Memorabilia of an Internationally Recognized Self-Made Astronomer from Karaitivu, Jaffna

Source:Island

Title: ALLEN ABRAHAM (Ambalavanar Subramaniar) and the Halley’s Comet

Author: Allen L. Thurairatnam

Publisher: Neptune Publishers, BATTARAMULLA (Sri Lanka)

2021; 96pp; LKR 2500.00

Reviewed by E.A. Gamini Fonseka, Ph.D., formerly Senior Professor in English, Department of English and Linguistics, University of Ruhuna, Matara (Sri Lanka)

The neat compilation of the memorabilia of the Karaitivu-born astronomer, mathematician, poet, and scholar of the Tamil language and literature, Allen Abraham alias Ambalavanar, Subramaniar, made by the Melbourne-based engineer, Allen, L. Thurairatnam, is a valuable addition to the body of scientific literature on the Sri Lankan intellectual community’s contribution to the advancement of knowledge and the scholarship of modern science.

Thurairatnam has collected here reproductions of the topographic maps of the town where Abraham resided, the diagrams he produced in presenting his astronomic predictions, the charts he used in his studies, the photographs of his astronomical paraphernalia and the places and people he associated with, the correspondence he had with the Royal Astronomical Society in London of which he was a Fellow, the academic certificates he earned for his achievements in formal education, the newspaper articles on his public renditions, and the scientific papers he published in the Jaffna College Miscellany and the Morning Star. Their presence in a methodical alignment of 18 chapters, enhances the authenticity and archival value of the book. The format of the book is appropriate for public use in a library as a reference source.

The title of the book is effective in relating his work to the discipline of astronomy, especially in the context of Halley’s Comet. The comet was named after the English astronomer Edmond Halley (1656-1742), for his identification of all its historically recorded appearances as those of a single “celestial object” returning over and over again. Today it is established that it was the very comet recorded in the Holy Bible to have shone in the sky to prognosticate the birth of the baby Jesus Christ. Therefore, it is understood that the comet has a religious significance to Christendom.

The publication reveals some important facts about Abraham’s life: his parents died under the plague of cholera; he became an orphan as a result; the American Ceylon Missionaries took him into their custody; he joined the Jaffna College as a regular student; the college recruited him as a teacher; he made several initiatives in expanding the college curriculum; his meticulous research in astronomy earned him credit from international organisations, such as the Royal Astronomical Society (UK). His fellowship of the prestigious scientific society, which is generally conferred on an applicant after an elaborate process of screening for acceptability, is evidence of his international recognition as an outstanding astronomer.

It also sheds light on the religious, educational, and humanitarian activities of the American Christian missionaries in Jaffna during the period from the 1820s to the early 20th century, who operated under the American Ceylon Mission (ACM) which arrived in Sri Lanka in 1813, sponsored by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM). Allen Abraham whose life span is counted as 1865-1922 could be speculated to have enjoyed the full impact of those missionaries who engaged in carrying out original translations from English into Tamil, printing, and publishing, establishing primary, secondary, and tertiary educational institutions and providing health care for the residents of the Jaffna Peninsula. His character and demeanour mirror the many social changes brought about by those missionaries.

A conscientious follower of the Christian Church, a substantive member of the Jaffna College academic community, first as a student and later as a teacher, there is no doubt about Allen Abraham’s devotion to Christianity and his dedication to the education of the community together, being a source of inspiration in his pursuit of the comet’s historical recurrences. His scientific papers published in the Jaffna College Miscellany over the years 1910-1915 are evidence of his constant engagement in his astronomical studies. It is noteworthy to find in them, information such as the four ways in which a comet can affect the planet earth – 1) influencing the earth’s movement by the power of its attraction, 2) colliding with the earth by its enormous head, 3) enveloping the earth with its nearly 100-million-mile-long tail, and 4) falling into the sun and increasing the latter’s heat. To share such information with his Jaffna community in the early decades of the 20th Century, he should have been a visionary teacher with a sophisticated knowledge of astronomy and mathematics as well as a man with a big heart who was generous enough to fathom the intellectual capabilities of the others.

The extent of his commitment to the maintenance of quality in his work as a scientist is vivid in the high level of accuracy and precision noticed in all his predictions about the 1910 appearance of Halley’s Comet. In a very persuasive manner, the compiler of the book Thurairatnam points out that, even with the simplest laboratory instruments, Allen Abraham, from the tiny village of Karaitivu, in the Jaffna peninsula of Sri Lanka, maintained a very influential position on his own, to convince three reputed Indian astronomers to support his election as Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1912, the first native Ceylonese to be thus elected.

The compilation of the book has been made for the sentimental purpose of paying tribute to Allen Abraham in commemoration of his 100th death anniversary. Although Thurairatnam meant by it a personal gesture to a beloved ancestor, the book remains a valuable reference material to be used by students of astronomy as well as historic documentation of the educational setting of Jaffna under the British colonial rule, during the period concerned. While being personally proud of Allen Abraham as a fellow Sri Lankan of noble qualities from the northernmost point of the island to have reached such a colossal height in academia a century ago, I confidently hope that the book will be in great demand among the academic populace of Sri Lanka and the world around.