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 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 she took up a life of great hardship to reach her god, and that her songs are still remembered.
The student wants to know which devotional tradition preserved this poet's compositions. Which tradition was it?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → The Nayanar tradition
Option (1) The Nayanar tradition — Correct. The poet is Karaikkal Ammaiyar, a devotee of Shiva who took the path of extreme asceticism. Her compositions were preserved within the Nayanar tradition, the Tamil saints devoted to Shiva.
Option (2) The Alvar tradition — Incorrect. The Alvars were Tamil devotees of Vishnu. This poet sings of the dancing god with matted hair, who is Shiva, so she does not belong to them.
Option (3) The Lingayat tradition — Incorrect. The Lingayats were also devotees of Shiva, but they arose in Karnataka in the twelfth century under Basavanna. The bronze's date makes them tempting, but the poet is an earlier Tamil saint.
Option (4) The Nathpanthi tradition — Incorrect. The Nathpanthis were groups that criticised ritual and caste and followed yogic paths in north India.
NCERT (2026-27): “2.3 Women devotees “her goal. Her compositions were preserved within the Nayanar tradition. These women renounced their social obligations, but did not join an alternative order or become nuns. Their very existence and their compositions posed a challenge to patriarchal norms.” |