One great one was Hemalekha, from the Tripura Rahasya. Here is the story of her:
Once, King Muktachuda ruled the kingdom of Dasarna. He had two sons named Hemachuda and Manichuda.
One day the two princes went hunting in a forest, with a few bodyguards, but they were caught in a storm. A tornado struck near them! The winds were so strong that nothing could be seen, the air was so full of blowing dust. They scrambled for shelter under rocks, seeking a cave or some other cover, and in the blinding scramble the elder prince Hemachuda got separated from the others and found himself alone.
The tornado was now moving away, but Hemachuda was still getting buffeted by strong winds and drenched by rain. Seeking shelter, and also now lost, he found a sagely Ashrama and ran to it. There, a beautiful young woman was watching the excitement of the storm from under a covered porch. She saw him and called out for him to come and take shelter, and he came and joined her. Awed by her beauty, he asked, “Who are you?”
She told him to first come inside, get dried off, and she gave him some fruits and juice. Then she introduced herself as Hemalekha, foster-daughter of the Sage Vyaghrapada from Chidambaram in the Tamil country far to the south; they were on a long pilgrimage and presently were staying at this Ashrama. At this moment he was away from the Ashrama; he had gone out to pick flowers to offer to Shiva, and would now be sheltering somewhere until the storm passed. She had learned the scriptures from her father and was a scholar.
Prince Hemachuda was enchanted by this woman, intensely attracted to her, but he did not express it for fear of offending her. She too, however, was very drawn to him. They continued to talk until her father, the Sage Vyaghrapada returned. Hemachuda prostrated himself before the Sage and introduced himself.
The wise and insightful Vyaghrapada understood at once that love had sprouted between his daughter and the prince. After contemplating for some time, Vyaghrapada proposed marriage between them, to which they both happily agreed.
Soon the Prince’s bodyguards and brother arrived at the Ashrama, searching urgently for him, and were relieved to find him safe and unharmed, and with a new bride as well!
Hemalekha accompanied Hemachuda back to the royal palace of Dasarna. Prince Hemachuda presented his bride to his father the King, who happily welcomed her and arranged their wedding ceremony.
After their wedding, Hemalekha and Hemachuda lived happily for some time in the royal palace. But gradually Prince Hemachuda noticed that Hemalekha seemed to be in an inwardly absorbed state, musing and pondering deeply, unresponsive to much that went on around her, and indifferent to many of the enjoyments and entertainments presented. Hemachuda asked her the reason for her unusual attitude.
She assured him that she loved him, but said that she was in search of the greatest joy, everlasting joy, that would never become distasteful or fade away, and she was sure that it was not in the worldly pleasures, which may bring pleasure for a time but will always bring pain as well.
“Think of your father, the king,” she said. “He has everything he wished for: power, gold, a palace, elephants, a harem, sons to carry on his lineage. But he is always sad and worried! Meanwhile there are others who don’t have any of those things, yet live in contentment. Even kings constantly encounter the ignorant notions of ‘not enough’ of this, ‘too much’ of that. Isn’t it true that desire is only enflamed by enjoyment, like fire stirred up by the wind? The more any being is attached to pleasure, the more vulnerable they are to pain. Indeed humans could well be the most miserable creature in the universe!”
Having heard these words, the Prince sank into melancholy. Accustomed as he was to pleasure, he could not denounce it completely; but he found that with her words ringing in his mind, he could not continue to indulge in it limitlessly, without reservations. So soon he spoke again to his wife.
Hemachuda: “Oh dearest one, until now I never appreciated the depth of your mind. Now your words haunt me so much that I’m like a man who has been condemned to death and can no longer taste the dishes placed before him. Let me learn from your wisdom. Tell me what I must do to attain true happiness.”
Hemalekha: “The only important thing is that you come to know what constitutes the essence of your being.”
Hemachuda: “But can you tell me how to know who I am?”
Hemalekha: “All you need is to be ready for it. Begin by purifying your intelligence, for we need it to understand the nature of the Self. In some way the nature of the Self is already known by all, from Gods to the most infinitesimal creatures; but it does not present itself in a visible form. This is why, strictly speaking, it can’t be taught. It’s as if you asked someone else to show you your own eyes. All a master or teacher can do is indicate the way and means. The method lies in discriminating between what is mine and what is I. Retire to a quiet place and try to systematically eliminate all that could be called mine. The remainder, which can never appear as mine, as separate from the I, will be the Self. For instance, you see me and know me as your wife. This means I could be called ‘yours’ in terms of a certain relationship, but this wife-relationship is clearly not the very essence of your being.”
After hearing these words, the Prince, without delay, withdrew to his palace. He gave the guards orders to prohibit all visitors and leave him undisturbed. Then he climbed up the nine floors of the palace to the terrace from where a view stretched far over the surrounding countryside. There he sat on a mat and, concentrating his mind, began to reflect: Truly the whole world is mad. No one knows himself, and yet everyone pursues various activities, convinced they will benefit by them. Some spend their time studying the Scriptures, others the laws; some are busy accumulating wealth or ruling kingdoms; some fight the enemy while others give themselves up to pleasure. All this is done in complete ignorance of who they really are. Even I have done just the same until now. It’s time for me to meditate on my real nature. I don’t recognize myself in any of these things surrounding me: the wealth, the harem, the elephants or goats, the palace or even the whole kingdom. All this is purely and simply “mine”. But surely this body is myself? It seems so. I was born into a royal family: I’m slender and have a clear complexion, etc. This is what I am.
Yet, pursuing this meditation, he changed his mind. No, I am not my body. Made of blood, flesh, and bones, it is changing from moment to moment. Not one atom from when I was a child is still in my body today. Yet I am conscious of being the same, in the essence of my conscious experience, as during my childhood. Further, while I pass through all kinds of experiences while dreaming, this body remains as inert as stone. How could it then be myself? Yet, it’s a fact that I exist. Otherwise, how could I remember having slept and dreamt? Unless I don’t exist, at all, in any way. Yet no, that’s impossible. If that were so, who would have had the dream experience? Who then is seeking right now to know his essence? So I am something, something conscious and different from the body. Could I be the vital breath which produces all the body’s movements? No, for in deep sleep, the breath persists, yet one no longer knows anything of surrounding things. Perhaps, then, I’m the mind? But this is made up of thoughts which follow each other unceasingly, like waves breaking on the shore. Why should I identify with this thought rather than that one? It’s the same for the intelligence, the organ of judgment and decision. How many different judgments sweep us along in the course of a single day! Yet I’m conscious of remaining the same, in the essence of my conscious experience, from morning to night. What is more, I can’t, at any moment, imagine myself as non-existent. The body, breath, mind, discrimination, all are “mine”. There’s no doubt I am something who knows, but I can’t see through what means I could in turn know this Knower in me. And yet it seems that through this very stop in understanding I am already a little closer to my real nature. How strange this all is! One could say that what I seek to know recedes when I try to grasp it with thought, and seems to draw nearer the moment I relax the tension of my mind.
Hemachuda then abandoned all thought activity. Immediately he found himself surrounded by dense darkness. Thinking this was the essence of the Self, he was gripped by anguish.
Returning to himself, he resolved to make another attempt. Controlling himself by Hatha Yoga as the palace Guru had taught him long ago, he found himself in front of a strange diffuse light which did not seem to come from any direction. Then, in an effort to meditate for a long time, he fell asleep and had all sorts of dreams, some pleasant, others terrifying. Upon awakening, he resumed his concentration and in a split-second plunged into a fathomless ocean of joy! But, once again, he returned to ordinary consciousness. His confusion was immense: Did I only dream, or did I reach the Self? If I did, was the Self light or darkness, bliss or a chaos of images? Incapable of coming to a definitive conclusion, he resolved to once more consult his wife.
