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    Kannagi - Wiki

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    Daliya. X
    Kannagi was a legendary Tamil woman who is the central character in the Tamil epic Cilappatikaram. She was a chaste wife who stayed with her husband Kovalan despite his adultery. Kovalan was later framed and executed without a fair trial for a crime he did not commit. In a rage, Kannagi curses the unjust king and city of Madurai, causing the city to burn down. She is now revered in Tamil culture and folklore as a symbol of chastity and justice, and sometimes worshipped as a goddess.

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    Kannagi - Wiki

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    Daliya. X
    81 views9 pages
    Kannagi was a legendary Tamil woman who is the central character in the Tamil epic Cilappatikaram. She was a chaste wife who stayed with her husband Kovalan despite his adultery. Kovalan was later framed and executed without a fair trial for a crime he did not commit. In a rage, Kannagi curses the unjust king and city of Madurai, causing the city to burn down. She is now revered in Tamil culture and folklore as a symbol of chastity and justice, and sometimes worshipped as a goddess.

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    Kannagi was a legendary Tamil woman who is the central character in the Tamil epic Cilappatikaram. She was a chaste wife who stayed with her husband Kovalan despite his adultery. Kovalan was later framed and executed without a fair trial for a crime he did not commit. In a rage, Kannagi curses the unjust king and city of Madurai, causing the city to burn down. She is now revered in Tamil culture and folklore as a symbol of chastity and justice, and sometimes worshipped as a goddess.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    81 views9 pages

    Kannagi - Wiki

    Uploaded by

    Daliya. X
    Kannagi was a legendary Tamil woman who is the central character in the Tamil epic Cilappatikaram. She was a chaste wife who stayed with her husband Kovalan despite his adultery. Kovalan was later framed and executed without a fair trial for a crime he did not commit. In a rage, Kannagi curses the unjust king and city of Madurai, causing the city to burn down. She is now revered in Tamil culture and folklore as a symbol of chastity and justice, and sometimes worshipped as a goddess.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 9

    Kannagi

    Kannagi (Tamil: கண்ணகி), sometimes


    spelled Kannaki,[1] is a legendary Tamil
    woman who forms the central character of
    the Tamil epic Cilappatikaram.[2] Kannagi is
    described as a chaste woman who stays
    with her husband despite his adultery, their
    attempt to rebuild their marriage after her
    unrepentant husband had lost everything,
    how he is framed then punished without
    the due checks and processes of justice.[1]
    Kannagi proves and protests the injustice,
    then curses the king and city of Madurai
    leading to the death of the unjust Pandyan
    King of Madurai, who had wrongfully put
    her husband Kovalan to death. The society
    that had made her suffer, suffers in
    retribution as the city Madurai is burnt to
    the ground because of her curse.[1] In
    Tamil folklore, Kannagi has been deified as
    the symbol – sometimes as goddess – of
    chastity, with sculptures or reliefs in Hindu
    temples iconographically reminding the
    visitor of her breaking her anklet or tearing
    her bleeding breast and throwing it at the
    city.[3][4]
    The earliest Tamil
    Kannagi
    epic, Silappadikaram
    written by Jain
    prince Ilango Adigal,
    features her as the
    central character.
    Kannagi Statue in
    Text Marina Beach,
    Chennai

    Kannagi Amman in Tamil Nadu.

    The Kannagi story first appears in the


    Sangam era poem Narrinai 312.[2] A more
    extended version appears in the post-
    Sangam era Tamil epic in Silappatikaram
    ("Epic of the Anklet).[1]

    Legend

    Kannagi with her husband Kovalan.

    Kannagi was the daughter of the merchant


    and ship captain Manayakan from Puhar.
    She marries the son of Macattuvan,
    Kovalan, whose family were sea traders
    and had the sea goddess Manimekalai as
    patron deity.[5][6] Later, Kovalan met a
    dancer Madhavi and had an affair with her,
    which prompted him to spend all his
    wealth on the dancer. At last, penniless,
    Kovalan realised his mistake and returned
    to his wife Kannagi. Kovalan hoped to
    recoup his fortunes by trade in Madurai, by
    selling the precious anklet of Kannagi.

    Madurai was ruled by Pandya king Nedunj


    Cheliyan I. When Kovalan tried to sell the
    anklet, it was mistaken for a stolen anklet
    of the queen. Kovalan was accused of
    having stolen the anklet and was
    immediately beheaded by the king without
    trial. When Kannagi was informed of this,
    she became furious, and set out to prove
    her husband's innocence to the king.

    Kannagi came to the king's court, broke


    open the anklet seized from Kovalan and
    showed that it contained rubies, as
    opposed to the queen's anklets which
    contained pearls. Realizing the error, the
    king committed suicide in shame, after
    having caused such a huge miscarriage of
    justice. Kannagi uttered a curse that the
    entire city of Madurai be burnt. The capital
    city of Pandyas was set ablaze resulting in
    huge losses. However, at the request of
    Goddess Meenakshi, she calmed down
    and later, attained salvation. The story
    forms the crux of Cilappatikaram written
    by poet Ilango Adigal.[7]

    Worship

    A shrine to Kannagi as Pattini


    goddess in Sri Lanka. She is shown as
    holding an anklet in each hand.

    Kannagi or Kannaki Amman is eulogized


    as the epitome of chastity and is
    worshiped as a goddess in select regions.
    She is worshiped as goddess Pattini in Sri
    Lanka by the Sinhalese Buddhists,[8]
    Kannaki Amman by the Sri Lankan Tamil
    Hindus and as Kodungallur Bhagavathy &
    Aatukal Bhagavathy in the South Indian
    state of Kerala. Keralites believe Kannaki
    to be an incarnation of Goddess
    Bhadrakali who reached Kodungallur and
    attained salvation in the Kodungalloor
    temple.[9][10]

    In popular culture

    Kodungallur Bhagavaty temple

    A Tamil epic film Kannagi directed by R.S


    Mani released in 1942. This was the first
    Tamil film based on the epic
    Silapadhigaaram. A similar movie named
    Poompuhar released in 1964. A statue of
    Kannagi holding her anklet, depicting a
    scene from Cilappatikaram was installed
    on Marina Beach, Chennai. It was removed
    in December 2001 citing reasons that it
    hindered traffic.[11][12] The statue was
    reinstalled in June 2006.[13][14]

    A Sinhala film called Paththini was


    released on 5 May 2016 in Sri Lanka. The
    role of the goddess Paththni or Kannagi
    was played by Pooja Umashankar.[15]

    See also

    Silappathigaram

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