Return to the index of "Other Women's Voices."
Updated 03-04-08
Auvaiyar /Avvaiyar
/Avvai (bef. 300 CE)
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"...THE SUBTLE TONGUES OF POETS SKILLED IN THE SEARCH FOR
GOOD WORDS."
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By 300 CE, a collection of poetry by over 400 writers had been put together in the Tamil language of the south of India. Among the 32 women represented in the collection is Auvaiyar. The name means "mother" or "respectable woman," and it was used for at least one later writer, but scholars agree that all the "Auvaiyar" poems in the Tamil collection are by a single woman.
Auvaiyar's dates are unknown; 22 of her poems praise a Tamil king, Atiyaman Netuman Anci, but we aren't sure when he lived (perhaps in the 100s CE). Auvaiyar appears to have been a professional bard; some bards traveled from court to court while others stayed with one ruler, praising his and his warriors' deeds and entertaining his courtiers. Auvaiyar seems to have spent most of her professional career at Anci's court; one early commentator described her being sent on diplomatic missions for Anci.
Fifty-nine of Auvaiyar's poems are extant: 33 are "exterior poems" (puram), about kings and wars and politics (all in one anthology, Purananuru). The other 26 are "interior poems" (akam), dramatic monologues spoken by a lover or by the lover's relative or friend: 15 in the anthology Kuruntokai (or Kuruntogai), 7 in Narrinai, and 4 in Akananuru (or Agananuru).
There are complete English translations of Purananuru and Kuruntokai; you can also find a few of her Narrinai and Akananuru poems. Auvaiyar's poetry is worth the hunting.
On this page you'll find:
Links to helpful sites online.
Excerpts from translations in print.
Information about secondary sources.
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1. From Purananuru:
(a) About a fifth of the way down the page, lines from Purananuru # 93, "When a cowardly king from battle flees"; they are preceded by the transliterated Tamil and followed by a commentary by V. V. Raman.
(b) "The young bull does not feel the yoke" (#102), translated by A.K. Ramanujan.
(c) Use your browser's search function to go to "Avvai" for the opening lines of #106, "Leave alone the fragrant and the non-fragrant flowers" (the quotation ends at the word "Worship").
(d) "Bless you, earth" (#187), translated by Ramanujan.
(e) Go to "Avvai" for a prose translation by R. Nagaswamy of the whole of # 235, an elegy for Atiyaman Netuman Anci. The elegy is followed by a paraphrase of #232, another Auvaiyar poem on Anci.
(f) A fourth of the way down the page, parts of two translations by Ramanujan: "Pointing at the enemy" (# 295, not an elegy on Anci but on a mother thinking of her son's death in battle); and "He gave us all the flesh on the bones" (# 235; for more from Ramanujan's version of the latter poem, see below, under "In print").
2. In Kuruntokai, as in all of the akam collections, the brief poems are dramatic monologues about love, spoken by a lover or spouse (male or female) or by another. From Robert Butler's ongoing translation of the work, ten by Auvaiyar:
(a) "My friend, like the solemn oaths of the Kosars" (#15; the Kosars were a group noted for honesty).
(b) "Fortune teller!" (#23)
(c) "Perhaps I should start some rumours" (#28)
(d) "My heart, you have heard no good news" (#29)
(e) "They say that his path lies through mountains and deserts" (#39)
(f) "To think he would never leave" (#43)
(g) "I'll go over there to enjoy his bathing places" (#80; "Erini of the many spears" refers to Anci, Auvaiyar's patron)
(h) "If you carry on like this, playing the good wife" (#91)
(i) "I thought about her, did I not?" (#99)
(j) "If I think of him, my heart burns" (#102)
3. From other translators of Kuruntokai:
(a) Go to the second use of "Auvai" for "Shall I attack these people, shall I strike them?" (#28), translated by George L. Hart.
(b ) In this collection of Kuruntokai poems, go to "Auvai" for "O did I not think of you?" (#99), translated by Ramanujan.
4. A review, by Prema Nandakumar, of Hart's and Hank Heifetz's 1999 Purananuru translation, The Four Hundred Songs of War and Wisdom (for excerpts from the book, see "In print").
5. For background information on the "exterior poems" (puram) and the "interior poems" (akam), of which Auvaiyar work is representative, M. Varadarajan's 1966 essay "The Eight Anthologies." (And on the right, another review of the Hart and Heifetz translation.)
