கலைதாங்கும் நிலைஓங்கத் தலைவாங்கும் துணையாரு?
இலையேங்கும் இடைதூங்க முலைவீங்க விலைகூறு
தொலையேந்து குலைசாய்ந்து மலைபாய்ந்த வினையாறு
அலையோய்ந்துள் ளுலைதீய்ந்த தலையேய்ந்த பனையேறு
kalaitaangum nilaiOongath thalaivaangum thunaiyaaru?
ilaiyEngum idaitHoonga mulaivEenga vilaikUru
tholaiyEnthu kulaisaayndhu malaipaayndha vinaiyaaru
alaiyOyndhul lulaitHeeyndha talaiyEyndha panaiyEru.
“For the state that sustains the kalai to rise and stand high—who is the helper that draws (it) up to the head?
With leaves trembling, the middle/waist drooping, the breasts/buds swelling—(it/she) speaks a price.
Bearing (a load) from afar, with the bunch drooping, the river of deeds/karma that rushed like a mountain-flood.
When the waves have grown weary, within, the furnace-fire has burned; having reached the head, (it) climbs the palmyra.”
To raise the inner ‘state’ that supports life and consciousness (kalai)—and to draw the force upward to the head—what “companion” is involved?
The verse then hints in deliberately mixed images (a woman’s body / a fruiting plant / the body itself): trembling leaves, a sagging middle, swelling breasts or buds, and a “price” being stated—suggesting desire, exchange, and the cost of attachment.
Karmic action is pictured as a river driven like a mountain torrent, bending and dragging the “bunch” downward (the pull of heaviness, habit, and consequence).
Yet when the mind’s waves subside and the inner alchemical fire (tapas/kundalini-heat) truly burns in the body-as-furnace, the force reaches the head and ascends the “palmyra” (a coded image for the spine/central channel), implying the upward transmutation of what otherwise falls outward and downward.
1) “Kalai” and the ‘state that sustains it’: In Siddhar usage, கலை (kalai) can point to (a) arts/skills and embodied capacities, (b) measures or phases of vital force (prāṇa’s workings, sometimes counted in ‘kalās’), and (c) subtle constituents of life-power. The opening question asks what enables the ‘standing-high’ (நிலை ஓங்க) of that sustaining condition—i.e., what makes the vital-subliminal economy rise rather than leak away.
2) Erotic/botanical code as deliberate camouflage: “Leaf trembling / middle drooping / breasts swelling / stating a price” reads plainly as an arousal-and-bargain scene (a courtesan/prostitute motif), but it also simultaneously fits plant imagery (leaf, stem/middle, bud/sprout). Siddhar texts often use such double-coding to speak of sexual energy, bodily fluids, or prāṇic movements without naming them directly.
3) “Price” as spiritual cost and/or discrimination: விலைகூறு (“tell the price”) can function on two levels: (a) literal bargaining—desire as transaction; (b) a warning that every outward indulgence has a ‘price’ paid in vitality, clarity, and karmic consequence. A secondary nuance can be “to state/assess value” (viveka-like discernment), though the surrounding sensate imagery keeps the reading intentionally unstable.
4) Karma as a flood that bends the ‘bunch’: “The river of deeds/karma” (வினையாறு) is not calm; it rushes like a mountain spate, dragging consciousness into momentum. “Bunch drooping” (குலை சாய்ந்து) evokes fruit weighed down—an image of the psyche/body pulled by accumulated tendencies, and of generative power turning outward (production/pleasure/offspring) rather than upward (yogic ascent).
5) The furnace-fire and the stopping of waves: The final line turns to classical yogic-alchemical resolution. “Waves” (அலை) commonly symbolize mental vṛttis/prāṇic oscillations. When they ‘tire out’ (அலையோய்ந்து), inner fire burns in the “furnace” (உலை)—a Siddha alchemical image for the body as crucible where impurities (including karmic residues) are cooked and transformed.
6) “Reaching the head; climbing the palmyra”: The ascent to the head signals the upward movement of refined force—often read as kuṇḍalinī/prāṇa entering higher centers. “Palmyra climbing” (பனையேறு) is a rural, concrete metaphor: a palmyra trunk with its rung-like scars can resemble the segmented spine; climbing it suggests the difficult, vertical ascent through the central channel (suṣumṇā) toward the crown. The verse thus contrasts two trajectories: downward/outward dispersion through desire and karmic flow versus upward refinement through inner heat and stillness.