A student visits a museum gallery of South Indian bronzes. One twelfth-century bronze shows an emaciated woman seated with her hands joined. The label quotes a Tamil verse in which the poet describes herself as a female Pey with bulging veins, protruding eyes and a shrunken stomach, wailing in the forest of Alankatu, the home of our father who dances with his matted hair thrown in all eight directions. The guide adds that this woman, like a few others of her time, gave up the life expected of her, yet never entered any religious order.
The verse quoted on the label is from a poem by:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → Karaikkal Ammaiyar
Option (1) Andal — Incorrect. Andal was a woman Alvar, a devotee of Vishnu. Her songs express her love for Vishnu.
Option (2) Mirabai — Incorrect. Mirabai was a devotee of Krishna in Rajasthan, who lived centuries later.
Option (3) Karaikkal Ammaiyar — Correct. Karaikkal Ammaiyar was a woman devotee of Shiva. In this poem she pictures herself as a female Pey (demoness) in the forest of Alankatu, where Shiva dances.
Option (4) Akka Mahadevi — Incorrect. Akka Mahadevi was a Virashaiva devotee who composed in Kannada, in Karnataka. This verse comes from the Tamil Nayanar tradition.
NCERT (2026-27): “2.3 Women devotees … |