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Psychiatry and Tamil history
Asian Journal of Psychiatry 22 (2016) 76
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Asian Journal of Psychiatry journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ajp
Letter to the Editor Psychiatry and Tamil history Dear Editor, It would be of interest to your readers in this part of the globe when we give some idea of the concepts and management of the mental health problems in the ancient Tamil culture. The influence of Tamil, an ancient language, which has been afforded the status of a ‘classical language’ recently, penetrated beyond peninsular India to the neighboring areas of Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Myanmar, Fiji, Cambodia, Vietnam etc. In this letter, I try to give a chronology of the recorded mental health concepts in the Tamil culture. Lord Shiva, the patron of the saivite sect of Hinduism is lovingly and devotedly addressed as ‘‘The Mad Lord’’ by his devoted saints like Sundarar and Manikavachagar in their hymns of Thevaram and Thiruvachagam. They describe Him as attired in elephant and tiger skins, and dancing in the cremation grounds during night time. An early, if not the earliest, description of an individual, with probable hebephrenic schizophrenia, wandering in the streets of ancient city of Puhar of the Chola Empire on the eastern Indian coast is eluded to by the poet Sathanar in his great Buddhist epic of Manimekalai: ‘‘. . .. This person wore a round necklace of oleander flowers and another one of rudraksha seeds (an emblem of the followers of Lord Shiva). Fixed on his tattered garments were twigs which he had gathered from the highest branches of the trees. His body was smeared with a mixture of ashes and sandalwood paste. He responded with insults and obscene or senseless words to those who addressed him. He wept, rolled about on the ground, wailed, uttered strange cries, and prostrated himself, stood up, turned round and round until he became dizzy. He ran, then squatted in some corner where he stayed a long time without moving. Sometimes he tried to fight with his own shadow. . .’’ (Holmstro¨m, 1996). The concepts of mental illness, phenomenology and treatments are elaborated in the ancient Siddha (Tamil) system of medicine which we have elaborated in a recent publication. (Somasundaram et al., 2015) The humoral theories of temperament and disease in the Indian systems of Siddha and Ayurveda were a close parallel to those of ancient Greek Medicine. The various intoxicating drinks and prominent personalities of those times using them are to be found in the ancient Tamil Sangam literature of circa 2nd century CE upon which we have tried to throw some light in another recent publication (Somasundaram et al., 2016). The treatment of the mentally ill in an institutional setup attached to a vaishnavite temple of the late Chola period (13th century CE) is found in the epigraphs of the temple at Thirumukkoodal in Kanchipuram district of Tamil Nadu. It alludes to treatment of various disorders including mental ones with various herbs, drugs and their preparation by various workers and staff of the temple-hospital complex (Raghavan et al., 2014). There are also references to various residential setups appropriately http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2016.03.002 1876-2018/ß 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
named as asylums for the fearful; especially practiced by the Jain monks of the time. After the disappearance of the ancient Tamil kingdoms in the 13th– 14th centuries, there is a confusing period of history in which the Vijayanagar Empire makes inroads into the Tamil country and the Nayaks’ rule is established in Madurai. The apparent mirage of stability comes with the establishment of East India Company in the 16th–17th centuries and subsequent takeover by the British kingdom in the mid-19th century. Mentally ill were looked after in the erstwhile Madras presidency in the mad houses of Connolly and Dalton and the lunatic asylum of Madras, we have made some description about this in an earlier publication (Somasundaram, 2008). The concept of mental health is not unknown to the early Tamils. The poet Thiruvalluvar in his work Thirukkural refers to it thus: Mananalam mannuirk akkam Meaning: Mental health is very essential for one’s progress Verse 457 (Aiyar, 2010). The term mental health appears very early in the world literature and antedates the WHO definition by millennia. Healthy living, both physical and mental, are very well delineated in the early Sangam literature, and writings of subsequent centuries, especially by the Jain and Buddhist poets and other secular poets. We would like to suggest that the reading of the Tamil literature by psychiatrists would be a worthwhile exercise. It should be noted that most of the works have been translated into English and other Indian languages and are available to the interested readers. References Aiyar, V.V.S., 2010. Thirukkural – English Translation. Sri Ramakrishna Tapovanam, Tiruchirappalli. Holmstro¨m, L., 1996. Silappadikaram – Manimekalai. Orient Longman, Madras. Raghavan, D.V., Tejus Murthy, A.G., Somasundaram, O., 2014. Treatment of the mentally ill in the Chola Empire in 11th–12th centuries AD: a study of epigraphs. Indian J. Psychiatry 56, 202–204. Somasundaram, O., 2008. Private psychiatric care in the past: with special reference to Chennai. Indian J. Psychiatry 50, 67–69. Somasundaram, O., Murthy, T., Raghavan, V., 2015. Mental health: concepts and treatment in the siddha (Tamil) system of medicine. ASEAN J. Psychiatry 16 (July–December (2)), 265–270. Somasundaram, O., Raghavan, D.V., Tejus Murthy, A.G., 2016. Drinking habits in ancient India. Indian J. Psychiatry 58, 93–96.
