Google is celebrating the 113th birth anniversary of Indian poet Balamani Amma with a special doodle dedicated to her. Known as the grandmother of Malayalam literature, Balamani Amma is famous for her works like ‘Amma, Mazhuvinte Katha’ (The Story of the Axe), and ‘Sandhya’.

Balamani Amma was born on this day in Punnayurkulam in Kerala’s Thrissur district in 1909. She had received no formal education but was greatly influenced by her uncle Nalappat Narayana Menon, also a popular Malayali poet, and his library.

At the age of 19, she was married to VM Nair, who was the managing editor of the Malayalam newspaper Mathrubhumi. In 1930, she published her first poem – ‘Kooppukai’. She was 21 then. It was the former ruler of the Kingdom of Cochin, Parikshith Thampuran, who first recognised her as a gifted poet and awarded her with the Sahithya Nipuna Puraskaram.

Balamani Amma published over 20 anthologies of poems and other works including translations.

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One of the triumvirate poets of modern Malayalam, Vallathol Narayana Menon, had a great influence on her works along with Nalapat Narayana Menon. Balamani Amma wrote an elegy for Nalapat Narayana Menon titled ‘Lokantharangalil.’

She has also been an inspiration to later generations of Malayalam poets. She had a great influence on Akkitham Achuthan Namboothiri.

Balamani Amma was an avid reader of Indian mythology and her poetry touched on the traditional understanding of women characters.

In her early days, her poetry glorified motherhood which earned her the title of the ‘poetess of motherhood’. She drew ideas from mythological characters. However, she depicted women as powerful figures who chose to remain as ordinary human beings.

She received numerous awards for her literary work, including Saraswati Samman and India’s second-highest civilian award Padma Vibhushan, the Google Doodle page said. The Kochi International Book Fair has an award dedicated to her -- the Balamani Amma Award – which gives away a cash prize to writers.

Her daughter, Kamala Das, was also a celebrated author who was nominated for the Nobel Prize in literature in 1984.

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(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)