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{{Short description|Indian feminist writer (born 1944)}}
{{EngvarB|date=March 2020}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}}
{{infobox writer
| name = C. S. Lakshmi
| image = CS Lakshmi.jpg
| imagesize =
| alt =
| caption = Ambai
| pseudonym = ambai
| birth_name =
| birth_date = 1944
| birth_place = [[Coimbatore]], [[Madras Province]], [[British Raj|British India]] (now [[Tamil Nadu]], [[India]])
| death_date =
| death_place =
| occupation = Author, researcher of [[women's studies]]
| language = [[Tamil Language|Tamil]], English
| nationality = Indian
| ethnicity =
| citizenship =
| education = PhD
| alma_mater = [[Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi|Jawaharlal Nehru University]], New Delhi
[[Madras Christian College, Chennai|Madras Christian College]], Chennai
| period = 1962–present
| genre = Short story, novel, novella
| subject = Women, Feminism
| movement =
| notableworks = ''Siragukal Muriyum'' ''Veetin mulaiyil oru samaiyalarai'' ''Kaatil Oru Maan''
| spouse = Vishnu Mathur
| partner =
| children =
| relatives =
| influences =
| influenced =
| awards = [[Sahitya Academy Award]] (2021)
| signature =
| signature_alt =
| website =
| portaldisp =
}}

'''C. S. Lakshmi''' (born 1944) is an Indian [[Feminism|feminist]] writer and independent researcher in [[women's studies]] from India. She writes under the pseudonym '''Ambai'''.

==Personal life==
Lakshmi was born in [[Coimbatore]], Tamil Nadu in 1944.<ref>{{Cite web |last=IANS |date=2023-10-03 |title=Tamil writer Ambai conferred Tata Literature Live Lifetime Award for 2023 |url=https://www.thenewsminute.com/tamil-nadu/tamil-writer-ambai-conferred-with-tata-literature-live-lifetime-award-for-2023 |access-date=2025-02-04 |website=The News Minute |language=en}}</ref> She grew up in [[Mumbai]] and [[Bangalore]].{{citation needed|date= September 2022}} She obtained her Bachelor of Arts from Bangalore University, Master of Arts from [[Madras Christian College]] and her PhD from [[Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi|Jawaharlal Nehru University]], New Delhi.{{citation needed|date= September 2022}} She draws great inspiration from her mother who asked her to study in Chennai if it would contribute to a change of any extent in her life. Her dissertation was on American policy towards refugees fleeing [[Hungary]] due to the failed [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956|revolution of 1956]]. After completing her education, she worked as a school teacher and college lecturer in Tamil Nadu. She is married to Vishnu Mathur, a film maker, and lives in Mumbai.<ref name="hindu1"/><ref name="tharu"/><ref name="miller"/>

