KARAIKK?L AMMAIY?R

KARAIKK?L AMMAIY?R (c. a.d. 550), mystic, early poet-saint of the bhakti movement. Karaikk?l Ammaiy?r, or the Lady of Karaikk?l, was a mystic devoted to Shiva, the dancing lord of Tiruv?lank?du, Tamil Nadu. As one of the earliest of the sixty-three nayan?rs (Shiva saints) and a contemporary of P?dam, the first ?lv?r (Vishnu saint), Karaikk?l Ammaiy?r helped to usher in the Tamil bhakti (devotional) movement, which spread from this region across India. Bhakti saints represented the folk voices of many castes, and their hymns in the local languages proclaimed the supremacy of a personal love for God above priestly ritual. Although bhakti mystics did not overturn caste hierarchies, their cultural imprint on India has been profound.

Karaikk?l Ammaiy?r's songs are among the earliest bhakti compositions for Shiva in the prabandha mode, which became popular among the medieval saints. The hymns and hagiographies of the nayan?rs are recorded in the twelve Tirumurai, the scripture for the Tamil Shaiva Siddhanta school; Karaikk?l Ammaiy?r's three long hymns are recorded in the eleventh Tirumurai. Her work is inspired by the literary styles of the classical Tamil Sangam era (1^st–5^th centuries) and the evocative tone of fifth-century early bhakti texts like Tirumuruk?rrupatai, a guide to god Murukan's sacred sites, and Parip?tal, in praise of Murukan and Vishnu-Tirum?l. Karaikk?l Ammaiy?r's three hymns are M?tta-tirup-patikañkal, twenty-two verses in classical melodies; Tiru-irattaimanim?lai, twenty verses of two alternating styles; and Arputat-tiru-vant?ti, one hundred one verses in the ant?ti genre, a sonorous web of praises in which the last word of each verse is echoed in the next.

Unlike the ninth-century bhakti saint ?nd?l, who resisted marriage on Earth for love of Vishnu, Karaikk?l Ammaiy?r was married to a merchant when she was a young woman called Punitavati. The myth of her transformation from chaste wife to chaste yogi is recorded by the sage S?kkil?r in Periya Pur?nam, a thirteenth-century hagiography of the n?yan?rs. One day, Punitavati's husband handed her two mangoes, which he had received as the gift from a sage. She fed a poor Shiva devotee with one fruit; and she magically produced more mangoes for her husband at mealtime by praying to Shiva. Frightened by this display of divine powers, her husband fled and remarried. On practicing severe yogic austerities, Punitavati came to be addressed as Karaikk?l Ammaiy?r. In a rare example of reversed spousal roles, her husband returned to prostrate humbly at her feet. The myth highlights the auspicious power of both the chaste, faithful wife (pativrata) and the chaste yogi who renounces sensuality. This follows the Tamil tradition of the pativrata Kannaki, who is transformed from a meek wife to a powerful, semi-divine heroine in the Sangam epic, Shilappatik?ram.

Karaikk?l Ammaiy?r sang of her ironic, joyful bondage to Shiva, whose grace would free her from earthly bondage in the cycle of birth and death (sams?ra). In another poem, she begs that Shiva at least grant her the boon of always remembering him. S?kkil?r states that Shiva respectfully addressed her as "Ammaiy?r," or Mother, when she achieved enlightenment and moksha, or freedom from sa?s?ra. A thirteenth-century Chola bronze provides a visual representation of the ghoulish yet gleeful yogi who described herself as a pey (ghost), "a female wraith of shriveled breasts, swollen veins, protruding eye-balls, white teeth, sunken stomach, fiery red hair, two protruding fangs," according to S?kkil?r (Vanmikanathan, p. 537). Frescoes depict her life on the walls of her modern shrine at Karaikk?l; and young women today offer mangoes to the icon of this venerable woman saint.

Sita Anantha Raman

See alsoBhakti

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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