There are 63 Nayanmar in Shaiv. One of them only, happens to be a woman. She is Punithavathiyar who became after words Karaikakal Ammaiyar after she attained liberation and now worshiped as one of the 63 Nayanmar.

She was a Grahasth or Grahinee (household woman) and while she was feeding Lord Shiv who came in disguise as a Saadhu and in His Thiruvilaiyadal that is, Bhagavaan's used to testing of His followers, she was blessed by him. On realizing her, as God's blessed soul, her husband who was a rich trader, prostrated before her and took her as his Guru.

In her end, Karaikakal Ammaiyar went by foot literally, to Himaalaya like Appar Adigal, but Lord Shiv asked her to go back to Thiruvalankadu near Chennai where she got Mukti.