Hemalekha: “You have done well to seek to be free from your mind. Without this, no one could ever possess Self-knowledge. But, oh dearest husband, you must realise that these means in themselves don’t give access to the Self, since the Self is always present, always attained. If it were something to ‘attain’, hence something external and foreign, how could it be called ‘Self’? One cannot know how to ‘attain’ it. By its very nature it is ‘out of reach’. Let me give you an example. Suppose a certain object is in the dark and can’t be seen. Then a lamp is brought and the object is discovered, as if it had only just been manifested on the spot. Or again, imagine that I have absentmindedly forgotten where I put my bracelet. The only thing l have to do is to remember by eliminating every other thought. I will then find the bracelet exactly where l left it, but as if it appeared in this spot for the first time. Thought activity serves here only to remove the obstacles to remembering. It’s the same in the case of the Self.
“The truth is that, ignorant as we are of the nature of the Self, and therefore incapable of recognizing It despite Its continual presence, we vainly seek It outside ourselves. You know the story of the simple man who, one evening, makes his way to the royal palace which is all illuminated. Around him are people discussing the beauty of the illumination, but he, not knowing the meaning of the word ‘illumination’, asks for illumination to be brought to him and placed under a torch so that he can see what it is! Your case, dear husband, is exactly like that. Now listen carefully: You say that after having suspended every movement of your mind, you found yourself in dense darkness? Well, all you need to do is try to perceive the moment between achieving the suppression of thought activity and the appearance of darkness; then the essence of the Self will manifest more clearly than before. lt’s just here that those whose eyes are habituated to contemplating the external world are easily deluded, exhausted, victims of hallucinations, and don’t succeed in finally recognizing the Self. There are many wise men versed in Scriptures, but almost all of them remain enslaved by suffering because they haven’t succeeded in discerning the Self. For this, learning to interpret Scriptures isn’t enough.
“The Self isn’t something distant so that attaining it requires crossing this distance. It’s not something the intellect is capable or incapable of illuminating. Just as one could never unite with his shadow by running after it, so there’s nothing to ‘do’ to attain the Self. As a small child sees a thousand things reflected in a mirror placed in front of him, but doesn’t see the mirror itself as such, so people see the infinite phenomena of the world reflected in the mirror of the Self, but have no idea of the real nature of this Self. It is like those who ignore space itself, only seeking things in this space and thinking space is a great receptacle. The whole world, oh dearest one, is comprised of activities of knowing on the one side, and objects of knowledge on the other. But between these two, Absolute Consciousness, Self-hood, remains self-revealed and self-subsistent. That’s why no instrument is required to know it.
“Perhaps someone might ask how one comes to know that something like ‘absolute consciousness’ exists. But it’s not even necessary to answer this question: If consciousness doesn’t exist, then both the question and answer vanish. Consciousness is beyond doubt; one can’t even imagine its non-existence. It’s limited neither by time nor space, for time and space are the first things to be reflected in its mirror. It is your essence, and whosoever realizes this truth in all its breadth becomes creator of the universe.
“Let me tell you how it will be less difficult for you to realize this. You meet It, for example, in the instant separating being awake from being asleep, and being asleep from being awake; in the instant the intellect jumps from one thing to another; in the stupor provoked by a face-to-face encounter with something terrifying; or the sudden meeting of a friend you no longer expected to see again. Meditate on all that and, once you have understood, you will no longer be deluded by anything else. Everything rests on this consciousness, dense and homogeneous as the polished surface of a mirror, and the apparent unreeling of the universe in space and time is just due to ignorance of this fact. The Self is neither the knowing subject nor the known object, but their common base. It is the supreme Lord that people sometimes call Vishnu, sometimes Shiva, or Brahma. Try to realize this for yourself. Ignore your senses; turn your thoughts to their source. Drop even the attempt to grasp or not to grasp this truth, and what will then arise will be the Self.”
Thus directed, the Prince soon reached the state called “concentration devoid of mental constructions”. This time Hemalekha sat patiently watching him. At the end of several hours he returned to a state of ordinary consciousness and again experienced the world surrounding him. Immediately he felt the desire to return to his concentration, and for this, he closed his eyes. Then Hemalekha took his hand and said to him:
Hemalekha: “Oh dearest husband, what are you doing? I don’t understand you! What have you to gain by closing your eyes or to lose by opening them?”
Hemachuda: “Dearest, after a long search I have finally reached the realm of eternal peace. Where could I find, in this cold and arid world full of suffering and misery, such a place of repose? All these mundane activities seem to me now as tasteless as the remains of sugarcane after the juice has been extracted. Unfortunately, I’ve never before experienced this state of bliss. I see that I was like a man who makes a tour of the world, begging food, forgetting the treasure buried under the ashes in his hearth. Never having noticed the ocean of bliss always within me. I dispersed myself in pleasure-seeking. I believed these to be stable and solid — though they come and go like lightning — and that’s why I suffered. How strange! Everyone wants to be happy and yet they do exactly the contrary to what could bring them happiness. Today, dearest, my suffering ended. I desire nothing else than to dwell in this state of unsurpassable bliss. But I pity you who, after knowing such a state, still continue to participate — like an insane person — in the routine of mundane pursuits.”
Hemalekha: “Dear husband, I’m deeply sorry that you again haven’t really understood. This Supreme Bliss which, once known, prevents one ever again being fascinated by this world, is still for you a distant horizon. Everything you’ve learned up to now is worth practically nothing. Do you think the apprehension of Reality has anything to do with opening or closing your eyes? How can you consider the Absolute as a state attained by practicing some determined activity, or in abstaining from this activity? Might Reality suddenly appear through the mere lowering of these eyelids wide as four grains of rice?
“As long as these knots in you haven’t been unravelled, you won’t taste this Supreme felicity. These knots have been made from the rope of illusion — ignorance of our own essence. The major knot is believing that the body is the Self. Innumerable secondary knots are linked to this. Believing that something like the Self exists outside the world forms another knot. Only the one who has cut through these knots is free. So stop imagining you can attain this by closing your eyes. There is nothing other than your own essence, and it’s identical with Absolute Consciousness, which remains even after the dissolving of every form. You can’t even call it a ‘state’, Can you tell me where and when it is not? Isn’t the mirror present everywhere reflections exist? A time and a place when Absolute Consciousness isn’t present is as non-existent as the son of a barren woman — a contradiction in terms, an inherent impossibility. Then how could that which never and nowhere is absent — disappear when you open your eyes?
“So, dear husband, tell me where you cannot find Supreme Consciousness? It is like fire that consumes everything at the end of each cosmic Kalpa. This Supreme Consciousness makes all our activities similar to itself, our physical activities as well as our mental ones, just as fire, in consuming wood from the fig-tree to sandalwood, makes these similar to itself. One who has understood this truth no longer feels the least inclination to open or close his eyes. So drop this futile obstacle to identifying with this consciousness by controlling your mental activities. And slice through this knot of believing the cosmic emanation is something different from your own essence. The entire universe is reflected in consciousness like the vast heavens in a hand-mirror. Realize this and then behave like a natural person. Don’t retreat into solitude; stay here where you are, and let drop even the feeling that you are on the way to reuniting with Absolute Consciousness.”
