Honorific Prefix: | Empress Consort of the Vijayanagara Empire |
Tirumalamba | |
Notable Works: | Varadambika Parinaya |
Spouse: | Emperor Achyuta Deva Raya |
Era: | Vijayanagara period |
Family: | Pandya |
Relatives: |
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Tirumalamba, also known as Oduva Tirumalamba was an Indian polymath, polyglot and philanthropist of the Vijayanagara period who was active as a poet, a musician, a grammarian and a Hindu scholar.[1] She is chiefly remembered for composing Varadambika Parinaya, a Kavya on the wedding of the Emperor Achyuta Deva Raya and Salaga Princess Varadambika, in Sanskrit.[2] It was the only Sanskrit romance to be written by a woman. She also knew many scripts and coined the largest word of her time.
She also became a queen of the Emperor Achyuta as noted in the epilogue of Varadambika Parinaya where she is described as the "confidante and the be-all and the end-all of the deepest love of Emperor Achyutaraya" and substantiated by other primary sources.[3] Scholar Lakshman Sarup theorizes that Tirumalamba is the unnamed daughter of a Pandya vassal who wed emperor Achyuta mentioned in a Kanchi Inscription.[4]