi 132-144
Thrayodasi 144-156
Chathurdasi 156-168
Avama /pornami (Vaavu) 168-180
Depending on whether it is Krishnapaksha or Suklapaksha the 180 degrees will beome opposites.Each of the 60 degrees represents 2 rasi .
In 19 years 235 Chandragrahayoga
In 228 years (which is 19X 12 ) 7 Adhimasa .
For 703 chandradina 11 varjithachandradina.
The 16547 varjithachandradina is for 1057500 days.
This is in Romakasidhantha.
The relation of it and derivation of it from Paithamahasidhantha I have discussed in detail in my commentary and comparative study on Panchasidhanthika of Varahamihira.
Figure from my manuscript to show the Zodiac and its relationship
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