After having meditated at length on these words, Hemachuda was finally relieved of his last illusions. He no longer dreamed of withdrawing from the world, and he lived for a long time in Hemalekha’s company. His father died, so he ruled the vast kingdom, administering justice, assuring security to all, going to war when it was unavoidable. He no longer wasted any opportunity to dig wells and reservoirs, to plant trees along the roads, to build shelters for the pilgrims. He loved to hear talks by ascetics and saints of all denominations, and he made it possible for the common people to hear them too. While amassing riches, he didn’t only seek to fill the royal treasury, but performed great solemn Yagnyas like Rajasuya and Ashvamedha. He regarded rich and poor, wise and ignorant, men and women, children and aged, with equal eyes. He neither leapt for glee when in success nor lamented in adversity. He fulfilled his royal duty like a good actor playing the role of a king on stage. He always seemed retired in himself during the numerous court intrigues, yet at just the right moment he exposed any conspiracies and did exactly what the circumstances demanded. In short, he led the existence of a person liberated in this lifetime, a Jivanmukta.” - Tripura Rahasya
Such was Hemalekha’s holiness and brilliance that in time, she changed the behavior not only of her husband but of the entire populace of Dasarna. Becoming the royal Guru of the realm as well as the Queen, she made the populace into spiritual people. Even many wild animals who lived near her realized the bliss of the Self. Her brother-in-law and mother-in-law also later accepted her as their Guru, and they too were enlightened by following her instructions.
Queen Chudala - Acclaimed in the Yoga Vashishtha, this great queen of what is now Maharashtra was humble and dedicated to serving her people. She was renowned for her intelligence and wisdom, and had deep knowledge of the Vedas and Shastras. She practiced Yoga, attained spiritual enlightenment and profound understanding of the nature of reality, and developed extraordinary powers including the ability to shapeshift. She was the Guru of her own husband Raja Sikhidvaja, who himself attained enlightenment under her guidance. Together in harmony and coherence, they ruled their kingdom with compassion and wisdom, and become renowned for their enlightened governance. The people immensely loved and respected her. Even in any adversity she was not troubled, due to her deep understanding of the Vedas.
Sulabha Maitreyi (not to be confused with the abovementioned Maitreyi, wife of Yagnyavalkya, a different woman) - The daughter of Raja Pradhana, she renounced royal life and became a wandering Sannyasini, never marrying. She was a highly advanced Yogini who acquired several Siddhis through Tapas, including the power of temporarily leaving her body and entering the minds and bodies of others. She won a philosophical debate with Raja Janaka of Mithila, recounted in Mahabharata.
Queen Madalasa - A profoundly wise Queen and Guru whose teachings to her four sons led to all four of them attaining Moksha. She also trained one of them to be Raja. She authored a full Dharmashastra, the only one we have which was authored by a woman. The teachings of Madalasa cover a Raja’s duties, the necessity for self-control, prudence and maintenance of the laws, the special Dharmas of the four Varnas (notably she held that Shudras should perform Yagnya just like the other Varnas) and the four Ashramas of life, teachings on the Vedas, bali and utsarga offerings, the duties of a householder to guests, very thorough teachings on Pitri Shraddha (emphatically including that Shraddha should be celebrated for female as well as male ancestors), teachings on Dharma Artha and Kama, a large number of general principles regarding ceremonial veneration, eating, public and private conduct, marriage, rules regarding daily and occasional Yagnyas, advice on choosing one’s residence, on diet, various teachings on purification, holidays, and post-funerary ceremonies. Her teachings form a significant portion of the Markandeya Mahapurana.
Andal - One of the great Alvar saints, her teachings form part of the sacred foundation of Sri Vaishnava Sampradaya. Growing up in Srivilliputhur, Tamil Nadu, she was one of history’s most ardent devotees of Vishnu, specifically as Ranganatha. She authored two great devotional classics, Tiruppavai (30 verses) and Nachiyar Tirumoli (143 verses), by the age of fifteen! She determined to marry none other than Vishnu Himself. Vishnu Himself appeared in visions to others to certify Andal’s greatness. She went to Srirangam temple, entered the garbhagriha, and physically merged into Ranganatha in a Divine miracle, vanishing from this world. To this day she is a major inspiration for women in South India.
Ubhaya Bharati - A great scholar, well-versed in philosophical principles. She took Sannyasa and lived in an ashram on the banks of the Ganga, running a school for women. Many women were her spiritual disciples; she taught how to remove the soot of ego from the mind to reveal the effulgent light of Atma. She toured the length and breadth of the country to spread her teachings. She was famously the most challenging opponent Adi Shankaracharya ever faced in debate, and he deeply respected her as an intellectual. After leaving her body she went to Brahmaloka.
Avvaiyar was a Tamil woman thousands of years ago, before the time of Christ. She and her six siblings (three sisters and three brothers) were born in Thiruvadhavur in the early Pandyan Kingdom to a Pulaya (low-caste) mother and a Brahmin father. She and some of her siblings followed significantly different walks of life from each other and from their parents, showing that in their time caste was not strictly tied to heredity. She herself followed the life of the Pana (musical bard, considered a low caste) community. Some of her siblings were also poets of various kinds (and very great ones), but not all of them.
As a young girl, she was deeply devoted to spirituality and to literary pursuits, and wanted to serve the Tamil people. She was known for her exceptional intelligence. She never married, as her interests were philosophical and devotional, and she wanted God rather than any man to remain the center of her life. She prayed to her Ishta Devata Vighneshvara to take away her youthful beauty so that men would stop being attracted to her, and it is said that she prematurely aged, to her great happiness.
A wandering bard, she travelled throughout the Tamil country, the kingdoms of Chola, Pandya, and Chera, from village to village, sharing meals with the common farmers and paying her way by composing songs for their enjoyment. The rest of her time she dedicated to the practice of Yoga and to followig her Guru’s instructions (it is not known who her Guru was; seemingly a family Guru in her youth). She was a Ganapatya devotee, a worshipper of Ganesha and His family.
One day she visited the court of the great King Athiyaman Neduman Anchi of Mazha Nadu (just a note, one of her brothers was also named Athiyaman or Atikaman but these were two different people), a great patron of arts and literature. The tradition was that poets would visit royal courts, stay for some time performing poetry, and then the king would give the poet gifts and they would take their leave and move on. King Athiyaman liked her so much that he didn’t want her to leave, so he deliberately delayed unusually long in giving her gifts so as to prolong her stay. Avvaiyar, annoyed at not being given the gifts she was owed, got angry and criticized him; but later, when she realized his true motive, she became very fond of him. Finally he offered her the permanent position of his court poet, and she accepted.
Avvaiyar and King Athiyaman became close friends, and she lived in his court for the rest of his life (she outlived him by many years). Most of her fifty-nine surviving poems are about him and his family; most of the rest of them are about various aspects of state governance, showing that she became quite a political expert and one of his close advisors. It was one of the most turbulent periods in the history of that region, with much warfare. At that time, two great Empires had consolidated themselves in Tamil Nadu, and were eyeing the smaller independent kingdoms like Athiyaman’s Mazha Nadu with conquest in mind. Avvaiyar made herself diplomatically useful by developing cordial relations with the neighboring ruler Vel Pari of Parambu Nadu, whose court poet and minister was Avvaiyar’s own brother.
It seemed that the Chola Empire was maneuvering to imminently invade. At that time, Tondaiman Ilandiraiyan, ruler of Kanchipuram, was a viceroy of the Chola Emperor, and Avvaiyar and Athiyaman thought it was he who would likely be sent to invade Mazha Nadu. Athiyaman chose Avvaiyar as his ambassador to go to Tondaiman Ilandiraiyan’s court and try to avert the invasion.
Avvaiyar went to Kanchipuram and visited the court of Tondaiman. Tondaiman gave her a grand welcome and a proud demonstration of his archery and military prowess. He was watching her reactions closely, as he had actually never been in a war and secretly felt insecure and nervous about attacking the free kingdom of Mazha Nadu. Avvaiyar knew that Tondaiman had never been in a war. She was indeed impressed by his military demonstration and knew that he would indeed win a battle against Athiyaman. But she carefully put on an act, subtly hinting that Tondaiman’s weapons sparkled as they had probably never been used (as indeed she knew they had not) whereas her own patron’s arsenal looked all dull and worn as they had been through numerous wars. This mention of hers undercut Tondaiman’s confidence enough that he decided not to attack.
