Whether it be the Sufis or Meerabai, poetry and music are kindred ways to reach god. Sivavakkiyar (also known as Civavakkiyar) was a great Tamil Siddha poet—one of the 18—who lived in fin de siecle 10 A.D. He rebelled against the Brahmanic order, the caste system, idol worship and temple ceremonies. As a result, his work was left out of southern Saivite literature for centuries. The great Tamil mystic gurus, the Siddhas, were considered iconoclasts due to their opposition to Vedic sacrifices and rituals. They were social reformers who warred against the practice of untouchability. A Tamil Siddha scoffs at untouchability by raising a pertinent question whether the bones, flesh and skin of an upper caste woman and a lower caste woman are distinguishable by caste.
Sivavakkiyar asks: are they numbered on the basis of caste? Among many of his padals (songs), Sivavakkiyar laughed at those who bathed for cleanliness’ sake but remained unclean at heart. He mocked the fuss over human saliva which is considered unclean in Brahman ritual: “Why, honey is the bee’s saliva; the beetle’s saliva is on the flower; the cows milk itself is mixed with the saliva of the calf! Why should so much fuss be made?” Sivavakkiyar refutes another central tenet of Brahmanism—the theory of transmigration. Today, after the Dravidian resurgence of the 1960s, his poetry has become popular in Tamil heritage literature.
Sivavakkiyar’s name derives to his all-encompassing devotion to Lord Shiva. Hence his vaani—voice—is considered the voice of Shiva himself. Sivavakkiyar’s verses are divided into various sections. Of these, he explains spirituality through Gnana (knowledge/wisdom) and Yoga. In Gnana, he sings, “What is there between you and me? Who is the king and who is the teacher? What is construction and what is destruction? Everything is done only by the super human power. This is the only thing which unites all of us.” In the first verse of Yoga, the poet sings, “At the end of our life the knowledge we gained will never help us when we have hurdles in our life. Only the superhuman power will come and help us. One needs sex as a food. It is to be taken to the limit. If it exceeds the limit, it will pollute the athma and ruin spiritual life.”
Siddhas have been traced to 500 BCE and are closely linked with Saiva Siddhanta philosophy. Occultists believe Sidhhas, who were also alchemists are divine beings reincarnated in human bodies with the purpose to spread knowledge under the command of Karthikeya.