பகரத்தின் வரிசையெலாம் பகத்தின் சூன்யம்
மகரத்தின் வரிசையெலாம் மாயா மாயம்
யகரத்தின் வரிசையெலாம் யக்ஷ விக்ஷம்
ரகரத்தின் வரிசையெலாம் ரம்ரம் மக்னி
சுகரத்தின் வரிசையெலாம் லம்லிம் மண்ணே
வகரத்தின் வரிசையெலாம் வாக்வான் சக்தி
ழகரத்தின் வரிசையெலாம் த்ருங் ழங்சீதம்
ளகரத்தின் வரிசையெலாம் காளம் கூளம்
pakaraththin varisaiyelaam pakaththin soonyam
makaraththin varisaiyelaam maayaa maayam
yakaraththin varisaiyelaam yaksha viksham
rakaraththin varisaiyelaam ramram magni
sukaraththin varisaiyelaam lamlilm manne
vakaraththin varisaiyelaam vaagvaan sakthi
zhakaraththin varisaiyelaam thrung zhangseetham
lakaraththin varisaiyelaam kaalam koolam
“All the series (varisai) of the letter ‘pa’ is the void (śūnya) of ‘paka/ bhaka’.
All the series of the letter ‘ma’ is māyā—māyam (illusion, the illusory).
All the series of the letter ‘ya’ is yakṣa-vikṣam.
All the series of the letter ‘ra’ is ‘ram-ram’—(mahā)agni (fire).
All the series of the letter ‘su/ca’ is ‘lam-lim’—earth (maṇ).
All the series of the letter ‘va’ is vāk-vān śakti (the power that bears/possesses speech).
All the series of the letter ‘zha’ is ‘thruṅ’—‘zhaṅ’—coolness (śītam).
All the series of the letter ‘ḷa’ is time (kālam)—kūḷam.”
The Siddhar assigns each consonant-series (its full set of vowel-forms used in recitation) to a subtle principle: one series resolves into emptiness (śūnya), another thickens into māyā; one invokes yakṣa-like forces (guardian/occult agencies or disturbances); ‘ra’ is the fire-seed (RAM) that kindles inner agni; ‘su/ca’ corresponds to the earth-seed (LAM/LIM) and the element of solidity; ‘va’ belongs to vāk-śakti (mantric speech-power); ‘zha’ is linked to cooling potency—nectar-like chill or śīta-tattva—through cryptic seed sounds (THRUṄ / ZHAṄ); and ‘ḷa’ is tied to kāla (time) and a “kūḷam” (a pit/pond/cauldron-vessel), suggesting time’s container: the body, the alchemical vessel, or the grave-like receptacle where transformations complete.
1) Sound as substance (nāda → tattva): The verse treats phonemes not as mere letters but as carriers of tattvas. “Varisai” in Tamil grammar commonly means a letter with its vowel-extensions (pa, pā, pi… etc.). The Siddhar’s claim is that each sound-family, when taken as mantra-material, “belongs” to a certain field of reality—void, illusion, elemental force, or śakti.
2) Mantric bijas embedded in Tamil letter-families: The explicit appearance of RAM (fire) and LAM/LIM (earth) signals a bīja-mantra framework. In many yogic/alchemical systems, RAM is used to ignite inner heat (digestive/transformative agni), while LAM anchors heaviness/structure (earth, stability, embodiment). “Seetham” (coolness) paired with THRUṄ/ZHAṄ hints at an opposing current: cooling, pacifying, condensing—often linked to lunar/nectar dynamics (amṛta), sedative remedies, or the calming of excessive inner heat.
3) Māyā and śūnya as two different ‘emptinesses’: The verse places “śūnya” (void) and “māyā-māyam” (illusion-of-illusion) in separate sound-families, implying that the yogin must distinguish genuine dissolution (śūnya: cessation, silence, the ungraspable) from merely shifting appearances (māyā: proliferating projection). Practically, this reads like instruction: some mantric phonations still operate within māyā, while others incline toward a deconstructive silence.
4) Yakṣa-reference as occult ecology (and risk): “Yakṣa-vikṣam” (left intentionally opaque) can point to yakṣas as guardians/attendants of hidden wealth (inner siddhis, herbs, minerals), but also to obstructive or capricious forces encountered in mantra and alchemy. The line may warn that certain phonations open a field where such agencies—external spirits, inner complexes, or energetic ‘winds’—become active.
5) Vāk-śakti and siddhi: Assigning the ‘va’ series to “vāk-vān śakti” suggests mastery of speech as a siddhi: mantra efficacy, persuasive utterance, healing words, or the subtle command that comes when breath, sound, and intention are unified. In Siddhar medicine, correct utterance (mantra) is sometimes treated as a dosage-like factor that alters the body’s elemental balance.
6) Kālam–kūḷam as the final crucible: The closing pairing of “time” with “kūḷam” (a cavity/pond/pit/cauldron) implies that time is not abstract; it is experienced as containment and decay/transmutation. Read alchemically, kūḷam can be the vessel where reactions mature; read yogically, it can be the body-field where karmic time ripens; read funerary/philosophically, it is the pit where all forms end—thus pointing to impermanence as the ultimate ‘operation’ that completes transformation.