The Science of metallurgy and geology was well developed in the pre-historic India. A frequent mention of metals is thee in the ancient texts and historical records. The interesting thing is that most of the development on the medicinal uses of minerals was not developed in Ayurveda but in closed allied system Siddha which is mainly practiced in Tamilnadu and the adjoining areas in south India. The practitioners of this system of medicine are called Sidhars, and their achievement as siddhi. According to tradition, it was god Siva who gave knowledge of Siddha system to his consort Parvati, who handed it to nandi deva and from there it went to Sidhars. Eighteen Sidhars of them were well conversant with both Tamil (language of a part of south India) and Sanskrit. In the early stages Siddha originated and developed independently but later on, as happens with all types of knowledge, there was exchange between Ayurveda and Siddha, both systems sharing the knowledge of each other. Since Siddha system said to have originated by the knowledge imparted by Lord Siva, this system of medicine is sometimes known as Siva sampradayan (tradition of Siva) or Sidha Sampradayam. On the other hand Brahma, who is the creator of universe, taught this science of Ayurveda to Prajapati to Aswini devtas so Ayurveda is sometimes called Brahma or Aesha sampradayam. From this it is evident that Siddha system was the creation of Dravids in south India whereas Aryans developed Ayurveda in the north.
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