Farewell Address to Dr. Y. Subba Rao
The staff and the students of the Madras Ayurvedic College gave a farewell entertainment and presented an Address to Dr Y. Subba Rao, L.M. &S., late Vice Principal of the College, on the eve of his departure to America for research study in the School of Tropical Medicine, Harvard, on Friday the 14th instant at 5 P.M. in the Madras Ayurvedic College premises, Pudupet, Madras.
A large number of students and professors of the College and other friends and well wishers of the guest were present, prominent among whom are Sri Rajah Saheb of Managal, Dr A Lakshmi Pathi (Principal), Ayurvedabhushana Pandit M Doraiswamy Aiyangar Avl, Ayurvedacharya N Madhava MenonAvl, Brishagraj Mandalika Venkateswara Rao, Mrs. A. Lakshmi Pathi, Messrs P. Kanakarazu (Manager of Andhra Ayurvedic Pharmacy Ltd.), Ayurveda Bhushanas Venkata Sastry and Venkateswara Sarma, Brishagwara V Sankara Sastry and others. Light refreshments were served.
The Rajah Saheb of Managal was then requested to preside over the gathering.
Dr. A. Lakshmi Pathi in opening the proceedings said as follows:
Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen!
Before the presentation of our Address, I wish to say something about our dear Dr. Y. Subba Rao, who is known to us for the last one and a half years.
I knew him previously for over five or six years but more intimately during the last year and a half.
It will not be out of place if I tell you a few words regarding my opinion about him in the capacity of a student and as one of our lecturers in the College.
He was the Vice-Principal of the College and virtually conducted all the affairs of the institution. In my name, he did the whole business of the College and gave the college a new life and inspiration.
There are a few prominent features of his character which I wish to enumerate not because I want to praise him but because I want the students to grasp the things which make a man so great.
The first and foremost is his thirst for knowledge: whatever book I gave him, he was ready to grasp the subject quickly and eagerly and was able to give the analysis of it within a week.
The next feature I wish to mention is his implicit obedience to his teacher. Whatever work was given to him, he was always cheerful in completing to the very letter.Some of you may remember that I sent him to Wanaparthi (Hyderabad). He did not care for any sacrifice. You all (those who were with him) know how he troubled himself when we treated the Maharajah of Wanaparthy. He used to take keen interest in his work and was watchful both night and day.
Another thing is his patriotism. He thinks of his country first and himself next. He is so selfless that he wants to achieve the object of his country instead of his own or his family’s welfare or happiness.
Above all, there is a fourth and the most important character which I find in him and which any one of you would have noticed. That is his simplicity of character and straightforwardness, which is admirable, the cause of our clinging to him and to be his friends always. This is manovakkaya karma shuddhi.
Gentlemen, he has a great programme before him; I know a little about it. He wants to study this system, the ancient system of Ayurveda, in a true scientific spirit and to import the spirit of it to the Western medical scientists. It is the same mission on which some of ourgreat leaders such as Swami Vivekananda went to America and foreign lands some time ago. India has many lessons to teach Westerners. It is on such a mission of carrying India’s great culture that our Dr Subba Rao is now going to America.
Gentlemen, I am aware that I was not able to help him as much as I wanted to do. Our financial position this year is not very good. I hope, with the permission of kind Directors, I will be able to help him in the near future. However, we are all glad to hear that he is now able to secure the necessary funds and is now ready for sailing within a few days.
I now request Mr M V Subba Rao to read the Address which we have got ready to be delivered to him.
The Address having been ready was presented in a sandalwood casket.
After a few individual speeches by the students, past and present, of the College appreciating his services, Dr Y Subba Rao replied as follows:
President in the chair, Dr. and Mrs. Lakshmi Pathi, Ladies and Gentlemen!
My heart is so full that I do not know what to speak. I am very grateful to you for the kind send-off which you have been pleased to give. I never expected that you would present me with an Address as I am quite insignificant and such an honour is intended for great people. Its value will be lessened if the same is given to people like me.
When I was undergoing the third year’s course in the Madras Medical College, I fell ill of severe indigestion. Col. Elwes treated me as an inpatient for two months and I was also treated by some of the prominent physicians. I had a severe attack of dysentery and my medical friends introduced me to Dr. A. Lakshmi Pathi. Then I went to him to be treated for Dyspepsia which was cured in four or five doses of the medicine he prescribed. I then continued to be treated for a month more by which time my interest in Ayurveda was kindled. That was the first time.
After I finished my course in the Medical College, if I had chances of service, I would not have been so very self-sacrificing as to come here. It is by God’s grace and I am glad for it now (that) Dr Lakshmi Pathi gave me an opportunity of studying Ayurveda. He requested me to be in employment so that I may provide myself in Madras.
He gave me the greatest opportunities for study and he put his own personal library at my disposal and helped me not only with his knowledge of books but also with the knowledge which he gained during his tour throughout India on the Indigenous Committee.
As for the students, I may tell you, there are vast theories which, if you are eager, (you)may develop. I meanthe THRIDOSHA THEORY.
This Theory has different aspects andere long Western doctors may adopt this in one name or other. Even now some of the scientists have shown a tendency to say that the bacteria are not the main cause for disease. They have still got to explain a fertile soil which helps the growth of them. They are now reverting to some internal resistance the lack of which produces all these things and the bacteria are only the immediate causes. And the immunity against these things is normally produced in the body. According to some, lack of internal secretions or the excess of the secretions give the liability for the disease. Of course, this is not the general view. Moreover I tell you, as a told you in the class, that the Thridosha will go a great deal to help (explain) these things and in the near future I think it may be adopted in one name or the other.
The knowledge of the five bhutas is essential. This is not a lecture on the five bhutas on which, if you want, I shall speak next.
I thank you all once more and Mrs. Lakshmi Pathi and Dr. Lakshmi Pathi for the verykindtreatmentthey have rendered me throughout my course in the College.
The meeting terminated with a hearty vote of thanks to the revered chairman.