Anklets of old Tamil style.

Silappadikaram or THE TALE OF AN ANKLET is one of the 5 great Tamil epics composed at the end of Sangam era around 4^th Century AD. The author was a Cheran Prince Ilango Adigal who was believed to be the brother of Cheran ruler Senguttuvan. The epic is divided into 3 chapters with a total of 5270 lines. The three chapters are named as Puharkandam, Maduraikandam, Vanjikandam. The epic weaves in it the 3 ancient Tamil kingdoms as contemporaries starting from Chola, Pandya and Cheras.

 

 

What is the tale of Silappadikaram all about?!  The story is about a woman named Kannagi and her journey of maintaining her chastity and faithfulness towards her husband Kovalan through providing him justice after his death.

 

Sculpture of Ilango Adigal in Poompuhar in Tamilnadu / Wilimedia Commons

 

PUHARKANDAM

Kannagi’s journey starts from the Chola capital of Puhar, in present day Nagapattinam district of Tamil Nadu, where she as a daughter of a rich Nagarathar merchant enters into an arranged marriage with Kovalan, the son of another Nagarathar merchant. She settles down in a disciplined and stable domestic life abiding by all the unspoken rules and regulations to maintain the honor of her marital family. In this continuity of a stable married life, suddenly Kovalan falls in love with a dancer named Madhavi behind whom he spends his entire ancestral wealth. They even have a daughter named Manimekalai. But behind the back of Kavalan and Madhavi, Madhavi’s mother was extracting money from Kannagi on the pretext of saying Kovalan wanted money and none of which Kovalan knew off. It was later when Madhavi revealed of this knowledge that made Kovalan realize his misdeeds towards Kannagi. He returned to Kannagi abandoning Madhavi and tried to restart a fresh beginning with Kannagi.

 

Sculpture of 'Kannagi in Pandya court' , Puhar / Wikimedia Commons

 

MADURAIKANDAM

Kovalan and Kannagi left Puhar for Pandya capital Madurai and tried to chalk out a new life without the help of their parents. On this journey, they were joined by Kavundi, a renunciant who also decided the path to Madurai. After reaching the outskirts of Madurai, Kavundi left them in the care of an animal herder. Realizing the need of money, Kannagi hands Kovalan one of her anklets gifted to her by her mother at the time of her wedding.

 Unfortunately for Kovalan, his misfortunes started from here. He went to the royal smith to sell Kannagi’s anklet. He had no idea that the same royal smith had stolen the anklet of the queen of Pandyan King Neduncheliyaan. After seeing the anklet, the royal smith put the entire blame of stealing of anklet on Kavalan and brought him in the Pandyan darbar. The king without cross checking the facts believed the royal smith and ordered of convicting Kovalan where he was murdered. Hearing the unjust death of her husband, Kannagi immediately went to the royal palace for justice. Here Neduncheliyaan agreed to give Kannagi an audience to hear her grievance. Kannagi showed the other anklet. She proved that the queen’s anklet had pearls while the anklet with Kovalan had rubies. She showed the other pair. Neduncheliyaan realizing his mistake, had a heart attack and fainted on spot. Seeing the king fainting, the queen also lost her consciousness. There seems to be a commotion in the palace. Kannagi took a torch and set the palace on fire. It is said that the Sun God had given her a boon that entire city of Madurai will be destroyed by fire and so did the city of Madurai was destroyed by fire. Only the family Goddess of the Pandyas, Bharatan was saved. The Goddess tells how Kannagi and Kovalan were linked in earlier birth where Kovalan killed her husband. Kannagi gave her life by jumping off the cliff. This describes the cycle of Karma and justice was even then embedded in the Tamil Hindu society.

 

Sculpture of Kannagi and Kovalan in Puhar / Wikimedia Commons

 

VANJIKANDAM

The last chapter speaks about the Cheran King Senguttvan. Kannagi ascended to the heavens in Vanji. When Senguttuvan heard about the story of Kannagi, her devotion and chastity towards Kovalan and retaining her loyalty even after his death, he was spell bounded. He ordered a stone from Himalayan region and curved out a life like statue of Kannagi. She was given the stature of ‘Goddess of Steadfastness’. Senguttuvan introduced the Pattini cult where Kannagi is still worshiped as a Goddess today.

 

Pattini Devi

Kannagi is regarded even today as an epitome of Tamil womanhood and chastity. Sinhalese Buddhists in Sri Lanka worship her as Goddess Pattini, Kannaki Amman by Sinhalese Hindus and as Kodangallur Bhagavathy and Aatukal Devi in Kerala where she is also seen as an incarnation of Bhadrakali Devi.

In popular culture, 2 movies in Tamil language had been made in 1942 and 1964 respectively. Also a serial named Upasana was aired on Doordarshan in early 90’s.

 

Statue of Kannagi in Chennai / Wikimedia Commons

 

The overall essence of Silappadikaram is not only displaying the chastity and loyalty of Kannagi towards an unfaithful husband but also it showed the sense of justice and its availability to all. Besides, Silappadikaram displays the co existence of Brahmanism, Buddhism, Jainism, side by side in south of India. The diversity of the society can be seen when Ilango writes that while leaving Puhar, Kannagi and Kovalan passes by a great Vishnu temple, seven Buddhist Viharas, and wandering Jain monks which were all within close proximity to each other. Silappadikaram also displays the knowledge of astrology in an arranged marriage which is still continued today. The portrayal of ideal woman which is still prevalent today giving emphasis on chastity and loyalty despite having a philandering husband was in existent even in 4^th century. The core theme was Karma and this was carried forward in the next part in Manimekalai which was based on the life of Kovalan and Madhavi’s daughter, Manimekalai.

 

Source - The Silappadikaram by V. R. Ramchandra Dikshitar, Oxford University Press, India, 1939.