==Writing career==
In 1962, Lakshmi published her first work ''Nandimalai Charalilae'' (lit. At Nandi Hills) – written when she was still a teenager.{{citation needed|date= September 2022}} Her first serious work of fiction was the Tamil novel ''Andhi Maalai'' (lit. Twilight) which came out in 1966. It received the "Kalaimagal Narayanaswamy Aiyar" Prize.{{citation needed|date= September 2022}} She received critical acclaim with the short story ''Siragukal muriyum'' (lit. Wings will be broken) (1967) published in the literary magazine ''Kanaiyazhi''. This story was later published in book form as a part of short story collection under the same name in 1976. The same year she was awarded a two-year fellowship to study the work of Tamil women writers. The research work was published as ''The Face behind the mask'' (Advent Books) in 1984. In 1988, her second Tamil short story collection titled ''Veetin mulaiyil oru samaiyalarai'' (lit. A kitchen in the corner of the house) was published. This established her reputation as a major short story writer. Her work is characterised by her feminism, an eye for detail, and a sense of irony.<ref name="tharu">{{cite book | first1=Susie J.| last1=Tharu| first2=Ke.| last2=Lalitha| year= 1993| title=Women Writing in India: The twentieth century| publisher=Feminist Press| id= {{ISBN|978-1-55861-029-3}}| pages=487–8| isbn=1-55861-029-4| url =https://books.google.com/books?id=OjZYf9Xf9bcC&pg=PA488}}</ref><ref name="miller">{{cite book | first=Jane Eldridge| last=Miller| year= 2001| title=Who's who in contemporary women's writing| publisher=Routledge| id= {{ISBN|978-0-415-15980-7}}| pages=13 | isbn=0-415-15980-6| url =https://books.google.com/books?id=Y-TMhtk5AUYC&pg=PA13}}</ref><ref name="dutt">{{cite book | first=Kartik Chandra | last=Dutt | year=1999| title=Who's who of Indian Writers, 1999: A-M| publisher=Sahitya Akademi| id= {{ISBN|978-81-260-0873-5}}| pages=38 | isbn=81-260-0873-3 | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=QA1V7sICaIwC&pg=PA38}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=C. S. Lakshmi (Ambai), 1944–|url=https://www.loc.gov/acq/ovop/delhi/salrp/cslakshmi.html|work=The South Asian Literary Recording Project| access-date = 11 December 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Profiles : Ambai (C. S. Lakshmi) |url=http://www.womenswriting.com/WomensWriting/AuthorProfileDetail.asp?AuthorID=85|work=womenswriting.com| access-date = 11 December 2009 }}</ref> Some of her works – ''A Purple Sea'' (1992) and ''In A Forest, A Deer'' (2006) – have been translated English by [[Lakshmi Holmström]].<ref name="forbes">{{cite book | first=Geraldine Hancock| last= Forbes| year= 2005| title=Women in colonial India: essays on politics, medicine, and historiography| publisher=Orient Blackswan| id= {{ISBN|978-81-8028-017-7}}| pages=166 | isbn= 81-8028-017-9| url =https://books.google.com/books?id=ClNEJwXLNQIC&pg=PA166}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=SPARROW Trustees|url=http://www.sparrowonline.org/trustees.htm|work=sparrow.org|access-date=11 December 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090317200337/http://sparrowonline.org/trustees.htm|archive-date=17 March 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 2006, she (along with Lakshmi Holmström) won the [[Vodafone Crossword Book Award]] (in the Indian language fiction translation category) for ''In a Forest, A Deer''.<ref name="mint1">{{cite news
| url = http://www.livemint.com/2007/02/24014316/Bookworm--Add-to-your-cart.html
| title = Bookworm : Add to your cart
| work = [[Mint (newspaper)|Mint]]
| publisher = [[HT Media Ltd]]
| date = 24 February 2007
| access-date = 11 December 2009
}}</ref> For her contributions to Tamil literature, she received the 2008 ''Iyal Virudhu'' (Lifetime Achievement Award) awarded by the Canada-based Tamil Literary Garden.<ref name="thinnai1">{{cite news
| url = http://www.thinnai.com/?module=displaystory&story_id=80901082&format=html
| title = An Announcement
| language = ta
| work = Thinnai
| publisher = thinnai.com
| date = 9 January 2009
| access-date = 11 December 2009
}}</ref><ref name="tlg">{{cite web
| url = http://www.tamilliterarygarden.com/file/Tamil%20LG%20Book%2008.pdf
| title = Lifetime Achievement Award Ceremony, 2008
| work = Tamil Literary Garden
| access-date = 11 December 2009
}}</ref> In 2021, she won the Sahitya Akademi Award, India's highest literary honor, for her collection of short stories ''Sivappu Kazhuthudan Oru Pachai Paravai.''<ref>{{Cite web|last=K. Sreenivasarao|date=30 December 2021|title=List of Winners - 2021|url=http://sahitya-akademi.gov.in/pdf/sahityaakademiawards21.pdf|url-status=live|website=[[Sahitya Akademi]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211231033434/http://sahitya-akademi.gov.in/pdf/sahityaakademiawards21.pdf |archive-date=31 December 2021 }}</ref>

She got Shakti Bhatt Literary Award and Tata Literature Lifetime Achievement Award in the year 2023.

