The Third World Siddha Day, April 14, went unnoticed in Tamil Nadu, a state which is claimed to be the hub of Siddha medicines and Siddha physicians.

For the last two years, April 14 is observed as the world siddha day, which was first observed in 2009 when the state chief minister M Karunanidhi announced the Tamil New Year Day as World Siddha Day. The second World Siddha Day was celebrated in a grand manner last year in Chennai in which more than 2000 people including students, post graduates, practitioners and traditional vaidyas had attended.

Defending their side for the lapse, organizations of Siddha Physicians said that since Kerala was celebrating the Day in an exalted way, all the doctors of the community were in Thiruvananthapuram. When Pharmabiz contacted the program committee in Kerala, they said only a handful of participants from Chennai were attending the meeting, who were not representing any organization except the president of IMPCOPS who was one of the committee members there.

The secretary of the Centre for Traditional Medicines & Research, Dr. T Thirunarayanan who was not invited to the Kerala meeting, has gone to Dharmapuri to receive an award from a district based government Siddha doctors association. By receiving financial aid from Ayush department he is conducting many a programme for the traditional healers of Siddha in every month. But he was not willing to organize a program as part of the world Siddha day.

The eminent Siddha doctor and the president of ‘Friends of Siddha’, Dr Joseph Thas, was unaware of the Day. He is the former principal of the government siddha medical college at Kanyakumari. But when he was told about the Day, he sent a message to Pharmabiz that people should follow all the advice of the ancient Siddhars for a healthy living and hoped that there would be a bright future for this healing system.

Prof. Jayaprakash Narayanan, Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Committee, Siddha (CCRAS) said the country’s traditional system should avail modern facilities to standardize the age old medicine and expose the greatness of Siddhars through modern parameters.

When contacted, Dr T Thirunarayanan, who after receiving ‘Manithaneya Maruthuvar’ Award from Dharmapuri Government Siddha Doctors Association, said “we need to take up more technology, more research to take the medicines to the masses, especially the poor and the under privileged.”

Meanwhile the government siddha doctors of Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri districts have jointly organized a seminar at Dharmapuri to commemorate the Day. Dr P Arunadevi, Dharmapuri District Siddha Medical Officer presided over and the Tamil scholar Dr R Elam Kumaranar delivered the keynote address.  Dr K Malarvizhi from Anna University, Chennai spoke on ‘Technological Platform for the Development of Siddha”, and Dr K Kootharasan, special grade Medical officer, Siddha delivered a lecture on “Phyto-chemical Constituents.”