Shajan 1

Kannaki as a Sacred Feminine Epic Protagonist

In Sangam Literature, women play a very vital role in the development of the story or the
poem. Most epics portray women as nothing more than romantic interests or beautiful women or
wives. Tamil poems like the ‘Cilappatikaram’ give great importance to the women in the story.
Written in the Sangam period, where many poems were composed by women and by men as
female characters, it largely featured poems about women talking to other women. These poems
were mainly for kings who were patrons of the poets. To understand how Kannaki is a sacred
feminine epic protagonist one has to understand the role of women and how they are portrayed.
According to an article by Rose

The test asks 3 simple questions: One.) Does this text or medium have at least 2
females in it? Two.) Do they talk to each other? and Three.) Do they talk about
something other than a man? So, this test is in widespread use today for film
critique, especially popular in European cinema boards…

Discounting the war poems, a majority of the poetry is composed in women’s voices.
And most often they are speaking to other women. But the sangam poems don’t often
pass the third question of the Bechdel test: that is, women talking about something other
than a man. Actually mostly they do pass the test: women are describing their emotional
experiences, but these feelings and thought(s) are often a result of what men have done
to them: leaving them for work, having left to another woman, and so on. So, on the
surface they appear to pass the test and do express women’s innermost feelings
oftentimes without mentioning a man; technically most pass the test. But under the
surface, the woman’s state is a result of a man’s behavior...

This just comes to show that the women were often emotionally challenged in their daily life.
They faced the pressure of being perfect daughters, wives and mothers which would often be the
only things their lives revolved around.

The story of ‘Silapatikaram’ differs due to those aspects, though Kannaki is portrayed as
the ‘perfect’ wife and exhibits ideal form of behavior, she is consumed by her rage towards the
injustice that was carried out by the king of Madurai. She curses the land of Madurai and flings
her left breast to the city causing the whole city to burn.

According to K. Varsha:

“Until Kovalan's death, she stays in the background, suffering without complaint in her
husband's neglect. With Kovalan's death, she finds her voice and rises to full stature in
her encounter with the Pandya king. She exposes the hollowness of the king's justice and
extracts the ultimate price from him… she metamorphoses into the custodian of justice;
the book of Vanci recognizes the power of chastity and starts worshipping her as the
goddess Pattini. Thus her life is both a physical and symbolic journey. Through her
actions, Kannaki transgresses those traditional qualities of behavior attributed to women
and transforms into a revengeful female. She is extolled as the epitome of chastity and is
still worshipped as a goddess in different parts of the world.” (The Mother- Goddess
Kannaki in South India, 2669)
 Shajan 2

This just shows how fiercely affected she was by the injustice and also sheds light on her beliefs.
She is depicted as a very strong character and therefore this epic has moved many readers and
has also created the Goddess Pattini. Her female energy and fierceness pulls all readers to
understand and worship her actions. Kannaki is worshipped as the incarnation of Goddess
Parvathy in the present century Kerala, Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu. Kerala especially celebrates
the worshipping of Goddesses. Due to this, the ‘Silapatikaram’ is well known in this state. The
depiction of both females in the book has been of great morals, rage and also that of humility.
Madhavi repents for her mistakes and understands the mistakes that were made.

Kannaki’s actions led her to the status of a Goddess as she was a dutiful wife and never
condemned her husband for his wrong doings and finally took revenge from the Pandya king.
She wasn’t the type of wife to just burn herself in her husband’s funeral pyre and did not care for
common rituals as she caused havoc in Madurai. She refuses to remain a docile wife and lets her
sense of revenge and justice takes over her mind and body. She suffers for her husband and also
with him and therefore exudes the image of an ideal wife. Though all actions she took were
because of her devotion to her husband, in the end she emerged as an individual , taking
decisions on her own for her beliefs and everything important to her.

K. Varsha states that:

“It is not just her rebellion and cries for justice that gain approval, but also
her submission to social and religious expectations. The very idea of
'being Kannaki' is to be surrendered before the larger and eternal realities
of the way things are Kannaki turns her anklet into a terrible instrument of
vengeance: it becomes a noose around the king's neck, and Kannaki
becomes his executioner. Kannaki represents the ancient belief in a divine
mechanism of retributive justice for those whom human laws fail to
protect…”

“Women believe her to be the destroyer of all evils that may happen in their lives and
imbibe the idea of chastity. Thus the worshipping of mother goddess itself reiterates the
idea of a chaste woman.” (The Mother- Goddess Kannaki in South India,2671)

Kannaki is also compared to many other women from epics which include women like
Draupadi, Sita, Kunti, Mandodari, Gandhari etc. who are also praised for their chastity. There
may be a possibility that praising and worshipping chastity is a form of patriarchy. Kannaki may
not have turned into such a fierce Goddess if she had just remained a docile wife and not
avenged the injustice against Kovalan. But her actions are also seen as a step towards feminism
and therefore are worshipped. “All these women had suffered greatly during their lives from the
family and from the society and been praised as chaste women for their suffering. Kannaki’s
story is also not a different one. Thus it shows that the praising of woman as chaste and
worshipping her as goddess are a part of patriarchal ideology to restrict the women.”(K. Varsha,
2672)
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Seeing how Kannaki is a very big part of tamil literature and also spirituality, she is a
force to reckon. Her values and works are still praise and worshipped to this day. Her influence
on religion and also many women shows how epics were such integral parts of everyday life and
were also the basis of teaching morals. Her story is told till date and has been placed on a
pedestal. Kannaki as a sacred femine epic protagonist shows her emotions, her morals, her sense
of justice and also gives hope to many women who believe all evil doings will be destroyed
when she is worshipped.

Works Cited

1. Rose, Christopher, and Christopher Rose. 15 Minute History, 15 Feb.

2. K. Varsha,The Mother- Goddess Kannaki in South India , 2018

3. Kannagi.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 16 Sept. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kannagi.