Science and Tamil – Part 1

One of the main reasons I believe as to why our wisdom has degraded so much in the last century is our ignorance and reluctance to learn our rich language. Our language offers richness not just in literary sense but is supremely scientific too. I am going to touch upon just 3 to 4 aspects of it which I knew and understand at a fundamental level and request you to learn your mother tongue well.

Vigyan / Vigyanam (விண் ஞானம்) means Science:

But most importantly I wanted to take the word called Science as meant in Tamil and Sanskrit. A word always can be broken down to its dhatus for its exact meaning in Tamil and Sanskrit. Some examples below:

Science in Tamil is Vigyanam and in Sanskrit is Vigyan. This is split as Vin and Gnanam / Gyan. Vin means space and Gyan means knowledge. Hence according to Indian system science means it is the nature / knowledge of the space. This has very deep significance since modern science has not agreed the existence of space for a long time and their gross and materialistic approach prevented them from seeing the most subtle component and its nature. We were masters of it ages back.

Universe is called as Brahmanda in Sanskrit. Brahma + Anda which literally means a big egg. This means we knew that the galaxy is elliptical in shape ages back and it required hubble in 1950 to tell us that.

Bhoogol means Earth (Study of) / Geography – This Splits as Bhoo +Gol. Bhoo means Earth Gol means round. We did not throw stones at a scientist as late as 17th century when he said that earth is round and not flat. We would have laughed our heart out and ignored him.

Be it the age of the universe, all of the astronomical measurements, health, spirituality etc, many of us need a proof in modern science to tell us that what we knew was right and they have certified it. When we decide to come out of this mentality then the process of reclaiming our rich heritage shall start.

Origin of Universe and linkage with Tamil:

The initial evolutionary process for the universe consisted of 5 stages states Aintiram. You can imagine that these are the movements of particles during the Big bang. They are அமிழ்தல், இமிழ்தல், குமிழ்தல், உமிழ்தல், தமிழ்தல்.

• Amizhdal (Withdrawal)
• Imizhdal (Overflowing)
• Kumizhdal (clustering round in an order)
• Umizhdal (Emitting)
• Tamizhdal (resulting into a well defined form)

These are the first stages from the Big bang till a well defined shape is formed. Now the last level is called Tamizhdal which results in a well defined form. This state has emanated from the Pranava and not been created by some one. Hence a language as rich with the sweetness of inherent order, originating from the luminosity of the original particle is called Tamil. Tamil is word based on the final resultant state called Tamizhdal (தமிழ்தல்).

Source: Time = Space by Raguram Gopalan, http://ragsgopalan.blogspot.com