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Kannagi sometimes spelled Kannaki, is a legendary Tamil woman who forms the central character of the Tamil epic Cilappatikaram. Kannagi is described as the chaste woman who stays with her husband despite his unfaithfulness, their attempt to rebuild their marriage after her husband had lost everything but repented, how her husband is falsely framed then punished without the due checks and processes of justice. 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. 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.
Cilappatikāram, also referred to as Silappathikaram or Silappatikaram, is the earliest Tamil epic. It is a poem of 5,730 lines in almost entirely akaval (aciriyam) meter. The epic is a tragic love story of an ordinary couple, Kannaki and her husband Kovalan. The Cilappatikaram has more ancient roots in the Tamil bardic tradition, as Kannaki and other characters of the story are mentioned or alluded to in the Sangam literature such as in the Naṟṟiṇai and later texts such as the Kovalam Katai. It is attributed to a prince-turned-monk Iḷaṅkõ Aṭikaḷ, and was probably composed in the 5th or 6th century CE.
Nedum Cheralathan was a Chera ruler of the early historic south India, contemporary to the Chola ruler Perunarkilli. He is the second known Chera ruler from the early Tamil literature, and is praised in the Second Ten of Pathitruppaththu. He patronized Jainism and Buddhism.
The Five Great Epics are five Tamil epics according to later Tamil literary tradition. They are Silappatikāram, Manimekalai, Cīvaka Cintāmaṇi, Valayapathi and Kuṇṭalakēci.
Venad was a medieval kingdom lying between the Western Ghat mountains and the Arabian Sea on the south-western tip of India with its headquarters at the port city of Kollam/Quilon. It was one of the major principalities of Kerala, along with kingdoms of Kannur (Kolathunadu), Kozhikode (Nediyiruppu), and Kochi (Perumpadappu) in medieval and early modern period.
Ilango Adigal was a monk and a poet, sometimes identified as a Chera prince. He is traditionally credited as the author of Cilappatikaram, one of the Five Great Epics of Ancient Tamil literature. He is one of the greatest poets from Cheranadu. In a patikam (prologue) to the epic poem, he identifies himself as the brother of a famous Chera king Ceṅkuṭṭuvan (Senguttuvan). This Chera king, as stated by Elizabeth Rosen, ruled over his kingdom in late 2nd or early 3rd century CE. However, this is doubtful because a Sangam poem in Patiṟṟuppattu – the fifth ten – provides a biography of Ceṅkuṭṭuvan, his family and rule, but never mentions that he had a brother who became an ascetic or wrote one of the most cherished epics. This has led scholars to conclude that the legendary author Ilango Adikal myth was likely inserted later into the epic. In a 1968 note, Kamil Zvelebil suggested that, "this [Adigal claim] may be a bit of poetic fantasy, practised perhaps by a later member of the Chera Dynasty [5th or 6th century] recalling earlier events [2nd or 3rd century]".
Perum Cheral Irumporai, known as the Victor of Tagadur, was a member of the Irumporai line of the Chera dynasty in early historic south India. Perum Cheral is sometimes identified with Perum Kadungo, the Irumporai Chera royal mentioned in the Pugalur inscriptions.
The Chera dynasty, was a Sangam age dynasty who unified various regions of the western coast and western ghats in southern India to form the early Chera empire.
Ezhimala, a hill reaching a height of 286 metres (938 ft), is located near Payyanur, in Kannur district of Kerala, south India. It is a part of a conspicuous and isolated cluster of hills, forming a promontory, 38 km (24 mi) north of Kannur (Cannanore). The Indian Naval Academy at Ezhimala is the Asia's largest, and the world's third-largest, naval academy.
The Patiṟṟuppattu is a classical Tamil poetic work and one of the Eight Anthologies (Ettuthokai) in Sangam literature. A panegyric collection, it contains puram poems. The Chera kings, known as the Cheramal, are the centre of the work. Its invocatory poem is about Mayon, or Perumal (Vishnu).
The Keralas or Udra Keralas were a royal dynasty mentioned in Sanskrit epics of ancient India. In the Mahabharata, the Keralian Empire took part in the Kurukshetra War by feeding both armies. According to the Puranas, the navigators and survivors of the Yadavas of Dwaraka also settled in Kerala later. Some remnants of the Naga culture are also found here.
Mushika dynasty, also spelled Mushaka, was a minor dynastic power that held sway over the region in and around Mount Ezhi (Ezhimala) in present-day North Malabar, Kerala, India. The country of the Mushikas, ruled by an ancient lineage of the Hehaya clan of the same name, appears in early historic (pre-Pallava) south India and it is believed that Mushika dynasty has their descents from Heheya Kingdom. Early Tamil poems contain several references to the exploits of Nannan of Ezhimalai. Nannan was known as a great enemy of the pre-Pallava Chera chieftains. The clan also had matrimonial alliances with the Chera, Pandya and Chola chieftains. The Kolathunadu (Kannur) Kingdom, which was the descendant of Mushika dynasty, at the peak of its power, reportedly extended from Netravati River (Mangalore) in the north to Korapuzha (Kozhikode) in the south with Arabian Sea on the west and Kodagu hills on the eastern boundary, also including the isolated islands of Lakshadweep in the Arabian Sea.