Indeed later Athiyaman allied himself with the Chola Emperor, as well as the Pandyas, to deter other enemies.
One day Athiyaman gave a single gooseberry to Avvaiyar, telling her it was an “eternal” gooseberry, a special fruit that would bestow a very long and healthy life on whoever ate it. She asked him why he hadn’t eaten it himself. He told her that she was the right person who could serve the Tamil community better than even he could as a great king. He said, “If you can live forever, so will the Tamil heritage and language.” Not that the gooseberry would actually make its eater live forever; the point was Athiyaman expressing his high appreciation of Avvaiyar in a creative way.
But finally the long-feared overwhelming invasion did come. Athiyaman bravely led from the front and died in battle, winning praise even from his enemies for his courage and valor.
Avvaiyar was distressed and sang at least five elegies to Athiyaman. She sang:
“The fame of our Sun-like King, his white umbrellas cool as the moon… will not die! … If he had a little liquor, he would give it to us. Where is he now? If he had even a little rice, he shared it on many plates. Where is he now? He gave us all the flesh on the bones. Where is he now? Wherever spears and arrows flew, he was there. Where is he now? Father, mainstay, King - where is he now?”
After the death of Athiyaman, one day Avvaiyar was resting under a naaval (rose-apple, or jambu in Sanskrit) tree, thinking she had achieved everything there was to achieve in her life, and considering retirement from Tamil literary work. A fellow traveler came to rest under the same tree. He struck up a conversation with her, and verbally sparred with her wittily, challenging her knowledge and intellectual/linguistic skill and proving a surprisingly formidable opponent. Then the man revealed himself as the God Murugan! He made her realize that she had a huge amount more to learn and to achieve. After that she launched into composing many educational works aimed for children; many of these are still to this day among the first works of literature taught to Tamil children today.
At some point, Avvaiyar joined the company of a Siddhar, Idaikaadar. They were together in Idaikaadar’s native Idaikkali country when they happened to meet Avvaiyar’s brother Thiruvalluvar, himself a great sage. Thiruvalluvar had recently written a great text, the Tirukkural, and was on his way to Madurai to present his work at the Third Sangam Academy, the most prestigious assembly of poets and writers in ancient Tamil Nadu. Avvaiyar and Idaikaadar joined him in his journey to Madurai.
The Third Sangam Academy met at the Arulmigu Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple, by the Pool of the Golden Lotus, with the Pandyan king and his ministers, chiefs, and scholars in attendance, and forty-nine professors of the Sangam. Thiruvalluvar submitted his text before Somasundara (Shiva) Himself, in front of the king and all those in attendance, which alarmed the professors; they doubted Thiruvalluvar’s erudition, as he was of low caste. But when Thiruvalluvar presented his work, the professors and the king accepted that it was indeed praiseworthy. Then Idaikkadar said in poetic verse:
“The Kural contains much in a little compass. Such is the ingenuity of its author, that he has compressed within its narrow limits all the branches of knowledge, as if he had hollowed a mustard seed and enclosed all the waters of the seven seas in it.”
And Avvaiyar replied, matching the same poetic verse, that rather than a mustard seed, it would be more appropriate to liken the Kural text to a single atom. This is perhaps ambiguous in meaning, and may echo her composition: “What we have learned is like a mere handful of earth; what we have yet to learn is like the whole world.”
From that time, Avvaiyar turned far more to spiritual devotion. As her Sadhana bore fruit, she slowly began spreading the mystical Tantra teachings of the Siddhars. She went on a pilgrimage to the ancient temple town of Tirukoilur, and visited Veerateeswarar Temple, said to be where Shiva slew the demon Andhaka. There Avvaiyar was blessed with an actual vision of Shiva slaying Andhaka, and she afterward composed verses about it.
Then she went on pilgrimage to Chidambaram. There, at the great ancient Thillai Nataraja Temple, she sang the her renowned devotional hymn, the esoteric Vinayakar Thiruakaval in praise of her beloved Ishta Devata, Lord Ganesha. Ganesha Himself appeared before her and danced for her.
Avvaiyar became a great Ganapatya sage and was appointed the Royal Saint of the Chera Dynasty, in which capacity she served for most of the remainder of her life.
Near the end of her life, now an old woman walking with a stick, Avvaiyar made a final pilgrimage to Lanka. There she was caught in torrential rain and took shelter in the house of two low-caste sisters, Angavay and Sangavay. They took care of her with great kindness, and she promised that she would arrange their marriage to the King of Tirukoilur. She contacted the king. He said that he would agree to marry these low-caste women on the condition that they were given to him in marriage by the kings of the Chera, Chola, and Pandya dynasties all together. Avvaiyar invoked Ganesha, who appeared before her and helped compose and bless the invitation letters to these three great kings. All three kings accepted the invitation, came to the wedding ceremony, and did indeed give Angavay and Sangavay in marriage to the king of Tirukoilur.
Avvaiyar too attended the wedding, and she died there at a very old age, and it is said that Ganesha personally took her to the celestial Kailasa.
Karaikkal Ammaiyar (400s C.E.) - One of the Nayanar saints whose teachings form the basis of the Tamil Shaiva tradition. Born in the Chola Nadu seaport city of Karaikal, her birth name was Punitavati, but she was given the name Karaikal Ammaiyar, the Revered Mother of the City of Karaikal. She was from a merchant family, and married a merchant from Nagapattinam. She authored great works on Shiva Bhakti such as Tiruvalangadu Tiruppadhigam and Tiruvirattai Manimalai. Shiva Himself appeared and physically gave her a mango. She performed a great pilgrimage all the way to Mount Kailasha. To this day, the city of Karaikal celebrates an annual festival in her honor. She was venerated as far as in Cambodia.
Akka Mahadevi was born around 1130 C.E. in Udutadi, Karnataka. Her parents were both devotees of Parama Shiva. She left her family in order to pursue pure devotion to Shiva as a renunciate ascetic. She considered Shiva, whom she mostly called Chenna Mallikarjuna, Beautiful Lord White as Jasmine, to be her husband, in the Madhurya Bhava or romantic love form of devotion.
A local rich Jain Raja named Kaushika sought to marry her, but she rejected him, saying that she was already married to Para Shiva. Raja Kaushika persisted, offering her a life of luxury, and she set conditions for marrying him, including that she would always retain control over the choice to spend her time in devotion or in conversation with fellow scholars and other holy figures, including men, rather than with the Raja. He disrespected her conditions and threatened her. She left the city, renouncing all worldly attractions, possessions and worldly objects, even clothes, and walked away naked, remaining naked for the rest of her life, walking about singing praises to her Lord Shiva, declaring that her body, mind, and soul belonged to Shiva and Shiva alone.
She went in search of fellow sharanas (spiritual seekers) for sajjana sanga (the company of the saintly), hoping this would hasten her learning. This she found in the town of Kalyana, where she met two other great sages, Allama Prabhu and Basavanna. Allama Prabhu accepted her as his disciple and became her Guru, and showed her the further way of attaining the transcendent bliss of union with Lord Chenna Mallikarjuna. Her full public nudity met with disapproval from some, and her Guru faced difficulties in including her in the public gatherings, but she did attend, rejecting all object-based rules and regulations, and took part in spiritual debates.
Soon she won the deep respect of all the seekers there, and at least six of them, including Allama Prabhu and Basavanna himself, came to address her as elder sister, even though most of them were older than her; they viewed her as their senior in spiritual attainment. She in return composed many poems in praise of these sages.
One day she made this announcement in the assembly:
“Having vanquished the six passions and become
The trinity of body, thought and speech;
Having ended the trinity and become twain – I and the Absolute
Having ended the duality and become a unity
Is because of the grace of you all.
