The future of humanity is written on palm leaves

New Delhi, December 15, 2006. - The palm manuscripts, which reflect the ancient Indian knowledge, cause of dispute among scientists, who seek the conservation of ancient documents, and astrologers "Nadi" which have become his business ability to read in them the future of people.
Currently there are about 400,000 documents written on palm leaves, many of which are "very impaired", told Efe director of the Institute of Asian Studies, John Samuels.
"The tropical climate allows palm manuscript has a lifespan of about 350 years, but thanks to generations of copyists who labored in the preservation of knowledge, is content with an antiquity of 2,500 years," he added.
Following a tradition reminiscent of medieval monasteries, the copyists of Tamil Nadu in southern India, collected knowledge as carpentry or Ayurvedic medicine on the support they had at hand, until the advent of printing caused the decline of their use in the nineteenth century.
Some of the manuscripts are already ordered, microfilmed, chemically treated and in museums, but there are still only in southern India, some 100,000 documents housed in warehouses without conservation measures.
"Many manuscripts are in danger, and although UNESCO has been involved in preserving them, the truth is that we have limited funds for a mammoth task," says Samuels.
A major problem for the expert is that only a handful of people in the world can decipher the meaning of the old dead languages ​​that served to channel the ancient Indian knowledge.
For that reason, the Institute of Asian Studies, based in Madras, teaches 25 students each year to the "vatta Ezhuthu" dravítica a classical language, a number clearly insufficient to the wealth of existing content.
Reading palms, scholars can dive in medicine, art, astronomy, yoga or traditional martial arts, but certainly more popular knowledge built around the "wise" Vaitheeswaran temple, claiming read them the past and the future of people.
Under the system known as "Nadi" ("in search"), the "insiders" say the fate of individuals was written on palm leaves hundreds of years, hence it can be read his future, but also its past.
Astrologers around the temple articulated estimate that 40 percent of humanity "has written the entire line of his life in a palm leaf."
"From a fingerprint-Efe said the astrologer from Delhi" Nadi "Khousik Mahashiva-get the sheet with the past and the future of the person. The written language is very old, but translated into Hindi. Kya ap aiymana chahate he? ("Want to try? ')".
The mere mention of Vaitheeswaran and astrology "Nadi" arouses the indignation of John Samuels, for whom the astrologers of the temple are simply a "con artists" who have refused to let him "see the leaves with which they work."
"I-said-I said that their manuscripts had a thousand years, but the palms can not resist much. In fact, invent readings on a folk base to rip off people. "
Astrology is just one of the materials of palm leaves, but is especially important because each year thousands of foreigners come to Tamil Nadu to get a read on your destination.
However, as a librarian Efe says the University of Madras, "these supposed wise men know neither vatta Ezhuthu ', but make money: they will manage to find your name and your parents and write on a leaf" .
"Better not waste time. There is nothing in the manuscript, she concludes, apart from all the cultural history of Indian civilization. "