Pattini, is considered a guardian deity of Sri Lanka in Sri Lankan Buddhism and Sinhalese folklore. She is also worshipped by Sri Lankan Tamil Hindus by the name of Kannaki Amman.
Gajabahu I, also known as Gajabahuka Gamani, was a Sinhalese king of Rajarata in Sri Lanka. He is renowned for his military prowess, religious benefactions, extensive involvement in South Indian politics, and for possibly introducing the cult of the goddess Pattini to Sri Lanka. The primary source for his reign is the Mahavamsa, though he is also the only early Sri Lankan king to be extensively mentioned in the Chera Cilappatikaram.
Ay was a dynasty which controlled the south-western tip of the Indian peninsula, from the early historic period up to the medieval period.The clan traditionally held sway over the port of Vizhinjam, the fertile region of Nanjinad, and southern parts of the spice-producing Western Ghat mountains. The dynasty was also known as Kupaka in medieval period.
Gajabahu synchronism is the chronological device used by historians to help date early Tamil history. The synchronism, first propounded by V. Kanakasabhai Pillai in 1904 in his The Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years ago, was adopted by some scholars of the time to date Tamil literature. Kamil Zvelebil, even while acknowledging the fragility of the synchronism, called it the "sheet anchor" of the dating of Tamil literature. The synchronism however, involves numerous conjectures and has been dismissed by Gananath Obeyesekere in his The Cult of the Goddess Pattini (1984) as ahistorical and invalid.
Thambiluvil Kannaki Amman Kovil is one of the most significant Hindu temples in the Ampara District of Eastern Province, Sri Lanka. It is situated about 70 km south of Batticaloa town and 11 km south to Akkaraipattu. It is considered as one of the ancient temples of Mattakkalappu Desam made for Kannaki Amman, the heroine of the great Tamil epic Silappatikaram.
Karur was built on the banks of River Amaravathi which was called Aanporunai during the Sangam days. The names of the early Chera kings who ruled from Karur, have been found in the rock inscriptions in Aru Nattar Malai close to Karur. The Tamil epic Silapathikaram mentions that the famous Chera King Senguttuvan ruled from Karur. The ancient Greek scholar Ptolemy is said to have known Karur by the name Korevera or Kāroura, placing it as a major trading centre in the region
Sthanu Ravi Varma, known as the Kulasekhara, was the Chera Perumal ruler of Kerala in southern India from 844/45 to 870/71 AD. He is the earliest Chera Perumal ruler known to scholars.
Kannaki Amman is the deified form of Kannagi, the heroine of the Tamil epic Cilappatikāram. She is worshipped in parts of Sri Lanka, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala. As a goddess of chastity, she is venerated by Indian Tamils and Malayalis, Sri Lankan Tamil Shaivites, and also by the Sinhalese Buddhists as Pattini Amma. In regional Hindu tradition, her tale is interpreted as the story of Durga demanding justice after the death of her husband, Kovalan, who is identified as a form of Shiva.
References
- 1 2 3 Subbarayalu, Y. 2014. 'Early Tamil Polity', in A Concise History of South India: Issues and Interpretations. ed. Noburu Karashima, pp. 50–51. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 K.G. Sesha Aiyar, Chera Kings of the Sangam Period, London, 1937. 21-23.
- 1 2 3 "Classical Indo-Roman Trade". Economic and Political Weekly. 48 (26–27). 5 June 2015.
- 1 2 Zvelebil, Kamil. ''The Smile of Murugan: On Tamil Literature of South India''. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1973. 52–53.
- 1 2 Menon 1967.
- 1 2 Menon 2007, pp. 67–68.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Shulman, David (2016). Tamil: A Biography. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. pp. 99–101.
- ↑ Menon, A. Sreedhara (1987). Kerala History and its Makers. Kottayam: DC books. pp. 24–25.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Zvelebil, Kamil V., Companion Studies to the History of Tamil Literature, Leiden, 1992. 110-111.
- 1 2 3 4 5 "Silappathikaram | Tamil epic poem by Adikal". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 4 February 2020.
- ↑ "Silappathikaram | Tamil epic poem by Adikal". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 16 November 2018.
- ↑ Zvelebil 1973, pp. 37–39: The opinion that the Gajabahu Synchronism is an expression of genuine historical tradition is accepted by most scholars today
- ↑ Zvelebil 1973, p. 38.
Bibliography
- Menon, A. Sreedhara (1967). A Survey of Kerala History. Sahitya Pravarthaka Co-operative Society. OCLC 555508146.
- Menon, A. Sreedhara (2007). A Survey of Kerala History (2007 ed.). Kerala, India: D C Books. ISBN 978-8126415786.
- Zvelebil, Kamil (1973). The Smile of Murugan: On Tamil Literature of South India. Brill Academic Publishers. ISBN 978-90-04-03591-1.