இடைகாடர் சித்தர் வரலாறு (English)

Sri Idaikadar

Sri IdaiKadar (IdaiKadar / Idaikkadar / Idaikkaadar) (as he was well known) is one of the 18 renowned siddhars of Tamil Nadu and is considered an incarnation of Lord Vishnu. He is from the region of Thondai Nadu. Thiruvannamalai (Thiru (salutation) + Annamalai) is one of the important towns of this region. Thiruvannamalai is one of the Pancha Bootha Sthalams (Five Temples where Lord Shiva is represented by each of the Five Elements). In Thiruvannamalai, he is worshipped as Fire element.

Two of the most biggest contribution of Idai Kaadar is the invention of Kayakalpa techniques and the arrangement of Navagraha (Nine Planets) in temples. Kayakalpa is an legendary system of total body rejuvenation. Kayakalpa purifies, nurtures and revitalizes the constituent elements of the body, mind and psyche with a series of customized therapy sessions, herbo-mineral preparations, vital breathing practices, dietary guidelines, and daily living recommendations.

He is also known to have arranged the positions of the nine planets (Nava Graha) that are being followed in the temples of India. Earlier in temples the Nava Grahas were placed circularly i.e. all the nine planets were facing each other and could interact directly. This meant that a person going through a rough patch due to the malefic influence of one planet would continue to experience bad time as all the planets were in direct contact with each other and would be passing on their effect to the next one and so on. Realizing this, Idai Kaadar arranged the planetary positions in such a way so that no one planet would face the other planet directly. The story behind this is given below.

His exact era of living is not known precisely yet. But it seems he was born on some time back in 2nd – 3rd century BC and he lived for around 600 years. Also, he seems to be from Yadhava (One of the oldest Indian community from which Lord Krishna was born) community by seeing his profession and most of his songs. His songs are frequently mentioning the word 'Thandava Kone', in which the word 'Kone' is a Tamil Nadu based regional name for Yadhavas.

With out any surprise, Idai Kaadar's life reflects the essence of Lord Krishna’s Bhagavad Geetha. “Do your duty, don’t expect the out come!”

Idai kaadar was a good hearted, calm and humble shepherd. His daily routine was to take his cattle to some nice grass land in the morning, feed them well and bring then back to the open air shed in the evening. On one of the fine day morning a respected saint came to his hut. Idai kaadar stood up, saluted him, gave him a grass mat and cup of fresh goat milk. The saint stays for a few more days with Idai Kaadar. Seeing the good nature of Idai Kaadar, the saint teaches him the holy lessons and tells him that, "Dear son, hearing and learning are the easy things and also showing the power of what ever learnt to the materialistic world and self praising have become quite common in these days. So, you too should not become one of the goats in the herd. On the other hand, live uniquely and lead the world in right way."

Idai Kaadar's heart and mind filled with full of the lessons (techniques) thought by the saint. As the thought and the practices got deeper and deeper, his eye sight was severely blurred and slowly his inner eyes started witnessing the timelesness frame of past, present and future.

One day his futuristic vision showed him a particular dark period due to a terrible drought. After seeing such bad times ahead, his heart prayed to Lord Krishna and his mind came up with an idea. As per the idea, he trained his cattle to eat the 'Erukku' (a milky plant that grows in desert like conditionsnd plants that survived without water.) and also he mixed up the 'Samai and Varagu' (grains) with the wet soil and coated them on the walls.

The time wheel came to run on the path of the worst draught, the mankind have even seen. Water sources drained and all vegetations were lost. The weaker section (i.e. Physically and as well as mentally) of humankind and the animal kingdom were eliminated at an alarming rate. On the ther hand, Idai Kaadar's cattle were growing stronger each day by heartily eating the plant 'Erukku'. Eating Erukku triggered itching sense on the cattle. So they went to scratch their body against the walls, which were already coated with the mixture of grains and soil. As the scratches grew, the grains applied on the wall started to fall. Idai Kaadar collected them and ate it along with goats’ milk.

As draught continued from days to years, most of the living beings were wiped out. But, Idai Kaadar and his cattle grew stronger day by day. Seeing this, the Nava Grahas (9 planets) got surprised and came to Idai Kaadar to know the secret. He saluted all of them, gave them grass mat and goat milk with grains. All the planets ate them and had a nap for a while. As soon as he saw the planets were sleeping, he arranged the planets in an order that would be beneficial to the mankind i.e. he made sure that no two planets would face each other directly. The moment the planets were set in the right order, the sky started pouring again. All the water bodies were filled. Once again the plants started to grow and flourish. People were happy to see that the drought was over and for getting back their wealth.

By knowing the power of Idai Kaadar, people from the whole region started flooding to his hut and praised him equal to God. Idai Kaadar said, “Om nama shivaaya! Oh, my children! Don’t praise me for anything small I did. It’s all because of the power of Lord Shiva and Krishna. So, praising them would make you all flawless souls. Don't praise humans. Where ever the festivals were conducted for them, there will be the end less joy and happiness. Worshiping them will liberate you from your burdens and sorrows. Whenever you have tough times, believe in God, devote your whole heart and mind at the problem you are facing and the solution for it, don’t worry about the out come, do your best. You will win the battle for sure. Om nama shivaaya!”

The words of one who won the time boundaries will be the ever best words to be followed on any point in our life. Idai Kaadar attained his maha nirvana or salvation in the agni sthalam - Tiruvannamalai and it is also believed that, the karpa graham or the main lingam of Tiruvannamalai is built on top of his jeeva samadhi itself. Some other people claim that, his jeeva samadhi is behind the main lingam on the second orbit of the Lord Arunachaleswarar temple. His famous works include Idaikadar Gnyana Soothram 70 and Idaikadar Kanida Nool.