EAP810/1/1/92

Titles in original script:

நூல் 1: ஆதி சாஸ்திரம்நூல் 2: கருநாள் சாஸ்திரம்

The manuscript is composed of two texts, both incomplete and written in verses. The manuscript is extremely damaged by larvae and fungus infestation. The palm leaves are very darkened and many of them are broken. The manuscript is very fragile and breakable.

Text 1- The text is entitled Āti Cāstiram. It contains 49 palm leaves numbered 39 and 45-93. The text focuses mostly on the siddha medical ethics and practice. It describes the characteristics required for a practitioner of siddha medicine (vaittiyar), notably his/her qualities (kuṇam), his/her physical appearance (tōṟṟam), his/her behavior (varicai) and medical knowledge (vaittiyan aṟiyavēṇṭiyavai), the necessary quality of his/her medicine, and the fees he/she may request (vaittiyaṉ/pantitan kūli vāṅkum vakai). The text specifies the ideal period (month, season) to prepare a medical product (maruntu ceyya ākum nāṭkaḷ), the appropriate time to administer the medicines (maruntu koṭukkum nēram), the diet prescriptions (pattiya pākam) and recipes (vakaikaḷ) for observing food prescriptions.

The text provides some information on body structure (uṟuppukaḷ viparam). It exposes the origin of diseases (nōy tōṟṟam) and those intrinsic to karma (karma nōy varalāṟu). It explains the state of the pulse in case of fever (curattil nāṭi aṟital) and the characteristics of the pulse when its intensity is decreasing (nāṭi mantikkum kuṇam).

Additionally, it presents the evolution of universe (ulaka tōṟṟam).

Text 2- The text, entitled Karunāḷ Cāstiram, is composed of 7 leaves with and without numbers. The text contains information on various topics: religious (how to perform rituals), medical and esoteric. Related to medical knowledge, the text explains menstruation (rutu viparam) and the appropriate days for optimizing fecundation (karunāḷ viparam); the diagnostic method using touch (toṭu kuṟi palaṉ); as well as the characteristics of wounds (raṇa palaṉ) including those caused by snake bites (aravu kaṭi). The esoteric information given in the text concerns the prediction of individual’s events from the measurement of his/her finger (kayviral aḷantu naṉmai tīmai aṟital).

Size of the manuscript 34,0cm x 3,0cm. The palm leaves of the text 1 are numbered from 39 to 94 in Tamil and Arabic.The leaves 40 to 44; 75 and 79 are missing. The text 2 is composed of 5 leaves numbered 2, 4, 8, 9, 18 and 2 leaves without numbering; the leaves are shorter. The texts are separed by 1 blank leaf and a blank leaf closes the manuscript. The manuscript is extremely damaged and difficult to manupulate as many leaves are broken. The leaves affected by fungus are very dark.