Palm-leaf Manuscripts on Nadi Astrology  
- Dr. John Samuel.

It is indeed a matter of pride for me to stand before you in this significant programme which aims at exploring the possibilities of rendering some concrete services for safeguarding and promoting one of the important components of our heritage namely the Nadi prediction. At the outset, let me tell you frankly that I am a person completely alien to the theme of the present   conference. Although I was very much reluctant to take part in this programme initially, my innate interest in the preservation and conservation of Palm-leaf manuscripts coupled with the enormous interest shown on this fascinating theme by my good friend Wing commander. Mr. Shashikanth Oak, and my cursory reading of his most revealing book 'Nadi Predictions' compelled me to accept his invitation and assume the role of a passive observer of this programme.

One of the major projects of the Institute of Asian Studies in Chennai is to study the structure and content of the Palm-leaf manuscripts of our country which are fast vanishing   owing to human negligence, natural calamities and the ravages of time. We are launching many programmes connected with this great documentary heritage of our ancestors both individually and jointly with the participation of many national and international organizations including the UNESCO. Our main concern in these programmes is to protect these wonderful heritage from the cruel hands of the deteriorating agencies and to study the traditional knowledge and wisdom contained in them.

From this point of view, we started analyzing the palm-leaf manuscripts which deal with the various ramifications of Indian medicine, Indian literature, grammar, fine-arts, performing arts, veterinary science, arts and architecture, astrology , astronomy and even   the art of building ships. During our continuous pursuit of the manuscript heritage of this land, we come across the information about a rich corpus of palm-leaf manuscripts on Nadi astrology   mainly in the hands of professionals who read and interpret them and predict the past, present and future of mankind irrespective of their ethnic, regional, religious, cultural and linguistic diversities. We were very much surprised when many of our visitors from Japan and other countries started enquiring about the Nadi manuscripts which are popularly known to them as 'Agasthiya leaves'.

It was a great surprise for me to find out no such manuscripts in the manuscript libraries although palm-leaves connected with witch-craft, necromancy etc., are available in plenty in our libraries. I made continuous enquiries about the validity of the thematic content of these manuscripts and the predictions given by the Nadi readers basing on this enchanting corpus with   our academic circle who are  evincing active interest in the palm-leaf traditions of our country. The response was indeed not encouraging-sometimes shocking also and many people expressed their skepticism on these traditions and some have described it as dubious and fake. In the years 1998, and 1999, there were few T.V interviews in which some pertinent questions were raised at me by the interviewers about this tradition along with many other interesting queries associated with the palm-leaf corpus of our motherland. At that time, I was not in a position to provide convincing answers or justifications about this heritage due to paucity of data available with us. We tried to decipher many of the leaves provided by the fans and well-wishers tradition but we were not able to make head or tail out of the major portions of the leaves presented by them.

When a team of experts from France , on behalf of the UNESCO visited our Institute for a general survey of the rich tradition of our palm-leaf manuscripts, we visited some of the Nadi Centres in Chennai and Vaitheeswaran Koil with a view to get some data about the background of this great heritage. But, it was a great disappointment to me and the UNESCO   team since, unlike the custodians of other palm-leaf manuscripts pertaining to medicine and related areas of our traditional knowledge, the people who are possessing the Nadi leaves are reluctant to show the manuscripts and even fail to explain systematically the methodology that underlies the rich corpus of this significant heritage. We were given the explanation that the leaves under their custody date back to more than one thousand years and they were collected by their ancestors from the left out palm-leaves of King Sarfoji   who was active in collecting the manuscripts which are now preserved in the Saraswathi meal Library, Tanjore.

This information was not at all convincing to us since the maximum life of a palm-leaf in the tropical Indian climate is 350 years. Being an organic substance, the palm-leaf is subjected to deterioration   and disintegration within 350 years-perhaps its longevity may be comparatively longer in the cold countries of Europe, America and Asia . In many instances, the text of the palm-leaf may be old and in this context it should have withstood   the passage of time due to the untiring efforts of the scribes who copied them down again and again. The other doubt raised by any reasonable person in this regard is whether it is humanly possible to record the past and future of all individuals of the globe in the palm-leaf manuscripts written long ago.

It is true that the ancient seers and sages of this land of spirituality with their insight and vision were able to foresee the future events and to tell the present and the past. But, no adequate efforts have been taken either by Nadi astrologers or lovers of this art to analyse objectively and present the merits of this before the academic world. I do agree that there are stray attempts in this direction by our Wing Commander and others. Apart from this, it is unfortunate that there are no organized attempts in this direction and our Nadi astrologers are content only with the present and not about the future of this great heritage.

It is now the time for you to clear patiently the reasonable doubts raised from various quarters about a rare wisdom of our   ancestors entrusted in your hands and to protect it from the onslaught of adverse criticism. You are the custodian of this knowledge or wisdom and it is your duty to demonstrate before the world the authenticity of this rare treasure. You cannot keep it as an esoteric art for a long time in this age of technology and globalization.   Anything kept as esoteric or secret will have a natural death in this era of information technology.

India is a land of spirituality which radiated its rays of wisdom all over the benighted world and we are the inheritors of the Indian heritage and it is our bounden duty to explain and establish the greatness of this heritage to the world. The Nadi astrologers, apart from interpreting or reading the predictions on the leaves to their customers should join hands to place this rare tradition before the world by explaining the scientific basis that underlie the corpus of the Nadi sastra. The relationship between the world, the macrocosm and human individuals, the microcosm should be explained along with the extraordinary mathematical skill of the great men of this land. You can join together in establishing study centres about this tradition and encourage writing and publishing scholarly articles about this   in the magazines, which I am sure will be a good source of dissemination of this heritage and this will attract more customers all over the world.

I appreciate the efforts of our Wing Commander Mr. Shashikanth Oak in this direction and I am sure that his inspiration will help to pool together the lovers of this art and the professionals and to take up initiatives for promoting researches on this heritage. With this great expectation, the Institute of Asian Studies expressed its consent to undertake the compilation of a small dictionary of technical terms associated with Nadi predictions.

I hope this conference will provide proper impetus to the custodians of the Nadi palm-leaf manuscripts collection and to enable them to take all efforts to protect this wisdom of our country and to disseminate them to the entire world so that this significant component of the Indian heritage add pride and prestige to our Motherland. May this Conference will be a turning point in the annals of this tradition in pooling together all professionals and patrons of this pan-Indian tradition and to render good services which will enrich our knowledge about our own heritage and to promote solidarity and peace and make this earthly life truly meaningful.