பஞ்சமெலாம் போக்குமடா பஞ்ச சாரம்
பஞ்சாஜம் பஞ்சகவ்யம் பஞ்ச மேதி
பஞ்சாம்லம் பஞ்சமித்ரம் பஞ்சம் ருத்தை
பஞ்சான்னம் பஞ்சாக்கம் பஞ்ச பூதம்
பஞ்சமூத்ரம் பஞ்சரத்னம் பஞ்ச காரம்
பஞ்சலவ ணம்லோகம் பஞ்ச ஸ்ருங்கம்
பஞ்சாயம் பஞ்சகந்தம் பஞ்ச காந்தம்
பஞ்சானி யேபஞ் சாம் ருதபா னந்தான்
pañcamelām pōkkumaṭā pañca sāram
pañcājam pañcakavyam pañca mēti
pañcāmlam pañcamitram pañcam ruttai
pañcānnam pañcākkam pañca pūtam
pañcamūtram pañcaratnam pañca kāram
pañcalava ṇamlōkam pañca sruṅgam
pañcāyam pañcakantam pañca kāntam
pañcāni yēpañc cām rutapā nantān
“The ‘Pañca-sāram’ drives away every ‘pañcam’.
The five ‘ājām’, the five ‘kavya’, the five ‘mēthi’;
The five sours, the five ‘friends’, the five ambrosias;
The five foods, the five letters, the five elements;
The five urines, the five gems, the five ‘kāram’;
The five salts, the five metals, the five horns;
The five ‘āyam’, the five fragrances, the five ‘kāntam’;
Thus is he—one who drinks/partakes of the five ambrosias.”
A Siddhar points to a “fivefold essence” (pañca-sāram) that removes a “fivefold affliction/defect/privation” (pañcam). He then lists many pentads—foods, ritual/medical substances, salts, metals, gems, excretions, mantric “five letters,” and the five elements—hinting that Siddha medicine and inner yoga both work by mastering “the five”: purifying and recombining the gross (salts, metals, urine, horns) and the subtle (letters/mantra, elements) until one reaches “pañcāmṛta,” the bliss of an ambrosial state (nectar/ojas/amṛtam).
This verse is structured as a catalogue of “pañca-varga” (fivefold sets). In Siddha literature such lists often serve two simultaneous functions:
1) **Medical / alchemical register (outer practice)** - The repeated pentads resemble Siddha pharmacological groupings and rasavāda (alchemical) processing categories: **salts (pañca-lavaṇam)**, **metals (pañca-lōham)**, **gems (pañca-ratnam)**, **animal products/excretions (pañca-mūtram; pañca-kavya)**, plus other hard-to-identify sets. These are typical of preparations where substances are purified (śuddhi), calcined/processed (māraṇam), and recombined into a “sāram” (essence/extract). - “Pañca-sāram” can therefore be read as either a named compound/medicine or as the general principle that the efficacious “essence” emerges by correctly handling multiple quintuple categories.
2) **Yogic / cosmological register (inner practice)** - The explicit mention of **pañca-bhūtam** (five elements) and **pañc-ākkam** (likely “five letters,” i.e., pañcākṣaram) shifts the list into the body-cosmos equivalence: the body is constituted of the five elements and is governed by fivefold systems (often: senses, vital winds, sheaths, etc., depending on the school). - “Pañcāmṛta” (“five ambrosias,” also a known devotional mixture) is frequently doubled in Siddha usage: outwardly a mixture; inwardly the yogic nectar associated with transformed vitality (ojas/bindu/amṛtam). “Drinking” it can mean literal ingestion or the yogic absorption of inner nectar.
3) **What is “pañcam” that is removed?** - The opening “pañcam ellām pōkkum” is intentionally non-specific. “Pañcam” can mean a fivefold suffering/defect (disease-set, taints, constraints), or even “poverty/famine” in plain Tamil usage. The verse leaves this open, allowing both mundane cure and liberation-oriented reading.
Overall, the verse compresses Siddha method into a mnemonic: liberation/health comes by working through “the five” at every layer—substance, element, mantra—until the ambrosial state (ānanda) is stabilized.