சண்டிசா முண்டி தண்டியுத் தண்டி
சார்சவா விடுபவர் பலபேர்
தண்டிகை மானம் குண்டிகை கொண்டே
குண்டிகோ வணமிலார் பலபேர்
கண்டிகை காளி முண்டியுத் தூளி
காசுதாக் கள்ளர்கள் பலபேர்
வெண்டரா மிவர்கள் திண்டுமுண் டெல்லாம்
வேரொடும் களைபவர் சித்தர்
saṇḍisā muṇḍi taṇḍiyut taṇḍi
sārsavā viḍupavar palapēr
taṇḍikai māṉam kuṇḍikai koṇḍē
kuṇḍikō vaṇamilār palapēr
kaṇḍikai kāḷi muṇḍiyut tūḷi
kāsudāk kaḷḷargaḷ palapēr
veṇḍarā mivargaḷ tiṇḍumuṇ ḍellām
vēroṭum kaḷaipavar cittar
“(There are) many who (parade as) Caṇḍicā, Muṇḍi, and Daṇḍi-with-a-staff;
Many who ‘leave off / renounce’ (claiming detachment).
With the pride of the staff (daṇḍikai-mānam), holding a water-pot (kuṇḍikai),
Many (are such that) the kuṇḍikai itself is not revered / (they) have no reverence.
With a necklace/garland (kaṇḍikai), (invoking) Kāḷi, with Muṇḍi and sacred ash/dust (tūḷi),
Many are thieves who make money their aim.
All these—(however) tough and stout they may be—
The Siddhar is one who uproots (them) completely, root and all.”
Many adopt the outer insignia of renunciation—staff, water-pot, garlands, ash, fierce-deity names—yet remain driven by pride and coin. They use the language of “letting go” while secretly clinging to status, sect-markers, and livelihood-by-deception. The Siddhar, as a discerner of truth, exposes and eradicates such root-ignorance and fraud, not merely trimming the symptoms but pulling it out at the root.
The verse functions as a Siddhar critique of “externalized tapas” (austerity performed as costume). Items like the staff (daṇḍam), water-pot (kuṇḍikai), garland (kaṇḍikai), and ash (tūḷi) are traditionally signs of discipline, purity, impermanence, and death-awareness. In Siddhar discourse, however, such objects also become tests: if one carries them with ego (mānam) or for profit (kācu), they invert their meaning.
Symbolically, the staff can signify inner spinal discipline or firm moral restraint; when it becomes “daṇḍikai-mānam” it marks rigidity and spiritual pride. The water-pot can signify the “vessel” of practice—body-breath-mind containment, and in some Siddhar-alchemical registers, the prepared container for transformative work; if it is not “revered,” the practitioner disregards inner containment and purity while keeping the outer prop. Ash recalls the burning-ground truth that all forms end; but smeared ash without real dispassion becomes theater. Invocations of Kāḷi/Muṇḍi point to cremation-ground, time-death, and fierce transformation; yet the verse suggests some adopt these fierce markers to intimidate, attract patrons, or legitimize greed.
Thus the Siddhar’s ‘uprooting’ is not merely social critique; it is epistemic and yogic: cutting the root (vēr) of hypocrisy—avidyā (ignorance), ahaṅkāra (ego), and lābha (gain-seeking). The true Siddhar is defined not by costume but by the capacity to dissolve the causes of delusion, in oneself and (by example or confrontation) in the community.