==Academic career ==
Lakshmi has been an independent researcher in the field of [[women's studies]] for over thirty years. She uses the pen name ''Ambai'' for publishing Tamil fiction and her real name (as Dr. C. S. Lakshmi) for publishing her research work and other articles in newspapers like ''[[The Hindu]]'' and ''[[The Times of India]]'' and in journals like ''[[Economic and Political Weekly]]''. In 1992, she was a visiting fellow in the [[University of Chicago]]'s Institute for Culture and Consciousness. She was instrumental in the establishment of [[Roja Muthiah Research Library (RMRL)]] by persuading the University to acquire Roja Muthaiah Chettiar's collection of books and other published material.<ref name="uchichago1">{{cite web
| url = https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/su/southasia/about-rmrl.html
| title = Raja Muthiah Research Library
| work = [[Raja Muthiah Research Library (RMRL)]]
| publisher = [[University of Chicago]]
| access-date = 11 December 2009
}}</ref><ref name="uchichago2">{{cite web
| url = http://magazine.uchicago.edu/9512/9512Obsession2.html
| title = Magnificent Obsession : The U of C discovers a massive private collection of Tamil literature—and a story stranger than fiction
| author = William Harms
| work = [[Raja Muthiah Research Library (RMRL)]]
| publisher = The University of Chicago Magazine
| date = December 1995
| access-date = 11 December 2009
}}</ref><ref name="hindu3">{{cite news
| url = http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1717/17170650.htm
| title = An archive for Tamil studies
| author = S. Theodore Baskaran
| author-link = S. Theodore Baskaran
| work = [[Frontline (magazine)|Frontline]]
| publisher = [[The Hindu Group]]
| date = 19 August 2000
| access-date = 11 December 2009
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20091125021544/http://hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1717/17170650.htm
| archive-date = 25 November 2009
| url-status = usurped
}}</ref> She has been a research Officer in the [[Indian Council of Historical Research]] and a college lecturer in New Delhi. In the 1990s, she worked in two research projects – ''Illustrated Social History of Women in Tamil Nadu'' sponsored by the [[Ford Foundation]] and ''An Idiom of Silence: An Oral History and Pictorial Study'' sponsored by the [[Homi J. Bhabha]] fellowship. The resulting research has been published as two volumes of the ''Seven seas & seven mountains'' series. The first volume, ''The Singer and the Song'' (2000), is a collection of interviews with women musicians and the second volume, ''Mirrors and Gestures'' (2003), is a collection of interviews with women dancers.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Art of Memory|url=http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?210150|work=[[Outlook (Indian magazine)|Outlook Magazine]]| publisher = The Outlook Group|author=Swati Menon| date = 29 October 2000 | access-date = 23 September 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=A Place Under The Sun|url=http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?221534|work=[[Outlook (Indian magazine)|Outlook Magazine]]| publisher = The Outlook Group|author=Radhika Jha| date = 2003-09-29 | access-date = 11 December 2009}}</ref><ref name="tulika">{{cite web
| url = http://www.tulikabooks.com/translators.htm
| title = authors, translators, illustrators & photographers
| work = tulikabooks.com
| publisher = [[Tulika Books]]
| access-date = 15 December 2009
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100302000412/http://www.tulikabooks.com/translators.htm
| archive-date = 2 March 2010
| url-status = dead
}}</ref> In 1988, Lakshmi founded SPARROW (Sound and Picture Archives for Research on Women) a non-governmental organisation (NGO) for documenting and archiving the work of female writers and artists. SPARROW has published a number of books on women artists and writers. As of 2009, she continues to be the organisation's Director and a member of its board of trustees. She is a current member of the [[University of Michigan]]'s Global Feminisms Project.<ref name="umich">{{cite web
| url = http://www.umich.edu/~glblfem/about_bios.html
| title = Biographical Sketches of Project Members
| work = Global Feminisms Project
| publisher = [[University of Michigan]]
| access-date = 15 December 2009
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100720195649/http://www.umich.edu/~glblfem/about_bios.html
| archive-date = 20 July 2010
| url-status = dead
}}</ref> She considers herself as a "feminist who has lived without compromise".<ref name="hindu1">{{cite news
| url = http://www.hindu.com/fr/2005/05/06/stories/2005050603560300.htm
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20050506023923/http://www.hindu.com/fr/2005/05/06/stories/2005050603560300.htm
| url-status = dead
| archive-date = 6 May 2005
| title = The little bird's long journey
| author = Aditi De
| work = [[The Hindu]]
| publisher = [[The Hindu Group]]
| date = 6 May 2005
| access-date = 11 December 2009
}}</ref><ref name="express1">{{cite news
| url = http://www.indianexpress.com/oldStory/27418/
| title = More Ayyos from Ambai
| author = Renuka Narayanan
| work = [[The New Indian Express]]
| publisher = [[Indian Express Group]]
| date = 13 July 2003
| access-date = 11 December 2009
}}</ref><ref name="express2">{{cite news
| url = http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/lost-in-translation/248891/
| title = Lost in translation
| author = Alaka Sahani
| work = [[The New Indian Express]]
| publisher = [[Indian Express Group]]
| date = 11 December 2007
| access-date = 11 December 2009
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121002034531/http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/lost-in-translation/248891/
| archive-date = 2 October 2012
| url-status = dead
}}</ref><ref name="katha">{{cite web
| url = http://www.katha.org/community-translation.html
| title = Authors
| work = katha.org
| access-date = 15 December 2009
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100115231007/http://www.katha.org/community-translation.html
| archive-date = 15 January 2010
| url-status = dead
}}</ref>

