Siddha refers to the traditional medical system of Tamil Nadu, India. Although recognised by the government of India, siddha medicine has not been systemically studied, partly due to the difficulty of access to its texts, mostly in form of manuscripts. A total of 1,586 manuscripts were digitised as part of this project.
The project aims to digitise two collections of siddha manuscripts: the collection of Mohana Raj (president of Akila Thiruvithancore Siddha Vaidhya Sangam, ATSVS) of approximately 150 texts, and the collection of traditional siddha practitioners kept in northern and central districts of Tamil Nadu (around 130 texts identified), and in the three southern districts of Tamil Nadu (Kanniyakumari, Tirunelveli and Tuticorin), approximately 140 texts. This project will benefit from the collaboration of CTMR (Centre of Traditional medicine and Research), Chennai. Siddha refers to the traditional medical system of Tamil Nadu, India. Although recognised by the government of India, siddha medicine has not been systemically studied, partly due to the difficulty of access to its texts, mostly in form of manuscripts, kept in libraries or held by practitioners. The manuscripts consist of palm leaves made vulnerable by attacks by insect larvae, rodents and fungus. The process of cleaning, digitisation and copying was conducted at the IFP, at Muncirai and at the domicile of the project’s participants. The EAP team also arranged the manuscripts into the correct page order.A total of 1,586 manuscripts were digitised as part of this project.
