The first women doctor and surgeon of Kerala Dr. Ayathan Janaki Ammal.

Dr. Ayathan Janaki Ammal (1878–1945) was the first female (women) doctor and surgeon in Kerala and also in Malabar region of Kerala.

Dr. Ayathan Janaki Ammal was also the first female doctor and surgeon from the Thiyya community and also acclaim with the name and title as the first Malayali lady doctor and surgeon of Kerala.

She is the sister to Ayathan Gopalan a reknowned renaissance leader and social reformer of Kerala, the founder of Sugunavardhini movement (1900), Depressed Classes Mission (1909), and the leader and propagandist of Brahmosamaj in Kerala.

She was born into "Ayathan" family (aristocratic family of Malabar) at Thalassery, as the youngest daughter of Ayyathan Chandhan and Kallat Chiruthammal.

She studied at the Telicherry Elementary School, Mission High School and moved to convent school, Calicut in 1897. She then joined Madras Medical College in 1902 on scholarship and passed the Medical degree (sub assistant surgeon) in 1907 with the highest rank and with honors. That same year she joined government service at Chenkelpet government hospital where her career started as an assistant surgeon and physician. She came back to Calicut to work at the Leprosy hospital where she worked for years before leaving back to Madras where she joined the Trichy government hospital.

Janaki Ammal was service-oriented and was a social activist. She had worked with the Sugunavardhini movement and worked for the upliftment of women and people from the downtrodden sections of society.

Along with her brother Dr.Ayathan Gopalan, she conducted free medical camps while working at Calicut together with Kallat Chirutha Ammal, Kallat Kausallya Ammal(wife of Dr.Gopalan) and Dr.Alummoottil Mandhakinibai (Ayathan Gopalan's daughter-in-law).

Dr. Ayathan Janaki Ammal is considered a pioneer in fighting for women's rights in the Sugunavardhini movement.

She died in 1945 at Madras.

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