A Mango Miracle and Birth of India's First Woman Saint

ITH 'Nari Shakti' powerfully messaged by the Armed Forces, I recalled the first-known woman saint of India and how Mahadev repeatedly took her side. She was Karaikkal Ammaiyar from the 6th century.

- RENUKA NARAYANAN

Her name means 'Respected Old Lady of Karaikkal' in Tamil. Her life was chronicled in the 12th century in a book on the 63 Nayanmar, or Tamil Shaiva saints, called Periya Puranam. She invented a genre of devotional poetry called the andhadi. 'Anth' means 'the end' and 'adi', 'the beginning', in Sanskrit, Tamil, and several Indian languages. In this poetic form, a line's last word becomes the next line's first word. Several notable Tamil poets used the andhadi with vigour and beauty. So, she also contributed significantly to Indian literature.

Born as Punitavati, the only child of a wealthy merchant, Dhanadattan, in Karaikkal, she was absorbed in Shiva from childhood. She sang songs about him, regularly visited his temple, and was delighted to serve Shaiva mendicants food.

Her parents got her married to Paramadattan, the son of a prosperous merchant from Nagapattinam. Paramadattan was full of doubts and questions about god and the existence of divinity. He and Punitavati were from two ideological extremes. Punitavati's parents persuaded Paramadattan to settle in Karaikkal. Paramadattan went to conduct business every day in his new shop while Punitavati cooked and kept the house.