Kuzhikkanam (Tomb-fee & Land Tenure): A Re-Discovery from Historical Palm Leave Manuscripts

This article is an attempt to explore and analyse the practice of levying Kuzhikkanam (tomb fee) for the burial of dead bodies in the Syrian church cemeteries in Kerala. There are eighteenth and nineteenth century palm leaf records in the Syrian churches which provide a lot of interesting information on this practice. This term is borrowed from the secular practice of levying Kulikkanam (Kuzhikkanam), that is, rent paid for cultivating the land that was newly brought under cultivation by land improvements either through reclamation or deforestation

Mapping Dowry Exchanges: Snapshots of Nineteenth Century Palm Leaves

The Palm leave records of the Syrian Christian communities in Kerala, belonging to eighteenth and nineteenth century, remain as evidences of the practice of dowry (Stridhanam) among the Syrian Christians and donations such as passaram, nadavazhakkam, kurippanam, kudappanam etc made to the churches and priests in relation to the marriage. Records say that this social custom, also known as Stridhanam was a crucial point of marriage and it was very often a matter of dispute and family problems. In spite of all disputes and difficulties existed in the Syrian Christian families and in the society at large because of this custom, no church record could be traced against this system. This paper is an attempt to explore and analyse the nature and practice of this social custom among Syrian Christians in the nineteenth century, who are Christian in faith and religion but are not different from the Hindus in their social customs and practices. Likewise, this paper is an attempt to analyse the social and cultural impacts of dowry (stridhanam) and the attitude of the society as well as that of Church authorities towards this custom and how did they tax the people in connection with the marriage. Keywords: Dowry; stridhanam; syrian christians; passaram; nadavazhakkam; palm leave records; christian marriag

The Ustad: Domesticating the Other from With(in/out)

With the help of a post-90 film of Keralam - a state that has acquired a literacy rate of above 95 percent and projects itself as liberal and secular by not conceding even a single seat to the Hindutva forces either in the State Legislative Assembly or the Central Parliament after its formation in 1956 - I plan to demonstrate how hegemonic ideologies of history and religion oozed into the sphere of aesthetic representation. The narrative of the film The Ustad oscillates between the two polarities of the Janus-faced hero. And my expectation in the following pages is to point out that this oscillation from one pole to the other of the hero\u27s psyche and body, the juxtaposition of the seemingly real and transfixed selves, carries wider networks of social and political significations

Man Slaving to Divine: A Socio-religious Custom Gleaned from the Nineteenth Century Palm Leaves

This paper is an attempt to explore and analyse the practice of the institution of slavery observed by the Syrian Christian communities in Kerala. There are eighteenth and nineteenth century palm leaf (manuscript) records in the Syrian Christian churches in Kerala establishing the same which needs to be understood in its secular and spiritual senses since these records are evidence of both the secular practice of slavery as a social custom and a religious practice of adima (slave) offering as a spiritual activity. So also, this paper is an attempt to explore and analyse the origin of adimappanam or adimakasu found in the Church records

Extended mind hypothesis and extended knowledge

No abstract available

Preparation of polycaprolactone nanoparticles via supercritical carbon dioxide extraction of emulsions

Polycaprolactone (PCL) nanoparticles were produced via supercritical fluid extraction of emulsions (SFEE) using supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2). The efficiency of the scCO2 extraction was investigated and compared to that of solvent extraction at atmospheric pressure. The effects of process parameters including polymer concentration (0.6–10% w/w in acetone), surfactant concentration (0.07 and 0.14% w/w) and polymer-to-surfactant weight ratio (1:1–16:1 w/w) on the particle size and surface morphology were also investigated. Spherical PCL nanoparticles with mean particle sizes between 190 and 350 nm were obtained depending on the polymer concentration, which was the most important factor where increase in the particle size was directly related to total polymer content in the formulation. Nanoparticles produced were analysed using dynamic light scattering and scanning electron microscopy. The results indicated that SFEE can be applied for the preparation of PCL nanoparticles without agglomeration and in a comparatively short duration of only 1 h

Towards sustainable polymeric nano-carriers and surfactants: facile low temperature enzymatic synthesis of bio-based amphiphilic copolymers in scCO2

We demonstrate that useful bio-based amphiphilic polymers can be produced enzymatically at a mild temperature, in a solvent-free system and using renewably sourced monomers, by exploiting the unique properties of supercritical CO2 (scCO2). We present the use of a novel near-ambient temperature approach to prepare renewable amphiphilic ABA copolymers in scCO2. Bio-based commercially available monomers have been polymerised to prepare chains with targeted molecular weight. The amphiphilic materials were prepared by end-capping the synthesised polymers with methoxy poly(ethylene glycol) (MPEG) chains in a one-pot high pressure reaction utilising Candida Antarctica Lipase B (CaLB) as a catalyst at a temperature as low as 35 °C. The block copolymers are characterised by 1H-NMR, GPC and DSC in order to carefully assess their structural and thermal properties. These polymers form self-assembled aggregates in aqueous environment and these nanostructures are studied through DLS, TEM and UV-Vis. Highly hydrophobic Coumarin-6 was used as a model to prove dispersion in water of lipophilic molecules. Maximum bubble pressure tests demonstrate the reduction in surface tension of these polymers and comparisons are made directly to commercial polymeric non-ionic surfactants

Syrian Christian History Inscribed on Palm Leaves

For centuries, palm leaves were used as a traditional form of writing support in India. In 2008, HMML began working with the Saint Thomas Christian Community in Kerala, India to digitize and preserve their rich blend of Syriac, European and local traditions. Among the thousands of archival materials are 10,000 palm-leaf manuscripts written in native languages, some pre-dating and many post-dating the Portuguese colonial conquest in the 1500s. Rev. Fr. Ignatius Payyappilly, a HMML partner visiting from Kerala, India, will take an in-depth look at some of the palm-leaf manuscripts. The Syrian Christian palm leaves and inscriptions are among the least examined primary sources of history writing and academic inquiry in Kerala. The palm leaves record the facts of day-to-day life of the people and activities of the church. These records allow historians to draw together the socio-economic life of the people with their religious life. The micro history formulated can contribute to the development of the comprehensive history of Kerala. Rev. Fr. Ignatius Payyappilly is a Catholic priest belonging to the Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly, Kerala, India. Fr Ignatius belongs to Syrian Christian Catholic Community and was ordained priest on April 7, 1994. He served as parish priest in six churches in Kerala. He holds MA in History from IGNOU, New Delhi, MA in Archives and Records Management from Liverpool University, UK and PhD from IGNOU, New Delhi. He is the one who organized the Archdiocesan archives in a systematic way 2001 and set up the Archdiocesan Museum in 2003, witnessing to the rich historical tradition of the Syro Malabar Church. Today hundreds of people visit this museum, for its heritage articles, and archives, and for research studies. Since 2001, he is serving as the Archivist and Curator and Librarian of the Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly, and serves as a Consultant of various religious and secular archives in India

Visual Question Answering Using Multimodal Transformers for Post Disaster Assessment

Visual Question Answering (VQA) is a challenging multimodal task in the field of artificial intelligence with the goal of answering a question that is related to an image. It is a complex task that requires understanding of both natural language processing (NLP) and computer vision. VQA has its applications in various fields such medicine, video surveillance, for visually impaired personals, etc. The proposed work tries to extend the application of VQA towards post disaster assessment. In the aftermath of natural disasters such as floods, hurricanes, and earthquakes, VQA can play a critical role in aiding disaster relief efforts by fully grasping the situation from post disaster images and offering question- related responses. As of now, research in this field is still progressing and there is a need for developing good quality datasets as well as accurate algorithms need to be created. This work focuses on creating a VQA model using multimodal transformer fusion technique combining the different pretrained text and image transformer models available. The model performance is analyzed using the FloodNet dataset, a High-Resolution Aerial Imagery Dataset for Post Flood Scene Understanding. Also, an attempt is made to train the model on the Ida-BD dataset, a high-resolution satellite imagery for building damage assessment from Hurricane Ida

Run-Time Simulation Model for Li-ion Battery using In-Circuit Extracted Mass Transport Parameters

A run-time model for Li-ion battery, which can be modified or updated when the battery is operating in the circuit, based on, in-circuit extraction of required mass transport parameters is presented. The modeling approach is based on the segmented diffusion modeling and in-circuit parameter extraction. Lithium-ion batteries are finding large application demand in many areas and at different power levels. LG18650, 2.6Ah, Li-ion cell is used as the sample cell in the study. A comparison of the model behavior is made with test data obtained from an LG18650 cell. The comparative study between the model behavior and experimental data, for a constant current charge rate and pulse discharge scenario are carried out and the results are presented. An analytical approach for obtaining the expected variation in the capacitance parameter values of the run-time equivalent circuit model, with change in state of charge (SoC) of the battery is arrived at. The percentage root mean square error between the model prediction and experimental data is 0.63% for the run-time simulation at C/10 charge rate