6. At Wikipedia, the entry on Purananuru (with links to entries on Kuruntokai, Narrinai, and Akananuru).
7. And for more general historical background on the poetry of the period:
(a) "Poetry in a Landscape: The World of Sangam Literature," a 1984 essay by Francois Gros.
(b) A 2002 article by Asiff Hussein, "Ancient Tamil Society as reflected in Sangam Literature."
(c) Remarks by Hart on the dating of sangam poetry.
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[A translation by George L. Hart and Hank Heifetz of the complete Purananuru; the detailed introduction is good on historical background, and the notes are helpful on alternate readings. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
The four hundred songs of war and wisdom: an anthology of
poems from classical Tamil: the purananuru / translated and edited
by George L. Hart and Hank Heifetz (Translations from the Asian
classics). New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. (xxxvii,
397 p.)
LC#:PL4758.6 .F68 1999; ISBN: 0231115628
Includes index
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"Woman of the caste of bards!"
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[On Atiyaman Netuman Anci, the ruler whom Auvaiyar served. Here Auvaiyar has a dialogue with another king; his words are given first:]
"Woman of the caste of bards! With your shining forehead
and your eyes
darkened by collyrium, with your simple manners and your sloping
mons
glowing with a string of jewels, are there any who can fight
in your
broad land?" you ask me over and over, king of an army that
does battle!
Yes, there are warriors, young and strong, who like snakes
without fear
when struck with a stick, and also there is he who whenever he
hears
the resonance of the wind striking against the clear-voiced eye
of the tammumai drum wrapped with leather straps
and hanging in the courtyard shouts "To war!" and he
is my lord! [#89, p.64]
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"These are adorned..., but those spears....."
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[Again speaking to an opponent of Anci; Auvaiyar compares the other ruler's weapons, on elaborate display, with Anci's well-worn "working" weapons:]
These are adorned with feathers of the peacock and encircled
by garlands,
and have strong, thick, well-fashioned shafts and are anointed
with ghee
while they repose in a sprawling, well-guarded palace; but those
spears,
with their blades and joints broken when they pierced enemies,
are always
to be found in the blacksmith's small shed, for he who is lord
and chieftain of those who gather in need,
who grants food when there is plenty
and when there is not will share his own,
our king owns those swords that are tipped with sharp blades!
[#95, p.67]
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"As is a great elephant...."
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[Anci is dangerous to his enemies but gentle with him own people:]
As is a great elephant settling into the water to clean
his white tusks at a bathing site for the little children
of a town, so sweet you are for us, O greatness! But like
that elephant when he has entered into rut,
dangerous to touch, O greatness, you are other than sweet to
your enemies! [#94.
p.66]
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"You, so bright with glory are like that axle."
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[Addressed to Anci's son; if he wasn't pleased at being compared to a spare part, perhaps the last lines made up for it:]
Those who sell salt carry a spare axle with them lashed
to the wood underneath because they think about oxen
who are young and unacquainted with the yoke, about a heavy load
in the wagon which must pass over heights and travel low ground
and who knows what may happen? You, so bright with glory are
like
that axle, your hand a cup for giving to others! Greatness!
You are like the moon at the time when it is full!
Hoe can there be darkness for those living under its radiance.
[#102, p.71]
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"---like the hub set by a carpenter at the center of a wheel---"
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[The role of the bard was not merely to praise but also to teach. Here, Auvaiyar urges a king (we don't know if it was Anci) to show honor to one whose family has long served his dynasty; the tone suggests that the king needs to be persuaded:]
Give him liquor and then drink yours! O lord of raging
war and of herds of elephants and of handsome chariots!
The father of your father and the father of his father together---
like the hub set by a carpenter at the center of a wheel---
stood their ground on the field where men raise and hurl spears
and there, without blinking, perished. He too is a man of might,
famed
for his courage. Like a palm-leaf umbrella
when it is raining, lord! he will ward off the spears they aim
at you. [#290, p.171]
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"...that warrior's mother, with her inflexible will, was
overcome by love."
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[To urge warriors to go happily to battle, the bards often sang of a mother's pride in a son's honorable death:]
When she contemplated the majesty of that handsome man
who in the middle of a battlefield that was like the ocean
rising, had advanced, his sword forged in fire stretching out
ahead of him, leading his troops into the battle where hurled
missiles fell men, shouldering into the oncoming army,
cutting open space until he died between the two hosts,
that warrior's mother, with her inflexible will,
was overcome by love then and again her withered breasts gave
milk. [#295, p.173]
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[A.K. Ramanujan's anthology contains 10 of Auvaiyar's poems: 9 are from Purananuru, 1 from Akananuru. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Poems of love and war: from the eight anthologies and the
ten long poems of classical Tamil / selected and translated by
A.K. Ramanujan (Translations from the Oriental classics / UNESCO
collection of representative works. Indian series). New York:
Columbia University Press, 1985. (xviii, 329 p.)
