History of India starting from ambergriss of a late grandmother

The history of India which I

write starts from my history.It is not the history of geneology of dynasties

alone, but of a people ,common men and women and their practices and day

to day activities ,and a search into these activities which lead to amazing

discoveries.

How to start and where to start such a subaltern history?Being a history of

the ocean which appears constantly in my dreams I will start from

Ambergriss of Ammalu.

What is ambergriss and who is Ammalu?Ammalu was an ancestress of

mine,my mother”s grandmother”s first cousin devoted to Krishna and

remained unmarried as Krishna’s bride writing poetry on Krishna.My

cousin sister Kamaladas has written about her.Ammalu had only two

possessions in her wooden box.One was a green bottle probably of a rare
perfume (The bottle was empty)and the other was ambergriss.

How did she get ambergriss?Ambergriss is a rare ,very rare and costly item

which was traded by the Phoenicians and it is a gelatinlike secretion from

the seawhale ,solidified and usually obtained from the poles Near the Baltic

sea by deep sea traders. How did Ammalu get it ?

My mother told me,we belong to a group of people who lost our way in the

deep sea,(before Christ she said)and our ship wrecked ,and three women in

the ship were rescued by the then ruler of Malabar .As was the custom of

those days,one married the king.The other two ,whether they were sisters or

friends of the first one is not known,remained with her ,later to be married to

the royal family (to the cousins of the king) and they were called the Nalpat

(Nampat )family and the choolali family .our sheshakkar ,she

said.Sheshakkar means ,we have to observe rites when they die or when a

childbirth occur in that family(as mentioned in Veda and Upanishad

bhashyas).She had this knowledge not from any written sources.It was an

oral secret knowledge in the family.And to understand the roots ,our grand

uncle Nalapat Narayanamenon had visited choornikkara ,near Alwaye

where Nalapat family lived until Tipusultan tried to cross the choorni

river.According to Mohanachandran,the ex-ambassador of India to


Kuwait,married to the Nalapat family,in old Nalapat family records the

name is Nalapat Cherikkal and in Venad Thiruvithamkur records this term

Cherikkal (cheri)means the people and lands belonging to the King’s

side(Raajapaksha) and old Nalapat cherikkal extended from the Uliyannur

thuruth to Ambattukavu and Thottekkattukara with the river Periyar or

Choorni joining sea and the family was in charge of the trade and commerce

and protection of the king’s property.(This Nalpat and Chulali story and the

shipwreck is sung in the Thottampaattu of Pulaya community,I later learnt

from the book,Cultural history of Kerala by P.K.Gopalakrishnan.)5

Ammalu had the old inherited last piece of ambergriss with her.Or may be

she got it from one of her ancesters ,all of them wives of successive

rulers/or ruling class nobles who were in contact with the oversea traders or

Perumpadaku Mutharaya chiefs..So my history starts from a enquiry into the

sea voyage,shipwrecks,export and import items of the sea trade and the

habits of the seafaring people of the Indian peninsula.Naturally it becomes

the history of the Indian ocean as well and the practices associated with the

culture of Indian people as a whole.Someone asked me when I told this story

,Are you people from another continent since it was by shipwreck that you

reached Malabar/kerala and because you are all whiteskinned..Not

necessarily.The four maritime regions of Gujarat(kutch and Dwaraka

area),Coromandel,Bengal and Malabar had constant contact through

searoute ,in the prechristian era, and there is every chance that the ship could

have been from Dwaraka region or from Bengal,Eastern India..Ofcourse the

other possibility exists just as a speculation only.

The physical geography,geology ,climate ,wind and rainfall of India is very

peculiar and Maabaar (Malabar )as it was called by old people was always a

bridge between the east and west ,as its Arab name indicates.(Maabar means

bridge).There are two monsoons an year which comes with a regular musical

rhythmic precision and the people of India were aware of its nature from

time immemorial .No other area in the western matitime world has got this

peculiarity and no other people had the opportunity to study it over

prolonged periods .Observational experience of generations contributed to

the navigational skills of the people ..The annual reversal of winds and

rainfall and the traderoute associated with this peculiar phenomenon has to

be understood by a student of Indian history ,before he learns the

genealogies of royalties and their warfare.Because most of the wars were

fought to gain supremacy over the traderoutes.The predictability of

monsoon and the ocean currents and the arrival of Ghanjana birds (kottaran

in my native place in and around the river Nila or Bharathapuzha)before

the winds blow as the first migratory bird is described by books of

Varahamihira.6This was a custom in all coastal belts which portents the
monsoon rain,and the arrival of the first ships with it ,the time of rejoicing

for people since they have reunion with the sailors who left to distant places

in search of fortune,and also the possibility of getting huge sums of shares

for the products they had sent for sale to far off places.

South west monsoon starts from 17 th to 20th May ,at the coasts of

Lanka,and goes north to Malabar and the west coast by June ,July and

august with great intensity and then by September it weakens and by

November it withdraws completely.At that time west coast is inhospitable to

ships and people observe chathurmasya and say ,Vishnu is asleep.They do

not go out but wait for the ships rounding the Cape of Goodhope and west

Asia to come back with the bounty.They reach here by August to End of

September and leave before May.The retreat of monsoon and the

homecoming of ships gone to west ,the previous year is celebrated by

Indians in August ,September,October .It is also the beginning of a trading

season and a harvest season after the rains.Monsoon allow rapid transport

from Malabar to red sea,the middle east .Within 12 days the ship reaches

Muscat and 20 days it can reach Mocha.North east monsoon begin in

October with the westerlies gradually turn to north westerlies.In November

the north west winds of equatorial belt are called the cross monsoons.I

December the winds turn North and north east,easterly.High winds and

torrential rains ensue.In October /November cyclones along the Andhra and

orissa coasts.By December retreat of monsoon starts and die out by

March.Unsteady winds circulate anticyclonically.In October –December the

east coast is closed to foreign trade while the home trade continues.There

are no natural harbours in east coast .Nearest being Trincomalee for the

ships to take shelter.The chola kings knew the route to North and south

channels,to Burma,south china sea ,Srilanka and south east asian islands and

they are marked in the maps made by their nachodas for many

centuries.When SW Monsoon come Malabar ships take shelter in Tuticorin

.During NE monsoon coromandel ships took shelter in Madura bay.

The effect of monsoon is from the equator to the tropic of cancer (24 0

north)To the south of Equator the southeast tradewinds throughout the year

upto 28 0 S .Further south is the westerlies.The westerlies from Holland to

Java ,archipelago islands touch India.The Europeans could understand the

monsoon and the searoutes taken by Indians only after studying it closely for

3 centuries(16th to 18th century).Arab accounts show they had gained the

knowledge from Indians .Vascoda gama could never have reached the shores

of Calicut in 1498 unless piloted by Abdul bin Majid ,a Gujarati Muslim

sailor from Mombasa ,a fatal decision for India.

