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When the postman knocks
S. MUTHIAH
E. R. Vedamuthu of Adair Village, Oregon, who keeps up with this column through the Internet, recalls another book on surgery written in Tamil (Miscellany, January 3 — his letter has taken four months to reach me!) Irania Sigichai, he tells me, was written by Dr. Savarirayan Jesudasan and was published by Christu-Kula Ashram in Tiruppatur, North Arcot District, which the author co-founded. An FRCS from Edinburgh, Dr. Jesudasan offered medical service free to the towns and villages around Tiruppatur in a hospital established in the Ashram.
Dr. Jesudasan's book on surgery was published in the 1940s. He also wrote a book for village use titled Grama Sugadhara Nool, in which he discussed and described various contagious diseases and their spread, simple treatments for common illnesses, and the importance of sanitary practices. A Tamil scholar, Dr. Jesudasan also wrote about 80 Tamil hymns (keerthanais), biographies of several saintly Tamil Christians and a history of Tamil Nadu, Thamizhnattucharithram. He died some years ago, but his work lives on in the Ashram, where all these books might well still be obtained, writes my correspondent. A doctor with roots in the area thinks the Ashram's co-founder was a Scot named Patton. The hospital, founded around 1914, he recalls as being one of the best-equipped rural hospital well into the 1950s, one of the first with X-Ray and Ultra Violet Ray equipment, a first-rate operating theatre and a host of ophthalmic specialities. But what he remembers best about the vast campus, that was a peacock sanctuary, is "a beautiful temple in one corner, with gopurams, prakarams, etc. but a cross in the sanctum. It's still a Tirupattur landmark."
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