The Siththars call the navaratnas (nine gems) as navamani. Nava means new and ratna means light. Diamond, pearl, emerald, ruby, sapphire, topaz, lapis lazuli, sardonyx and coral are Navamanis. All these stones are naturally grown on the ground.
These nine stoness are said to be the nine different forms of Lord Siva. They are Brahma, Vishnu, Rudhiran, Maheswaran, Sadhasivam, Sivam, Sakthi, Naadham and Vindhu.
The ancient Tamilians have categorized these stones into three: first, middle and last stones.
They are,
First stones:- diamond, pearl, emerald, ruby
Middle stones:- sapphire, topaz, lapis lazuli
Last stones:- sardonyx, coral
Siththars have categorized these stones into two types: main ratnas and sub ratnas. Diamond, pearl, topaz, ruby, sapphire are main ratnas and lapis lazuli, sardonyx and coral are subratnas.
The Siththars have utilised it in many ways. Based on the information that we have got, the navamani have been used in two ways.
One is in the astrology. To protect from the effects of the nine planets on a particular person, he will choose a particular stone that suit to his astrology effects and wear it by keeping it in any of the jewels.
The other is utilising it for medicinal purposes by making these navaratnas into ashes and using them as medicinologes.
First we shall see how these navamani has been prescribed for the astrology purposes in the next posts.
Original - www.siththarkal.com