The south pole and the sea around it is in constant activity right from the
time the earth was formed,and this activity is in the form of winds which
cycles almost all over the globe.The map from geographic review 1942 by

A.F Spilhaus (American geographical society1)7shows this activity .If you

plot a polyhedral pseudoglobe India has the most strategic position ,and

Malabar coast especially occupied a key position in the seatrade route.All

histories of India without considering this ,is only an eyewash of successive

kings and rulers ,not of the people of India.


The first thing we have to remember is that the people of the southern

hemisphere were active seafarers.Second ,to be seafarers what are your basic

requirements?Do the Indians satisfy them?

Then the question of Phoenicians come.Who were they?Where these

mysterious people in any way related to India?

Is there any resemblance to the vedic seafarers and Phoenicians?can we

pinpoint their identity ?How ?

This was a troublesome spot .Yet ,I went on with my quest .The following is

what I came to know.
.
The fishermen (seafarers ) of India

We have heard so much about the job distribution of India as chathurvarnya.The Brahmins,Kshathriyas and the vaisyas and the shudras.Who were the vaisyas and shudras?Actually what was their role in politics,economy,trade ,administration?
This also is a slippery ground to traverse.The role of kingmakers was in the hands of the vaisya.Kenneth Mcpherson8 takes as examples the nayaks of Ikkeri,Thanjavur,merchants of Madura,Malabar,and Thevar s of Ramnadu.The piracy of malabar merchants,the political .economic mastery because of knowledge of trade routes,cosmopolitan nature and sometimes the name soudagar raja(royal merchant)attached to them is pointed out by him.Then he says they were a diverse group,weavers,Parava(pearldivers and boatmen),smallscale commerce and shopkeepers,shipowners (including big fleets that carried ammunition to escape piracy)were among them.Others who didn’t own ship but had shares in a ship on a cooperative basis,and guilds which had agents as settlers in the worldmarkets ,kings ,princes and members of royal family who took to trade and travel .Malabar royal family was one among such groups.
Out of these expeditions by various groups emerged a specialist in seatravel known as nachoda to Europeans and Perumpidaku mutharayan to sangham age ,and to Kerala(especially cochin,calicut.)Nachoda need not be a trader ,he is a sailor,seasoned and experienced and hence knows the searoutes,markets,stars which show the way at night,monsoon wind and its course etc.A learned individual who can take quick decisions (in modern terms who is having real leadership qualities).In Malbar,Gujrat and coromandel coast such fishermen or Araya were in plenty.We find in sangam literature the father of Kovalan 9as such a respected merchant.The perumpidaku(big ship)muth (pearl)arayan(fishermen from which the term Arya was coined)was a native who had well studied the monsoon,and the sea,and very loyal to king and to the nation.Arthasasthra10 gives qualities of people employed in seatrade.Bharathamuni,Vedavyasa ,kovala,Daasa the father of Satyavathy(wife of santhanu and mother of the kurupandava race), Guha the friend of Rama are some of the famous Araya(Aryas)who had been responsible for the veda codification,codification of music,dance and drama ,for mighty kingdoms,and famous for their loyalty to kings as Guha.Even now,when the southwest monsoon retreats and the onam festival begins,the king of Kochin owners his perumpidaku mutharaya with a rope symbolic of the control of his seatrade and the sea fleets of pirots (as Europeans called)or navy.
Shipping and seafaring require s archeology,anthropology,great movements of people across trade winds,literature and living practices,folklore,practice of shipbuilding ,and astronomy .I have been into these for a long time and what is surprising is that no one has ever thought with all these ,the possibility that the mysterious Phoenicians could be the south Indian Naaga of the prehistoric era.The merchant class ,and traveler class ,mingled with the daasa, fishing folk,kings (kshathriya,and Brahmin(as Vedavyasa)and the isolation as we see in the middle ages could not have been there in such a community.It is not a story of superstition but of economic and political and social stability irrespective of political upheavals and change in kings that India had established through these class,from prehistoric times upto the entry of the Europeans in 15th century.If that is not surprising what else is ?
Inland water transport is an interesting feature in Malabar and in India in general.In no other place in the world are so many navigable rivers located in equidistant parallels (so that the Akshamsa lines are not imaginery but real ,)so that the seatrade can flourish by transport of goods to interior land and offseason transport is always busy.The foreigners were not given a glimpse of the inner quarters of the city,they were restricted to the port cities,that too through middle men..The standard coin of India in the Tamil speaking Malabar coast was the fanam and this gave the name phaneesa,as wellas the origin from the phani or a serpent dynasty .(naaga origin).
The shipbuilding in the coast of Malabar was unique.They cut a grove at the edge of a plank and another plank with appropriare shape is slided into it.They used wooden nails occasionally but never iron nails ,because hey knew it is bad for water,which can rust and reduce the longevity.The Indians knew iron ,Indian Chettys were trading in iron ,but even then they didn’t use it for shipbuilding.The Chinese,the Europeans etc were using nails but the Indians refused to use it and the Europeans actually accepted the Indian method as superior to theirs. .Europens use the word prahu for the sailing ships of east coast of India according toMc Pherson and it is only the Europeans who used that name for the shipos of India,And what I feel is it is a corrupted term for the Pidak u or padaku (big ship)in Tamil language and it was widely used in Malabar,tamil speaking parts of south India even before sangam period.The use of teak for hull was also one reason for longevity of Malabar ships (50-80 yrs)while the oak built uropean ship had a longevity of only 10-12 years.The sheathing (damaged planks replacement periodically in off seasons)increased the longevity and this made the Malabar made ships durable and economical.
Apart from the Nachoda,the ship had a tandel(head of crew)a sarhang for docking (mate)landing supervisors and gunmen .(These people belonged to the vaisya and sudra as well as the Kshthriya classes depending upon the job they specialized.
The long silence after the descriptions of the Arabs and the survival of the knowledge of shipbuilding to date,as well as star science and comparative planetology and mathematics till date among the Indians teach us the method(educational)how knowledge was aquired by long lines of generations through experience and practice,how it was transferred and retained to last for more than 6ooo years without break.
The jobs of fishing,boating,seafaring,river anvigation,constructing appropriate vessels for inland and sea trade,launching vessels,the identification of sea routes and the directions by star and planet ,and the water currents and winds ,calculation of risks involved in a particular journey and the boldness to do so ,all show the historically integral part of a material culture in the maritime zones of India and allthese jobs as well as agriculture was the territory of the vaisya /merchant class.So they played a more important role in the economy,naval defence and decision making on trade and commerce .Probably a higher place than the Teacher ,The Brahmin who remained indoors without going out ,and touching any new culture.And the kings /rulers of India were aware of this.But the real practice was that only the eldest Brahmn had that restriction,while the youngers(Appan as called in Malayalam)were free and learned a lot by constant voyages.In veda Bhujyu makes a voyage for making money.
The Indian ocean world of which India occupied a prominent part had its own sets of human natural rhythms,which dictated every natural activity.Until 15th century AD this was remarkably selfcontained.In 15th century we find China ,which was an active partner in seatrade ,suddenly stops sending its ships .Why?The next stage of crumbling of the hitherto trade relationships were anticipated by them.The moment Vas co Da Gama reached Calicut ,they withdrew from the scene,slowly.And by 18th century the boundaries of the Indian ocean world crumbled overwhelmed economically by the European merchants and soldiers who didn’t respect the subaltern history,because they didn’t understand it properly,and catered to the Lords and petty kings who were quarrelling with each other for territorial and trade supremacy. ,which they thought they will obtain if they are loyal to the foreign colonizers.

