The Siddha, Pattinaththar was wandering through the countries.
    On one such a soujourn, he came to a new country.

    He was in the outskirts of the capital city and he found a small old
temple there. There was a small porchlike mandapam hall in the front
of the smaller garbhagriham of the temple.

    There, he soon went into a deep meditation.
    Very deep meditation.

    Nearby was a beautiful big pond. This pond was occassionally used
by the royalty.
    On that particular day, the queen was bathing there. Even though
there were armed guards everywhere, a thief sneaked into the tent,
where the valuable jewellery of the queen were kept.
    And he stole the royal pearl necklace.
    Once he came outside, he was immediately spotted by the guards
and they gave chase.
    The thief ran as fast as he could. But he soon realised that he could
not outmatch the guards  because guards and soldiers were converging
from every direction.
    On his escapade, he passed the small temple. He saw Pattinaththaar
there, sitting with closed eyes.
    The thief had a brain wave. If he could get rid of the incriminating
eveidence?
    So he threw the pearl necklace around the neck of the silent figure of Pattinaththaar and went in the direction of the soldiers. Since he did
not have anything incriminating they let him go.
    Some of them went on and found Pattinaththaar in the temple,
with the royal necklace around his neck.
    The soldiers took him and imprisoned him.
    The news reached the king, King Bhardruhari by name.
    When he was told that the necklace was stolen and was recovered
and the thief has been caught with the necklace around his neck, he
immediately ordered the miscreant to be impaled upon the kalzu.
    The kalzu is a very cruel and painful form of dealth penalty.
    It was a pike of wood or iron. One end was very very sharp. It was
planted in the ground vertically, with the sharp end pointing upward.
    The tip was well-oiled with castor oil which served as a lubricant.
    The sentenced victim would be stripped naked and hoisted up onto
the tip of the stake. He would then be placed with his anal orifice
resting on the tip. Then he would be pressed down. The body by its
own weight would slide downward with the lubricated pike going up
through his anus until it came to a stop somewhere within the body
or came out through some soft part of the body.
    The death would be a lingering and painful one, unless the pike,
by some unseen stroke of  mercy, injured some vital organ like the
heart.
    This was the punishment that King Bhradruhari inflicted on the
innocent Pattinaththaar who was lost in meditation and was not aware
of what was going on.

    When Pattinaththaar was brought to the kalzu maram and when
he realised what was happening, he simply uttered ane sentence......

    "Whatever bad karma that was done in the past, has it come hither
and flared up?"
    "Mun seydha thiivinaidhaan ingyanE vandhu muuNdadhuvO?"

    With those words, the kalzu maram flared up in flames.

    The guards ran to the king and reported the matter to him.

    The King, Bhardruhari ran to meet Pattinaththar, realising that
he had sentenced an innocent man on the simple words of his guards,
without even seeing him or questioning him.

    He realised the folly of kingship and realised the power of the Siddha
that was the truest power. In front of it, all other powers were in vain
and worthless.

    He discarded all his kingly clothes, wore a kovanam, left his kingdom
and followed Pattinaththaar.

    But wherever he went, he lamented about the futilities of the
vainglorious material life; lamented about the reality that was so elusive.
He longed for the eternal peace and freedom from births and deaths.
About all these he lamented.

    Thus was born another Siddha - Paththirakiriyaar and of course, his Lamentations, 'Paththirakiriyaar Pulambal'.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$