A short introduction: The Tamil Siddhas and the Siddha medicine of Tamil Nadu

Karl-Ruprecht University, Heidelberg

A short introduction: The Tamil Siddhas
and the Siddha Medicine of Tamil Nadu

by

Marion Zimmermann

Ethnologie/ Musikwissenschaft: 10. Semester;
Moderne Indologie: 4. Semester
20.09.2001

Contents

Introduction

1. The meaning of Siddha

2. The Siddha practitioners

3. The Siddhas of Tamilnadu

4. The origin of Siddha medicine

5. The fundamental principles of the Siddha medicine

6. The invention or development of the Siddha medicine

7. The popularity of Siddha medicine

8.Comparism to Ayurveda

9. Today

10. Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

Medicine means the prevention of physical illness;
medicine means the prevention of mental illness;
prevention means to avert illness;
medicine therefore is the prevention of death.¹

This quotation is an interesting definition of medicine by Tirumular -one of the greatest and earliest Tamil Siddha. The Tamil Siddhas – so a lot of authors assume – invented or developed the Tamil medical system named Siddha medicine. Till today this medical system is little known in India -with a few geographical exceptions in the South- next to the popular Ayurveda medical system.

The Siddha medicine is found in the present time only in Tamilnadu and in a few parts of Kerala (Wehmeyer 2000:1). There is a bulk of works on Siddha medicine in the Tamil language. A lot of these works are not yet studied, because of their secret and symbolic language, their partially bad condition and their difficult accessibility. Many questions about this system cannot be answered, yet. Till today it is not clear when and where the Siddha medicine exactly originated, why it was invented or developed, at all, and why it has not become as popular as Ayurveda.

In this essey I will explain in a very generalized form what the notion ´siddha´means and what person a Siddha is like. I will try to find out when the Siddha medicine was developed, and I will give a short introduction to the fundamental principles of Siddha medicine. Then I will show some problems of Siddha medicine, and therefore why it could not be as popular as the Ayurveda system. Further I will give possible answers why the Tamil system was invented or developed, at all, and I will compare Siddha medicine with Ayurveda to show which of these two systems is the older one. At least, I will give an image of the situation in the present time. I will not explain the Siddha groups and several medical features of Siddha medicine in detail. The subject is too far-reaching and complicated to go into details in this work. The subject can only be broached and is presented in a very generalized form.

1. The meaning of Siddha

[...]

1 by Tirumular (Zvelebil 1973:124)