Table of Contents

1. INTRODUCTION ; 2. THE AUTONOMY OF TRADITION: CREATING SPACE FOR TRADITIONAL MEDICINE ; 3. THE MIRACULOUS ORIGINS OF SIDDHA MEDICINE ; 4. THE INVASION OF UTOPIA: THE CORRUPTION OF SIDDHA MEDICINE BY AYURVEDA ; 5. REVIVING THE UTOPIAN CHARACTER OF SIDDHA MEDICINE ; 6. SECRECY, HEREDITARY EDUCATION, AND THE IMMORTALITY OF SIDDHA MEDICINE ; 7. THE LOSS AND RECOVERY OF MEDICAL KNOWLEDGE ; 8. CONCLUSION: THE MYSTERY OF SIDDHA MEDICINE

About the Author

Richard S. Weiss is Senior Lecturer of South Asian Religions at Victoria University.

Reviews

"This book is a skillful study of Siddha medicine, the least understood of the medical 'systems' of India. Richard Weiss writes with great craft and strategy about traditions competing for medical authority in postmodernity, and very capably explores the tense dialectics between secrecy and revelation, magic and rationality, loss and revivalism, and the extraordinary and the banal. This is required reading for anyone interested in Tamil culture and its unique
expressions of concern with the legitimacy of its traditions."-- Martha Ann Selby, Associate Professor of South Asian Studies, The University of Texas at Austin
"Richard Weiss's Recipes for Immortality is an original and timely contribution to contemporary debates on the discourses of tradition, science, and rationality in modern South Asia. Based on a pioneering study and interpretation of primary texts, and on fieldwork among practitioners, the book offers illuminating insights, not only into the 19th- and 20th-century reformulation of the influential knowledge system and healing practices of Tamil siddha
medicine, but into the ways in which this reformulation has shaped and tapped into Tamil narratives of self and community in modernity."--Indira Peterson, Professor of Asian Studies, Mount Holyoke College
"Richard Weiss's thoughtful, ably researched book provides a most welcome remedy, bringing the complex aims of siddha healing to life through its successful blend of textual analysis and personal interviews.:--Blake Wentworth, Yale University
"This lucid and engaging volume will be of value for those who study the history and religion of South India, and for those with a more general interest in religion and healing."--Frederick M. Smith