==Bibliography==
{{BLP unreferenced section|date= September 2022}}

===Books in English===
*The Face behind the mask : Women in Tamil literature, Stosius Inc/Advent Books Division (1984)
*A Purple Sea (Translated by Lakshmi Holmstorm), Affiliated East-West Press (1992)
*Body blows: women, violence, and survival : three plays, Seagull Books (2000)
*Seven seas & seven mountains : Volume 1 : The Singer and the Song — Conversations with Women Musicians, [[Kali for Women]] (2000)
*Seven seas & seven mountains : Volume 2 : Mirrors and Gestures – Conversations with Women Dancers, Kali for Women (2003)
*(ed.) The Unhurried City – Writings on Chennai, Kali for Women (2003)
*In A Forest, A Deer: Stories By Ambai (Translated by [[Lakshmi Holmstorm]]), Katha (2006)
*A Meeting on the Andheri Overbridge: Sudha Gupta Investigates, Juggernaut (2016)

===Books in Tamil===
*''Nandimalai Charalilae'' (lit. At Nandi Hills) (1962)
*''Andhi Malai'' (lit. Twilight) (1967)
*''Sirakukal muriyum'' (lit. Wings will be broken), Kalachuvadu (1976)
*''Veetin mulaiyil oru samaiyalarai'' (lit. A kitchen in the corner of the house), cre-A (1988)
*''Ambai : Kalacchuvadu Nerkanalgal'' (lit. ''Kalachuvadu'' Interviews with Ambai), Kalachuvadu (1998)
*''Kaatil Oru Maan'' (lit. A Deer in the Forest), Kalachuvadu (2000)
*''Varrum eriyin meengal'' (lit. Fish in a drying pond), Kalachuvadu (2007)
*''Sivappu Kazhuthudan Oru Pachai Paravai'' Kalachuvadu (2018). Sahitya Akademi Award winner

==References==
{{Reflist|35em}}

==External links==
* {{cite web|title=A life defined by self|url=http://www.thinnai.com/?module=displaystory&story_id=60907161&format=html|work=thinnai.com | language = ta | author=Venkat Swaminathan}}
*[[s:ta:அம்பை: பெண்மையின் அழகும் பெண்ணீயத்தின் சீற்றமும்|Venkat Swaminathan on Ambai (from Tamil Wikisource)]]
* {{cite web|title=சிறகு விரித்து எழுந்த பறவை – அம்பையுடன் உரையாடல்|url=http://solvanam.com/?p=36314|work=solvanam.com/?p=36314 | language = ta | author=சொல்வனம்| date=25 October 2014 }}

{{Sahitya Akademi Award For Tamil}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lakshmi, C. S.}}
[[Category:1944 births]]
[[Category:Tamil-language writers]]
[[Category:People from Coimbatore]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Madras Christian College alumni]]
[[Category:Indian feminist writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian novelists]]
[[Category:Novelists from Tamil Nadu]]
[[Category:Women writers from Tamil Nadu]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian novelists]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award in Tamil]]
[[Category:Homi Bhabha Fellows]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian women novelists]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian women novelists]]

C. S. Lakshmi - Revision history

Viji at 04:43, 29 April 2026