Commonly known by the name of Arimalam mani Iyer, which is actually the name of his father Subramaniyan, Shri. Ramakrishnan was born on the year of 1917. He belonged to a lineage of Siddha physicians. It was customary to learn from the parents. His father was his guru. He established himself as a reputed Siddha physician at Arimalam, a small village in pudhukottai district. This year 2017 falls to be his centennial; birth anniversary. It has been decided to instill an award in his name for excellence in contribution of Indian system of medicine.
Award was decided on feedback and assessment from ground level. Few genuine contributors were short listed from both Siddha and Ayurveda system of medicines. Tamil Nadu residence/ origin was decided as an important criteria for the award. Dr. Thiru Narayanan ,Dr. L. Mahadevan, Dr. Sri Ram, Dr. Siva Raman were the final shortlisted names. After careful discussion, we are happy and proud to inform that the inaugural 2017 edition 'Arimalam Ramakrishna vaithiyar award for excellence in Indian medicine' shall be given to Siddha physician Dr. Thiru Narayanan.
Award function will be held at Arimalam, in the presence of various important personalities, on july 15 th of 2017.
Profile of Dr. Thiru Narayanan
Dr.T.Thirunarayanan, an alumnus of the Govt. Siddha Medical College, has 28 years of experience in different spheres of Indian Systems of Medicine including teaching, training, clinical and industrial research.
Dr. Thirunarayanan is the secretary of Center for Traditional Medicine and Research (CTMR), an NGO. CTMR functions in the traditional healthcare space and runs two free AYUSH health centers and two mobile clinics catering to Fishermen and other marginalized communities.
Dr.Thirunarayanan and his team focuses on treating lifestyle disorders like Diabetes, Hypertension, Arthritis, immune related diseases like Bronchial Asthma and Skin diseases and provides Palliative care for Cancer through traditional medical wisdom of India.
Having authored four books in Siddha medicine and translated quite a few and published research papers in peer reviewed journals, Dr. Thirunarayanan is also the principal investigator in documenting Traditional health practices in different districts of Tamilnadu and involved in digitizing indexing and cataloguing of ancient Siddha Palm manuscripts other research projects on drug standardization.
During the course of his career he was invited to deliver lectures in various universities and institutions in India and abroad. He was a member of the Working Group of Planning Commission in AYUSH, actively involved in various Govt. committees on Medicinal Plants, Public Health interventions through equitable growth initiative, fixation of fees in private medical colleges and Reproductive and Child Health. He is currently a member of Ayurveda, Siddha Unani Drug Technical Advisory Board of Govt. of India
He has authored ‘Development of ISM’ report for the state under the Tamilnadu Govt. aiming at equitable growth initiative programme along with members of the Health sector sub-committee. Has served as expert member in earlier ‘Mother and Child healthcare’ programme and subsequently in designing training module and kit for RCH programme of Govt. of Tamilnadu and in evaluating, monitoring and review.
Has been expert member of the Medicinal plant committee of Tamilnadu Siddha Medical Board and co- authored report on establishing large scale Medicinal plant gardens in Tamilnadu apart from serving a member of the Indian delegation for International Cooperation in AYUSH of the Dept. of AYUSH to Government of Malaysia. He has prepared the report on reviving and development of Siddha in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. Served as subject expert in Traditional Knowledge digital library programme, ICD, Intellectual property of Traditional Knowledge
He is involved in training in specialties of Siddha system both to goverment physicians and shaping young ISM graduates. Currently serves as a subject matter expert on ISM to ‘Arogya Baratham’ health programme of Doordarshan and Ministry of Health – promoting awareness through Mass Media for Healthy living.
Dr.T.Thirunarayanan develops new products based on Traditional medical systems adopting rigorous
scientific validation methods and also in designing standard operating procedures to comply with Good Manufacturing Practices. Establishing medicinal plant garden and conservation of medicinal plants by ex-situ methods is his passion.