I salute Basavanna and all assembled here
Blessed was I by Allama my Master-
Bless me all that I may join my Chenna Mallikarjuna
Good-bye! Good-bye!”
And she left the town. She traveled to the Srisailam mountains, home of Parama Shiva in the temple to Chenna Mallikarjuna. She entered the thick forest area of Kadali in those mountains, where she lived the rest of her life with animals and plants her only constant friends and companions, embracing harmony with nature (though fellow human devotees did visit her semi-regularly).
For food, she went to the temple-village with a begging bowl. For water, she drank from tanks and streams and wells. She slept in the ruins of an ancient temple in the forest. She composed 430 devotional poems, each of them spoken spontaneously in a mystical trance, frequently using the metaphor of an illicit adulterous love-affair to describe her devotion to Chenna Mallikarjuna, whom she described as “the haughty Master”, and making very clear that she was actively seeking a romantic and sexual relationship with Him, with strong and explicit sexual language, going through a drama of unity and separation, sometimes feeling abandoned by Him.
Sometimes she described herself as both feminine and masculine. She also wrote a few other works on Mantras and Yoga. Shortly before 1160 C.E., Raja Kaushika visited her and sought her forgiveness.
At last she experienced aikya or full union with her beloved Chenna Mallikarjuna, and she died in this state of absolute fulfillment at the age of thirty.
Janabai (1258-1350) – Her parents were poor farmers from a marginalized community in Gangakhed, Maharashtra. They prayed to Lord Vitthala for a son, but He appeared in her father’s dreams and said that he would not have a son, but a greatly holy daughter of whom he should be very proud. Janabai was born. Later she was sent to work as a menial maidservant in the house of the great saint Namdev. She became Namdev’s shishya and absorbed steadfast devotion to Vitthala, as well as extensive knowledge of many other saints of Varkari Sampradaya. Twice each year she accompanied her Guru to Pandharpur on pilgrimage. She became a great devotional saint in her own right, and a highly intelligent philosopher. She composed many devotional songs which remain popular to this day in Maharashtra. She sang that her Guru showed the Atman directly to her vision, letting her understand through direct experience, and through her service to her Guru she got to be one with Vithoba. She offered gratitude to her Guru again and again for having led her on the path of Bhakti to Lord Vitthala. She was bold and defiant, going to the crowded marketplace without dressing as conservatively as the patriarchal society of her time expected of women. Her whole demeanor was frank, forthright and bold, and she urged other people to follow the spiritual path so that they too can realize their goals. The great saint Dnyaneshvar Mauli said that Lord Vitthala is more with Janabai in her household chores than in the garbhagriha of the temple!
Muktabai (1277-1297) – Growing up in a village on the banks of the Godavari River, she studied the Vedas from her childhood, together with her brothers. She was orphaned at a young age and grew up on alms offered by pitying neighbors. She took Brahmacharya and became an ascetic sage while still in childhood. She taught, “This universe is a single piece of cloth woven with the one thread of Brahman,” and gave teachings on equanimity. She sang, “Though He has no form, my eyes saw Him; His glory is fire in my mind, that knows His secret inner form… What is beyond the mind has no boundary. In it our senses reach their end. Mukta says: words cannot hold Him, yet in Him all words are… His spirit lives in my soul. He is my heart’s only home.” She died at the age of twenty; she was travelling together with one of her brothers on a pilgrimage along the Tapati River, where they were caught in a storm and Muktabai was swept away in a flood and never seen again.
Lalleshvari (c. 1301-1373) – A Shaiva mystic of Kashmir and a great Yogini. By this time there was a lot of Muslim influence in Kashmir. In accordance with local customs she was married off at the age of twelve. She was unhappy in this marriage, and between the age of 24 and 26 she left home to become a shishya of a Shaiva Guru, Siddha Shrikanth. After giving her some instruction he told her to go and wander Kashmir alone on foot, surviving on begged alms, which she did for years. She became a great Guru and spiritual leader herself. She appeared in the forest to various travelers in Kashmir, teaching the impermanence of the material world, the importance of Self-realization, the unity of all existence, and communal harmony. She emphasized direct personal experience of the Divine, transcending ritualistic practices.
Gopabai (1300s) – From a Kasar Sonar (goldsmith) family in the village of Mangalvedha, Maharashtra, she became a great saint of Varkari Sampradaya, profoundly devoted to Vithala.
Kanhopatra (1400s) – She was the daughter of a prostitute, born in the village of Mangalvedha (the very same home village as Gopabai a century earlier, though they had no relation). She was the most beautiful young woman in the village and worked as a prostitute herself; but even as such, she was fairly conversant with the Itihasas and Puranas. One day she saw a group of pilgrims on their way to Pandharpur, and she asked them if the Lord would bless her as she comes from a background of prostitution. They said that everyone is equal in the eyes of Lord Panduranga. This so appealed to her that she joined them on the spot, left her village that very day and went with them to Pandharpur on a sudden whim. There she was overcome with devotion and surrendered herself to Lord Panduranga. She did not leave Pandharpur, but remained there as a full-time devotee, singing bhajans and doing puja all the time. She was seized with an intense longing to reach the Divine. She wrote that her own experience was that doing Nama Smarana helped in burning away all doshas and uplifted her spirit. She had great respect for Shiva and Brahma as well as Vishnu. She was also highly inspired by Muktabai (from earlier in this very list) and saw her as a role model (interestingly, more than Gopabai who was from her same village and a more recent figure). She never had a formal Guru, though she did claim to have met the saint Dnyaneshwar Mauli in a mystic vision (though he left his body many years before her birth). Despite this, she became a God-realized saint. At one point, the Badshah of Bidar tried to forcibly abduct her as his concubine; she fled into the garbhagriha of Panduranga and died there.
Jahnava Devi (1481-1541) – Born and raised in Ambika Kalna in Bengal, she was the first initiating Diksha Guru in the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition, and a great philosopher and saint. She was one of the great early heads of the Sampradaya. She was perfected in her inner union with Krishna, and was a major Vaishnava Acharya, traveling around various parts of Bengal and beyond to visit Vaishnava communities and provide them with guidance and initiation.
Sita Thakurani Devi (late 1400s-1500s) - Another early Gaudiya Vaishnava Guru was Sita Devi, fully sanctioned by the Sampradaya as a legitimate leader in the lineage. When her husband, Advaita Prabhu, died, his disciples turned to her as their Guru, with full authority. She took on disciples of all Varnas and gave Mantra Diksha in Radha Mantras and Krishna Mantras. She advised her disciples to venerate Radha and Krishna, visualizing oneself as an attendant in the Divine Couple’s trysting place. Notably two of her shishyas, Nandini and Jangali, were transgender women; she gave them a Radha Mantra which miraculously transformed them physically into women, giving them the sex change they desired.
Jashoda Rao Ratan Singh was born in 1498 into the royal family of the Rathore Rajput clan in the town of Kurki in the Kingdom of Marwar. She grew up in Merta City, close to her birthplace. Her grandfather, Rao Duda, was a devout follower of Lord Krishna. He told little Jashoda tales of Lord Krishna’s youth and His Divine love for Radha, and she was utterly fascinated. From a young age she was devoted to Krishna.
She mostly referred to Krishna as Shyam, “the Dark One”, and Giridhara, “Mountain-Lifter”. Her love for Him was pure and unconditional. She viewed the Dark One as her eternal husband, worshipping Him in the Madhurya Bhava mode of Bhakti. She was disinterested in corporeal matters, rejected many of the luxuries that were hers by royal birth in favor of austerity, and fearlessly defied social and family conventions.
Her family was alarmed by her refusal to adhere to traditional social norms, and particularly her unwillingness to marry a human man. They expected that she got older, her attachment to Krishna would lessen; but to the contrary it only grew. She began to compose Bhajans to express her ardent devotion to Krishna, and over her life she composed thousands of poetic verses.
