Monthly Archives: December 2016
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Step into the old world & devotional tunes of odhuvars
Chennai :
Odhuvar is a Tamil word which has its root in the Tamil term odhal, which means recitation. Literally, the word odhuvar would refer to a person who recites.
However, in the Tamil Saiva tradition, the word would normally refer to a person who sings the praises of Lord Siva in temples. Since the odhuvars are trained in the traditional style of singing devotional songs, the Saivite devotees who listen to them during temple worship recount an empyrean emotional experience.
Odhuvars sing the devotional songs composed by the Saivite saints, like Karaikkal Ammayar, irunavukkarasar, Tirugnanasambandar and Sundaramurthy Nayanar. The works of the latter three saints, taken together, are known as Thevaram.
They lived and composed the songs, set them to music, as also sang them in the Siva temples between the 6th and 9th centuries.
The provenance of Tamil music is attributed to the Tamil singers of yore who were called paannar(s). The Thevaram songs which have been composed in pathigam (or ten hymns) style are set to specific pann(s) or raga.
Rajaraja Chola is credited with the retrieval of the sequestered palm leaf manuscripts of the Thevarams from the Siva temple in Chidambaram, re-organising this into the 12-volume Thirumurais with the help of Nambiandar Nambi, a devotee of Siva, and nominating paannars at temples across the Tamil land to sing hymns in musical form.
The odhuvars have come to be identified with a new generation of trained professionals. But, it’s apparent that a large number of the young hereditary professionals have started leaving the profession in search of better avenues mainly due to insouciant social attitude and insufficient income potential. Even though the larger Siva temples in the State employ them under the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department, their salaries are reported to be meagre to retain them.
Satgurunatha Odhuvar of Kapaleeswara temple has stated in an interview: “It makes me sad that so few youth are coming forward to follow this tradition of serving God. Finance is one reason for this decline.”
Indira V Peterson, in the Journal of the American Oriental Society (Jan-Mar, 1982), has suggested that “besides being a literary record of the pilgrimage of the saints who composed and sang the thevarams, the songs reveal a conceptual orientation to pilgrimage as being central to the Tamil Saivite cult and that through this orientation the songs have played a powerful role in shaping Tamil Saivite community’s view of itself as a separate linguistic and regional culture.” Any effort taken to preserve such a hoary tradition may augur well to those interested in preserving living heritages.
The writer is VP (Education & Training), India Cements, and has worked in UNESCO for 10 years on various projects
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by S. Venkatraman / Express News Servic e / December 20th, 2016
IIT Madras researchers prove the superiority of arsenic water filter
Exhaustive research carried out by a team of researchers led by Prof. T. Pradeep from the Department of Chemistry at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, spread over four years, has put to rest the scepticism about the merits of the arsenic water filter developed by them. The water filter has been in operation for three and half years in about 900 sites in India, serving close to 400,000 people.
Arsenic in drinking water is the largest natural mass poisoning in the history of humanity, affecting 13 crore people globally. The problem of arsenic in the environment, known for over 1,002 years, has not been solved satisfactorily, due to the non-availability of appropriate and affordable materials. Arsenic is a slow poison, causing numerous adverse health effects, including cancer and genetic anomalies.
The technology developed at IIT makes use of confined metastable 2-line iron oxyhydroxides and its large adsorption capacity to remove arsenic in two different dissolved forms (arsenate and arsenite). The filter was able to reduce the arsenic concentration in the water from 200 ppb (parts per billion) to well below the WHO limit of 10 ppb. The results were published recently in the journal Advanced Materials.
“The arsenic removal capacity of the material filter was found to be 1.4 to 7.6 times better than all the other available materials,” says Prof. Pradeep. “The superior arsenic uptake capacity is due to its inherent structure. Nanostructured iron oxyhydroxide makes many sites available for arsenic uptake. The ions of arsenic adsorb on the nanoparticles at specific atomic positions. No nanoparticles are released into the purified water due to the biopolymer cages in which they are contained.”
The team mimicked the average arsenic concentration seen in West Bengal — 200 ppb of arsenic — for carrying out several laboratory studies. Though studies were carried out at a pH of 7.8, the team found the adsorption capacity of the filter was not compromised in the pH range 4 to 10. “The pH of drinking water is in the range of 6.5 to 8.5. But we tested the filter in a wide range of pH so it can be used for other purposes as well,” says Prof. Pradeep.
“A filter composed of 60 grams of the material can be used safely for removing arsenic from 1150 litres of water and till such time the concentration of arsenic in the filtered water does not cross the WHO limit of 10 ppb,” he says. Once the filter has reached its saturation limit it has to be reactivated or recharged with new material.
