Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Karaikkal Ammaiyar

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Medieval Women's Writing in the Global Middle Ages

  • 23 Accesses

Abstract

Karaikkal Ammaiyar (Kāraikkāl Ammaiyār, ca. 550 CE) is a Tamil South Indian devotional poet whose works express her love for and commitment to the Hindu god Śiva (Shiva). By the twelfth century, she was considered to be among a group of 63 people who were designated leaders, commonly referred to as saints today, of the Tamil language devotional path to Śiva, or Tamil Śiva-bhakti. Most of the people in this grouping are not authors, and of the three female saints, she alone is an author. By tradition, four poetic works are attributed to her, and they are included in the Tamil Śiva-bhakti canon compiled in the twelfth century. The twelfth and final volume of that canon preserves authoritative biographical stories of all of the saints, composed by a male court minister. That the canon preserves both the poetry and the biography enables the opportunity to compare what is said by her and what is said about her. Intriguingly, the biographical story of Karaikkal Ammaiyar is much more widely known today than her poetry, yet while it resonates with elements from her poetry, it expresses very different concerns.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Chakravarti, U. 1989. The World of the Bhaktin in South Indian Tradition: The Body and Beyond. Manushi 10/50-51-52 (January-June): 18–29.

    Google Scholar 

  • Craddock, E. 2010. Śiva’s Demon Devotee: Kāraikkāl Ammaiyār. Albany: State University of New York Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cutler, N. 1987. Songs of Experience: The Poetics of Tamil Devotion. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McGlashan, A. 2006. The History of the Holy Servants of the Lord Siva: A Translation of the Periya Purāṇam of Cēkkilār. Oxford: Trafford Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pechilis, K. 2019b. Affect and Identity in Early Bhakti: Kāraikkāl Ammaiyār as Poet, Servant and Pēy. In The Power of Bhakti: Social Location and Public Affect in India’s Religion of the Heart, ed. J.S. Hawley, C. Novetzke, and S. Sharma, 25–37. Seattle: Washington University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2019a. Bhakti’s Visualities of Connection in the Arts Today. Journal of Hindu Studies 12/2 (August): 142–167. https://doi.org/10.1093/jhs/hiz009.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2016b. Karaikkal Ammaiyar. Online at the World Religions and Spirituality Project, directed by D.G. Bromley, J.Laycock and C. Wessinger. https://wrldrels.org/2016/10/08/karaikkal-ammaiyar/

  • ———. 2016a. Bhakti and Tantra Intertwined: the Explorations of the Tamil Poetess Kāraikkāl Ammaiyār. International Journal of Dharma Studies 4/2. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40613-016-0024-x.

  • Pechilis, Karen. 2014. Devotional Subjectivity and the Fiction of Femaleness: Feminist Hermeneutics and the Articulation of Difference. Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 30 (2): 99–114.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pechilis, K. 2013. Śiva as the Lord of Dance: What the Poetess Saw. Journal of Hindu Studies 6/2 (August): 131–153.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2012. Interpreting Devotion: The Poetry and Legacy of a Female Bhakti Saint of India. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2008. Chosen Moments: Mediation and Direct Experience in the Life of the Classical Tamil Saint Kāraikkāl Ammaiyār. Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 24/1 (Spring): 11–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Prentiss, K. P. 1999. The Embodiment of Bhakti. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ramachandran, T. N. 1993. Hymns of Karaikkal Ammaiyar. Dharmapuram: International Institute of Saiva Siddhanta Research.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sasivalli, S. 1984. Karaikkal Ammaiyar. Madras: International Institute of Tamil Studies.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Drew University, Madison, NJ, USA

    Karen Pechilis

Authors
  1. Karen Pechilis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Karen Pechilis .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of English, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND, USA

    Michelle M. Sauer

  2. School of Literature & Languages, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK

    Diane Watt

  3. College of Arts & Humanities, Swansea University, Mumbles Swansea, UK

    Elizabeth Herbert McAvoy

Section Editor information

  1. Ashoka University, Sonipat, India

    Alexandra Verini

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Pechilis, K. (2022). Karaikkal Ammaiyar. In: Sauer, M.M., Watt, D., McAvoy, E.H. (eds) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Medieval Women's Writing in the Global Middle Ages. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76219-3_24-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76219-3_24-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-76219-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-76219-3

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation