MALAPPURAM: PS Varier, the founder of Kottakkal Arya Vaidya Sala, was a representative of Indian Renaissance, said, Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu. He was speaking at the 150th birth anniversary celebrations of PS Varier at Kottakkal on Tuesday. Noting his contributions to the development of Ayurveda, Naidu said Varier had excelled in contemporising traditional Indian health care science of Ayurveda like no one else had ever done.
“PS Varier was an effective clinician with a unique healing touch, an academician-cum-educator, a benevolent entrepreneur, a philanthropist, a man of letters and a promoter of fine arts. Also, Varier was an ardent follower of Indian traditions. He was not satisfied by merely dwelling on past glories and had set his vision on future. The 117-year-old Arya Vaidya Sala, 100-year-old Ayurveda College, 87-year-old Vishwambhara temple, 85-year-old Herbal Garden and the 80-year-old Kathakali Academy are living monuments of his institution-building efforts. The country will forever remember the contributions of Varier to the development of Ayurveda,” Naidu said. He further said Varier considered providing quality and affordable health care to the poor people as his life mission.
‘Give importance to mother tongue’
The Vice-President said our education system must give more importance to teaching of mother tongue. “Our children must learn their mother tongue first. They will be able to articulate better and express emotions better in their mother tongue. After learning the mother tongue, the children should be allowed to learn as many languages as possible. Malayalam is a great language and all children in Kerala must learn Malayalam first,” said Naidu.
He also said no one should impose or oppose any language in the country. “Other countries respect us because of our unity in diversity. We should protect our diverse culture. Each language has its own specialty and its own cultural background,” Naidu said.
Earlier, Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s comment that Hindi should be used as a common language had triggered a political row in the country. Many said the central government was trying to impose Hindi as a prime language on the people in the country.