Reactivation is done by soaking the material in sodium sulphate solution for an hour at room temperature. It is further incubated for about four hours after reducing the pH to 4. “Using this reactivation protocol we reused the same filter seven times,” he says.
Studies were carried out to test if the adsorbed arsenic leached from the filter. The team found that the amount of arsenic that got leached was 1 ppb in the case of arsenite and 2 ppb for arsenate. “Soil in the affected regions also contains arsenic, typically around 12 ppb of arsenic, which is the background concentration. The amount of arsenic leached from the saturated filter was far less than the background concentration,” Prof. Pradeep says. Leaching of arsenic from disposed filters was one of the biggest criticisms by a few researchers who had worked on arsenic filters. Arsenic, being an element, cannot be degraded further to simpler species.
Since the arsenic filter developed by the team has so far been in use at a community level, studies were carried out to test its performance as a domestic water filter. A domestic three-stage filter was developed to remove particulate matter, iron and arsenic. Input water containing 200 ppb of arsenic and 4 ppm (parts per million) of Fe(III) was passed through the filter for a total volume of 6,000 litres (translating to 15 litres of water per day for one year). “The output was below the WHO limit for both arsenic and iron throughout the experiment,” he says.
“For a family of five, arsenic-free drinking water can be produced at $2 per year,” he adds.
In the course of the development of this technology, he and his former students incubated a company, InnoNano Research Pvt. Ltd. at IIT Madras. In July this year, the company received venture funding to the tune of $18 million. “With this research, a home grown technology appears to be all set for global deployment. Knowledge is no more a limiting factor for solving the arsenic menace,” he said.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Sci-Tech> Science / R. Prasad / December 19th, 2016
Diamond jubilee for yarn merchants’ association
Madurai :
It will take some time for cashless transactions to be popular as 70% of the Indian population is below the poverty line and they have to be brought into the system, said TR Dinakaran, chairman of the Ramalinga Mills . He was speaking at the diamond jubilee celebrations of the Madura Yarn Merchants’ Association here on Sunday.
“Farmers and other people, who are below the poverty line, should be educated and made aware of the methods of cashless transactions to make the demonetisation drive successful,” he said.
The meeting resolved that GST should be implemented at the earliest as it would help the textile industry. Uniform taxes at the lower slabs should be applicable to all units of the textile industry, including yarn and readymade garments.
Senior president of the Tamil Nadu Chamber of Commerce and Industry S Rethinavelu presided over the event. President of the Madura Yarn Merchants Association N Palaniappan, secretary R Kishankumar Goyenka and KG Devadoss among others spoke.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Madurai News / TNN / December 19th, 2016
Chennai scientist gets national award
Chennai :
J Daniel Chellappa, senior scientist at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre’s (BARC) technical coordination wing, Chennai, has won the PRSI national award for the best communications campaign for 2016.
Chellappa, a gold medallist from University of Madras, was associated with IIT Madras for his PG project and joined the scientific community of Department of Atomic Energy, Kalpakkam in 1984. He has carried out research in high temperature fuel behaviour as part of the indigenous development of the Uranium – Plutonium Mixed Carbide Nuclear Fuel for the Fast Breeder Test Reactor.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / New> City News> Chennai News / TNN / December 18th, 2016
Five dance exponents honoured
Five dancers were honoured at ‘Natya Darshan 2016’, an annual dance seminar here on Friday. The event organised by Karthik Fine Arts and convened by dancer Krithika Subramanian conferred the Madurai N. Krishnan Memorial Award on Rathnakumar, Lifetime Achievement Award on Raja and Radha Reddy, ‘Natya Chudar Award’ on Sudharma Vaidyanathan and ‘Nithya Jyothi Award’ on Mathura Vishwanathan Vijay.
Dancer Chitra Visweswaran, after presenting the awards, said this seminar has grown from strength to strength over the last several years primarily because of the cooperation from dancers. “It was started locally, then went national and now people from across the world come to participate,” she said.
Kuchipudi exponent Raja Reddy recollected the time when one of the great dance gurus refused to accept him as a disciple because of his appearance. “He told me bluntly that I cannot dance because I have a dark complexion and huge nose; he said I must have attractive features to be a dancer. After a long struggle I learnt this art form and then sometime back when I gave a performance in Elizabeth Hall, London I was appreciated to a great extent,” he said. Chairman of Karthik Fine Arts L. Sabaretnam also spoke during the event. It was followed by a dance recital by Priya Murali.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities / by Staff Reporter / December 17th, 2016