Akkamahadevi (अक्कमहादेवी, c. 1130-1160) — "elder sister great goddess" — was the **12th-century Kannada Virashaiva (Lingayat) poet-saint of Karnataka**. **Devoted entirely to Shiva (whom she called Chennamallikarjuna — "Beautiful Lord of Jasmine"), she walked out of her royal marriage and wandered the country naked, clothed only in her hair** — composing *vachanas* (free-verse devotional poems) of extraordinary spiritual intensity.
**Among the foundational poets of Kannada literature.**
Akkamahadevi reduces to six — the number of Kannada poet-saint.