விநாயகர் அகவல்
Vinayagar Agaval
The Vinayagar Agaval is Avvaiyar's great devotional hymn to Ganesha — Vinayaka, the lord who removes obstacles. Composed in the agaval metre, the poem moves from praise and invocation through initiation, teaching, and finally to liberation. It is at once a devotional offering and an autobiographical account: Avvaiyar describes how Ganesha himself came to her, taught her the nature of the self and the five senses, and granted her the grace of clear seeing.
The poem is presented here in 18 stanzas of four lines, grouped into four movements. Each stanza is given in five layers: the original Tamil, a romanized transliteration, an English meaning, a Tamil prose commentary (உரை), and an alternative English rendering.