Person · Tamil poet
Avvaiyār
Also known as Avvaiyar, Auvaiyar, Avvai
The name of several Tamil women poets treated by tradition as one. The Sangam Avvaiyār wrote court and war poems for the Athiyamān chieftains; a later Avvaiyār wrote the Āttichūdi and Konraivēndan, moral couplets in alphabetical order that have taught Tamil children their letters for centuries.
- Date
- Sangam age and later
- Function
- Text & inscription
- Tradition
- Sangam anthologies; Āttichūdi
- Confidence
- Traditional / narrative attribution
Worth knowing
The fruit-in-the-tree story at Pazhamudirchōlai is the most repeated of her encounters: asked whether she wanted her naval-pazham roasted or unroasted, she took the question for nonsense until the boy explained that fruit dropped in the sand must be blown clean. He was Murugan, and she had been taught.
Connections (1)
- Legend set atPazhamudircholai
The naval-pazham exchange at Pazhamudirchōlai is the best-known Avvaiyār story: the boy in the tree who asks whether she wants her fruit roasted or unroasted, and the poet who takes the question for nonsense until she understands it. The grove's standing as a shrine rests as much on this story as on the Sangam poem.
Sources
Wikipedia, “Avvaiyar”. The subject’s own writings where they survive, and the standard biographical literature.
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