சாதிமிகச் சோதியுண்டு ஓதிவந்தார் பண்டு
ஏதில்வங்க மதில்வழுதி யிலைப்பாதி யுண்டு
நாதியெனும் நாரணன்தாள் நமக்கார முண்டு
காதமிலாச் சோதியதைக் காணாதே கண்டு
saathimigach chothiyuNdu othivanthaar paNdu
ethilvanga mathilvazhuthi yilaippaathi yuNdu
naathiyenum naaraNanthaaL namakkaara muNdu
kaathamilaach chothiyathaik kaaNaathae kaNdu.
There is a radiance—of an exalted kind; the ancients came reciting (their texts).
In the ‘strange/foreign Vanga’, in the ‘fort-walled Vazhuthi’, there is “half a leaf”.
The feet of Narayana—the Lord (nāthi)—are our garland/ornament.
Having “seen” the radiance that has no kātham (no measure/distance), see—without (mere) looking.
A supreme inner Light exists, yet people of old approached it chiefly through recitation and inherited marks of identity.
But within what seems “external” and fortified—within the body’s enclosed domain—there is only a partial sign, a half-known script: incomplete understanding.
For us, the true adornment is taking refuge at the feet of Narayana (the indwelling Lord).
The real Light is not something measurable in distance or grasped by ordinary sight; it is “seen” only by a seeing that is not mere sensory looking—direct inner realization.
The verse pivots on “சோதி” (jyoti: radiance/light), a central Siddhar symbol for the Self’s luminous awareness, sometimes also pointing to the awakened inner fire of yoga. The opening suggests that earlier generations “came reciting” (ஓதி வந்தார்), implying reliance on scriptural chanting, lineage, and possibly caste/varṇa-coded religiosity; the Siddhar voice often treats such approaches as secondary to direct knowledge.
The second line is intentionally cryptic. On a literal level it reads like geography and royalty—“Vanga” (a region/name), “madil” (fort-wall), “Vazhuthi” (a Pandya royal title). In Siddhar idiom, named lands, kings, and fortifications frequently stand for inner territories (the body as a fort; rulers as governing forces; regions as channels/centers). “இலைப்பாதி” (“half a leaf”) can be heard as: (a) a half palm-leaf manuscript (partial scripture/partial doctrine), (b) a fragmentary sign or token, or (c) a coded reference to the body’s ‘half’ currents (left/right) where knowledge remains partial until unified. Thus the line can be read as: within the fortified inner domain, what is obtained through externals is only partial.
The third line explicitly turns to refuge/devotion: Narayana’s feet as “ஆரம்” (garland/ornament/support). In Siddhar usage this need not be sectarian; “Narayana” may function as a name for the indwelling consciousness that ‘rests in the waters’ (nara), i.e., the pervasive life-principle. “Feet” signifies grounding, surrender, and the stable base of realization.
The final line plays a paradox: “காதமிலாச் சோதி” is the Light “without kātham”—kātham can mean a unit of distance/measure, so the Light is non-local, immeasurable, beyond spatial apprehension. “காணாதே கண்டு” (“see without seeing”) points to yogic inner perception: not sensory sight, not conceptual inference, but immediate gnosis (anubhava) in stillness. The verse thereby contrasts outward recitation and identity-markers with inward, non-measurable realization of the jyoti, accessed through surrender and direct contemplative seeing.