Kannagi

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Kannagi, a mythological Tamil woman, is the central character of the South Indian epic Silapathikaram. Legend has it that Kannagi took revenge on the king of Madurai, for a mistaken death penalty imposed on her husband Kovalan, by cursing the city with Disaster.

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History

Kovalan, the son of a wealthy merchant in Kavirippattinam, married Kannagi, the lovely daughter of another merchant. They lived together happily in the city of Kaveripoompattinam, until, Kovalan met the dancer Madhavi and fell in love with her. In his infatuation he forgot Kannagi and gradually spent all his wealth on the dancer. At last, penniless, Kovalan realised his mistake, and returned back to Kannagi. Their only fortune was a precious pair of anklets (cilambu--- hence the name of the epic), filled with gems, which she gave to him willingly. With these as their capital they went to the great city of Madurai, where Kovalan hoped to recoup his fortunes by trade.

The city of Madurai was ruled by the Pandya king Neduncheziyan. Upon arrival to Madurai, Kovalan set out to sell Kannagi's anklets. While on his way to sell the anklet, he was held by the king's guards for the alleged theft of the queen's anklet. It was the court goldsmith who had robbed the queen's anklets. Unaware of this, the king ordered to behead Kovalan for the theft and eventually Kovalan was killed.

To prove her husband's innocence, Kannagi came to the king's court, broke open her other anklet and showed that it contained gems, as opposed to the queen's anklets which contained pearls. Irked by the false trial, Kannagi cursed that the entire city be destroyed. Due to her utmost chastity, her curse became a reality.

The city was set ablaze resulting in huge human and economic losses. However, after the request from the goddess of the city, she withdrew her curse and later, attained salvation. This mythological story was literalized by a great tamil poet Ilango Adigal. A fascinating, but ironic, fact about this epic is that it portrays Madhavi, Kovalan's amorous lover, as an equally chaste woman. Manimekalai, another epic, is written on praise of her. The city of Kaveripoompattinam has been re-christened as Poompuhar.

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Goddess of Chastity

Kannagi or Kannaki Amman is eulogized as the epitome of chastity and is still being worshipped as its goddess. She is praised for her extreme devotion to her husband, in spite of his infidel behaviour.

She is worshiped as goddess Pathini in Sri Lanka by the Sinhalese Buddhists as well as as Kannaki Amman by the Sri lanka Tamils Hindus. (See Hinduism in Sri Lanka.)

However, a section of modern women do not approve her submissive attitude towards her husband's amorous activity and brand her has a symbol of female oppression. In fact, a statue of Kannagi, an important landmark in Chennai, was removed during the reign of the chief minister of Tamilnadu, J Jayalalithaa in December 2001 - the exact reason for the removal is not known.

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