காலுற்ற பாம்பை மேலுற்று வீசி
மாலுற்ற தோகை வளமாச்சே
வேலுற் றணைத்த தாலிற் பணைத்து
சேலுற்ற கோட்டைக் குளமாச்சே
பாலைக் குடித்தப் பாலைக் கறக்கப்
பாலற்ற பாலத் தணையாச்சே
காலற்ற மேனி வாலைப் பெணுக்குக்
காமுற்ற காதற் கதி யாச்சே
Kaalutra paambai melutru veesi
Maalutra thogai valamachche
Velur tranaitha thaalir panaiththu
Selutra kottai kulamaachche
Paalaik kudiththap paalaik karakkap
Paalatra paalath thanaiyaachche
Kaalatra meni vaalaip penukkuk
Kaamutra kaadhar kathi yaachche
Casting upward the snake that has “kāl” (legs / time),
that “thōkai” (plume / peacock-feather) which was “māl-uṟṟa” (deluded / attached to Māl) became abundance.
Embracing the “vēl” (spear), twisting/pressing it upon the “tāl” (foot / base),
the fort where “cēl” (fish) abide became a pond.
Having drunk milk, to milk that milk,
it became like a bridge without milk / like a bridge without “pāl” (side/part).
For the woman (or girl) with a body without “kāl” (legs / time)—the “vāḻai” woman (plantain-like / sword-like / tail-like),
it became the course/destiny of the love that is filled with desire.
Throwing the “snake” upward points to making the coiled force rise (the serpent-power / kuṇḍalinī). When raised, what was feared as venom becomes an auspicious ornament—imagined as a peacock-plume at the crown (or as a sign of divine favor), i.e., a transformation of raw power into radiance and prosperity.
The “spear” suggests a piercing, single-pointed current (also echoing Murukaṉ’s Vēl): when it is held steady at the “base/foot” (mūla-support), the body-mind that was a guarded “fort” with darting “fish” (restless breaths, thoughts, senses) becomes a “pond” (settled mind, collected prāṇa).
“Drinking milk” and then “milking milk” hints at repeated extraction/refinement of essence: taking in vitality and re-distilling it (ojas-like essence) until the gross support becomes merely a “bridge” to cross—possibly even a “bridge without sides,” a crossing beyond dual partitions.
Finally, when the body becomes “without time/legs” (freed from ordinary movement, disease, and decay in the Siddhar idiom), the very force called “kāma” can read two ways: it can become the lover’s fatal road (bondage to desire), or—more cryptically, in a tantric/alchemical sense—desire is redirected into the path (gati) of union that carries one beyond the body.
This verse works by deliberate reversals: snake → plume, fort → pond, milk → bridge, lust → path. Such inversions are a Siddhar strategy: the outer image is implausible, forcing an inner reading.
1) Snake and plume: “Pāmbu” often signals the latent energy that is dangerous when it coils below (venomous, fear-producing) but becomes auspicious when lifted and mastered. “Thōkai” (plume/peacock-feather) can imply a crown-sign, a crest, or an emblem of Murukaṉ/Kṛṣṇa—thus a marker that raw force has been transmuted into a higher ornament.
2) Spear, base, fort, fish, pond: “Vēl” can be Murukaṉ’s spear (discriminating, piercing wisdom) and also the yogic ‘piercing’ through knots. “Kōṭṭai” (fort) suggests the defended ego-body complex; “cēl” (fish) suggests fast-moving prāṇa/thought. Turning a fort into a pond is turning defense and agitation into containment and stillness—prāṇa no longer leaks outward.
3) Milk and bridge: “Pāl” can be literal milk, but also “side/part.” Siddhar medicine and yoga frequently use milk as a code for nutritive/vital essence (and sometimes sexual/vital fluid by extension). “Milking milk” indicates refinement upon refinement (an alchemical repetition). The outcome—a “pālam” (bridge)—is the means of crossing; but “pāl-aṟṟa” can mean either ‘without milk’ (no more gross dependence) or ‘without sides’ (beyond duality).
4) Legless/timeless body and desire’s ‘course’: “Kāl-aṟṟa” can be read as without legs (no ordinary locomotion; subtle-body language) or without time (deathlessness). The concluding line refuses to moralize plainly: it can warn that desire becomes destiny, or hint that desire itself—when transmuted—becomes the route by which the practitioner reaches the goal. The Siddhar keeps both possibilities alive.