திகழ்வென்னே வாசியுடன் கூடி நின்று
சிதைவில்லா வாலைரஸம் தன்னி லிட்டு
இகழ்வென்னே மால்துளசி பிரம தண்டி
எம்பெருமான் சிவவேம்புக் கட்டும் கட்டி
அகழ்வென்னே பச்சைமோ கினியாள் பிச்சை
யாமறைத்து மாமுகத்துக் காந்தச் செப்பில்
மகிழ்வென்னே பன்றிபுடம் பாலை யூற்றிப்
பாலேறும் கோபுரத்தில் பதகம் செய்யே
thigazhv ennae vaasiyudan koodi ninru
sidhaivillaa vaalai rasam thanni littu
igazhv ennae maal thulasi pirama thandi
emberumaan sivavaembuk kattum katti
agazhv ennae pachchai mo kiniyaaL pichchai
yaamaraiththu maamugaththuk kaanthach seppil
magazhv ennae panripudam paalai yootrip
paalaerum gopuraththil padhagam seiyyae
“How it shines!—standing joined with the vāsi (breath/‘vaśi’ discipline),
placing it within the ‘vālai-rasam’ that does not perish.
How it is (so) despite contempt!—(with) Māl’s tulasi and the Brahma-daṇḍi,
our Lord’s Śiva-nīm (Śiva-neem) bundle, binding it tightly.
How it is (so) despite digging!—the ‘green Mohinī-woman’s’ alms,
I hide (it) in the great-faced (vessel/space), in magnetic copper.
How it rejoices!—in the ‘boar-puṭa’ (boar-furnace/calcination), pouring milk,
make the ‘padagam’ (tablet/formed dose) in the gopuram (tower) where milk rises.”
The verse reads like coded Siddhar-alchemical instruction: unite “vāsi” (a controlled breath/inner discipline) with an imperishable “rasam” (often implying a mercurial essence or a perfected elixir-medium). Into that medium are added triadic sanctifiers—Tulasi (Vishnu), “Brahma-daṇḍi,” and a binding made of “Śiva-vēmbu” (neem associated with Śiva/ascetic protection)—then the mixture is sealed in a vessel described as “magnetic copper.” It is then cooked by a specific puṭa-method (“boar puṭa”), with milk as the poured medium (either literal milk, a white cooling liquid, or a coded ‘ojas-like’ nourishment), until it yields a concentrated “padagam” (a pill/tablet/calx). The final stage occurs in a “gopuram” where “milk rises,” suggestive of a distillation/sublimation tower in the laboratory and, simultaneously, the yogic “tower” of the spine where a white essence ascends.
Karai Siddhar’s diction deliberately fuses laboratory procedure with inner yoga. “Vāsi” can be read as breath mastery (vāsi-yoga), implying that the practitioner’s physiological steadiness is not separate from the medicine’s ‘steadiness’ (its being “without decay”). The triadic references—Tulasi (Vishnu), Brahma’s “daṇḍi,” and Śiva’s neem-binding—can function as (1) literal ingredients/adjuncts used for purification, binding, and protection in Siddha practice, and (2) symbolic markers of integrating the three cosmic functions (preservation/creation/dissolution) within one rasāyana operation.
“Magnetic copper” points to a controlled container: copper is a canonical Siddha metal associated with conductivity, heat behavior, and therapeutic value; “magnetic” hints either at an actual magnetized adjunct (lodestone) or at the vessel’s role in “drawing” and stabilizing volatile principles (like a metaphorical attraction of prāṇa/śakti). “Puṭa” is a classic term for graded calcination/cooking cycles; naming a specific puṭa (“boar”) preserves the Siddhar habit of encoding heat-regime, fuel measure, or container geometry through animal terms. “Milk” is simultaneously practical (cooling, buffering, extracting) and esoteric (the ‘white’ refined essence—ojas/amṛta—said to rise when channels are purified). Thus “milk rising in the gopuram” can describe both (a) white vapors/condensate ascending a distillation column, and (b) the ascent of subtle nectar in the cranio-spinal axis. The “padagam” then is not only a medicine to ingest but a condensed symbol of embodied liberation: stabilized essence, made ingestible, after passing through disciplined heat and disciplined breath.