In 1516, after a four-year engagement/betrothal, the eighteen-year-old Jashoda was married against her will (like many a noble-born woman throughout world history) to the twenty-one-year-old Crown Prince of the neighboring Kingdom of Mewar, Bhojraj Singh Sisodia. She was taken to the capital of Mewar and housed in the gigantic Chittorgarh fort, one of the mightiest military fortifications in India - quite necessary as Mewar was at war with the Delhi Sultanate.
Jashoda remained unattached to worldly matters and cared nothing for her new role and status as Crown Princess of Mewar. She defiantly refused to have sex with her husband, regarding Giridhara as her one and only true husband. Prince Bhojraj was at first so surprised and confused by his new wife’ strange attitudes that he was unsure how to react. He did not force her, but initially tried to pull her back into worldly affairs by offering her all the pleasures that money and power could procure, yet she was not tempted. Bhojraj found Jashoda’s detachment and her personality fascinating, and he stopped trying to draw her into things of no interest to her and instead sought to genuinely understand her. He also protected her from his family’s criticism and rebuke for defiantly rejecting her duties as princess (primarily to bear heirs), which led to frequent family arguments. At some point Jashoda began to refer to herself by the name Meera, meaning “Ocean” (in the Rajasthani language which she spoke), and she came to be known as Mirabai or “Ocean woman”. Meera and her earthly husband Bhojraj came to enjoy a relationship of friendship and mutual understanding. He overheard her singing her compositions to the Dark One and appreciated her poetic talents.
Despite her unwillingness to bear children, he never took a second wife.
When Meera sensed that Bhojraj might grant her requests, she asked him to have a temple to Krishna built within the fort. The fort already contained temples to Kalika Mata (the main temple, to the royal family’s Kuladevi), Kshemankari Devi, Kumbha Shyam (Varaha Avatar), Adbuthnath (a form of Shiva), another Shiva temple, and a couple of Jain temples, but she wanted a dedicated Krishna temple. Her husband had a Krishna temple built for her within the fort, and thereafter she spent most of her time in that temple, singing to the Dark One.
In 1518 Bhojraj was wounded in battle defending Mewar from attack by the Delhi Sultanate, and again in 1521. In 1526 an even deadlier enemy came: Babur, who was in the process of making himself the first Mughal Emperor. Bhojraj died in battle defending Mewar. After ten happy years with him, Meera was a widow at the age of twenty-eight. And her grief was unrelenting; just the next year in 1527, Babur struck again and killed both Meera’s father and her father-in-law.
Meera had now lost everything which had kept her interested, however tenuously, in worldly matters. Her husband had died childless, so his younger brother took the throne of Mewar. Meera’s life continued to face challenges and persecution caused by political chaos and military conflicts with the rapidly strengthening Mughal Empire. In 1531 or shortly thereafter she left the kingdom of Mewar, abandoning her life as a noblewoman and becoming a lone wandering pilgrim.
Meera met the great Saint Ravidas (a Dalit, it so happens), took him as her Guru and received a Mantra from him. She dedicated the rest of her life purely to the Dark One in Bhakti Yoga, composing thousands of Bhajans and poems of passionate devotion to Him (and sometimes Radha), all in the Rajasthani language, and singing them every day, wandering as a pilgrim among fellow devotees, many of whom learned her songs and spread them far and wide. Notably, almost all of her songs contain deep philosophical elements.
She saw the Dark One as Her lover and husband. She became one of the most important poet-Saints of her time, and indeed in all of Indian (or at least North Indian) history. Her compositions all ring with her very distinct voice, of fiery passion, defiance, longing and eager anticipation of her next union with the Dark One, periods of burning, agonizing separation, and the absolute ecstasy of that Union.
Around 1547 she was living in Vrindavan, Krishna’s homeland. Then she went on a final pilgrimage to Dwarka, where Krishna lived most of His earthly life. The Dwarkadhish temple was just around that time being rebuilt after its destruction by Sultan Mahmud Begada. It is possible (though this is speculative) that Meera may have gone there to attend the temple’s grand reopening. In any case, after spending some time living in Dwarka, it was in 1548, at the age of fifty, that Meera is said to have physically and spiritually merged into the Dwarkadhish idol of Krishna, disappearing from this world and attaining eternal union with the Dark One.
Atukuri Molla (1500s) – A Telugu saint, daughter of a Lingayata Shaiva village potter in Gopavaram, Andhra Pradesh. Her parents were great devotees of Siva in his forms as Mallikarjuna and Mallikamba of Srisailam; their Guru, Sri Srikantha Malleswara, lived in Srisailam, and they were initiated disciples of the Siva Math. Their daughter Molla became well known in her own village and those surrounding for her kind-hearted nature, generosity, and love. Molla claimed Sri Shiva Himself as her Guru. She said that Shiva guided her to write the Ramayana in Telugu, which she did, a great accomplishment. Though she was a Shaiva and Shiva was her Guru, she was also an ardent devotee of Sri Rama. She was invited to the royal court and recited her Ramayana in front of Emperor Krishnadevaraya and his court poets. After this, she gave the written copy of her Ramayana to the temple in her native village, then retired to Srisailam to spend the rest of her life performing austerities. Many people came to her asking for teachings, and she came to spend a lot of time imparting spiritual teachings in answer to their questions.
Venabai (1600s) – Born in the Deshpande community, she was married and widowed by the age of ten! She was a reclusive and quiet child. Her mother-in-law encouraged her to read books. She got a copy of the Eknathi Bhagawat, a spiritual treatise written by a great saint of Varkari Sampradaya, and she began studying it with full devotion and got engrossed in its teachings. One day another great saint, Samarth Ramdas Swami, came to her doorstep and asked for a glass of milk. Venabai’s mother-in-law refused, which made Venabai feel sad. A few days later he came again, saw the little girl reading the Eknathi Bhagawat, and asked if she understood what she was reading. They entered into a conversation in which she asked him twenty-five questions, which he patiently answered. After that, she began attending his daily Kirtan sessions each evening. One day she fell at his feet asking for his blessings, and he gave her initiation as her Guru, imparting a Rama Mantra to her. Sometime later she left her family forever and followed her Guru wherever he went. He had many other disciples, including many other women; but Venabai stood out and became a great God-realized saint in her own right. Her Guru began to usually let her answer questions that people came to him with. On her Guru’s wishes, reluctantly she accepted the position of Mathadipadi (head) of an entire monastery. She led the monastery for almost twenty years with utter devotion, becoming a Guru and taking a huge number of disciples of her own, many of them women. She wrote extensively, composing a commentary on Ramayana, writing on the essence of Vedanta and other spiritual topics. She left her body in an amazing fashion. She expressed to her Guru that she was eager to go to Vaikuntha, to which he replied, “What is the hurry?” But she felt the time was drawing near. In one of the last poems she composed, she wrote, “Due to the Sadhguru, I have been able to recognize Kaushalya’s son, Shri Ram… I have attained the complete end.” One Ekadashi day her Guru asked her to sing a Kirtan on the theme of Sita Svayamvara, which she did. Before starting the song, she asked her disciples to prepare a funeral pyre, which confused and shocked everyone, as no one had died or was apparently dying. She sang the Kirtan, then handed her tambura to her Guru, bowed down fully on the floor, and never got up again; she had left her body right then and there.
Bhagu (born mid-1600s) – Daughter of saint Tukaram. Her father died when she was still living with him; thereafter for twenty-five years she lived at her maternal grandparents’ place. Like her father, she deeply loved Lord Panduranga. She practiced the Vatsalya Bhava, addressing Panduranga as if she was his adoring mother. She became a God-realized saint.
