COURAGE
HAS AVOICE.வீரம்
Avvaiyar, the poet whose verses Tamil children have learned for generations. Valliammai, who stood up against injustice as a teenager. Two voices that still resonate today.
TWO WOMEN · TWO ERAS
THEY WROTE
HISTORY.
Avvaiyar, the poet whose words have outlived empires. Valliammai, who gave her life for justice at 16. For daughters, mothers, ammammas – and everyone who listens to them.
கற்றது கைமண் அளவு, கல்லாதது உலகளவு
YĀTUM ŪRĒ YĀVARUM KĒḶIR
“What we have learned is a handful of sand. What we have not learned is the size of the world.”
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SANGAM ERA
AVVAIYAR – THE POET
Avvaiyar is a title of honour carried by several women poets over the centuries. The early Avvaiyar advised kings. A later one wrote the Āttichūḍi – short rules for life that Tamil children still learn to read with today. Its first line: “Desire to do good.”
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1913
VALLIAMMAI – THE FIGHTER
Born in Johannesburg in 1898 to Tamil immigrant parents. In 1913 she joined the non-violent resistance against racist laws in South Africa – including a ruling that declared Hindu and Muslim marriages invalid. She was arrested and sentenced to hard labour.
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1914
AT 16
She fell seriously ill in prison and died in February 1914, shortly after her release. “Who would not love to die for one's motherland?” she replied – as recorded by M. K. Gandhi.