Balamani Amma: Google Doodle celebrates Malayalam poet’s 113th birth anniversary

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.

Her daughter, Kamala Das, would go on to become a celebrated author as well. Das’ autobiography Ente Katha (My Story) is one of the most popular and well-regarded works in 20th century Indian literature.