Senkottai Sri Avudai Akkal (1700s) – Raised by Shiva devotees, she was a Tamil villager who was widowed at a young age. Then the great saint Thirivisanallur Sri Sridhara Venkatesa Ayyaval visited her village. She approached him for guidance. He initiated her into the mystic aspects of Advaita. She became a fully realized saint of Advaita Vedanta, passionately describing the ecstasy of spiritual union with the Absolute. Her Ishta Devata was Shiva. The king of Thiruvananthapuram honored her with a gift of leaves made of gold. On one auspicious day she disappeared into the hills of Kutralam and was never seen again.
Daya Bai (born 1693) – Born in the village of Dehra, Mewat, she moved to Delhi and became a shishya of Guru Charandas. Under his guidance she became a God-realized saint and wrote two books on spirituality, Dayabodh and Vinay Malika.
Sahajo Bai (born c. 1725) – She lived in Delhi. She too studied under Guru Charandas from the age of eleven; he gave her the name “Sahajo” because her spiritual character embodied the essence of simplicity. By the age of eighteen she had composed the Sahaj Prakash, a masterful book of spiritual teachings. Her main practices were immersing herself in love for Bhagavan by chanting the Divine Name, meditating often on the inner sound (Anahata Shabda), chanting the Mantra Soham at regular intervals throughout the day and night, and studying sacred texts.
Matrusri Tarigonda Vengamamba (1730–1817) - She was an Andhra villager who was a major devotee of Venkateshvara right from childhood, so much so that other villagers thought her mad. She was married and widowed while still a child, but she refused to accept anyone but Venkateshvara as a husband, and refused to ever dress or conduct herself as a widow. She practiced the Madhurya Bhava mode of Bhakti. She studied Yoga under her Guru, Acharya Subrahmnayudu. She moved to Tirumala, where she was welcomed by the priest and the descendants of Annamayya, all of who had heard of her devotion prior to her arrival. She was allowed to enter the Tirumala Venkateshvara temple after hours, at night, and even to enter the Garbhagriha to offer pearls and recite poems to Venkateshvara.
Lokamata Rani Rashmoni (1793–1861) - A wealthy Shudra widow and ardent devotee of Goddess Kali. She was an organizer of resistance against the British colonial authorities, and was beloved by the poor people of the area for her benevolence, kindness, and generosity. Her officially engraved estate seal bore the signature: “Sri Rasmani Dasi, longing for the Feet of Kali.” It was her heart’s dearest desire to offer Naivedya to Kali. The Goddess Herself appeared to Rani Rashmoni in a dream. Kali spoke to her and told her to set up a stone murti of Kali at a beautiful place on the banks of the Bhagirathi River, and make arrangements for daily worship and Prasada offering there; the Goddess promised that She would manifest in the murti and receive Rani Rashmoni’s worship in that form. Following the Goddess’s instructions, Rani Rashmoni built the Dakshineshwar Kali Temple, and employed two villager brothers as the Goddess Kali’s priests: Ramkumar and Ramakrishna.
Bhairavi Brahmani (1800s) – Her date of birth is unknown, but she looked middle-aged in 1861. She was a wandering orange-robed Bengali ascetic, a master of Vamachara Kalikula Tantra; simultaneously she was also thoroughly conversant with the Shastras of Gaudiya Vaishnava Sampradaya and carried with her a Raghuvir Shila (a sacred stone representing primarily Ram and secondarily all Vaishnava deities). Recognizing the saint Ramakrishna as her worthy disciple, she initiated him into Tantra and spent three years systematically training him in the sixty-four Sadhanas of Vamachara Kalikula, with the aim of dissolving all barriers within his mind so he could truly see everything as manifestations of the Divine Shakti. She also taught him Kundalini Yoga as well the Shodashi Kumari Puja which he later performed to profound effect with his wife Sarada Devi.
Gopaler Ma (1822–1906) - A householder disciple of Ramakrishna Paramahansa, she was a fully realized Bhakta of Bala Gopala Krishna in the Vatsalya Bhava mode of Bhakti. She became famous for her Divine visions of Bala Krishna. She spent decades in dedicated Sadhana, many hours every day without pause; she traveled India visiting many sacred places of pilgrimage, and then found her Guru in Ramakrishna Paramahansa, under whose guidance she reached the culmination of all her striving and fully realized unity with the Divine in the form of Bala Krishna.
Shankari Mai (1827–1947) - One of only two formal disciples of the saint Trailanga Swami, she was a great Himalayan master. She was trained by Trailanga Swami from her early childhood, since her parents were his informal disciples and she grew up around him at his Kashi ashram. When she was twelve years old he initiated her with Diksha into lifelong Brahmacharya and invested her with the sacred Yagnyopavita thread according to the Vedic rites. He then trained her in Yoga for twelve more years. She lived in an underground chamber below his ashram. She bathed in the Ganga twice each day, before dawn and at dusk; otherwise she remained underground, never even seeing the sun. After dusk each day, she ate one meal per day. For the first four years of her practice (so age 12 to 16) she ate only fruits. In years five through eight (age 16 to 20) she ate only boiled radish and milk. For years nine through twelve (age 20 to t24), she ate milk and a handful of rice. She spent all of her time practicing Sadhana. Often Trailanga Swami would speak to her, breaking his vow of silence only for this purpose, to impart further teachings to her. Then, for forty years she lived in remote caves in the Himalayas, near Badrinath, Kedarnath, Amarnath, and Pashupatinath. Even into her very old age she came out of seclusion every few years to attend Melas.
Sarada Devi (1853-1920) – Widely known as the Holy Mother, she was the wife and spiritual partner of Ramakrishna Paramahansa and a strong guide for spiritual aspirants in her own right. It was after Ramakrishna’s death that she took a pilgrimage around North India to sites like Kashivishvanath, Ayodhya, and Vrindavan. It was at Vrindavan that she experienced Nirvikalpa Samadhi and began her role as Guru, thereafter initiating disciples with a Mantra. She was the primary spiritual guide of the Ramakrishna Order for thirty-four years after Ramakrishna’s death.
Gauri Ma (1857–1938) - Born in Calcutta, she was a renunciate devotee even from childhood. When she was thirteen her relatives arranged her marriage against her will, but her mother allowed her to run away and hide. She joined a group of monks and nuns going to Haridwar. Thereafter she spent several years wandering alone, sometimes disguised as a man. During her itinerant days, Gauri Ma practiced severe austerities, such as fasting, refraining from speech,, meditating, and studying scriptures. She carried with her the stone shila of Krishna, gifted to her by a fellow Yogini, as her husband, practicing the Madhurya Bhava mode of Bhakti. After long years of this she became a disciple of Ramakrishna Paramahansa. Following her heart, she went and spent years practicing austerities in Vrindavana. Later, after Ramakrishna left his body, Sarada Devi visited Vrindavana and Gauri Ma met with her. Later she formally took Sannyasa. In 1894 Gauri Ma founded an ashram for women on the banks of the Ganga in Calcutta, and devoted herself to the care of the women there.
Mirra Alfassa (1878-1973) – She was a French occultist who moved to India in 1914 and became a disciple of the Guru Sri Aurobindo. He soon proclaimed that she had become every bit his equal in Yoga, and she became a great Guru in her own right and headed the Ashram for many years. She taught Yoga with the aim of catering to those Yogis who would not give up outer life to live in a monastery, but would remain present in regular life and practice spirituality throughout all parts of life.
Anandamayi Ma (1896-1982) - I wrote about her in this answer and also this one.
