உயசித்தர் உலகத்தின் உன்மத் தத்தை
உதறிடவே பலவாறாய்ப் பாடிச் சென்றார்
பயசித்தர் ஊமத்தான் வேரைத் தேடி
பாரெல்லாம் சுற்றிவந்தே பாழாய்ப் போனார்
வயசித்தர் வாகடங்கள் பலவாத் தேடி
வாதமென்றும் வைத்யமென்றும் வாடி னாரே
கயசித்தர் தத்தமது சித்தம் காணார்
கருவான தத்துவங்க எறியார் தானே
uyasiththar ulakaththin unmath thatthai
utharidavE palavARaayp paadich senRaar
payasiththar oomaththaan vEraith thEdi
paarellaam sutRivanthE paazhaayp pOnaar
vayasiththar vaakadangaL palavAath thEdi
vaathamendRum vaiththiyamendRum vaadi naarE
kayasiththar thathamathu siththam kaaNaar
karuvaana thaththuvanga eRiyaar thaanE.
The Uya-siddhars went along, singing in many different ways, so as to shake off the world’s madness.
The Paya-siddhars, searching for the root of “ūmattāṉ/ūmattai,” wandered all over the earth and ended up ruined.
The Vaya-siddhars sought many “vākadangaḷ”; pining away in what they called debate and what they called medicine.
The Kaya-siddhars do not see their own true mind (siddham); nor do they cast away the tattvas that have become embodied (as a ‘womb/seed’).
Some Siddhars respond to worldly insanity by preaching and song; some exhaust themselves chasing rare medicinal roots; some get trapped in argumentation and professionalized healing; and some, even while pursuing bodily yogic attainments, fail to recognize their own inner realization and do not relinquish the embodied constituents (tattvas) that bind them. The verse critiques outward, restless, or technical pursuits when they are not joined to inner seeing and detachment.
The stanza sets up four contrasted seeker-types, each named cryptically (Uya/Paya/Vaya/Kaya), and shows how a spiritual search can be diverted.
1) “World’s madness” (uṉmattam) points to collective delusion: craving, fear, and intoxication with appearances. The “Uya-siddhars” try to cure it through many kinds of song—teaching, satire, mantra-like verse, or public admonition. The implicit question is whether addressing society’s insanity through discourse can itself become another outward movement.
2) The “Paya-siddhars” hunt the “root of ūmattāṉ/ūmattai.” In Siddha-medicine, ūmattai commonly denotes datura, a potent, dangerous plant used in controlled ways; its “root” can symbolize the most powerful (and most risky) hidden remedy. At the same time, “ūmam” means dumbness/insensate stupor; thus the “root of dumbness” can also mean the origin of dullness/ignorance. The line therefore holds a double critique: (a) chasing powerful external drugs/rasāyana without inner maturity leads to ruin, and (b) trying to uproot ignorance by roaming externally—without turning inward—ends in spiritual bankruptcy.
3) The “Vaya-siddhars” seek “vākadangaḷ,” which can be read as verbal constructions: arguments, disputations, rhetorical systems, or treatises. They “wither” in ‘vādam’ (debate/doctrine) and ‘vaithyam’ (medicine/physicianship). This is a critique of being trapped in conceptual victory and professional identity—knowing names, classifications, and polemics—while the existential ailment remains.
4) The “Kaya-siddhars” (kāya = body) gesture toward bodily disciplines and “kāya-siddhi” aspirations (longevity, transmutation, perfected body). Yet the verse says they do not see their own “tattvam” as “siddham” (the accomplished truth/mind) and do not “throw away” the “embodied tattvas.” In Siddhar frameworks, tattvas are the constituents/principles (elements, senses, mind-functions) that structure embodiment and bondage. To “cast them away” does not necessarily mean rejecting the body, but severing identification and compulsion—freeing awareness from the machinery of embodiment. The warning is that even intense body-based practice can remain trapped at the level of constituents and powers if the root insight (recognizing the nature of mind/being) does not dawn.
Overall, the stanza is not simply anti-medicine, anti-debate, or anti-song; it targets displacement: substituting external movement (travel, herbs, disputation, even yogic technique) for the inner seeing that dissolves bondage. It preserves a Siddhar tension: medicine and alchemy can serve liberation, but without inner discernment they become another form of “madness.”