Kāraikkāl Ammaiyār
c. 6th century · Kāraikkāl · Nāyanmār (Śaiva)
Kāraikkāl Ammaiyār, born Punitavatī in a merchant family of Kāraikkāl, is one of the three women among the sixty-three Nāyanmārs and among the earliest Tamil poets of Śiva. Her works, including the Arputat Tiruvantāti and the Tiru Iraṭṭai Maṇimālai, are in the eleventh book of the Tirumurai.
Tradition says that after her husband left her in awe of her spiritual power, she prayed to give up her beauty and was given the form of a skeletal pēy (spirit) who sings at Śiva’s cosmic dance at Tiruvālaṅgāḍu. She walked on her hands to Kailāsa so as not to tread on it, and Śiva greeted her as “Ammai” — Mother.
One of three women Nāyanmārs · Earliest Tamil Śaiva poet · Tiruvālaṅgāḍu