வரிப்புள்ளே சிலை செய்து சிரிப்புள்ளே சிலை வாங்கி
அரிப்புள்ளே அரிதா ரத்தை மரிப்புள்ளே வெங்கா ரத்தை
தரிப்புள்ளே குகையின் நாக நெரிப்புள்ளே ரஸ்சை யோக
எரிப்புள்ளே யாமங் காணும் பொரிப்புள்ளே செந்தூ ரந்தான்
varippuḷḷē silai seytu sirippuḷḷē silai vāṅki
arippuḷḷē aritā rattai marippuḷḷē veṅkā rattai
tarippuḷḷē kukaiyin nāga nerippuḷḷē rassai yōga
erippuḷḷē yāmaṅ kāṇum porippuḷḷē sentū rantān
“In the lined/marked point, making a ‘silai’ (stone-form / image), and in the smiling point, obtaining that ‘silai’.
In the grinding point, [take/use] aritāram; in the ‘death’ (killing) point, [take/use] veṅkāram.
In the holding point, the nāga of the cave; in the pressing/squeezing point, the yoga of rasa.
In the burning point, one observes the yāmam (measured watch/period); in the roasting point—this indeed becomes the red senthūram.”
The verse strings together a sequence of ‘points’ (puḷḷi/puḷḷē)—as if they are both bodily loci and stages of processing. What begins as “forming/obtaining a form” (silai) moves into a technical regimen: purifying and transforming substances with aritāram and veṅkāram, then engaging the “nāga in the cave” and “rasa-yoga,” applying controlled heat for specific durations (yāmam), until the final product appears as “senthūram,” the red, calcined siddha medicine. Read inwardly, the same steps can indicate an inner alchemy: stabilizing the body-form, subduing impurities, awakening the serpent-power hidden in the ‘cave,’ compressing/raising the essence (rasa), regulating inner fire by precise timing, and arriving at the ‘red’ perfected state.
1) Recipe-as-teaching, and teaching-as-recipe: Siddhar verses often collapse external rasavātam (laboratory alchemy) and internal yoga into one code. The repeated “—puḷḷē” suggests either (a) successive operational “stoppages/marks” in a procedure, or (b) subtle “points” in the body where transformations are felt.
2) From form to transformation: “silai seythu / silai vāṅki” can be read as ordinary idol/stone imagery, but in siddhar idiom it can also hint at “constructing and taking up a stable form” (the disciplined body or a prepared vessel). Only after this stability does the work proceed to harsher operations (grinding, ‘killing,’ pressing, burning, roasting).
3) Mineral triad and the logic of purification: aritāram and veṅkāram are classic siddha mineral agents (often identified with orpiment-like arsenical compounds and borax/alkali-like substances, though exact identifications vary by lineage). In many siddha preparations they function as purifiers, fluxes, binders, or agents that ‘open’ metals/minerals—mirroring the yogic idea of breaking down grossness so the subtle can be extracted.
4) “Nāga of the cave”: Nāga can mean serpent, but also—within siddha metallurgy—lead (nāgam). “Cave” can be a literal mine/source, a crucible/vessel, or the body’s hidden basal region. Philosophically, it points to a potent but concealed force/matter that must be held (tarippu) and then pressed/strained (nerippu) into transformation.
5) Rasa-yoga and timed fire: “rasa” can denote mercury (rasam) in alchemy and ‘essence/juice’ in yoga. “Yāmam” is both a time-unit used for heating schedules and a hint at discipline/restraint. Thus the verse ties realization (or a finished medicine) to measured, non-arbitrary application of fire—outer fire in a furnace, inner fire in kuṇḍalinī/jaṭharāgni.
6) Senthūram as completion: senthūram (a red calcined powder, frequently mercurial/mineral in siddha pharmacy) is the emblem of a finished transmutation: stable, potent, and ‘ripened.’ In an inner reading it can also signify the culmination of inner heat/essence into a perfected, luminous state—without insisting on a single, purely mystical interpretation.