SIDHA
Siddha medicine is practised in Southern India. The origin of the Tamil language is attributed to the sage Agasthya and the origin of Siddha medicine is also attributed to him. Before the Aryan occupation of the Sind region and the Gangetic plain there existed in the southern India, on the banks of the river Kavery, and Tamirapani, a civilization which was highly organised .This civilization has a system of medicine to deal with problems of sanitation and treatment of diseases. This is the Siddha system of medicine. It is possible that in the course of time this system and the one prevalent in the north supplemented and enriched each other. The therapeutics of Siddha medicines consists mainly of the use of metals and minerals whereas in the earlier Ayurveda texts there is no mention of metals and minerals . From earliest times in Siddha text, there is mention of mercury, sulphur, copper, arsenic and gold used as therapeutic agents. The analogy : if there are one hundred herbal /mineral combination in Ayurveda to cure a disease , Siddha just uses ten herbs/mineral to elicit a similar cure. The Tridosha theory , sapta dhatu physiology and nomenclature of the diseases in the two systems may seem similar. According to Siddha medicine AIDS has been written by the Tamil Siddhars as far back as few thousand years during the ancient prehistoric civilisation of Southern India. Traditionally, it is said there were 18 Siddhas. They left their imprint not only in medicine, but in yoga and philosophy. The Siddhas were essentially Yogis and secondarily physicians.
