By Gopal Ethiraj, Chennai
CHENNAI, 09 August (asiantribune.com): Traditional medicine (also known as indigenous) comprising medical knowledge systems and practices are popular all over the globe. In India there are innumerable treatment systems within various societies, and some successful treatment practices are kept as family secret and hereditary.
One such is “Puthur Kattu” (Puthur Bandage), quite popular in the Southern India states—Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala—the treatment practice handed down to fourth generation practitioners of the same family.
S. Pratap Raju, among his cousins, is most successful bone-setter. Doctors should have that magic touch, for the heal to flow. He has that abundantly. For people who pour in for treatment ask for him, after his father S.Subramaniam Raju, the living patriarch of the family, who is a guiding spirit.
In Chennai, at Purasawalkam, where they have a roaring practice with “Puthur Kattu” the crowd has to be seen to be believed. From morning till evening for two days (on Tuesday and Wednesday) every week, for a team of one dozen hands, headed by Pratap Raju, it is non-stop sweating. Pratap and his team do it as service, honouring the hereditary family service passed on four generations down.
“Rendering service to the suffering people is service to our fore-fathers, who passed on such time-tested valuable bone-setting treatment practice,” says Pratap, who doesn’t want yet to be called Dr. Pratap-- until he gets qualified for the title. In fact, he is doing his doctorate with the Dravidian university, and very soon ‘Dr.’ would pre-fix to his name. He is already an M.Sc. (Psychology), M.A. (Public Administration) and B.L.
Pratap Raju, who practices two days in Chennai, twice monthly in Kerala, one day in Nellore, spends the rest of the days in Puthur, where his fore fathers founded the bone-setting hospital. The hospital in Puthur is known as Suraparaju’s Bone-setting Hospital, where the practice is jointly by his cousins—Dr. Lokesh Raju, Balasubramaniam Raju, S Juggal Kishore Raju, Sethumadhava Raju-- and Pratap’s own brother A.Vikram Raju.
“An entrance fee of Rs 10, a piece of cloth, some eggs and, of course, a broken bone are all that is required from a patient" wrote the leading English newspaper, The Hindu, in its supplement story, years ago, about Puthur bone-setting clinic. “In some cases the hospital provides the cloth (but the broken bone has to be provided by the patient!)”. Pratap Raju showed the newspaper clipping, this writer is tempted to quote here.
Free treatment for the poor, locals
Pratap, talking to Asian Tribune, said the hospital is a public charitable society, helping the poor and the down-trodden is the primary goal. They have treatment free. The villagers in and around also have free treatment. Apart from the entrance fee of Rs. 10, if voluntary contribution is given it is accepted as there is the huge burden of running the establishment.
Ever since the medicinal property of the herbal foliage was found in 1881 by one of the forefathers of the Raju clan of Puthur, a silent Andhra village, near Tirupati, almost on the border of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, innumerable persons have been successfully treated for fractures, dislocations and arthritis.
Pratap Raju says the leaves have the uncommon property of softening the bones as well as hardening them. In the process the joining of the fractured bones takes place. “The herbal leaf paste also gives relief for back pain, sciatica and spondilitis,” he says.
“Not only the medicinal property of the herbal paste, the deft handling—tracing the fractured spot by expert fingers, aligning the broken bones in order before applying the green paste mixed with albumin of the egg—does the magic,” Pratap Raju says. One or two ‘kattus’ (bandages) and a maximum of 45 days are enough for sure joining, he adds.
Chance finding herbal leaves
It was in 1881, Gopal Raju who accidentally found the healing property of the herbal foliage while hunting. He brought home a back-broken rabbit on a bed of some leaves he picked in the forest. To his surprise he found the animal limping. He made paste of the same and applied on its back. In a few days, the animal ran and disappeared in the forest. And to Gopal Raju one truth appeared: leaves had some medicinal quality!
Next few years, Gopal Raju experimented on limb-fractured chicken, calves and sheep. Convinced, he went on to treat human beings. He became a successful native doctor, and people from far and wide beelined to Puthur for bone-setting, and it came to be called “Puthur Kattu.” During the colonial rule, there was war everywhere, wounded soldiers were many. He was treating them to fitness. Gopal Raju’s services were utilized by the British rulers. That took him to places, treating the wounded soldiers and civilians throughout the country.
The World Wars came, he had more wounded armymen to treat. He had the unique honour of free railway pass to travel anywhere in the country. Gopal Raju passed on the legacy to his sister’s son, Suraparaju Subba Raju, who was a revenue official in the British government. He gave up his lucrative job to serve the humanity. The great Subba Raju applied his learned and administrative skills and laid the foundation for a mission that is the bone-setting hospital at Puthur, Pratap Raju said in one breadth.
Pratap Raju went on: The credit of preparing an ointment from the extract of the herbal leaves goes to Subba Raju, who perfected the treatment system. His brothers Markendeya Raju and Ganga Raju were pillars of the establishment, the former moving with the top echelons of their time, and thus roped in upper class society for treatment. Ganga Raju with his adept service spread this style of treatment to as far as Calcutta, and bagged several honours, including one from the Red Cross Society.
In the third generation, Markendeya Raju’s two sons – Dr. Rama Raju ( the first qualified doctor in the family) and S.Subramaniam Raju—were the torch-bearers of the hereditary treatment. Their children, the fourth generation, is now practicing the family hereditary bone-setting treatment.
If Pratap Raju is shuttling between Chennai and Puttur; and dashes out for stints at Guruvayur in Kerala and Nellore in Andhra Pradesh, his cousins trip to Bangalore, Salem, Nadyal, Hyderabad, Cuddappa and Guntakal and other places.
The Puthur Rajus are proud of having treaded many VVIPs, like N.T.Rama Rao, top star of his days and former Chief Minister of Andhara Pradesh, V.V.Giri, former president of India, Dr. Channa Reddi, former CM of AP and Governor of Tamil Nadu. And there is no dearth for testimonies from people of all walks of life. There is a heap of it.
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