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The Tamil Siddhas are a religious order of mystics found in the southern part of India, who's origins can be traced
back to the eighth century. They form a distinctive part of a larger movement which spread throughout South Asia,
from Sri Lanka in the South to Tibet in the north, between the seventh and eleventh centuries. Siddhas everywhere
share common practices, cosmology, and symbols derived from Tantrism whether the practitioner is Hindu,
Buddhist, or Jain. All are part of a "pan-Indian tantric yoga movement" which Eliade described as formulating over
a five hundred year period, between the 7th and the 11th centuries, but fully flowering only after the 12th century.
Excluding perhaps the Buddhist Siddhas, all such groups are considered radical, if not dangerous, by the orthodoxy.
An intriguing aspect of the Tamil Siddha cult is that it shares with the orthodox Saiva Siddhanta sect a common text
which defines the philosophy of both groups. Since each sect emphasized different aspects of the teaching they
quickly became widely divergent, with the two orders often at odds. The Siddhas would be scoffing at temple
worship, reliance upon Brahminical authority, and proclaiming the injustice of caste; while the Saiva Siddhantins
would berate the Siddhas much as M. Srinivasa Iyangar did in 1914 when he wrote that the Siddhas are "mostly
plagiarists and impostors" and in addition, "Being eaters of opium & dwellers in the land of dreams, their conceit
knew no bounds".
At times the Siddhantins have even engaged in an organized effort to eliminate the Siddhar faction. For example,
one movement, observed in the latter half of the nineteenth century, systematically sought out any copy of the
writings of the heretical Siddha-poet Sivavakkiyar, and promptly destroyed them.
The rift between the two orders has been sharply polarized by the fact that some Saiva Siddhantins, who mostly
worship their God Shiva as the Lingam or sacred Phallus, have had a difficult time accepting the Siddhas tendency
to emphasize the Goddess. To the Tamil Siddhas, Shiva is the unqualified and ultimate reality beyond form or
comprehension, but Shakti, the Goddess, is immanent and accessible as the divine force abiding within the body
itself. There she can be coaxed & subdued, manipulated & directed. As the serpent power Kundalini, flowing
through the subtle body, she can propel the consciousness of the Siddhar into union with the Absolute. Though the
orthodox Saiva Siddhantin may content himself with the worship of Shiva in the temple through the rituals of the
priest, the Siddha placates the goddess to intercede on his behalf and expand the consciousness of the Siddha beyond
all limitation, where he may become Shiva himself. Notions, such as this, being fundamental to the Tamil Siddha,
has struck the Shaivite orthodoxy as heretical.
Within the context of Hindu myth the name Siddha originally denoted one of the eighteen categories of celestial
beings. These beings of semi-divine status were said to be of great purity and their dwelling was thought to be in the
sky between the earth and the sun. Later they became associated with a class of more adept human being, often an
accomplished yogi. The term had been derived from the Sanskrit root sidh meaning "fulfillment" or "achievement,"
so the noun came to refer to one who had attained perfection. Because the Tamil language lacks the aspirated
consonants of Sanskrit the word has been written and pronounced by the Tamils as cittar. This has lead the Tamils
to associate the word more with the Sanskrit term chit, meaning "consciousness."
This appellation is evident even in the Shaivite devotionals known as the Tevaram hymns of the 6th & 7th centuries
that would later become part of the Saiva Siddhanta canon. There the term is applied not only to one of the 18
categories of divine beings but also to God Shiva himself, who is a cittar because the very nature of God is
consciousness. Likewise, it describes the devotee as also being a cittar since his consciousness is always immersed
in the Divine presence. By the 12th-13th century the term has taken on new meaning as we learn from the writings
of Perumparrapuliyur Nambi who describes the God Shiva as the cittar alchemist who is working strange miracles
in the city of Madurai.
Essentially though, the term Siddha or Cittar has the same connotations as it does when referring to the 84 Siddhas
of Vajrayana Buddhism, the Natha Siddhas of North India, or the medieval alchemists known as the Rasa Siddhas. It
is a movement born of a synthesis of Vajrayana Buddhism, Shaivite Tantrism, Indian Alchemy, magic, and the hatha
yoga and pranayama disciplines as expounded by the ascetic saint Goraknath. Although, in the present era, the term
is often applied to any form of unorthodox mystic or saint.
All of the writings of the Tamil Siddhas, whether defining philosophical viewpoints, yogic practices, or presenting
alchemical recipes for herbal tinctures and base metal amalgams were presented in poetic form, often employing the
more difficult meters that harkened back to the ancient Tamil Sangam Age. These works are also riddled with tantric
imagery, references to Kundalini, and clues to control the dangerous feminine power through breathing practices or
the recitation of the Goddess's secret names. Because of the enigmatic nature of the Siddha imagery, and their
philosophy structured in direct defiance of human logic, few scholars have ventured to address the Tamil Siddhas
and then often only as mere curiosities. Needless to say, the vast majority of the Tamil Siddha works have never
been translated, as has been the case with some of the verses presented here.
One of the most basic characteristics of Tamil composition, and one that is particularly relevant to Siddha poetry, is
the tendency to layer the work so that each word or image builds upon the last. Because each component image is
presented so as to be viewed autonomously and in relationship both sequentially and to the totality of the verse, the
images of the poem may seem slightly disjointed and contradictory. Though this may at first seem to undermine the
aesthetic quality and over-complicate the simple act of enjoying poetry, the Tamil Siddha compositions pattern the
imagery to expound the subtle complexity of their philosophical concepts or to map out the terrain of the inner
landscape which is dominated by the dormant serpent energy.
Though most of the Indian Siddha schools did not come into their own until the 12th century, we find that the
southern variant, the Tamil Siddha school, had a fully defined system in the eighth century itself. It was at this time
that Tirumular, himself one of the 64 canonized Shaivite saints or Nayanars of the Saiva Siddhanta sect, authored
the Tirumantiram which fully defined the nature of the Tamil Siddha cult up until the present era. The text also
became the 10th book of the Saiva Siddhanta canon, which is referred to as the Tirumurai. Though it was the one [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]