How is Siddha medicine different from Ayurvedic medicine?
There are similarities in the concepts of both systems but they do have their vital differences also. Firstly, the Siddhas emphasize the approach of using a single medicine to cure different diseases by mixing it with numerous different mediums or carriers. Secondly, Ayurveda, in its early stages had the knowledge of only medicinal herbs as one can find no reference of metallic preparations in the works of Charak and Susruta. Subsequently, the medicinal knowledge of metals was undertaken in Ayurveda through Siddha Nagarjuna, the great alchemist of the Buddha system. And thridly, the Siddhas emphasize on the implementation of purification methods not only to metals and poisons (which is similar to Ayurveda) but also to each herb and every spice, which is not to be found in any other system.
