A leaf out of the futurebook

 

 

Imagine claiming to know the past and the future of people, who were living, are living and who are going to live in this universe. That’s exactly what the enigmatic ancient Indian form of astrology—Nadi Shastra, is based on.

Its origins are believed to have dated back more than 4.000 years when the Sapta Rishis (seven sages) – Agasthya, Kausika, Vyasa, Bohar, Bhrigu, Vasishtha and Valmiki – who had the power to look in the past and future of the entire universe recorded it in the form of Tamil verses (which are believed to have been orally transmitted in Sanskrit and translated into Tamil on a large scale during the regimes of the Kings of Tanjore), on Palm Leaf Manuscripts written in Vatteluttu, an ancient Tamil script.

In fact, the Tanjore rulers appointed scholars to rewrite them on fresh ola (palm leaves) as the older ones started disintegrating. These Nadi leaves were initially stored in the premises of Tanjore Saraswati Mahal Library of Tamil Nadu. Until the 1930’s, Nadi remained an ancient legacy, hardly used or even comprehended by the majority of Hindu astrologers. During the Britsh rule, some of the leaves were auctioned off and some destroyed, while the remaining were possessed by the families of astrologers in Vaitheeswaran Temple near Chidambaram in Tamil Nadu. This family and their descendants have been responsible for carrying the doctrine forward.

Usually the astrologer asks for the thumb impression and then matches it to the palm leaves repository to find a match. The leaves have 12 Kandams (or chapters), with the first chapter being a general overview and the other 11 dealing with specific aspects of life such as lifespan, career, relationships etc. The predictions are in a commentary form and since they are in ancient Tamil, need interpretation. As is to be expected, the practice has its share of naysayers and cynics who claim that it is as bogus as any other form of astrology, only a little more hyped perhaps. But at the same time many people swear by its uncanny predictive powers. Whatever be the case, Nadi Shastra remains an art shrouded in mystery from its origins to practice.