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.He argues that Tamil literature andculture are no less true than the truths of science, and indeed, insofar as they aremore ancient than science, they supersede the authority of even the most incontro-vertible claims of science.Siddha medical leaders and vaidyas make similar arguments about the histori-cal and scientific veracity of the evidence of tradition, joining the Shaivism of thesiddhars to archeological remains.They often refer to perhaps the most famousof the Indus Valley seals, which portrays an apparently ithyphallic man, seatedwith his knees splayed to each side and feet meeting at his groin.Paul JosephThottam sees the figure as evidence of early siddha medicine, taking the postureto be siddhasana , a yogic posture named after the siddhars. 66 In his textbookfor first-year students of siddha medicine at the College of Indian Medicine,K.C.Uttamarayan similarly enumerates a chain of connections that link siddhamedicine, Shaivism, and the Indus Valley civilization. Many siddhars appearedin Tamil Nadu, developed a medical system, and wrote medical texts.Therefore,the medicine of the Tamils is called siddha medicine.The religion of the siddharsis Shaivism.The Tamil mode of worship is worship of the linga.This is appar-ent because of the many lingas that can be seen in a variety of places, beginning 124 recipes for immortalitywith Mohenjo Daro. 67 T.V.Sambasivam Pillai links linga worship specifically toancient Tamils and to the siddhars, who metamorphosed their bodies into lingasafter attaining their goal of union with Shiva.Linga worship is practiced by thecivilised and not by the barbarous. It is found throughout Asia, Africa, Americaand Europe, and phallic symbols are apparent on Egyptian pyramids.WhileSambasivam Pillai does not mention the Indus Valley seal here, he does refer to the labours of Anthropologists and Archeologists in uncovering evidence of earlylinga worship.He also asserts that it was the siddhars who first spread this lingaworship throughout the world, as they used to go abroad in those days in order toinitiate people into the tenets of the Hindu creed. 68 Adigal identifies pieces uncov-ered in the Indus Valley as Shivalingas and as anthropomorphic representations ofShiva and Uma, concluding that Shaiva worship was common across India five orsix thousand years ago.69P.Ramanatha Pillai, the commentator of the Shaiva Siddhanta edition of theTirumantiram , takes verse 1619, they roam the world spreading wisdom that isabundant in the five Tamil regions, as evidence that the siddhars spread theirknowledge throughout the world.He expands on this verse, envisioning thatin Tirumular s time, 6000 100 b.c.e., Tamils were living throughout the world,and the siddhars wandered throughout the world spreading Tamil doctrines, suchas the Tamil language, the Shaiva religion, and the worship of the Shivalinga.Heasserts that epigraphical evidence across the globe, and the dispersal of Shivalingasthroughout the world, support this.70 P.M.Venugopal, lecturer in the Departmentof History of Medicine (Indigenous) at the Government College of IndianMedicine, Madras, wrote a report on the history of siddha medicine for the Madrasstate government on the history of siddha medicine using a significant number ofbooks purchased from the South India Shaiva Siddhanta Society.71 At the end ofhis report, he concludes that not only were Shaivism and siddha medicine closelyintertwined in their origins, but also that in the Tamil Sangam Age the Physiciansof Siddha System of Medicine were the founders of Saiva Siddhantha Philosophyand they were also the ardent followers of Lord Siva.In as much as the Lord Sivawas a super-human or a hero warrior, he was considered the first propounder ofmedicine and Tamil Literature. 72This linking of the siddhars, medicine, and Shiva has premodern precedents,as we have seen, both in the medical texts that claim Shiva as the original redactorof medical knowledge, and in the siddhars philosophical texts that take Shiva asthe source of all things
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