சாரைக்கோட் டைக்குள்ளே சாரம் சாரம்
சார்ந்தநவ சாரக்கற் பூரம் பூரம்
கூரைக்கோட் டைக்குள்ளே கோரம் கோரம்
கொள்ளாமற் சிவயோனிக் குள்ளாம் வீரம்
வீரைக்கோட் டைக்குள்ளே விந்துப் பூவை
வேதாந்த முப்பூவாய் விண்ணாம் தீரம்
காரைக்கோட் டைக்குள்ளே வந்த சித்தன்
காரையாட யண்டாண்டம் பூண்ட பக்தன்
Saarai-koot taikkuLLE saaram saaram
Saarndhanava saarakkaR pooram pooram
Koorai-koot taikkuLLE kooram kooram
KoLLaamaR sivayonik kuLLaam veeram
Veerai-koot taikkuLLE vindhup poovai
Vedhaandha muppoo-vaay viNNNaam theeram
Kaarai-koot taikkuLLE vandha siddhan
KaaraayaaDa yaNDaaNDam pooNDa bhakthan
Inside the sārai-kōṭṭai (fort) there is sāram, sāram (essence, essence).
Joined (there) is the nava-sāra karpūram—karpūram (camphor of nava-sāram), in abundance.
Inside the kūrai-kōṭṭai there is kōram, kōram (the terrible/arduous, the terrible/arduous).
Without “taking” (grasping/appropriating), within the Śiva-yōni there is vīram (valor).
Inside the vīrai-kōṭṭai is the vindu-pū (the flower of bindu/seed).
As Vedānta’s three flowers, it becomes the tīram (shore/limit) of the sky (viṇ).
Inside the kārai-kōṭṭai came the siddhan (adept).
The bhaktan (devotee) who donned/assumed the boundless aṇḍāṇḍam (cosmic egg / universes).
The verse speaks in coded “fort” language: within an inner enclosure lies the distilled essence (sāram)—a refined, concentrated substance or awareness. In that same hidden place the ‘nava-sāram–camphor’ compound is said to be present in fullness, hinting at an alchemical cooling/purifying agent or a purified subtle essence.
Another enclosure is described as ‘terrible’: the fierce ordeal of inner heat, austerity, or corrosive transformation that must be endured. Yet, without grasping or indulgence, in the secret ‘Śiva-yōni’ lies true heroism—self-mastery.
In a further inner fort the ‘bindu-flower’ blossoms: conserved and transmuted vital seed (vindu/bindu) becomes a subtle fruition. When this ripens as the ‘three flowers’ taught by Vedānta, one reaches the “shore of the sky”—the boundary where individual limitation falls away. The siddha who enters the final enclosure becomes the devotee whose identity expands to the measure of the cosmic egg: the unbounded totality.
1) “Kōṭṭai” (fort) as coded interior space: Siddhar poems frequently rename bodily centers, vessels, or laboratory apparatus as ‘forts’ to conceal yogic and rasavāda (alchemy) instructions. Here the repeated “inside the fort” suggests successive inner chambers—either subtle loci (cakras, nāḍi-junctions, cranial/heart caverns) or stages in a preparatory discipline.
2) “Sāram” and “nava-sāram karpūram”: “Sāram” is both ‘essence’ in a philosophical sense and ‘distillate/extract’ in a medical–alchemical sense. “Nava-sāram” is commonly read as navasāram (ammonium chloride / sal ammoniac) in South Indian rasāyana traditions, and “karpūram” is camphor—cooling, subliming, fragrant, and easily volatilized. Together they can encode (a) an actual pharmaceutical/alchemical pairing used in sublimation and purification, and/or (b) the notion that the inner essence becomes cool, subtle, and penetrating—transforming gross vitality into a refined ‘fragrance’ of consciousness.
3) “Kōram” (terrible/harsh): This can indicate the fierce ‘inner fire’ of practice (tapas, kuṇḍalinī heat), the frightening passage through ego-death, or, in alchemical diction, corrosive/caustic operations needed to break down and recombine substances. The doubling (“kōram kōram”) intensifies the sense of ordeal.
4) “Śiva-yōni” and “vīram”: “Yōni” literally means womb/source; in yogic code it can point to the generative cavity or the subtle aperture where Śiva–Śakti union is realized. “Vīram” (valor/heroism) is then not outward bravery but the courage of restraint and inward steadiness—especially the refusal to ‘take’ (kolla) in the sense of grasping, indulgence, or dissipating vital force.
5) “Vindu-pū” (bindu-flower): Bindu is semen/seed and also a subtle point of luminous consciousness. Calling it a ‘flower’ implies reversal and sublimation: the seed is not spent outwardly but made to bloom inwardly as ojas/tejas (refined vitality) and as meditative fruition.
6) “Vedānta’s three flowers” and “shore of the sky”: “Three flowers” (muppū) is a deliberate cipher. It can refer to triads central to realization (e.g., three nāḍis; three guṇas; three impurities; three fires; or body–speech–mind purified). “Sky” (viṇ/ākāśa) often marks the subtlest element and the boundless expanse of awareness. Reaching its “shore” paradoxically suggests arriving at the limit of limitation—the point where the finite ends and the infinite is recognized.
7) “Aṇḍāṇḍam” (cosmic egg): The devotee ‘wearing’ the cosmos signals a non-dual expansion: the siddha’s identity no longer contracts to body-mind, but encompasses the whole experiential field. The language remains intentionally ambiguous: it can mean mystical realization, or the siddha’s power to move within/command the elemental cosmos, or both.