Padmabhushan Naalappat Balamani Amma popularly known as Balamani Amma (19th July 1909 – 29th September 2004) was a famous Indian poet, prolific writer, known for her writings in Malayalam. She is often called as the grandmother of Malayalam literature. She was the mother of the famous writer Kamala Das. She had written 500 poems and was honored with a number of awards for her contribution to literature which includes Vallathol Award, Kerala Sahithya Akademi Award, Lalithambika Antharjanam Award, Saraswati Samman, Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award, N. V. Krishna Warrier Award, and Ezhuthachan Award. She also received India’s 3rd highest civilian honor, ‘Padma Bhushan’.
Balamani Amma started writing poetry during the pre-independent days when the approach to poetry was different from that of the present day.
For Balamani Amma herself, literature is the essence of the purified form of feelings. This purification process takes place by means of boiling the feelings, in the heat produced by memories. The resulting by-product is the purest form of the nectar of poetry.
