The Transforming Science: Some Remarks on the Medico-Alchemical Teachings in Selected Works of Siddha Yākōpu, with Special Reference to the Kuru Nūl Aimpattaintu
The Transforming Science: Some Remarks on the Medico-Alchemical Teachings in Selected Works of Siddha Yākōpu, with Special Reference to the Kuru Nūl Aimpattaintu

Summary/Abstract: The paper explores the concept of variously conceived transformations associated with figurative transcendence of manifold limitations, referred to in medico-alchemical Tamil Siddha literature. The research has been based on the study of selected texts of Yākōpu alias Irāmatēvar, one of prominent Tamil Siddha authors dated to 17th-18th centuries. Special reference has been made to the Kuru Nūl Aimpattaintu (“Fifty-five [Verses] of the Book on the Excellence”), considered by its author as a book containing some essential teachings of his science. The transformations referred to in the text concern both the domains of the human body, and the non-biological matter, being the object of alchemical operations of the Siddha adept. Such transforming science taught by Yākōpu is based on the action of certain substances credited with extraordinary potency.

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