LC#: PL4758.65.E5 P63 1985; ISBN: 0231051069, 0231051077
Includes indexes. Bibliography: p. 319-322.
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"...made thoughtfully... by a carpenter who tosses off eight
chariots in a day."
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[On the living Anci:]
Enemies,
take care
when you enter
the field of battle
and face
our warrior
who is like a chariot wheel
made thoughtfully over a month
by a carpenter
who tosses off eight chariots
in a day. [Purunanuru
#87; p.137]
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"No more, no singers any more nor anyone to give anything
to singers."
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[And after Anci's death, an elegy:]
If he found a little liquor,
he would give it to us.
If he had more,
he would drink happily
while we sang.
Where is he now?
If he had even a little rice,
he shared it
in many plates.
Where is he now?
If he had more,
he shared it
in many more plates.
Where is he now?
He gave us
all the flesh
on the bones.
Where is he now?
Wherever spear and arrow flew,
he was there.
Where is he now?
With his palms scented
with lemon grass,
he caressed my hair
smelling of meat.
Where is he now?
The spear that pierced his chest
pierced at once
the wide eating bowls
of great and famous minstrels,
pierced many begging palms,
and, dimming the images in the eyes
of men he sheltered,
it went right through the subtle tongues
of poets
skilled in the search
for good words.
Where is he now,
father, mainstay,
king?
Where is he now?
No more,
no singers any more
nor anyone to give anything
to singers.
As in the cold waters
jalap flowers blossom,
large, full of honey,
but die untouched, unworn,
there are many now living
without giving
one thing
to others. [Purunanuru
#235; p.170]
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[M. Shanmugam Pillai and David E. Ludden have translated
the complete Kuruntokai, which includes 15 Auvaiyar poems:]
Kuruntokai: an anthology of classical Tamil love poetry / translated
by M. Shanmugam Pillai and David E. Ludden. Madurai: Koodal Publishers,
1976. (xxii, 463 p.)
LC#: PL4762.E3 K8
Includes indexes.
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"...like a young monkey holds onto her mother in the high
branches."
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[The speaker is a man whose lover refuses to meet him anymore:]
O my heart,
all the good and helpful words
have disappeared, and worthless
words abound; you want most
what is hardest to have:
and like an unbaked clay pot
unable to hold the rain,
my passion overflows,
and you swim blindly in it.
It would be so good,
if only there were someone to hear
your complaint,
and hold you tenderly
like a young monkey
holds onto her mother
in the high branches. [#83;
p.117]
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"...knowing that my great desire would end only here with
you...."
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[A man returned home tells his lover how much he has missed her:]
Oh,
didn't I remember?
And remembering you in my heart,
didn't I think and think so much
that I became confused in the affairs of the world?
All the while knowing
that my great desire would end only
here with you,
like a great flood that soaks
high branches of trees,
and recedes for men to drink of it,
scooping out with their hands.
[#201; p.238]
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[This is an selection of poems from Kuruntokai, translated by A.K. Ramanujan, which includes three of Auvaiyar's; the poems are also in Pillai & Ludden's complete translation, but this book may be easier to find:]
The interior landscape; love poems from a classical Tamil
anthology (UNESCO collection of representative works. Indian
series). Translated by A. K. Ramanujan. Bloomington, Indiana
University Press [1967] (125 p.)
LC#: PL4760.E3 K8
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"O what shall I do to this dump of a town!"
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[The words of a woman in love:]
Shall I charge like a bull
against this sleepy town,
or try beating it with sticks, or cry wolf
till it is filled with cries
of Ah's and Oh's?
It knows nothing, and sleeps
through all my agony, my sleeplessness,
and the swirls of this swaying south wind.
O what shall I do
to this dump of a town! [#28;
p.31]
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[In an earlier book, George L. Hart has translated poems from all the Tamil anthologies; he includes five of Auvaiyar's: four from Purananuru (different translations than in his 1999 work) and one from Narrinai:]
Poets of the Tamil anthologies: ancient poems of love and
war / [translated by] George L. Hart III (Princeton library of
Asian translations). Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press,
c1979. (212 p.)