The Atlantis and Pacific ocean has a pole to pole orientation ,and touch both south and north poles,while Indian ocean has the landmasses on the north ,great chains of mountains that separate from the climate of central Asia,and this geographic configuration ,the monsoons and the rainfall ,wind and ocean currents ,the rhythm of agricultural and maritime activity adjusted to the rain and winds,gave its supremacy over the maritime trade .There had been a wide arc stretching from S.E.Asia,China,North Australia,Madagaskar,India,coasts of Arabia ,Egypt,south and central America ,and the Mediterranean where the sailors from the Indian ocean world reached regularly ,constantly globalising their ideas,knowledge,trading goods etc.The pheonicians were only part of this great people.Not original inhabitants of the place where they are found .They were acting as the agents and middlemen of the Assyrian emperors and were Indians ,and were the loyal people possibly from the western coasts of India (Malabar/Gujarat) . Brandell 11call sea voyage the longue duree (since long term rhythm of natural and human environment can determine it and sustain it)Random political changes and natural calamities(short term rhythms)cannot hinder it.The long term major rhythms like basic social attitude,food,clothing,architecture,trade using climate ,agriculture etc determine it and these do not change even if a few individuals change in power positions.With these characteristic the Indian ocean world was a self sufficient world and the first global economy of the 18th and 19th century was due to the attraction of this system on the European colonists.East Africa did not have long navigable rivers to facilitate inland trade and sustained supply of the demanded things .Middle east and some ports in Arabia were used but there also the navigable rivers are less except the Nile and the Egypt valley .And inland traffic was by caravans and not by waterways ,and therefore the earliest navigators from the Indian ocean regions were the teachers to Arabia in Maritime trade and not vice versa.But later on,due to internal problems on the main land the supremacy went to the Arabian merchants and jews and in due course to their descendents and converts .the Christians and the muslims.They became the prominent vaisya class.As Mcfarlane12 points out it is not enough to study the component parts of the modern world economy alone to realize and understand its full impact ,but we need to explore the economical and cultural network which existed beyond Europe ,which were later integrated into a global capitalist system.The fact that the Phoenicians had rounded the cape of goodhope and reported the change in direction of the sun when they cross the tropic of Capricorn and the fact that the Greek historians called them fancy tellers is important ,because only when the Europeans in 15th century crossed the cape they knew what the pheonicians told was true and that Herodotus was wrong in mocking at them.It took more than 1600 to 1800 years to rediscover the truth ,for the Greeks /Europeans .while the Phoenicians/Indians knew all along that the Earth is globe and the travel on a sea gives you so many new experiences.The Indian ocean and its history is important for any student who really wants to know not only the history of India but also the history of the whole world.
I came to this study by enquiring the route of Ambergriss in Ammalu’s box.Not by regular classroom study.
At least 9 spheres of activity are mastered before venturing out on to the open sea,and they are
1.Mastery over monsoon and tradewinds
2.over observation of stars and comparative planetology
3.Markets for goods and their numismatics
4.Shipbuilding,maintainance at low economy for longer periods
5.Produce agricultural,cash crops and find out the rare and essential commodities for marketing and establish a regular supply of these in time by loyal network of agents all over the world
6.Inland river transport so that the cargo reaches safely the destination
7.rules ,regulations inter and intrapersonal relationships
8.Arts ,architecture,cultural and custom peculiarities etc for interaction and interest in transfer of knowledge to further the relationships.
9.Standardised weights and measures and formation of guilds
These are the minimum requirements and to have experience and expertise in them a long period is necessary .So ,the maritime and trade activities of Indians require more study than the geneology of the kings and rulers which help in identifying an era only ,not in the cultural characters of the people (the subaltern).
In modern world we know the principles of leadership,innovation and management.(Leadership for Innovation.How to organize team creativity and harvest ideas.John Adair.Kogan page India New Delhi 2007)and that innovation is the key to winning and keeping leadership in world markets.And this calls for team creativity.The commitment to a dual strategy of innovation is the challenge of improving quality ,reliability,and performance of products and services.Indian leaders who organized global trade in 7 th millennium itself had developed this by their honest dealings,weight and measures and the professionalism of finding the demand and supply and communication routes and above all keeping an organized team effort in relation to the wind and seasonal changes of their geographic area.And they had a long term perspective as we find from archeological finds.They had flexibility for innovation and acceptability of risk for such trading as shown right from Bhujyus story in Rg veda.A boss demand respect but a leader commands respect ,is a saying.Indian ancestors commands the respect of anyone who is thoughtful about such facts.The spiritual leaders of India had practical wisdom also and that made them really respectable people is my opinion.It was not just spiritualism of theoretical nature but spiritualism for the wellbeing and prosperity of entire world based on dharma,and satya and ahimsa .They took to arms to protect dharma only.

