Karaikkal-Ammaiyar
Figure
13th century (made)
13th century (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
This is a ‘portrait’ sculpture of the Saiva poet-saint Karaikkal-Ammaiyar (‘Mother of Karaikkal’). She devoted her life to composing and singing hymns in praise of Shiva, and her example of selfless devotion to her god had a profound influence on popular devotional Hinduism.
Born in the 6th century to a wealthy merchant family in the port city of Karaikkal, Karaikkal-Ammaiyar was blessed with great beauty. She married young, but after a series of miracles dedicated her life solely to Shiva. She achieved her emaciated state after beseeching Shiva to free her from her all worldly encumbrances, including her beauty.
Shiva granted her wish, transforming her into the form of one of the skeletal spirits who dance before Shiva at the cremation grounds. Karaikkal-Ammaiyar spent her days as an emaciated figure singing Shiva’s praise, accompanied only by her hand cymbals.
Karaikkal-Ammaiyar settled in Tiruvalankadu, the forest famed as the site where Shiva performed his ‘tandava dance’ in the midst of cremation pyres. There she spent the remainder of her life, writing hymns in praise of her Lord, many of them rich in gruesome imagery of death and decay. She signed her poems Karaikkal-pey, identifying herself as one of Shiva’s grotesque goblin followers, and kept the company of Shiva’s other dwarfish attendants, the ‘ganas’.
Born in the 6th century to a wealthy merchant family in the port city of Karaikkal, Karaikkal-Ammaiyar was blessed with great beauty. She married young, but after a series of miracles dedicated her life solely to Shiva. She achieved her emaciated state after beseeching Shiva to free her from her all worldly encumbrances, including her beauty.
Shiva granted her wish, transforming her into the form of one of the skeletal spirits who dance before Shiva at the cremation grounds. Karaikkal-Ammaiyar spent her days as an emaciated figure singing Shiva’s praise, accompanied only by her hand cymbals.
Karaikkal-Ammaiyar settled in Tiruvalankadu, the forest famed as the site where Shiva performed his ‘tandava dance’ in the midst of cremation pyres. There she spent the remainder of her life, writing hymns in praise of her Lord, many of them rich in gruesome imagery of death and decay. She signed her poems Karaikkal-pey, identifying herself as one of Shiva’s grotesque goblin followers, and kept the company of Shiva’s other dwarfish attendants, the ‘ganas’.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Karaikkal-Ammaiyar |
| Materials and techniques | Copper cast by the <i>cire perdue</i> process |
| Brief description | Karaikkal-Ammaiyar, copper alloy, Tanjavur district, Tamil Nadu, south India, 13th century |
| Physical description | Female figure squatting on her heels, emaciated, with tusks protruding from a grinning mouth. She holds before her a pair of cymbals connected by a cord. Initially identified as the Devi or Goddess in her form as Chamunda (Kali) or Rakshasi, the figure is now believed to represent Karaikkal-Ammaiyar, a 6th-century female Shaivite poet-saint (Guy,2007). |
| Dimensions |
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| Style | |
| Object history | Purchased in 1923 from Mrs L S Bradley, it formed part of the collection of Herbert Bradley, CSI, Barr, ICS, Member of the Legislative Council of Madras Dehejia, Vidya (ed.) Devi: The Great Goddess: Female Divinity in South Asian Art. Washington : Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution,1999. ISBN 8185822638/3791321293, p. 383, cat.115 |
| Production | Tanjavur district, Tamilnadu, south India |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Summary | This is a ‘portrait’ sculpture of the Saiva poet-saint Karaikkal-Ammaiyar (‘Mother of Karaikkal’). She devoted her life to composing and singing hymns in praise of Shiva, and her example of selfless devotion to her god had a profound influence on popular devotional Hinduism. Born in the 6th century to a wealthy merchant family in the port city of Karaikkal, Karaikkal-Ammaiyar was blessed with great beauty. She married young, but after a series of miracles dedicated her life solely to Shiva. She achieved her emaciated state after beseeching Shiva to free her from her all worldly encumbrances, including her beauty. Shiva granted her wish, transforming her into the form of one of the skeletal spirits who dance before Shiva at the cremation grounds. Karaikkal-Ammaiyar spent her days as an emaciated figure singing Shiva’s praise, accompanied only by her hand cymbals. Karaikkal-Ammaiyar settled in Tiruvalankadu, the forest famed as the site where Shiva performed his ‘tandava dance’ in the midst of cremation pyres. There she spent the remainder of her life, writing hymns in praise of her Lord, many of them rich in gruesome imagery of death and decay. She signed her poems Karaikkal-pey, identifying herself as one of Shiva’s grotesque goblin followers, and kept the company of Shiva’s other dwarfish attendants, the ‘ganas’. |
| Bibliographic references |
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| Collection | |
| Accession number | IM.118-1924 |
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| Record created | October 25, 2001 |
| Record URL |
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