Siddha or Siddhar (Tamil Tradition )
In Tamil Nadu,South India, a siddha (see Siddhar) refers to a being who has achieved a high degree of physical as well as spiritual perfection or enlightenment. The ultimate demonstration of this is that siddhas allegedly attained physical immortality. Thus siddha, like siddhar or cittar (indigenisation of Sanskrit term in Tamil Nadu) refers to a person who has realised the goal of a type of sadhana and become a perfected being. In Tamil Nadu, South India, where the siddha tradition is still practiced, special individuals are recognized as and called siddhas (or siddhars or cittars) who are on the path to that assumed perfection after they have taken special secret rasayanas to perfect their bodies, in order to be able to sustain prolonged meditation along with a form of pranayama which considerably reduces the number of breaths they take.
The well known 18 siddhars are listed below. The head of all siddhars is Sri Kagapujandar
- Sri Patanjali Siddhar
- Sri Agastya Siddhar
- Sri Kamalamuni Siddhar
- Sri Thirumoolar Siddhar
- Sri Kuthambai Siddhar
- Sri Korakkar Siddhar
- Sri Thanvandri Siddhar
- Sri Konganar Siddhar
- Sri Sattamuni Siddhar
- Sri Vanmeegar Siddhar
- Sri Ramadevar Siddhar
- Sri Nandeeswarar (Nandidevar) Siddhar
- Sri Edaikkadar Siddhar
- Sri Machamuni Siddhar
- Sri Karuvoorar Siddhar
- Sri Bogar Siddhar
- Pambatti Siddhar
- Sundarandandar
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