Mayamma (born sometime before 1900, died 1992) – Originally from Assam, she was an amazing, fully-realized Avadhuta who lived in the ocean (yes, in the ocean) and on the seashore of Kanyakumari. I personally know multiple people who met her and have heard their astounding firsthand tales of this great saint. She was like a female Dattatreya, wandering the beaches of Kanyakumari with a pack of dogs as her loyal companions, and spending long hours and even days at sea, floating with only a driftwood log to cling to. She did not speak, but taught wordlessly. She was utterly beyond all distinctions of birth and body, and all rules and norms of society; she dwelt in pure undifferentiated Divine consciousness. She went naked or in torn rags. She had no home and no shelter; the whole world was her home. Once she was witnessed by many people to miraculously heal a horribly injured dog.
Mataji Krishnabai (1903-1989) got married and had two sons. Then her husband died when she was twenty-five. That same year she met Swami Ramdas, who became her Guru, initiating her with the Rama Nama. She said that her vasanas were almost immediately burnt away by her Guru’s grace, like ice melting in hot sunlight. Soon she became his foremost disciple. By devotedly following his teachings, she realized her Oneness with the Absolute after a mere two years of practice! Her Guru said of her rapid progress compared to other shishyas, “All others were like geren wood. Mataji was dry tinder.” She became a living embodiment of love and service. She succeeded him as head of the Ashram.
Kalavati Mata (1908-1978) – Like almost all the saints on this list, Kalavati Mata showed a deep spiritual inclination from a very young age, and a loving and caring attitude for all beings. She got married at age fifteen and sadly was widowed just four years later, and turned to intense devotion to weather the hardship and grief. Kalavati Mata became an initiated disciple of Sri Siddharudha Swami. Recognizing her greatness, her Guru invited her to lead Satsang sessions. In time she became a great Divinely-realized Guru of Angol, Belgaum, Karnataka, who ran the Shri Harimandir and profoundly transformed the entire community in which she lived, providing spiritual guidance to thousands. She compiled many bhajans and teachings of numerous saints of her tradition in her book Parmartha Marg Pradeep. She also wrote the Balopasana for children. She taught the equality of all living beings, and especially taught householders how to attain Moksha while still living in society.
Sati Godavari Mataji (1914–1990) was the spiritual Guru and presiding mother of the Kanya Kumari Sthan ashram in Sakori, Maharashtra. She was the foremost shishya and appointed successor of her own Guru, Shri Upasani Baba Maharaj, whom she met when she was nine years old. She taught the Bhakti Marga. She taught many female disciples.
Matrusri Anasuya Devi (1923-1985) – Born in a small village in Andhra Pradesh, she was married and had three children. She became a great Guru as well, feeding the hungry and establishing a Sanskrit school. She taught Advaita and the path of pure, all-encompassing love.
Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi (1923-2011) – In her youth she was deeply involved in the struggle for India’s dependence, and was jailed by the British for her activities. A highly popular Guru from Madhya Pradesh, she taught Yoga to thousands of people, free of charge. She was a great Kundalini master. She was also married and had two daughters. She founded a charity house for the rehabilitation of destitute women, and a school to promote classical Indian music, dance, and painting.
Ma Yoga Shakti (1927-2015) – Born in Varanasi, she earned an advanced degree in Political Science (at a time when that was very rare for a woman anywhere in the world) and founded a women’s college in Bihar. She was a bold and pioneering leader of women’s rights in India. Then she developed an inclination to reach the Divine. After 1956 she chose to renounce materialistic life and became a Sannyasini. She delved deep into Yoga, and eventually became a Guru in her own right, encouraging the practice of traditional Raja, Bhakti, Karma, and Jnana Yoga.
Shree Maa (born c. 1950) – A descendant of Ramprasad Sen, from her earliest years her only desire was to meditate and merge into God. Her greatest inspiration was Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa. When still young she left her home for the forested hills of Kamakhya, where she performed intensive Sadhana for years, sitting most of the time in deep meditation and Tapasya, and eating so little that her body weight reduced to well below 70 pounds. She often remained in Samadhi for days at a time. She became a great master of the Chandi Path, following it as her guide, with Ramakrishna as her Guru (though he left his body long before her birth). Slowly she gathered followers and became a Guru herself. I have met her myself and am friends with many of her shishyas.
Mata Amritanandamayi (born 1953) - She is my own Guru, I have written about her in many answers, especially this one.
Swamini Satyasangananda Saraswati (born 1953) – Born in West Bengal, she had a completely modern education and upbringing, but had a series of inner awakenings at an early age and opted to take Sannyasa and follow the traditional life of renunciation. She was initiated into the Dashanami Sannyasa order, and became a scholar with deep insight into the Yogic and Tantric traditions, especially Sri Vijnana Bhairava Tantra and Sri Saundarya Lahari. She is now the Peetadhishwari of Rikhiapeeth, an ashram in Jharkhand.
Karunamayi (born 1958) – a revered Telugu Guru and spiritual leader, she runs an ashram and humanitarian programs in rural Andhra Pradesh. I know her personally and have studied with her a lot, second only to my Diksha Guru Mata Amritanandamayi. I am deeply grateful to Sri Karunamayi for her many teachings to me. Especially she is an exquisite, meticulous master of Mantra Shastra and the science of Bijaksharas. She teaches in the Dakshinachara Sri Vidya school of Tantra.
Anandi Ma – Born in the late 1950s in a suburb of Bombay, at age fourteen she began studying under her Guru, the great saint Shri Dhyanyogi Madhusudandas, who named her as his successor. He spent four years continually working with her one-on-one to completely perfect her realization. She is now a living Shaktipat Guru in his Parampara of Kundalini Yoga. She teaches meditation, advanced Yogic practices, and does humanitarian work.
Trikal Bhavanta Saraswati (born 1965) - Born in a family of peanut farmers in Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh, at age thirty-five she took Diksha as a Sadhvi in the the Saraswati order of the Dashanami Sampradaya. She is the head acharya of the all-female Pari Akhara and Anant Jyoti Samadhi Ashram in Prayagraj, where she heads a matha. She is a prominent advocate for increasing the role of women in positions of spiritual authority in Hindu Dharma.
Sadhvi Hemanand Giri (born c. 1967) - She is a Nepali Sadvhi, a Shri Mahant (head of several sub-orders) and Mahamandaleshvar (fully ordained initiating Guru) of the Juna Akhara, the largest monastic order of Dashanami Sampradaya. She runs a large monastery, the Vedic Surya Shivanay Math in Gauriganj, Nepal, and five Ashrams. The largest temple in Nepal, Pashupatinath Temple, officially regards her as a Shankaracharya, as appointed by the Akhil Bharitya Biddhat Sabha and the Bishow Hindu Mahasangh.
Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati (born 1971) - A Jewish woman from the United States, she moved to Rishikesh at the age of 25 and became a full-time shishya of Pujya Swami Chidanand Saraswati. She went on to became his primary shishya. He ordained her into Sannyas three years later. She attained full realization, became the equal of her Guru, and now co-leads his ashram, Parmarth Niketan in Rishikesh. I’ve personally met her there.
Parvathy Baul (born 1976) – Raised in a displaced Bengali Hindu refugee family from East Bengal (now Bangladesh), her mother was a householder devotee of Ramakrishna. She took Diksha into the Baul tradition and has become an amazing master of this tradition in her own right. Now she upholds the traditions of two ancient Baul Parampara lineages which she has merged in her own practice. She is the head of Sanatan Siddhashram in Bengal. She is also an instrumental musician, storyteller, and painter. She founded the Ekathara Kalari to promote ancient Indian spiritual traditions, emphasizing Baul. She is also married.
There are many more, this is nowhere near a complete list.
In the 1900s, some of the most famous Gurus included Sri Sarada Devi, Anandamayi Ma, and Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi. Today Mata Amritanandamayi is one of the top four most popular living Gurus in all of Hinduism. One of the biggest Gurus in Shaivism today is Gurumayi Chidvilasananda. And so on - there are many, many female philosophers and teachers in Hinduism, acquitting themselves very well alongside their male colleagues.