Balamani Amma: The Legendary Malayalam Poet and Author.

July 20, 2022

Google celebrated acclaimed Indian poet Balamani Amma’s 113th birth anniversary with a special doodle dedicated to her. She continues to be known as the ‘amma’ (mother) and ‘muthassi’ (grandmother), of Malayalam poetry.
Amma was the recipient of various awards and honours like the Padma Bhushan, India’s third highest civilian honour, in 1987; the Sahitya Akademi Award for Muthassi in 1965; the Saraswati Samman for Nivedyam in 1995, among others.
Her other well-known works were Amma, Mazhuvinte Katha (The Story of the Axe), and Sandhya. Amma had no formal education and was greatly influenced by her maternal uncle and his library.
She published more than 20 anthologies of poems, along with other works including translations.
Amma’s other influences include Vallathol Narayana Menon, one of the triumvirate poets of modern Malayalam, and Nalapat Narayana Menon. She wrote an elegy for the latter, Lokantharangalil.
Amma has in turn served as an inspiration to later generations of Malayalam poets, a prominent example being Akkitham Achuthan Namboothiri.
The Kochi International Book Fair gives a cash prize for writers in her name, the Balamani Amma Award.