Venmanipputi

Venmanipputi was an Indian Tamil poetess. She lived during the Sagam Age (c.1st - 3rd Century) of Tamil literature. Very little is known about her. Her poems are included in Kuruntokai and Akanāṉūṟu, two of the earliest of the eight anthologies of classic Tamil poetry, which suggests that she was an important poet of the period. Her work is representative of the classic akam (love poetry) tradition, known for its poignant depiction of emotions and the internal life of women.

Wisdom & Quotes

• My lover capable of terrible lies at night

lay close to me in a dream that lied like truth.
I woke up, still deceived, and caressed the bed thinking it my lover.
– What she said to her girlfriend (Kuruntokai)

• I grow lean

In loneliness
Like a water lily
Gnawed by a beetle.
– What she said to her girlfriend (Kuruntokai)

• My arms grow beautiful

In the coupling
And grow lean
As they come away
What shall I make of this?
– What she said to her girlfriend (Kuruntokai)

• When he came through the mist-wrapped hills,

his steps soft on the rain-soaked earth,
my heart leapt like a startled deer,
hearing only the hint of his anklets.

Now he is gone,
and the same hills stand silent,
guarding the memory of that night.
Only my thoughts wander,
seeking him along the mountain paths
where he once walked toward me.
– Akanāṉūṟu

• Though the land stretches harsh and dry,

beneath a sun that burns without mercy,
my love endures.

He travels far,
across wastes where even the thorn-trees thirst,
yet in my heart he remains close—
as close as the scent of the jasmine
I once wore for him.

Distance is nothing,
when longing keeps him nearer
than the breath I draw.
– Akanāṉūṟu

Thiruvalluvar