Many minds,many worlds and many histories theory

In Gargya’s samhitha we find a beautiful description of our multiverses .When Brahma ,the creator visits the Goloka where Radha and Krishna live,he is prevented to enter at the gate by Chandraanana ,a female attendant.When he tells her that he is Brahma,she asks “Brahma of which universe?”
He replies:I thought there is only one universe and I am the Brahma of it.
She said.You have been sitting within your closed universe spacetime like a fly within a fruit.You haven’t come out and seen the many universes and worlds.There are several of them ,like fruits of banyan,amlak,oudumbara,Abrus (of different sizes)and of innumerable numbers.
In Vasishtasamhitha also we find there are several universes about 1000 s of them,revolving like seeds of Abrus precatorius(gunja)without touching or colliding with each other .When Alexander heard that there are several worlds from Anaxarchus he wept.The reason was,he thought it as a matter of lamentation that he has not even conquered one.Several thousands of years after Vasishta and Gargya ,the modern astronomy is finding out that there are multiverses.And that the observers mind is also important in making the universes/multiverses/electronlike move.The theory of many minds by Albert and Lower 1988(The quantum mechanics of minds and worlds .Jeffrey A Barrett .Associate Prof of philosophy at uty of California .Irvine Oxford uty press 1999pp 184) states that every observer(drashta in Indian philosophy),every sentient physical system associated with not a single mind,but rather a series of continuous infinite minds and each evolve independent of his/her other minds.But the minds beliefs aboutits own past mental states are typically reliable.Each of the observers mind represent a different perspective or view of the physical world.But while each mind see a single determinate and consistent series of events ,the global observer ,as a collective mind has many mutually incompatable experiences.Minds are not in superposition.Since they are nonphysical.The time evolution of minds is probabilistic.Probabilities are completely objective,although they do not refer to physical events but always to sequence of states of individual minds.Each mind follow a random trajectory with probabilities given by the mental dynamics.One should eventually expect the memories of almost all of an observers minds,in the norm-sequenced measure ,to exhibit the usual quantum statistics.The many mind theory fits well with relativity.One can read off the global mental state of an observer from universal wave function and the evolution of wave function can be expressed in a covariant form ,so can the global mental dynamics.The transcendental approach(pp 198-199 ibid)is to start by supposing scientific enquiry is possible(In ,sanskrit Asthi and those who start from such assumption are called AAsthika as opposed to naasthika who start from assumption not possible ) .Our beliefs about our and others measurements results are true.If so,whenever he is in an eigenstate of making such report ,then the suggestive properties of the base theory is working and what properties the mental state of the observer must have(In Sanskrit it is called Adhikaara of the observer) and how it must evolve in a mind as they tell us what the observer will report about own experiences(swaanubhava in Sanskrit) and relation of it to others experiences.(Paraanubhava).The transcendental approach according to Barrett fully determines the auxiliary approach(pp 200 ibid).
Destruction of simple interference effects by environmental correlates is decoherence.This explains the determinate experience of the observer.,difficulty to distinguish pure states from mixtures.Process of decoherence states of the brain is the relevant observables of individual neurons ,chemical constituents and electrical potentials.They obey the classical dissipative equations of motion(being physical)Thus any quantum superposition of state of neurons will be destroyed far too quickly for us o become conscious of the quantum goings on .The decoherence applies to our own state of minds.Environment constantly changes.The property selected here,has a determinant that is changing.Therefore the property selectd as determinate also must be changed.Thus as the environment the mind also changes constantly and therefore the observers records,experiences,beliefs also has many histories.

Many histories theory was built upon Everetts many world interpretation.It has three additional crucial ingredients.
1.The notion of set of alternative course-grained histories of a quantum system
2.decoherence of histories in a set
3.Their approximate determinism near the effective classical limit
Gell-Mann and Hartles many histories approach is”In a whole thing ,no fundamental division into observer and observed.Measurements and observers cannot be fundamental notions in a theory that seeks to discuss the universe when neither existed.”
The observer or Drashta and the observed or the drishya(prapancha)are indivisible One .Jeeva and prapancha being one and the measurements of the prapancha are measurements of the observer as well.(the same maana/measures)and when nothing existed as in naasadeeya soothra tells us ,these observers and the observed were not there and hence for the state of pralaya or complete dissolution of worlds,and for Brahma no measurements possible .
All predictions in science are honestly and generally the probabilistic predictions of the true histories of particular events in the universe.The two rules for the many histories theory are
1.sets of alternative histories of universe assigned approximate probabilities
2.What these probabilities are explained in context of Heisenberg picture.

When I write the history of India ,I understand these scientific possibilities well and request my readers also to understand them.The history I write is from a different point of view and it is from my observers mind it comes.So reading my history,you also get a picture of my mind as a part of the entire prapancha /multiverses .

To quote Sankaracharya’s words
Jeevo Brahmaivanaapara.
Jeeva =Prapancha
Brahma=Satya or truth
Prapancha as we see has lot of differences due to relative observation of several minds and hence due its seeming duality is a Maaya.
But Jeeva =Brahma
And Jeeva=Prapancha
Therefore
Brahma=Prapancha
If Brahma is truth Prapancha also has to be truth and the many feeling we get in prapancha is only an illusion /maaya.
We are all one,the entire multiverse with its moving and nonmoving,living and nonliving beings is ONE and that mahaadvaitha is what I want to convey through my history.It is Indian philosophy ,in historical perspective and its intention is the happiness of entire world.Shanthi means peace .Let there be peace on earth .

Om shanthi shanthi shanthi

changing perspectives on education in India

Changing perspectives on education in India

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love ,Relationships,Harmony,citizenship and world peace

LOVE AND RELATIONSHIPS

Today is February 6th .Visakham star.Ashtami thithi .A vyazhavatta (12 years ) have passed silently but very fruitfully after my book on Krishna(Sandrananda )was released at Cochin.My relation with Krishna ,started at a stage of infancy has matured at the age of 64 .64 Years and 64 kalas /arts have been dedicated to Krishna in silent service.

Theodore Sizer remarked that it is better for one teacher to teach two subjects for 25 students,than teaching one subject to 50 students.The proportion if we take the Indus valley proportions of measurement will be like this:
Subjects No:of students
1 50 50
2 25 25
4 12.5 12-13
8 6.25 6-7
16 3.125 3-4
32 1.5625 1-2
64 0.78125 1

The more the years of contact between the two people ,the more will be the shared experiences and more will be the bondage .Thus a Gurukula with a Guru/shishya was considered a rare relationship where students learn from a loved,respected person everything needed for life and for posterity to remember.A great Guru could transfer all the knowledge of 64 arts and sciences to one great disciple who will bear the torch to next generation.In a village all children are taught same basics ,and the students with talent were able to pursue the enquiry further with experts in more famous centers where they lived with Guru .
Krishna,though an avathar had lived in a gurukula ,just like any other child of his age ,obeying all human laws .
Whether in a Guru/shishya or wife/husband relationship an intellectually emotional bond is essential for a lifelong romantic love and mutual respect.When we speak of a romantic love ,most people equate it with the infatuations the teen age children have with the opposite sex.That romantic feeling can have two types of course:
1.It fades away either due to familiarity or due to facts /trials and tribulations of life.
2.It matures into a longlasting deep friendship in which tinges of the vestiges of the old romantic feeling persists subtly leading to a sort of deep bliss or happiness to both partners in their relationship.
Intellectual examination of the romantic love gives us this everlasting friendship.There is a permanent commitment to friendship and love in this type of friendship.It is a beautiful experience which a human being cherishes forever.
In relationships it is the shared activities and interests that keep up a shared commitment.If a wife/husband has a commitment to the other’s professional commitments ,and understands them well naturally the relationship will strengthen .The continuance of mutual interest in actions and interests of the other helps eternal friendships possible between the two.There is interpersonal growth in both individuals which is visible to all .The Guru-Shishya are both visibly happy and blessed by the relationship and every onlooker feel the change in them.This is an ideal relationship.If such a relation happen in a marriage that is an ideal marriage (Ch 9 Interpersonal growth Part 2 Educating for personal life.pp 179-194 Happiness and education Nel Noddings).
The dramatic differences in habits,tastes ,personality and lifestyle of a couple(any two people) can lead to imperfections in that relationship.If the organic habits of two people are not aesthetically creating a harmonious whole how do wise people hide such imperfections in relationships?
They keep silence ,reserve to save such a imperfect ,yet necessary relationship as marriage etc.What the media is talking about hypocrisy in relationship is this silence for saving a relationship.I am not saying whether this is correct or not.But ,this is a fact .The lifelong marriages are saved not by the perfections in it,but by the mature,wise,silence ,reserve shownby one of the partners,either the male or the female.They try to forget and forgive or to make a cover for what is not there.

