In the line of the benevolent Tamil kings honoring bards valuing their erudition and scholarship higher than material wealth, even women from several royal families of Kongunadu patronized them. They not only presented them with money and jewels but even took care of their entire families from being perished in poverty.
In the line of the benevolent Tamil kings honoring bards valuing their erudition and scholarship higher than material wealth, even women from several royal families of Kongunadu patronized them. They not only presented them with money and jewels but even took care of their entire families from being perished in poverty.
With poverty and erudition being inseparable from each other, these royal Tamil women protected the poets not due to any sympathy for them but due to the respect for their wisdom.
Plenty of copper plates, epigraphs, and several unpublished minor literary works in the form of palm-leaf manuscripts, which have been discovered at many parts of the Kongu region, contain mentions about royal Kongu women patronizing the bards and scholars.
Deivanai of Poondurai Nadu, one of the divisions of Kongunadu, protected a poet called ‘Kollapatta Pulavar’ and his family from starvation when a severe famine invaded the country. As the Kongu poet’s seven children were ailing from chickenpox, Deivanai, though hailing from a royal lineage, looked after them as if they were her children. Kollapatta Pulavar has written about this incident in one of his poems comparing Deivanai as equal to his mother.
Another Kongu woman, Palaniammal, wife of Varanavasi Kounder, who was an important government official in the Vijayanagar empire, provided 480-grain measures of millet every month to a Kongu Tamil poet, considering the number of members in his family. Besides providing grain for food, Palaniyammal helped his family also by offering money for monthly expenditure. Admiring Palaniammal as ‘Matha’ ( Mother) the poet has expressed his gratitude in one of his poems praising the benevolent nature of the Kongu lady.
Chinnammal of Poondurai Nadu, who belonged to a Kongu clan called ‘Kadaikulam’ deserved to be praised by one of the poets as ‘ Boomadevi’, ‘Kalaimakal’ and ‘Parvathi Devi’ for her patronage to poets. A Kongu bard has composed even exclusive literature on Chinnamal under the title ‘Chinnamman Kalithurai’
When Kongunadu was under Madurai Thirumalai Naicker’s rule, his commander-in-chief Ramappaiyan was merciless in taxing the little kingdoms of Kongunadu. He jailed the Kongu chieftain Sambatha Sarkarai Uthamakaminda Mandradiar and his wife in Sangagiri fort, as the chieftain could not pay taxes due to famine, drought, and death in his province.
A Kongu poet called ‘Vetrivel pulavar’, who went to Mandradiyar’s palace to seek help was shocked to know that Mandradiyar and his lady were jailed in Sangagiri fort. However, he visited them at the prison and enquired about their health. The Mandradiar, being penniless in the prison to help the poet, looked at his wife helplessly. Reading the mind of her husband, she removed the mangalsutra from her neck and presented it to Vetrivel pulavar.
Later, when the royal couple was released from prison, they attended the wedding of Vetrivel Pulavar. On the wedding day, Mandradiyar’s wife said to the bridegroom Vetrivel Pulavar…
“We could present only an old mangalsutra to you when we were in prison. But, as we are released now, we’ve got a gift for you. Here is a new mangalsutra"