The Characteristic Features of the Siddhas:- The basic difficulty of the study of the Siddhas begins with the term Siddhas itself. It is a Sanskit term meaning “fulfilled.” A Siddha is a yogin. The term Siddha comes from the word siddhi which means the experience of Siva. The Siddhas are not atheists or agnostics as is commonly believed. They believe in God, but not a God of this or that religion. For most of them there is a God, a Sivam without any limitation or attributes. Sivam is grammatically & philosophically an impersonal conception. The real name for Sivam is “It” or “Thatness” or “Suchness’’ or “Paraparam”. A genuine Siddha is beyond atheism & faith (theism) alike. A Siddha is a free thinker & a revolutionary who refuses to allow himself to be carried away by any religion or scripture or rituals. They reject the authority of the scriptures because mystical experiences. Being formless, cannot be confined to any structure. Therefore the method to be adopted for an understanding of the Siddha poetry is the method of appreciation & not the method of description. The method of appreciation will take us to the spirit of mysticism. Appreciation is self-explanation, which is different from logical explanation. It can be there only if explanation of a thing comes from inside & not from outside. The Language of the Siddhas:- The views of the Siddhas are couched in the poetic form & belong to a sphere between philosophy & poetry. The poetic form suggests that there are intimate connections between mysticism & poetry. Arnold Toynbee has said that the truth apprehended by experience finds its natural expression in poetry. The Siddhas feel that only in the poetic form intense, spiritual, mystical experiences can be initiated. Language other than poetry is inadequate even to hint at the experience of the mystics. Poetry can express insights & intuitions. It conveys a great deal more while saying less; & it suggests a world of meaning different from all other verbalized forms of expression. Kenneth Bryant has made an important distinction between saguna (with attributes) & nirguna (attributeless) poetry. Whereas saguna poetry is based on a story, the only basis for nirguna poetry in the poet’s personal experience. While the saguna poet presents a narrative drama, all that the nirguna poet presents is moments of realization. Since the poetry of the Siddhas expresses an poenness to a wonderful transcendence, with its conciseness & intensity, we may call it as nirguna poetry. What we have as Siddha poetry today has been handed over from generation to generation in the form of oral transmission. To facilitate oral transmission the Siddhas used only the common words spoken by ordinary people—unpolished, crued, offensive, indecent & colloquial expressions. Although the Siddha poems are in the common language of the people, the meaning of the poems operates at two levels—one the exoteric & linguistic & the other esoteric & the symbolical. The Siddhas—Tantra –Yoga & Alchemy:- The Siddhas practiced Tantra-Yoga. In Tamil Nadu Siddhas are identified with the alchemists. The traditional science of alchemy is considered to work not only on the matter under transmutation, but also on the soul. The Siddhas considered yogic sadhana as a sort of internal spiritual alchemy. Very often people confuse the analogy between the Siddhas & the alchemist who is treated as a miraclc man or a magician who turns base metals into gold. In Tamil language since the alchemist turns brass (pittalai in Tamil) into gold (adakam in Tamil),nhe is called pittalatta-k-karan (a man who turns brass into gold). This word also means a trickster in Tamil. Unfortunately as the Siddha is compared to an alchemist, he got the unsavory epithet that he is a trickster not to be depended upon. Alchemy is not to be looked upon as merely eulogistic of the metal gold. It stands for the conservation of the body, a means to the highest liberation. if we analyze further we shell understand the analogy between the alchemist & the Sidha. Just as the alchemist work on base metals & turns them into gold, the Siddha transmutes his psycho-physical life into a free autonomous spirit. It India gold symbolizes immortality. Viewed in the above sense, every Siddha is a spiritual par excellence & his sadhana is kaya-sadhana, that is, cultivation of the body or transformation of the body into immortal essence. The yogins call their technique sadhan which is a sort of internal spiritual alchemy. Sometimes for the Siddhas, alchemy was merely an outer cover, husk or seal for something far more profound. It was a cade for protection unwary intruders. LIFE SKETCHES OF THE SIDDHAS:- Introduction (T.N. Ganapathy):- It is very difficult to give a trustworthy biographical accounl of the Siddhas as very little about there is known or recorded in history. A verse from the sage Agastya says that most of the Siddhas works were lost in the floods & what we have now as Siddha poetry is only a small collection of verses, which have been washed ashore & preserved. Based on this verse there is a view that what is being circulated today as Siddha poetry is only a distortion of the original Siddha poems, written by some ordinary human beings. If this is the case, then, one must exercise a great caution in accrpting the historical or biographical information provided by the anthologists & other writers on the Siddhas. The biographical information provided by the various writers is a mixture of life-stories based on tradition, local folklore, mythology & sentimental accounts. All these life-sketches are purely legendary. There is no historic proof for such legends; yet one cannot reject them outright, since there must be some basic truth in them, to which additions were made by later generations. Hence it is not possible to say anything definite about the life, i.e., the biography of the Siddhas. To trace the life history of the Siddhas is as difficult as tracing the path of birds in the sky. Just as boats do not leave mark on the seas or rivers where they sail, the Siddhas have not left any autobiographical details in their poems. We may assign two reasons for this attitude of the Siddhas: one, as Mircea Eliade has said, “India is preoccupied with being; & history, created by becoming, is just one of the forms of non-being.” In Karuvurar, a Siddha & a disciple of Bogar, we get another reason for this. According to him a Siddha is an adept in leaving his body at pleasure & entering into another body. Since this device is adopted by the Siddhas, it is very difficult to identify “who is who,” let alone give a biographical account of them. Nandidevar (AR. Arumugam) There was one Siva-gana (an attendant in Siva’s group) whose name was Viragan, & who was a gatekeeper at Goddess Paevati’s residence. Once when Goddess Parvati left Kailaya to do penance, Viragan allowed a demon called Adilagan inside Parvati’s residence. When Lord Siva came to know this, He cursed Viragan to take birth as a human being in the earth as the son of a rsi called Cilatha. Patanjali (A.N. Ganapathy) :- We have no trust worthy material to say anything about the life of Patanjali. To quote Georg Feuerstein: Disappointingly, we know next to nothing about Patanjali. Hindu tradition identifies him with the famous grammarian of the same who lived in the second century B.C.E. & authored the Maha-bhasya. The consensus of scholarly opinion, however, considers this unlikely…. In addition to the grammarian, India knows of several other Patanjalis. The name is mentioned as a clan (gotra) name of the Vedic priest Asurayana…. Valmiki (T.N. Ganapathy):- This Valmiki is different from the who wrote the Ramayana. But according to Bogar both the same. It is said that his Samadhi is at Ettukkudi in Tamil Nadu. This Vamiki is referred to as Vanmmikar & there is a popular view that this Vanmikar established a temple at Thiruvanmiyur with Lord’s name Marundhisvarar, Lord of medicines. Probably Vanmikar used this temple premises to treat his patients. Danvantiri (T.N. Ganapathy):- There was one Danvantiri born at the time of the churning of the milky ocean by the Devas & the Asuras. The same man again was reborn in a subsequent birth as Danvantiri, to formulate of Ayurveda medicine.in the rebirth he was born to one Derkadhrman. This is the narration given by Bogar in his Saptakandam.