The ideal friendship which we are talking about is not that. The perfect relationship gives eternal happiness or bliss and is not a saved relationship by sacrifice of one of the parties.Both get bliss out of it.We know pleasure is different for different stages of our life.The concept change as we grow up from a child to a teenager upto the mature old age.The love that lasts till old age ,unconditionally ,without expecting anything from the other,yet in perfect harmony with the other is the true love.Perfect friendship is that of two people who have similar virtues,similar interests,value the friend for friendship itself and such a person with virtuous friendship will be friend of all.Like Krishna.The love and friendship not for any selfish motive but for love and friendship itself.They do not betray the faith of a friend.They enjoy in the happiness of the friend without any other thought or jealousy .
To be a good friend one has to know the friend thouroughly.To understand a friend we need contact with friends.The perfect friendship a Guru and shishya develop in a Gurukula is by this mutual relation.The perfect relation we expect from a marriage is such a mutual understanding.
Only a few get this perfect unconditional love.Those who get it are lucky,chosen ones.
They have romantic,aesthetic and intellectual friendship which keeps them eternally happy,blissful.
This is the true Bhakthy and ecstacy between Bhagavan and Bhaktha,between Guru and shishya and between twp lovers (Radha/Krishna or Shiva/Shakthy).
These interpersonal relationship has to come from each home .This will educate us how to conduct in public life.Teach us how to contribute to other people’s happiness.Our fulfillment as members of society,as citizens of our nation and of the world will come only by that .
The public life starts with our profession/occupation.The profession balances the distinctive capacity of an individual with his/her social service.What opportunity one gets to do that ,and how much one utilize that opportunity is what matters.Profession and choice of profession depends upon several factors and thus opportunity for helping others also is depending upon these factors.More than that,whatever profession is chosen,the help we offer depend upon our mental make up too.A person may make lot of money out of profession ,but may not contribute to society.On the other hand a person who had not made an economic success in life might contribute to society by service.So it is not economic success alone that counts for enlightened citizenship but a mental make up to do so.A person may be rich but his wife’s uxuries may be never ending and even if he wants to do social service he may not find enough to spare for such causes. Thus when the great pathologist William Osler said that “Medical profession is a noble profession for those who are noble”,he meant it for all professions.
If we contribute both interpersonally and intrapersonally and at our old age ,when we look back we have nothing to regret and we feel satisfaction we have been successful in our life.If we are complaining about our life,our opportunities,our friends and we are not satisfied with our ornaments,costly dresses and luxurious apartments and vehicles etc and of the fame and awards we received ,of the positions we had etc we have not matured gracefully.Both personal and professional life offer us with a variety of opportunities to serve all around us and what we have to do is to be aware of that blessing and utilize it .We will be happy individuals then.We will be friends of the entire world then.
A democracy can survive only on such values.The humanity needs such values for its survival.The entire globe needs a harmonious ecofriendly relationship like this ,respecting and loving all and cherishing all as blessings of the mother nature.
This is best exemplified by the physical,mental,intellectual and spiritual health through the medium of saamaveda ,the saama music of universal love and peace.

grand unification and integrated method using Music for education,world peace

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

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


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

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


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

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

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

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

Preparing field and pest control for paddy

The preparation of field,and pest control


Soiltesting

Based on pH, major types
1.Highly acidic pH below 6.5.Best for paddy cultivation between 5-6.5.yield poor if below 5 .Alluvial,sandy clay,clayey soil suitable for it.
2.Medium type between 6.5-7.5
3.Alkaline 7.9 and above.
The classification in Rasi,pasimarasi etc given in old texts was for this purpose.(see previous chapters for details of the ancient classification of soil)


Seasons in Tamil Nadu with variations in different districts .
Swarnavari in summer April 15-August 14 (Mesha 1st or Vishuvam to Simha 1st)
Samba(Champav) July 15-January 14(Karkitaka 1 to Makaram 1 )
Late Sambha or Thaladi September 15-January 14th (kanni 1st to Makaram 1st)
Navarai December 15th –March 30(Dhanu 1st to Meenam 30 )
Kuruvai june 1-August 31.(Rishabha 15th to Simha 15th)
Varity vary with district.

Organic manure
1Farmyard manure
All nutrients required for plants present in this and it remain for longer periods in soil giving good results.
Cowdung 5-7 tonnes/acre
Goat dung 5 ton/acre
Poultry waste 2 ton/acre
Pig dung 1 ton/acre
Applied as basal manure during last plough.Farmyard manure is allowed to decay and then used.Applied and ploughed into soil the same day.
2 Biofertilisers
Atmosphere has 78 % nitrogen.Soil bacteria fix it and convert it so that plants can absorb it from soil.These are acetobacter,azospirillum,phosphobacteria.Instead of using them directly one can cultivate leguminous plants in field so that their roots do the same function.
Another method of growing algae ,azolla (a floating fern)with paddy is suggested with paddy as intercrop.These also provides nitrogen.But ancients used water lily for the same purpose and that is better than using cyanobacteria like blue gren algae or ferns .The overgrowth of the African plants in Malabar area is a example of uncontrollable growth of such plants.
3.Amrithakaraisal is an extract prepared easily.
Fresh cowdung 10 kg
Cows urine 10 liter
Jaggery 1 kg
Water 100 liters
Added to a cement tank and mixed well.Extract is ready for use next day.500 Liters needed for one acre crop.Mix with water for irrigation and can be used as spray (for which 10 liters are needed).
4 Green manure:-
Crops cultivated in field before the main crop.They are ploughed into soil before flowering stage and used as manure.Essential for paddy.Leguminosae family is used for this.
Crotalaria juncea or sun hemp
Sesbania cannabina or Dainchaa
Sesbania speciosa or sesbania
Tephrosia purpurea or wild indigo
Indigofera tinctoria or Indian indigo
Tephrosia noctiflora

5 Green leaf manure
Albizia lebbeck(sirisha tree)
Calotropis gigantean(Gigantic swallow wort)
Cassia auriculata(tanner’s cassia)

Azadirachta indica(common neem or vep)
Gliricidia sepium(spotted variety)
Pongamia pinnata(Indian beech)
Morinda pubescens(Muringa)
Delonix elata(white gulmohar)

The leaves used as manure as well as in preparation of biopepticides.
6.Oil seed cake.
The pith left over after oil extraction is a source of nitrogen .Groundnut cakes,neem seed cakes,castor seed cakes are used.For paddy neem and groundnut cakes are used.This gives organic nitrogen for paddy growth.
Cake Basal manure Top dressing
Neemseed cake 60 kg/acre 25 kg/acre
Groundnut cake 40 kg/acre 25 kg/acre

7.Crop Rotation In South Arcot District ,North Arcot ,Chengalpet, banana,sugarcane and betel are alternative crops for paddy.Sesbania is a intermediate crop between two paddy crops .
Three varieties are sown in three seasons .

