The Tamil Heritage is deeply rooted in science. Superficially, the many things we are advised to follow looks deeply superstitious. However, when it is looked at in detail, we cannot ignore the scientific relevance and the science behind everything that was followed by our ancestors.
Everyone is expected to wear a mark on their forehead – men the holy ashes (திருநீறு) and the women red vermillion (குங்குமம்). Though in today’s world, this is considered as a cosmetic beautification for women and the men have ignored it completely, in the villages it is still required that people wash their faces at least two to three times a day and apply the “mark” on the forehead. We can see that this act is completely covered in the guise of religion. It is now confirmed that the forehead where the brows meet is the trigger location where many facial nerves intersect. Acupressure Theraphy has confirmed now that applying pressure in this area reduces occurrences of headaches.
Everyone is expected to wash their legs right outside the house when they came from outside. Though this looks silly, the very simple logic is that, of cleaning the germs away. Also, when you visit the house of someone where there is a death, you are advised to have a head bath, else you are told that death will follow you. This sounds crazy, but when you look at the deeper meaning, one can understand that the house of the dead is filled with invisible germs. And one would obviously carry it, with them when they visit their home to pay homage to the dead. Hence, the saying, death would follow you.
Another one that was my pet peeve as an adolescent was not to cut nails once it’s twilight and on certain days (Tuesday and Friday). Those were the days before electricity and people used the lanterns. Therefore, advising people to not cut nails once it is twilight makes sense as you do not want to hurt yourself while clipping the nails. And, I presume that our ancestors wanted to instil discipline and ergo the requirement to not cut nails on two days of the week.
We can give many such examples from the day to day lives that were seeped in wonderful science. I would like to quote the following to describe how our ancestors knew certain scientific principles long before they were discovered in the modern world.
The following lines are from Amudaambigai Pillai Tamizh (Usal Paruvam) by Sivagyana Munivar.
மகரக் குழைகளும் ஊசலாட
பங்கய மடமாதர் நோக்கி இருவேம்
ஆட்ட – அவ்வூசலில் பாய்ந்திலது
இவ்வூசல் என – நனி ஆட்டுதோறும்
நின்னகை நிலவெழிலுக்கு அவர் முகத்
திங்கள் சாய
(அமுதாம்பிகை பிள்ளைத்தமிழ் – ஊசல் பருவம்)
In the above lines Sivagyana Munivar is beautifully describing how Amudaambigai is swinging in a swing. He is explaining that as the length of the rope to which the swing (in which Amudaambigai was swinging) was tied was longer and hence moved slowly. However, as the length of the golden string in which her earring was attached was small, which made it to oscillate much faster.
This is nothing but the principle of Galileo’s Pendulum – A longer string will take a greater amount of time to complete one swing than a shorter string, irrespective of the mass tied to the string, as it has to travel a larger distance for the same angle of swing.
The following from the story of Kannappar strongly indicates organ donation. Kannappar was a devotee of Lord Siva. One day Kannappar notices blood in the eyes of the Siva Lingam. He tries to apply medicinal herbs for the blood to stop; but the bleeding doesn’t stop. Kannappar removes one of his eyes and places it on the bleeding eye and the blood stops.
இதற்கினி என்கண் அம்பால்
இடந்தப்பின் எந்தையார்கண்
அதற்கிது மருந்தாய்ப் புண்ணீர்
நிற்கவும் அடுக்கும் என்று
மதர்த்தெழும் உள்ளத்தோடு மகிழ்ந்துமுன்
இருந்து தங்கண்
முதற்சர மடுத்து வாங்கி முதல்வர்தங்
கண்ணில் அப்ப (பெ.பு.2)
Apart from these, there are many references to flying chariots (nothing but the modern day aeroplanes) in Ramayana, and also Silapadjigaram. There are references to cloning in Mahabharata – the birth of the 100 Kauravas. Gandhari the wife of Dritharashtra divides the embryo into a hundred portions and incubated them invitro in earthworm pots, from which the Kauravas were born. Looks like the people living in the Mahabharata era were well advanced as there are references to lovers being able to communicate live with video- equivalent to the modern day FaceTime, video call.
Thus, we can proudly say with confidence that our ancestors were highly evolved and made the best use of science and technology. They invented things based on scientific principles. And they had very advanced scientific gadgets. There are many, many more that we are yet to discover. Hopefully, one day the current civilization will evolve to that level of scientific development.