This Tamil verse on the goddess Abhirami (a form of Parvati) was composed by the 18th-19th century CE poet Abhirami Bhattar.
Translator Arundhathi Subramaniam writes that “Abhirami Bhattar was a priest of the Thirukadaiyur temple, on the east coast of Tamil Nadu, and preeminent Tamil poet of the goddess Abhirami. He lived during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and his ferocious bhakti led many to consider him mad.”
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“The story goes that he irked the King Serfoji with his goddess-intoxicated proclamation that it was a full moon day (when it was actually a new moon). The king ordered that he be beheaded if the moon did not rise that night. Abhirami Bhattar lit a large fire and erected a platform over it, tied with ropes. He sat on the platform, spontaneously singing verses in praise of Goddess Abhirami. With each verse, he cut off one rope. On completing the seventy-ninth hymn, Abhirami appeared and threw her diamond earring skywards so that it shone like the full moon. This was the legendary genesis of the Abhirami Antadi, an inspired collection of a hundred hymns.”