myTamilDate.com has been the most trusted dating community for single Tamils around the world for close to a decade! We’re the premiere dating site for diaspora Tamils and have the largest membership base in Canada, USA, UK & more.

Get to know our latest couple, Madhu & Niya!

____

In the literary history of the Indian subcontinent, it appears that only the Tamil Sangam corpus has the pioneering assembly of  secular Lady Bards. Those bards belonging to various walks of life produced unparalleled secular work. I firmly believe that what we have now is the tip of the iceberg and what we have lost is vastly unknown.

The only other language which had the contemporary lady bards were in the pali language. The ladybirds in the Pali language group were mostly Buddhist nuns. Their works were collectively called "Therikatha". The word “Theri” is the femine gender word for the monks and you all know the word “Therar” denotes the male counterpart. In English, there is no feminine gender word that exists for Monk and the equivalent word is Nun. Kannada, Telugu, Marathi, Gujarati, Urdu, Bengali and Hindi lady bards appear in history only after 1200 to 1500 years later than the Tamil lady bards. Their works were mostly religious in nature.

Tamil sangam corpus is a wide body of literary work done by various bards of different walks of life belonging to the era of the third sangam period (500BC to 300AD). All of them are secular in nature documenting ethnolinguistic, sociocultural aspects of the day to day life of the people in the ancient Tamil country. Even in the Bhakthi literature pioneering and unparallelled works were done by the Tamil lady poet-saints.

Kaaraikkal ammaiyaar was the first to start singing the glory of Lord Siva in the medieval times and all the rest followed her tradition. She signs her work with the assumed name Kaaraik kaattu Peyaar meaning Ghost from the woods rich in the shrubs of kaarai (Canthium parviflorum). She denounced her personal life and devoted herself to Lord Siva. She was fond of witnessing the dancing of Lord Siva at the crematoriums, often depicted as a ghoulish woman sitting down in a crouched squat with a pair of symbols in her hand. Her presence is known in the southeast as Ammai. She is known in Cambodia as Ammai of Banteay Srei, in a 10the century temple-citadel complex.

No one is clear about how many lady bards would have lived and contributed in the ancient Tamil country, as the number of lady bards varies with different sources available in the world wide web ranging from 26 to 57. I have enlisted 26 of them in the table below from a known source named: Sangatamizh Pulavar Varisai -5 சங்கத்தமிழ் புலவர் வரிசை -5. By Pulavar Ka. Govindan, MA. Thirunalveli Saiva Singantha kazhagam.

Sangam Carpus Lady Bards (poets) List