| After advent of western medicine as a tool of colonisation with help of colonial government, indigenous medicines such as Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani were branded and disseminated as superstitious, irrational, unscientific and dangerous medicine. Western medical physicians’ propaganda tried to marginalise indigenous systems from main platform of heath service providers in the Indian society. Indigenous medical practitioners started to revitalise Indian medicines in the western lines such as Institutionalisation, Professionalization, opening new hospitals and dispensaries, producing medicine in a grant scale and publishing printed books and journals etc. as a reaction to marginalisation process of western medicine and create space for their respective medicines in competitive milieu. This process of revitalisation of medicine is called as cultural nationalism by K.N. Panikkar. A present paper concentrates on revitalisation of Siddha medicine in colonial Tamil region during the early twentieth century and contribution of Virudai. Sivagnana Yogi who was a Siddha physician and prime protagonist in this process as well. |