Court Stresses on Importance of Native Medicine

Updated on: Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Justice V Ramasubramanian, while disposing off a batch of writ petitions relating to Government Siddha Medical College (Tirunelveli) and Government Ayurveda Medical College (Kanyakumari), stressed on the need to protect native system of medicine, which was fast fading away from public domain.He observed that there were various historical instances to discourage native system of medicine.

The history of Ayurveda and Siddha dates back to several centuries. Literally meaning the science of life,' Ayurveda was often used in a narrow sense as a system of medicine”, he said.

He further observed that even according to The Encyclopaedia Britannica, the golden age of Indian medicine was from 800 B.C. to 1000 A.D. which was marked by the production of medical treatises known as Charaka-samhita' and Susruta-samhita.'

The Siddha System of Medicine also had a history which dated back to several centuries. The Siddha system had its own merits. “But due to lack of patronage for the culture of the ancient times, this system of Medicine also suffered to a great extent under the colonial rule,” he said.


The Mudaliar Committee on medical education made strong recommendations in 1961 for integrating modern medicine with the traditional medicine. The dominance of modern medicine had become irreversible by that time and the institutions promoting indigenous systems of medicine were controlled by State governments.

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