Samba (July –Jan) Navarai(Dec –March) Swarnavari(April-August)
Paddy Blackgram Sesame
Paddy Groundnut Paddy
Paddy Cotton -
Paddy Vegetables Green manure crops (for seeds)

The nutrients used by first crop is replaced by following crop and nutrient requirement of second crop is different .This maintains nutrient balance of soil.
8 Panchagavya
Every temple going person might have heard of Panchagavya as the 5 sacred products from cow .It was prepared in temples and given to farmers for use in the common fields .
Preparation was as follows.
Cowdung 5 Kg
Cows urine 3 liters
Ghee 1 liter
Cows milk 2 liters
Curd 2 liters
Other ingredients added to this:-
Tender coconut 3 liters
Cane juice or jaggery 3 liters or 1 kg
Yellow plantain 12 numbers or honey ½ kg
Cowdung,urine and ghee mixed in a cement tank(30 liter capacity) for one week with stirring in morning and evening ,release methane gas.To this mixture add milk,curd,tender coconut ,ripe yellow plantain,and jaggery.After a weeks time filter and use extract.
3 % is sprayed during tillering and bootling stage for coarse varieties to increase yield.For thin varieties 3 % sparayed once during bootling stage.During flowering stage 10 % buttermilk extract or 3 % tender coconut is sprayed.This help uniform flowering and increase yield.

Composting techniques:-
Land selected should not be low lying or waterlogged.
Upland elevated land that has shade is ideal for compost preparation.
Soil should not be sandy
Soil where compost is prepared should not be penetrated by roots of trees.
Plastic products,polythene ,bones of cattle,stones,thick stems of plants and glass bottle pieces to be avoided.
Types of compost are
Biodung compost
Cycle method
Vermicompost
Compost is done in pits,concrete tanks,well rings,wooden or plastic crates appropriate for the given situation and need.

Water management:
Water should stagnate in rice field.2 cm of water should stagnate in field during transplantation.From 10th day of transplantation to the day of maturity ,3 cm of water should stagnate.There should be no water shortage during tillering,flowering and milky stage.Top dressing should not be done in marshy fields where there is water stagnation.The water should be drained and land allowed to dry before adding the manure.The field should be irrigated immeadiately after manuring.

Pests of paddy are leaf eating insects and caterpillars ,sap feeders,and stem borers.

Leaf eating insects;-
1leaf folder.Cnaphalocrocis medinalis .Lepidoptera .Abrownish orange moth that lay eggs on upper surface of leaves.
Symptoms are rolling of leaves,eggs and larvae seen in the folded leaf blades,the crop has sickly appearance with white patces in severely affected fields.Longitudinal white streaks on leaf blade seen.Leaves loose chlorophyll .ETL or economic threshold level management should start immeadiately when more than 10 leaves are damaged.
3-5 % Andrographis paniculata kashaayam
Garlic,ginger,chilli extract
5% neem kernel extract spray
Are the control measures
2.Rice case worm Nymphula depunctalis .Lepidoptera.
Small moth with white wing.Symptoms as caterpillar cuts leaves into small pieces and rolls longitudinally into box-like structure.Damaged leaves hang as longitudinal rolls at tips of leaf.Some seen floating on surface of water.The larvae seen inside cut leafrolls hence called case worms.ETL when more than 10 leaves damaged .Management by rope method
3 Green horned caterpillar Melanitis leda ismene .Lepidoptera.
A butterfly dark brown with black and yelloe eye markings.
Larvae attack plants in seedling stage and during tillering stage.They attack as a group and affect growth
4.Yellow hairy caterpillar Psalis pennatula .Lepidoptera
Yellow colour.orange head.Red stripes and hairs all over body.Silky pupae.Infest during growth and when the earhead forms.Leaves damaged,growth affected.
ETL when more than 10 leaves affected.
5.Army worm Spodoptera litura .Lepidoptera
Adult moth is dark brown with conspicuous black spot on forewing.Larvae attack leaves at night and eat them completely leaving midribs.The crop has a look of a field grazed with cattle.ETL when more than 10 leaves affected.
6 Skipper Philopidus mathyas .Lepidoptera.
Leaves longitudinally folded.The leaves become skeletal .
10 kg neemcake as basal manure /acre of transplanted field prevent entry of caterpillar into field.
Neem leaves in a bunch at different places in field also keep away them.
Wood ash controls the caterpillars.For one acre 10-12 kg mixed with sand is strewn in field.This is low cost technology followed even by small scale farmers
Field is flooded and then drained .By this,all larve and pupa hiding in soil is exposed and removed.
7 Gall Midge Orseolia oryzae .Diptera.
Adult fly is yellow .It lays 100-200 elongated eggs on undersurface of leaves..Yellow maggots turn to brown pupae .
Terminal portion of crop turns into tubular gall.If severe,growth affected.Tubular galls resembling onion leaves are found.The larvae and adults suck sap and insert poisonous substance called sesitogen into leaves.The rolling of leaf to shape of elephant trunk happen .ETL when more than 10 % of earheads are infested.
8 Short horned grasshopper
Hieroglyphus banaian .Arthroptera.
Green colour.The leaves damaged.Nibble the tender florets and grains.Earheads turn white even before they emerge.
Spreading Calotropis leaves besides the bunds of the field prevents entry of grasshoppers
Manage with a solution of cowdung or goat dung .30-50 kg of dung taken in gunny bag and that bag is balanced on a pole .Below it a drum filled with 100-200 liters water is kept.Tip of gunny bag is touching the surface of water.The gunny bag is shaken twice a day for 15 days.After 15 days the water in drum is brown and a foul smell will emerge.This is diluted with twice the amount of water and sprayed.This is a repellent for grasshoppers.
The sap feeders:-
1 Green leaf hopper .Nephotettix virescens .Hemiptera.
Tip of leaf become yellow.The growth affected.They transmit the viral particles of Tungro virus.ETL when more than 5 adults are found per hill during growing stages .10/hill is the ETL for flowering stages.
Transplant seedlings after dipping in neem kernel extract for 24 hours to increase their resistance to pests.Neem oil and pongam oil is mixed in ratio of 1:4 and sprayed in field.
Wild grass and weeds removed from field bund and field since they are the favourite egglaying spots of pests.
2 Brown plant hopper
Nilaparvata lugens .Hemiptera.
Colour same as that of soil.Crops show burned apperence.Dries in patches.While walking across field ,hoppers can be seen flying.
Adults remain in basal part of crop and suck sap.The plants turn yellow and then dry up causing browning of leaves refered to as hopper burn.As they move from one plant to another they spill sap on other plants and reslts in spread of sooty mould fungus.Stem rot disease is seen in areas affected by plant hopper infestation.ETL if more than 15 pests per hill .A cloudy weather and closer spacing,heavy application of nitrogenous chemical fertilizers are favourable for rapid multiplication of the species.
Control measures are judicious use of nitrogenous fertilizers,avoidance of water stagnation ,light traps to monitor and attack adults,field and bund cleaning without weeds ,BPH control by sunlight allowed to enter the under part of plants by proper spacing.
3 mealy bug Heterococcus rehi .Hemiptera.
White stout adults.
Stunted crops and panicle formation affected.
Dry spells and drought favours the pest population.control measures are neem kernel extract spraying.
4 Ear head bug Leptocorisa acuta .Hemiptera.
Brown adults with long legs.Foul odour from fields is its presence.Infestation more in milky stage.The grains have brownish round dots.ETL if more than 5 pests per panicles .Control measure Cycas cercinalis flower (sannampoo)is cut and tied to a stick which is taller than crop level.Placed in 10-15 places in field.This prevents entry for about 2 weeks . By this time the milky stage is completed and crop attains maturity.IKg of Achryranthus aspera root and 1 kg neem bark is dried and powdered and mixed with water and sprayed.This is for 1 acre land
5 Black bug Scotinophora coarctata .Hemiptera.
Black colour
Blasts on leaf and leaf sheath.Chlorophil content in central part of leaf is eaten up.the leaves break and hang.The pest remains in tillers,leaves,and axils.The leaves turn yellow and crops are stunted.ETL when more than 5 beetles per hill or when more than 10 % leaves damaged/hill during tillering stage.Applying neem cake as top dressing control the entry of beetles.

