In South India there is a society where priests and lay people claim supernatural powers. Where a sophisticated medical system underlies a quest for physical longevity and psychic immortality. And where arcane and sexual rituals take place that are far removed from the Brahmanic tradition.

That society is the Tamil Siddhas. In the Siddha Quest for Immortality world Tamil expert K Zvelebil offers a vivid picture of these people: their religious beliefs, their magical rites, their alchemical practices, their complex system of medicine, and their inspired tradition of poetry.

In the Poets of the Powers, Zvelebil introduced English speakers, for the first time, to the astonishing power of Siddha writing. The Siddha Quest for Immortality includes many newly-translated examples of poetry that is deeply religious but not without humour. But physical longevity was also central to Siddha belief, and fascinating chapters on Siddha medicine describe routines by which one can maintain health, and tell how drugs are created from such varied ingredients as cowdung, human urine, honey, oil, and milk.

Part of a Tantrik-Siddha Ritual

'In the centre of a ritual circle...sits a chosen woman, completely naked, who symbolizes Devi, i.e., Sakti...caste or community is of absolutely no importance in the selection of this woman...This Sakti, thoroughly washed and perfumed all over her body with various perfumes sits on a sort of pedestal with widely spread legs so that her yoni (vulva) is well visible. The leading Siddha will kiss the yoni, and bless various non-vegetarian foodstuffs through the contact with the yoni by touching and rubbing with them the vulva of the Sakti. Then these offerings are distributed among the participants and consumed...'

The Siddha Quest for Immortality

'While the non-Siddha proclaims that, in order to escape the wheel of birth-and-death the only course open to man is the attainment of spiritual freedom crowned by physical, bodily death, the Siddha maintains that one must overcome physical death in this life itself and 'live forever'...the great work that lies before man is to purify one's body and sanctify one's life, and integrate the two...into one eternal monad, so that body and life become identical.'

The Poets of the Powers

'Siddha writings are at once most thrilling, even sensational but at the same time the darkest and only very little-known texts in Tamil. They represent a complex and provocative puzzle: flashes of stunning intuition, knowledge, even deep wisdom as well as results of effective practice seem to be mixed with incredible naivete, hardly acceptable superstitions, and dark and amazing claims.'

Plagiarists and impostors?

'Even Indians themselves, when raised on the niceties of early twentieth century English or Anglo-Indian culture, described the Siddhas as "plagiarists and impostors", "eaters of opium and dwellers in the land of dreams, their conceit knowing no bounds.'

Siddha Iconoclasm

'You begging bullocks!

In ochre robes,

with matted hair,

with water-vessels,

rosary-beads and walking sticks,

you have forsaken your women

and roam about the country wide and large

begging for a grain of boiled rice!

Idiots!'