வேல்விழியாம் மடமாதர் வினைகொலையாஞ் சுடுகாடு
பால்விழியாம் குடமாதர் பாய்கலையாம் துணைநாடு
சேல்விழியாம் விலைமாதர் சேர்குலையாம் படுமேடு
ஆல்விழியாம் தடமாதர் நாள்துணையே யரும்பாடு
Vēlvizhiyām maḍamādar vinaikollaiyāñ suḍukāḍu
Pālvizhiyām kuḍamādar pāykalaiyām tuṇaināḍu
Sēlvizhiyām vilaimādar sērkulaiyām paḍumēḍu
Ālvizhiyām taḍamādar nāḷtuṇaiyē yarumpāḍu.
“The spear‑eyed naïve women are a cremation‑ground that kills karma.
The milk‑eyed ‘pot‑women’ are a supporting land, a flowing/expansive kalai (art/phase).
The fish‑eyed paid women are a mound of suffering where the joined lineage/clan is ruined.
The banyan‑eyed broad (taḍa = tank/expanse) women—being a daily companion—are a rare hardship.”
“Certain ‘gazes’ of desire pierce like a spear and turn life into an inner cremation‑ground—either burning one’s karma or burning one down.
Some forms of attachment look gentle and nourishing, like milk in a pot: they can become a ‘supporting country’ and a channel of kalai (skill/energy‑phase) that aids one’s course.
But desire that is transactional—pleasure bought at a price—breaks continuity: it consumes wealth, health, and lineage (or one’s subtle ‘seed’), leaving only a hill of suffering.
And the companionship that spreads like a banyan’s shade (wide, encompassing) can become one’s everyday support—yet it is rare, difficult to obtain, and difficult to bear without discipline.”
The verse is deliberately aphoristic and coded. On the surface it classifies “women” by eye‑imagery (வேல்/spear, பால்/milk, சேல்/fish, ஆல்/banyan) and by social type (மடமாதர்/naïve women, விலைமாதர்/paid women). But Siddhar poetry often uses “woman” as a double register: (1) literal human relationships and the moral economy of lust, and (2) symbolic “objects of desire” or even “Śakti” encountered in practice.
1) “Cremation‑ground that kills karma”: In Siddhar and tantric idiom, the cremation‑ground (சுடுகாடு) is both a social warning (lust leads to ruin/death) and a yogic site where impurities are burned. Thus “vinai‑kolai” can be read two ways: desire kills one’s good fate, or the shock of desire/renunciation becomes the very fire that burns accumulated karma.
2) “Milk‑eyed pot‑woman… kalai… supporting land”: “Pot” (குடம்) suggests containment (discipline, vessel, kumbha/kumbhaka by association) and “milk” suggests nourishment and whiteness/purity. “Kalai” can mean ordinary arts/skills, but also “kalā” (a phase/portion, often with subtle‑body connotations). Hence this line can praise a stabilizing companionship that supports one’s life and practice, or it can describe a mind‑state that ‘contains’ and refines energy rather than spilling it.
3) “Fish‑eyed paid woman… lineage ruined”: “Vilai‑mādar” literally points to courtesans/sex sold for price. Siddhar medical‑yogic ethics frequently warn that uncontrolled erotic expenditure wastes vital essence (ojas/seed), leading to bodily decline and family/social collapse. “சேர்குலை” can mean the breaking of one’s joined household/lineage, and also the breaking of inner continuity (loss of steadiness and stored vitality).
4) “Banyan‑eyed broad woman… daily companion… rare hardship”: The banyan (ஆல்) evokes breadth, shade, and deep roots; “taḍam” evokes expanse like a tank/pond. This can indicate an encompassing partner/Śakti who becomes daily support; yet the line ends with அரும்பாடு—something hard to obtain or hard to endure—hinting that true, sustaining companionship (outer or inner) demands exceptional maturity, restraint, and karmic fitness.
Overall, the stanza can be read as a graded map of desire: from piercing, destructive infatuation; to potentially supportive, refining attachment; to overtly transactional pleasure that ruins continuity; to an ideal of sustained companionship/Śakti that is rare and exacting. The Siddhar keeps the moral and the yogic readings intentionally superimposed.