Stem borers:-
1 yellow stem borer. Scirpophaga incertulas .Lepidoptera
Adult female moth is bright yellow forewing with black spot.Larva makes hole on undersurface of stem.White chaffy ears seen at irregular intervals all over field.When infested in early stages groth and tillering affected.
The growing tip is destroyed by boring into leaf sheath.This disrupt flow of water and nourishment to plant causing drying of central shoot.(cause white ears).Larva found inside central shoot.ETL when two egg masses or 2 % white ears /sq meter is seen.
Control by applying 42-50 kg neemcake as basal manure,Neemcake bags kept in irrigation channels,Pheromone traps to attract male adults,light traps,ploughing immeadiately after harvest to destroy eggs and pupae,seedlings planted with proper spacing.
As I write this (on 3rd Feb 2010 Mathrubhoomi daily I find a report that in a place in Palghat district ,near Srikrishnapuram in a field where the agricultural department had asked farmers to do crops out of season,when the plants grew the entire ears have turned white.This must be due to the problem of infestation of stem borer.The tips given above may be looked into and implemented before they start next crop).

Rodents:-
Rats feed on seeds sown in nursery and destroy seedlings .Cause damage in panicle initiation stage.Cut mature panicle and store grain in their holes.Also damage storage godown grains.
Take unripe papaya fruit.Cut into small pieces.Spread over the bunds.The chemical in it cause damage to rat’s mouth For 1 acre 4-5 fruits are enough.Ripe fruits should not be used.
Take 2-3 kg Ipomoea fistulos aand add 3-5 liters of water.Boil for ½ hour.Filter extract.Take 2-3 kg sorghm seeds and add the extract to it.Boil again for ½ hour.Spread these seeds in rat burrows.rats feeding on this will die.
Take mudpot and fill with straw .Sprinkle water over starw .Make a hole at bottom of pot.Invert over rathole near the bunds.Light the straw and cover the hole with mudpaste before smoke escapes.The smoke suffocate rats .
Spread screwpine trees bark and leaves over bunds of field.When rats try to cross bunds ,thorns spread on margin of leaves scratches the lower belly of rats and rats do not enter fields.Growing thorny bushes of pineapple in bund also has same effect.

FUNGAL DISEASES:-
1 Rice blast Pyricularia orizae is an airborne fungal disease.Small specks on leaves enlarge to spindleshaped spots of varying lengths with a whitish grey center and brown margin.Nodes and neck of panicle blacken lrading to breaking (neck blast)at point of infection.The affected panicle break due to weight of grain.Symptoms start from seedling stage upto 3rd week of harvest.The symptom can be seen on stem also.Black shaded region seen above and below the node.When infection happen during the milky stage the panicle gets poorly filled.
2.Rice brown leaf spot. By Helminthosporium oryzae
A seedborne fungal infection.Leaves show round or oval irregular brown spots which coalesce to form whithering of tissue.Avelvety growth seen on glumes.Brown or grey brown seen at neck region sometimes.Grains show red brown discolouration.Spots are like sesame seeds.Hence also called sesamum leafspot.
3.Sheath blight by Rhyzoctonia solani
Spreads through weeds and pathogens.First symptom seen on leaf sheath is appearance of greenish grey lesions.Later they turn to straw colour and increase in size which girdles the stem.The leaf blade dries up from tip downwards ,the grains shriveled and poorly filled.
4 stem rot by Leptospheria salvinii
Soilborne fungus.Disease appear after transplanting in the form of small black irregular lesions at waterline on the leaf sheath and stem.Such infected stem rots and falls down.Spikelets appearing in affected plants remain chaffy.Disease is more severe in fields where water remains stagnant and lack proper drainage facility.

Bacterial disease:-
Bacterial leafblight by Xanthomonas campestris p.v.oryzae
Seedborne bacterial disease .Yellow colour watersoaked lesions on both edge of leaves ,which later coalesce and entire surface turns into straw colour.The affected leave s roll completely ,droop and ultimately the tillers wither away .The symptoms appear 4-6 weeks after transplanting .Affected plants produce chaffy grains.High nitrogenous fertilizer favour blight epidemics especially where susceptible cultivas are grown.

Viral diseases :-
Tungro or leaf yellowing by Virus complex.
Spread through viral particles.Older leaves turn yellow orange starting from tips,spread downwards covering entire leaf .Young leaves mottled with dark brown blotch.Plants become stunted and bear poor panicles with empty glumes.Transmitted by green grass hopper .

