Avvai : Awaiyār, Tamil saint-poet; like Ᾱndāla (q.v.) pre-6th cent.
... thus grow in valour. This is how Avvai, the sister of Tiruvalluvar, emulated her brother. One day as she was sitting on the ground in a narrow street of Urayur, three men passed by: one was a king and the other two were poets. As the king approached, she drew up one of her feet as a mark of respect. When the first poet came, out of regard for him, Avvai drew back her other foot. But when... when the second poet came near, however, she suddenly stretched out both her legs, barring his way. This behaviour seemed rude, but Avvai knew very well what she was doing, for the second poet was a pretentious man who claimed talent though he had none. And since he seemed irritated and asked why she had treated him so, she replied: "Then make me a couplet in which the word 'wit' occurs thrice... Seeing that people had gathered round, the poet wanted to show his skill, but he was quite unable to make the prescribed word fit into the lines more than twice. "What have you done then," laughed Avvai, "with the last wit you have left, which cannot find a place in your lines?" And so she put the pretentious man to shame. Do you think that she took pleasure in being rude? Certainly Page 240 ...
... "a complete psycho-spiritual and psycho-physical science of Yoga." The great period of Tamil literature was contemporary with the classical Sanskrit age, and there is brief mention of Tiruvalluvar, Avvai, the Vaishnava and Saiva saint-singers, the great epics of Kamban and Tulsidas, and the proliferation of the Bhakti poetry including that of Nanak and the other Sikh Gurus. Of the poetry of the Rad ...
... popular culture. The Ramayana of Tulsidas, the songs of Ramprasad and of the Bauls, the wandering Vaishnava devotees, the poetry of Ramdas and Tukaram, the sentences of Tiruvalluvar and the poetess Avvai and the inspired lyrics of the southern saints and Alwars were known to all classes and their thought or their emotion entered deeply into the life of the people. I have dwelt at this length on the ...
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