ஒருநூற்று நாற்பத்தி யொன்றே கோடி
உற்றிடுமைம் பத்துமூன் றான லக்ஷம்
தருமேநாற் பான்மூவா யிரமாவாசி
தழையஜபா பூசையிதோர் மண்டலந்தான்
இருபதொன்றா யிரமறுநூற் றதனைமூலத்
தேற்றியிரட் டித்திரட்டித் ததன்மென் மேலே
திருமூலம் ஸ்வாதிட்டம் மணிகற் பூரம்
திகழுமனா கதம்விசுத்தி யாக்ஞை யாறே
orunootru naarpaththi yonre koodi
utridumaim paththumoon raan laksham
tharume naarp paanmoovaa yiramaavaasi
thazhaiyajapaa poosaiyithor mandalantaan
irupathonraa yiram arunootr thanai moolath
thetriyirat tiththirattith thathanmen mele
thirumoolam svaadittam manikatr pooram
thigazhumanaa gatham visuththi aagnai yaare.
“One hundred and forty-one—indeed—(makes) a crore.
That which accrues becomes fifty-three lakhs.
It bestows forty-three thousand ‘amāvāsai’ (new-moon counts / dark-moon nights).
This leafy japa-worship (taḻai-japā pūcai) is one mandala.
Taking twenty-one thousand six hundred as the root,
clarifying it, doubling it, and piling it up—and above that,
(there are) the sacred Root (Tiru-mūlam), Svādhiṣṭhāna, Maṇikarpūram (Maṇipūra),
the shining Anāgata (Anāhata), Viśuddhi, and Ājñā—these six.”
Starting from the “root-number” 21,600 (the yogic count of breaths in a day), the Siddhar frames an inner ritual: by doubling/accumulating this base through a prescribed mandala of practice, the aspirant arrives at ever-larger totals (spoken as crores and lakhs). These numbers are not mere arithmetic; they encode a regimen of japa and pūjā performed within the subtle body. The practice is to be established first at the Root (mūla) and then raised through Svādhiṣṭhāna, Maṇipūra, Anāhata, Viśuddhi, and Ājñā—six cakra-stations—suggesting a breath-and-mantra ascent that turns bodily time (daily breath) into an interior cosmology (mandala/time-cycle).
1) Numbers as prāṇic measure rather than external counting: The explicit base “21,600” strongly points to the classical yogic estimate of breaths per day (15 breaths/min × 60 × 24). In Siddhar usage, such a number functions as a “unit of embodied time.” When the verse then speaks of doubling and accumulating, it can indicate a graduated intensification of practice (more rounds, more retention, more internalization), not simply a mathematical puzzle.
2) Mandala as an inner circuit: A “mandala” in Siddhar and tantric registers is often a bounded cycle of disciplined practice (days, rounds, or phases) that completes a circuit. Here the “taḻai-japā pūcai” (leaf/foliage japa-worship) is called “one mandala,” implying a full cycle of ritual-japa that is complete in itself—possibly modeled on repeating breath-cycles.
3) Cakra mapping and the ascent of refined prāṇa: The latter half plainly lists the ascent through six centers: mūla (named as “Tiru-mūlam”), Svādhiṣṭhāna, Maṇipūra (spelled here as Maṇikarpūram), Anāhata (rendered as “Anāgata,” ‘the unstruck/not-yet-come’), Viśuddhi, and Ājñā. The omission of Sahasrāra may be deliberate: Siddhar texts often stop at Ājñā when emphasizing embodied practice, or they keep the final crown-state unspoken/implicit.
4) Medical–alchemical undertone: In Siddhar physiology, prāṇa regulated by japa becomes a ‘medicine’ that stabilizes vāyu (winds), strengthens nāḍi-flow, and supports sublimation of bodily essences (oḷi/tejas). The numerical “crore/lakh” idiom can therefore signify the immense continuity required for such transformation: purification is described as the outcome of vast repetition, but the real referent is the qualitative change in prāṇa moving through the centers.
5) Time cycles (amāvāsai) as symbolic darkness-to-light: “Amāvāsai” (new-moon) can point to lunar reckoning, but symbolically it also marks a phase of darkness/withdrawal. Placing amāvāsai in the chain of counts can suggest that the practice proceeds through repeated ‘dark’ absorptions (inner withdrawal) that culminate in higher seeing at Ājñā.