HISTORY - of invasions and linguistics

There are a number of medicinal systems currently recognised by the Indian government. Allopathy, homepathy, naturopathy and yoga therapy are all recognised together with three traditional herbal systems which have been widely used as primary health care regimes by countless millions of inhabitants of the Indian sub-continent for thousands of years. They are Ayurveda, which is probably the most well known, Unani and Siddha, which arguably predates the other two. But we must venture back through the Centuries to find the inter-relationship between these systems.

The peoples of the Dravidian culture developed the Siddha medicinal system, tribes that were the original inhabitants of what is now large part of India. Both their culture and civilization were highly developed, and centered on the large cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, sited on the banks of the River Indus. These cities date back some 4000 years, and even then boasted wide, paved streets, dwellings made from brick block structures, sophisticated sanitation including public baths and advanced drainage systems, trading complexes from which they traded with foreign lands via Lothial, their major port, writing instruments, clay tables and seals. These highly advanced and civilized tribes were known as the Indoos (later, Hindus), the ‘the people who live by the Indus’ by their contemporaries, the Sumerians and Chads.

Around 2000 years ago, nomadic Aryan tribes from the North in Central Asia, crossed the Deccan Plains and eventually invaded the contented and peaceful Dravidians, leading to their mass exodus further South to the very tip of the Indian subcontinent, where the highest concentration of Dravidians is still to be found today.

The invading Aryans brought with them to the Indian sub-continent their Veda, ancient books of wisdom and sacrificial ritual. From the youngest of these Vedas, the Atharva-veda, developed Ayurveda, probably with the help of residual and acquired Dravidian knowledge.

In time, the Indian sub-continent was invaded by Muslims from the West who brought with them their own medicinal system, Unani Tibbia. Arabic physicians who combined Greek medicinal practices with Ayurveda created Unani. Unani is therefore closely related to Ayurveda and was supported by India’s Muslim rulers, but, interestingly, Ayurveda prospered concurrently.

The language of the Aryans and Sanskrit and it is in this language that all Ayurvedic texts are written. The most ancient of the Dravidian group of languages was Tamil. This was later assimilated into other related languages such as Malayalam, around the 12th Century A.D, which is a mixture of Sanskrit and Tamil; Telugu, a mixture of Sanskrit-derived Hindi and Tamil in the 16th Century and many hundreds of other hybrid languages and dialects, for example, Tamil with Greek, Arabic, Persian, Turkmanic etc.

The Dravidian texts on the Siddha medicinal system are thus written in pure Tamil and although many of these texts were lost during their migration South, following the invasion of the Aryans hordes from the North, many, as we shall see, are still in existence today.

SIDDHA AND AYURVEDA - a brief introduction and general principals

The Siddha medicinal system was designed to provide a cheap and efficient health care regime for the people. The word Siddha may be translated as an object to be attained, or perfection. The Siddha sages were known as Siddhars and were considered to be super-human beings who defined age and other laws to which ordinary human beings are subject. They were believed to have achieved eight miraculous powers through yoga practice, (1). Classical Tamil texts tell of eighteen Siddhars and history reveals that they had written tomes and four subjects: alchemy, medicine, yoga and philosophy.

The Siddhars had investigated and studied fully the causes of many diseases and the effect of many locally available plants and minerals on these diseases. Their works describe the chemistry of gold, silver, mercury, sulphur, their use of 64 poisons, alkalis and salts. At the same time they were said to use special secret herbs and drugs which allegedly endowed them with great virtues relating to medicine, alchemy, yoga and wisdom. There is a striking similarity here with the contemporary use of magical, often hallucinogenic herbs, by South American Shamans, to enable them to enter a dream-like state in which they ‘see’ the herb that will provide a cure to their patient. Not unnaturally, the Siddhars kept the identity and availability of these mystical herbs from public knowledge for fear of abuse and misuse.

Although the most ancient of the Siddhars was Thirumoolar, perhaps the most important of them, in terms of medicinal texts, was Agathiyar. Some of his works are still standard books on medicine and surgery. About 1000 works on medicine in the Tamil language originated from the pen of the Sage Agathiyar. Although some of the original texts were palm leaf manuscripts of various sizes, others have been printed on paper. Most of the information is presented in a style that may be described as generally simple and almost colloquial and, interestingly, is presented in poetic meter rather than prose.

The general axiom of Siddha medicine, recognizes only three physical elements: air, vayu, fire, bile and water, phlegm. These formed the fundamental principles known as muppini on which the constitution of human beings is based. These three humours form the connection between the microcosm of man and the macrocosm of the world. The humours also form three of the 96 Tatwas, or constituent principles in Nature described by the Siddhars

96 Tatwas | Primodial Siddhars |

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