LC#: PL4762.E3 P6; ISBN: 0691064067.
Bibliography: p. 211-212.
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"The words of my mouth... make you show your love."
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[On Anci:]
You cannot compare them with a lute.
The tenses are wrong, the meanings unclear,
and yet the words of a little son
fill a father with love.
The words of my mouth are like that also,
O Netuman Anci
who have taken many enemy forts with guarded walls,
for they make you show your love. [Purunanuru
#92; p.162]
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"In her pain she grows thin...."
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[A man speaking of a woman far away, at the start of the monsoon season:]
Like golden-flowered konrai trees on a green hill,
the clouds flash into the crevices of a dark mountain.
They spread, covering the vast sky
in the land where my dark woman is,
and begin the first rain of the season.
In her pain she grows thin and her glistening bangles are
loose on her arms.
She begins to weep,
she whose ornaments are lovely.
At that, the cowherds begin to play their flutes,
like thunder whose voice quivers in the night.
[Narrinai #371; p.104]
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[This anthology includes three of Auvaiyar's poems, one of which is in none of the above sources:]
A Gift of Tamil: translations from Tamil literature in honor
of K. Paramasivam / edited by Norman Cutler and Paula Richman.
New Delhi: Manohar: American Institute of Indian Studies, 1992.
(vi, 151 p.)
LC#: PL4758 .G54 1992; ISBN: 8185425817
Includes bibliographical references and index
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"It spreads its thick trunk of despair in my soft heart...."
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[A woman, waiting for her lover, tries to describe her isolation; finally, in a powerful image, she compares it to a tree which grows to cover the earth:]
As if a garland of nightshade were thrown high
in the sky, yellow-legged herons bend their swift wings,
spreading them in the sun
on the thriving ocean shore---it is winter,
just arrived, when fields no longer give their grain,
pallor has eaten my loveliness, torments me---
doesn't he know? Or, closed to the gentleness
of my heart, doesn't he realize what my world
is like? How can I understand? The north wind
swells and moves knowing no limit,
the pain that rises in my breast brings forth a little shoot,
it spreads its thick trunk of despair in my soft heart,
puts out lovely branches made of the rumors in the town,
opens new, shining growth of unremitting love,
grows into a great, shameless tree sung by poets,
and shades all the earth,
putting out flowers of evil gossip---and still
he doesn't come. [from
Akananuru; trans. George L. Hart; p.32]
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Secondary sources
[Vijaya Ramaswamy's study includes a brief section on Auvaiyar (pp.58-61), with several quotations. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Ramaswamy, Vijaya. Walking naked: women, society, spirituality
in South India. Shimla: Indian Institute of Advanced Study, 1997.
(x, 257 p.)
LC#: HQ1393 .V55 1997; ISBN: 8185952396
Includes bibliographical references and index
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[Although he does not discuss Auvaiyar, George L. Hart's study
gives useful background on the period and the poetry; see especially
the section on women (pp. 93-119).
(See the book's table of contents online.):]
Hart, George L. The poems of ancient Tamil, their milieu and
their Sanskrit counterparts. Berkeley: University of California
Press, [1975] (x, 308 p.)
LC#: PL4758.2 .H3; ISBN: 0520026721.
Bibliography: p. 291-298. Includes index.
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[In this study, K. Kailasapathy includes a chapter, "Singers
and Patrons," which discusses the courtly milieu in which
the bards lived and worked; he uses Auvaiyar as an example:]
Kailasapathy, K. Tamil heroic poetry. Oxford, Clarendon P., 1968.
(xv, 282 p.).
LC#: PL4758.2 .K25; ISBN:198154348
Bibliography: p. [272]-276
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[A brief article on Auvaiyar by M.S.H. Thompson describes what can be known of the poet from her words in Purananuru; Thompson gives his own translation of several passages:]
Thompson, M.S.H. The Avvai of the Sangam Anthologies. Bulletin
of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 12:2 (1948),
399-402.
LC#: PJ3 .L6; ISSN: 0041-977X
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[Romila Thapar's history of India to 1300 provides useful
background information on religious and other aspects of Indian
history. Note especially pages 229-34, on the rise of kingdoms
in the south and the role of bards like Auvaiyar. The book has
a helpful chronology and glossary. (See
the book's table of contents online.):]
Thapar, Romila. Early India: from the origins to A.D. 1300.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004. (555 p.)
LC#: DS436.A3 T43 2004; ISBN: 0520238990
Includes bibliographical references and index
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Updated 03-04-08