Somasundaram Ottilingam Institute of Mental Health, Chennai, Psychiatry, No. 30, Thanigai Illam, 23rd cross street, Besant Nagar, Chennai, India
E-mail address: [email protected] (S. Ottilingam). Received 29 February 2016
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Asian Journal of Psychiatry journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ajp
Letter to the Editor Psychiatry and Tamil history Dear Editor, It would be of interest to your readers in this part of the globe when we give some idea of the concepts and management of the mental health problems in the ancient Tamil culture. The influence of Tamil, an ancient language, which has been afforded the status of a ‘classical language’ recently, penetrated beyond peninsular India to the neighboring areas of Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Myanmar, Fiji, Cambodia, Vietnam etc. In this letter, I try to give a chronology of the recorded mental health concepts in the Tamil culture. Lord Shiva, the patron of the saivite sect of Hinduism is lovingly and devotedly addressed as ‘‘The Mad Lord’’ by his devoted saints like Sundarar and Manikavachagar in their hymns of Thevaram and Thiruvachagam. They describe Him as attired in elephant and tiger skins, and dancing in the cremation grounds during night time. An early, if not the earliest, description of an individual, with probable hebephrenic schizophrenia, wandering in the streets of ancient city of Puhar of the Chola Empire on the eastern Indian coast is eluded to by the poet Sathanar in his great Buddhist epic of Manimekalai: ‘‘. . .. This person wore a round necklace of oleander flowers and another one of rudraksha seeds (an emblem of the followers of Lord Shiva). Fixed on his tattered garments were twigs which he had gathered from the highest branches of the trees. His body was smeared with a mixture of ashes and sandalwood paste. He responded with insults and obscene or senseless words to those who addressed him. He wept, rolled about on the ground, wailed, uttered strange cries, and prostrated himself, stood up, turned round and round until he became dizzy. He ran, then squatted in some corner where he stayed a long time without moving. Sometimes he tried to fight with his own shadow. . .’’ (Holmstro¨m, 1996). The concepts of mental illness, phenomenology and treatments are elaborated in the ancient Siddha (Tamil) system of medicine which we have elaborated in a recent publication. (Somasundaram et al., 2015) The humoral theories of temperament and disease in the Indian systems of Siddha and Ayurveda were a close parallel to those of ancient Greek Medicine. The various intoxicating drinks and prominent personalities of those times using them are to be found in the ancient Tamil Sangam literature of circa 2nd century CE upon which we have tried to throw some light in another recent publication (Somasundaram et al., 2016). The treatment of the mentally ill in an institutional setup attached to a vaishnavite temple of the late Chola period (13th century CE) is found in the epigraphs of the temple at Thirumukkoodal in Kanchipuram district of Tamil Nadu. It alludes to treatment of various disorders including mental ones with various herbs, drugs and their preparation by various workers and staff of the temple-hospital complex (Raghavan et al., 2014). There are also references to various residential setups appropriately http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2016.03.002 1876-2018/ß 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
named as asylums for the fearful; especially practiced by the Jain monks of the time. After the disappearance of the ancient Tamil kingdoms in the 13th– 14th centuries, there is a confusing period of history in which the Vijayanagar Empire makes inroads into the Tamil country and the Nayaks’ rule is established in Madurai. The apparent mirage of stability comes with the establishment of East India Company in the 16th–17th centuries and subsequent takeover by the British kingdom in the mid-19th century. Mentally ill were looked after in the erstwhile Madras presidency in the mad houses of Connolly and Dalton and the lunatic asylum of Madras, we have made some description about this in an earlier publication (Somasundaram, 2008). The concept of mental health is not unknown to the early Tamils. The poet Thiruvalluvar in his work Thirukkural refers to it thus: Mananalam mannuirk akkam Meaning: Mental health is very essential for one’s progress Verse 457 (Aiyar, 2010). The term mental health appears very early in the world literature and antedates the WHO definition by millennia. Healthy living, both physical and mental, are very well delineated in the early Sangam literature, and writings of subsequent centuries, especially by the Jain and Buddhist poets and other secular poets. We would like to suggest that the reading of the Tamil literature by psychiatrists would be a worthwhile exercise. It should be noted that most of the works have been translated into English and other Indian languages and are available to the interested readers. References Aiyar, V.V.S., 2010. Thirukkural – English Translation. Sri Ramakrishna Tapovanam, Tiruchirappalli. Holmstro¨m, L., 1996. Silappadikaram – Manimekalai. Orient Longman, Madras. Raghavan, D.V., Tejus Murthy, A.G., Somasundaram, O., 2014. Treatment of the mentally ill in the Chola Empire in 11th–12th centuries AD: a study of epigraphs. Indian J. Psychiatry 56, 202–204. Somasundaram, O., 2008. Private psychiatric care in the past: with special reference to Chennai. Indian J. Psychiatry 50, 67–69. Somasundaram, O., Murthy, T., Raghavan, V., 2015. Mental health: concepts and treatment in the siddha (Tamil) system of medicine. ASEAN J. Psychiatry 16 (July–December (2)), 265–270. Somasundaram, O., Raghavan, D.V., Tejus Murthy, A.G., 2016. Drinking habits in ancient India. Indian J. Psychiatry 58, 93–96.
Somasundaram Ottilingam Institute of Mental Health, Chennai, Psychiatry, No. 30, Thanigai Illam, 23rd cross street, Besant Nagar, Chennai, India
E-mail address: [email protected] (S. Ottilingam). Received 29 February 2016