Avvaiyaar Nuulkal

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Thamizh is the first and foremost of classical languages of the world, preceding Chinese, it is the only language which has continued to exist live for over eleven thousand years. It is spoken today by approximately 80 million people living mainly in Southern India, Thamizh Eczham (Sri Lanka), Singapore, Malaysia, Africa, Fiji, the West Indies, Mauritius and Reunion Islands, United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia, Burma, Thailand and Indonesia. Thamizh is the pre-eminent member of Dravidian Language family (having branched later like Telugu, Kannada, Malayaal am, Kudaku, ThuLu, KongaNi etc.) and has one of the longest unbroken literary traditions of any living language in the world.

The Avvaiyaars-"respectable women" was the title of more than one poet who was active during different periods of Tamil literature. The Avvaiyaars were some of the most famous and important female poets of the Thamizh canon. Abithana Chintamani states that there were three female poets titled Avvaiyar.

Among them. Avvaiyaar I lived during the Sangam period (1st and 2nd century CE) and had cordial relation with the Tamil chieftains Paari and Athiyaman. She wrote 33 poems in PuRanaanuuRu.

Avvaiyaar 2 lived during the period of Kambar and Ottakoothar during the reign of the Chola dynasty in the 13th century. She is often recognised as an old and intelligent lady by Tamil people. She wrote many of the poems that remain very popular even now and are inculcated in school textbooks in Thamizh. These books include a list of dos and don'ts, useful for daily life, arranged in simple and short sentences.

There is a very famous legend that is associated with Avvaiyaar, a prominent female poet/ethicist/political activist of Sangam period Thamizh literature, and Jaamuun (Naaval Pazham) in Tamil Nadu. Avvaiyaar, believing to have achieved everything that is to be attained, is said to have been pondering her retirement from Thamizh literary work while resting under a, Naaval Pazham tree. But she is met with and was wittily jousted by a disguised Lord Muruga (regarded as one of the guardian deities of Thamizh language), who later revealed himself and made her realize that there was still a lot more to be done and learnt. Following this awakening, Avvaiyaar is believed to have undertaken a fresh set of literary works, targeted at children. These works, even after a millennium, are often among the very first literature that children are exposed to in Thamizh Naadu schools.

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