காந்தள்முடி மேலுற்றான் ககன முற்றான்
காந்தமிக வேயுற்றான் கருணை யுற்றான்
சாந்த மெனவே நின்றான் சாகாக் காலின்
சதிருற்றான் வேகாத தலையை வென்றான்
ஏந்துமதி ரவிசுடரின் வெப்பம் கொண்டான்
இப்புவிமேல் யாவினுமே பாகங் கொண்டான்
வேந்தனவன் வாதமற மயமாய் நின்றான்
விடை கொண்டான் சிவனானான் அவனே சித்தன்
kaanthaaLmuDi meelutRaan kagana mutRaan
kaanthamiga veyutRaan karuNai yutRaan
saantha menavE ninRaan saagaak kaalin
sathirutRaan vEgaatha thalaiyai venRaan
Enthumathi ravisuDarin veppam koNDaan
ippuvimEl yaavinume paagang koNDaan
vEnthanavan vaathamaRa mayamaay ninRaan
viDai koNDaan sivanaanaan avanE siththan.
He attained upon the “kāntal” crest (hair/topknot); he completed (reached fullness in) the sky/ether.
He became greatly magnetic; he attained compassion.
He stood as calm/peace itself, in the deathless “kāl” (foot/time).
He became skilled; he conquered the head that does not “cook/boil.”
He took on the heat of the sun’s radiance of the moon-bearer.
On this earth, he took a share/portion in everything.
That king stood as sweetness/intoxication, with vādam removed.
He took the bull/leave; he became Śiva; he indeed is the Siddha.
Rising to the crown-like “kāntal” summit, he fulfilled the state of ākāśa (spaciousness/ether).
He became a lodestone—power that draws—and yet matured into compassion.
Abiding in peace, he entered the non-dying condition beyond ordinary time/steps.
He gained yogic mastery and subdued the untransformed “head” (the crude mind/ego).
He assimilated the inner heat of the solar current, within the Śiva-symbol of the moon-bearer—uniting sun–moon forces.
Thus he became ‘a portion of all’ in the world (pervasive participation rather than separate individuality).
Like a king beyond contention and imbalance, he stood free of vādam.
Taking Nandi/the bull (or taking leave from the mortal plane), he became Śiva—this is the mark of the Siddha.
The verse sketches Siddhar attainment using compact symbols rather than a linear biography.
1) “Kāntal crest” and “sky/ether”: The imagery points to an ascent to the summit of consciousness (often mapped to the crown center), where the practitioner ‘becomes like space’—unconfined, pervasive, and steady. “Mūdi/crest” can be read as both physical crown/topknot and subtle apex.
2) “Magnetism” and compassion: “Kāntam” is both a literal magnet/lodestone (also an alchemical substance in Tamil siddha discourse) and a metaphor for spiritual potency that attracts. The verse immediately pairs this with karuṇā to prevent the reading of power as mere domination: siddhi is to be tempered by compassion.
3) Deathless “kāl”: “Kāl” can be ‘foot/step’ (firm establishment) or ‘time’ (kālam). Either way, the line suggests stabilization in a state where decay/time no longer rules—an idiom for kāya-siddhi (body-perfection) and jīvanmukti (liberation while embodied).
4) Conquering the “uncooked head”: Siddhar texts frequently use cooking/baking as a code for maturation of the subtle body and mind through tapas (heat), prāṇāyāma, and internal alchemy. The “head that does not cook” can indicate the stubborn, unrefined ego-mind that resists transformation. To ‘conquer’ it is to complete the inner alchemical ‘cooking’.
5) Heat of sun and moon-bearer: The “moon-bearer” evokes Śiva (crescent moon), while “sun-ray heat” evokes the solar channel and inner fire. Together they can indicate the union of lunar and solar currents (iḍā–piṅgalā) and the harnessing of tapas without imbalance—heat controlled rather than destructive.
6) “A share in everything”: This can be read as nondual pervasion (no longer a separate self) and also as mastery/participation in all dimensions of embodied life—physical, energetic, and worldly—without bondage.
7) “Vādam removed”: “Vādam” carries at least two classical senses: (a) debate/disputation, i.e., the end of conceptual quarrel and the settling of the mind; (b) vāta (wind-humor) in Siddha medicine, i.e., removal of physiological imbalance. The Siddhar ideal often fuses these: mental stillness and bodily equilibrium.
8) “Taking the bull / becoming Śiva”: “Vidai” is ‘bull’ (Nandi, Śiva’s emblem) but also ‘leave/permission/answer.’ The line can thus mean enthronement in Śiva-nature (identity with the principle symbolized by Nandi) and/or departure from ordinary mortality. The close—“he became Śiva; he is the Siddha”—asserts the Siddhar’s realized non-separation from Śiva.