Disease management:-
1.Take cows urine in a mudpot and allow it to ferment for one week.Spray this over the crop to control bacterial and fungal diseases.According to intensity of disease the quantity can be reduced from ½ liter to 1 liter per tank.
2.Mix one liter of cows urine with one liter buttermilk and 8 liter of water.Spray the extract over crop to control bacterial and fungal diseases.
3.Mix 300 ml of sweet flag extract with one liter of cows urine and 8.7 liters of water.Spraying this extract controls spreading of diseases.Sweet flag extract required for 1 acre of crop is prepared by mixing 400 gm sweetflag powder with 2 liter water.This should be kept undisturbed for 3 hours and then filtered.

Storage pests rats and fungi destroy grains stored after harvest.
1.Rice weevil( Sitophilus oryzae .Coleoptera)
2 Lesser grain Borer(Rhyzopertha dominica.Coleoptera)
3.Angoumois Grain moth or Sitotroga cerealella(Lepidoptera)
4 Rice moth .Corcyra cephalonica .Lepidoptera.
Management in storage :-
1.Godowns keptclean.Waste and unwanted material periodically removed
2.Cracks on floors ,walls,roofs sealed
3.Grains should not have more than 12 % moisture content
4.Gunny bags stacked with proper aereation in between
5.If grains are to be stored for longer periods ,gunny bags should be dried in sun once in three months to prevent pest attack
6.The bags should not be placed directly on floor.Place on a wooden log one foot above ground level to prevent grains from getting moisture
7.When grains are stored in mudpots ,mouth of pot sealed with neem leaf paste
8.Mixing seeds with neem oil prevent pest attacks.1 kg paddy seeds mixed with 10 ml neem oil and dried in shade ,before storing.
9.Bags used for storage should be treated with 10 % neem extract before use.The neem kernel to be used immediately after preparation.Soak gags in it for 15 mts.Then dry in shade and use for storage.If bag is new soak for ½ hour.If bag has loose meshes and small pores thiner solutions to be prepared .By this method grains are protected from pests for 4 months.
10 In store rooms along with cowdung used for cleaning floor,neem kernel extract or neem oil should be used directly .This is to be used for mud walls also
11.If bamboo bins are used for storage they are painted with thick neem kernel extract .
12.Seeds and grains stored are protected from pests by placing leaves of vitex ,neem and pongam on bags and in different places in godown
13.While filling bags ,for every 20 kg seeds,2 handful of powdered vitex ,neem,pongam leaves are spread.By this grains are protected for more than one year
14.Storage godowns should have proper aeration
15.Adult moths controlled by fumigation.Iron pan with hot coal placed in godown/granary .Fresh neem leaves or vitex leaves spread over coal.Doors,windows,ventilators shut during process to facilitate proper spreading of smoke.Smoke should remain in room for 30-45 minutes.Then open dors.The adult moths will beseen lying on floor.Clean the room .This has to be repeated when the adult moths increase in population.
BENEFICIAL ORGANISMS IN PADDY FIELD –FARMER’S FRIENDS
1Lady bird beetle
3 types.
Micraspis crocea (typical coccinellid)eats small brown grasshopper,larvae,exposed eggs ,aphids,coccids,other soft bodied insects
Harmonia octomaculata (blackspotted) eats brown planthopper eggs,nymphs,adults .They are voracious.Eat 5-10 prey/day
Monochilus sexmaculatus eats brown plant hopper,gren leaf hopper,rice aphids,leaf folder,stem borer.
2.Ground beetle .Ophionea nigrofasciata.
Eats leaf folder larvae,brown plant hopper,green leaf hopper,white backed plant hopper,hairy caterpillar,green semilooper,stemborer.Consume 3-5 larvae/day.
3.Crickets .Metioche vittaticollis
Eats striped and darkheaded stem borer,leaf folders,armyworms,nymphs,adults of brown plant hopper.
4.Damsel flies Agriocnemis pygmaea.
Eats brown planthopper,green leafhopper,leaf folder,white backed plant hopper.
5.Earwig.Euborellia stali
Eats stem borer larvae,leaf folder larvae .Each earwig consume 20-30 prey /day
6 Ants .Solenopsis geminate
Eats wide variety of insects like adult blackbugs and their eggs.
7 Wasps belonging to different families.Eat stem borer larvae,brown plant hopper,green leaf hopper,skipper and green hairy caterpillar
8.Long horned grass hoppers .Conocephalus longipennis
Eats rice bugs,stem borer eggs,brown plant hopper,green leaf hopper,nymphs and adults.Each predator consume 1-4 yellow stem borer eggmasses/day
9.Small ripple bug .Microvelia douglasiatrolinata. Eats brown plant hopper,stem borer,larvae,green leaf hopper and softbodied insects.
10 Water stridor.Limnogonus sp.
Eats green leaf hopper,brown plant hopper ,rice leaf roller,armyworm,cutworms
11.Water treader Mesovelia vittigera
Eats gren leaf hopper,brown plant hopper,white backed plant hopper,zigzag leaf hopper
12 Mirid bug .Cyrtorhinus lividipennis
Eats brown plant hopper,green leaf hopper,stem borer,white backed plant hopper .
13 Assasin bug .Polytoxus fuscovittatus
Eats larvae of moths and butterflies
14.Orb spider Argiope sp
Eats leaf folder,brown plant hopper,green leaf hopper,white backed plant hopper,stem borer.
15.Long jawed spider Terragnatha sp
Eats green grass hoper,whitebacked plant hopper,brown plant hopper
16.Wolf spider Lycosa pseudoannulata
Eats stem borer,brown plant hopper,green leaf hopper,(both adult and nymph).An adult consume 15 hoppers/day
17 Lynx spider .Oxyopes sp
Eats brown plant hopper,case worm,green leaf hopper,white backed plant hopper
18 Jumping spider Phidippus sp
Eats green leaf hopper,brown plant hopper,white backed plant hopper,stem borer moths.Each consume 2-8 prey/day
19 Dwarf spider Atypena sp
Eats green leaf hoppers,brown plant hoppers.Each consume 4-5 /day
When we apply chemicals both the harmful and the friendly pests are destroyed totally .When organic extracts are used this does not happen and the race of the harmful pests also survive to some extant (but not to cause destruction to paddy ) so that the predator lives .The predator species live only if the prey species are there.This is what is meant by the saying Jeevo Jeevasya Jeevanam by Susruthasamhitha.It is very different from the survival of the fittest applied in modern sense of the word.(Those with power destroying those without power).The ancients knew how to make use of the principle of Jeevo jeevasya jeevanam by organic extracts and kashaaya and we will see the ingredients of some in next chapter.