Is there any science in Siddha System of Medicine was the question asked by a few people.   

After series of discussions with ‘true’ Siddha practitioners (who prescribe only Siddha medicines, not allopathic medicines), I learned the fact that Siddha System of Medicine is far beyond science, far above science and is linked with human emotion, intuition, intelligence and instinct. 

No other system medicine or diagnostic approach on earth can be as sensitive as Siddha System of Medicine.  The Siddha system adopts the method of diagnosis of diseases based on the intimate and total understanding of the patient, subtle aspects in the ‘typical and atypical’ clinical manifestation of the problem, the description or narration of the problem by the patients and or by their relatives, appearance and colour of the eyes, tongue, tactility, appearance of the skin, its changes, colour and smell of urine, the pulse rate and its manifestations like ‘jumping frog pattern’, flying bird pattern, movement of snake pattern etc.,   The Siddha physicians read the pulse (nadi) in the wrist and other parts of the body and measure the speed and appearance of the nadi and accordingly decide whether the patient suffers from ‘Vatta’ or ‘Kapha’ or ‘Pitta’ dohsa or defect. 

Siddha system first and foremost tries to understand the patient, their nature, where do they live, what kind of food they eat, their occupation, living conditions etc., and only then the treatment is initiated.  The treatment is always on correcting the defects than anything else.  It means, help the body to restores its immunity, strength and power to combat disease.

Such sacred system of health care approach, the allopathic system of medicine cannot offer like Siddha.   The unfortunate part is that the depth and profundity of Siddha system, the academic institutions are not teaching these days to their students as stated by a few post-graduates in Siddha and otherwise why would the Siddha qualified practitioners prescribe allopathic medicine.

The point of discussion is that the Siddha graduates why leaving such treasure and migrate to prescribe allopathic system of medicine?  Doesn’t such approach of some Siddha practitioners prescribing allopathic drugs really harm the growth of the system and the welfare of people at large?  Doesn’t such approach amounts to quackery?

The Honorable Supreme Court of India has defined the quacks as “A person who does not have knowledge of a particular system of medicine but practices in that system and a mere pretender of medical knowledge or skills.”

A few young post graduates in Siddha wondered why strict law is not enacted in Tamil Nadu to stop this social menace.  Our beloved Amma J Jayalalithaa must guide the government in this regard.

Siddha system is the eternal and the most valuable system for the health & welfare of mankind.  The strength of the system should be used to promote the system and not the false promises or propaganda about the system as that would harm the system. 

Dr Abdul Abbas, MD – Siddha thanked the Siddha drug manufacturing and marketing companies in Tamil Nadu for their untiring service in promoting Siddha system of medicine. 

Some of the companies have brought out several proprietary Siddha medicines through intense research and have taken the glory of the Siddha system to different parts of the world.  Government should help and support even the private establishments those who promote Siddha system of medicine and only then the system will grow.  SKM, Dr JRK’s Siddha Pharmaceuticals Pvt., Ltd., Chennai are some of the industries doing an exemplary services to Siddha system of medicine and creating value and glory for the system.

Our beloved and most respected Amma J Jayalalithaa must guide the government of Tamil Nadu to ensure that Siddha system gets its due attention, adequate support to the industry and an end to quackery.

The author thank Dr Abdul Abbas, MD –Siddha and some of his friends for providing certain valuable inputs for preparing this article.

What the industry wants from the Government, ill effects of integrated curriculum, regulatory changes, unified tax system for ISM drugs etc., will be covered in forthcoming articles.

Dr S Ranganathan