THE POWERFUL,POIGNANT STORY OF KANNAGI
THE AWESOME
FURY OF A WOMAN WRONGED.
This is an epic story
about a chaste Tamil woman named Kannagi who wreaked revenge on a powerful king
and the capital of his kingdom for unjustly executing her innocent husband.
Kannagi features as the
protagonist in a Tamil epic by name ‘Silappadhikaram’. The title implies that this is a story
involving a ‘chilambu’ or anklet.
Kannagi, a lovely
woman, is wedded to Kovalan, who is the son of a rich man. The couple lives
happily in a town called Kaveripattinam, till a new woman named Madhavi enters
Kovalan’s life. Infatuated by Madhavi, Kovalan forgets the faithful Kannagi for
some time, and spends both time and money on this illicit affair. Finally, when
all his wealth is thus frittered away, Kovalan returns like a prodigal son to
his wife’s loyal arms.
Kannagi epitomizes the
amazing and true Indian loyalty of an Indian wife when she receives him back
with love unhesitatingly, and even offers her only valuable possession- a pair
of anklets- to be sold to get some money to enable their starting a new life.
The tragedy of
‘Silappadhikaram’ starts unfolding when Kovalan takes the pair of anklets to a
city called Madurai, the capital of the Pandian kings. The Pandya king ruling at that time was Nedunchezian.
At about the same time
when Kovalan was trying to sell his wife’s anklets, a theft took place in the
palace. An anklet belonging to the Pandya queen-unfortunately resembling the
one possessed by Kovalan- was stolen by some courtier. As fate would have it,
Kovalan, who was seen trying to sell Kannagi’s anklets was nabbed by the palace
guards.
What followed was
injustice of the highest order when Kovalan was summarily executed without any
trial, his pleas of innocence falling on deaf ears.
If only the King had
given a chance to poor Kovalan, he would have shown that his anklets contained
rubies inside, unlike the Queen’s which had pearls inside.
A valuable life would
have been spared and justice done.
It was a raging Kannagi,
a woman like a volcano spewing red hot lava, who confronted the King with the
crucial evidence which ought to have exonerated her beloved husband. Like a
powerful cyclone, she lashes out at them in righteous anger and uncontrollable grief.
Unable to bear the
stigma of the gross injustice done to an innocent man, the king and Queen die
of shame, it is said. But this doesn’t satisfy Kannagi who curses that the entire
city be consigned to flames for the wrong done by Madurai to Kovalan. It is
written that the city actually started burning and there was loss of life and
property before Kannagi forgave and withdrew her curse at the earnest request
of the city’s Goddess.
Such was the power of
the righteous wrath of a pure, chaste and dedicated wife.
Later, after venting
out her fury, Kannagi proceeded southwards towards present day Kerala. By this
time, her story had spread everywhere and people received her with awe and
reverence wherever she went. In fact, there is a temple at a place called
Attukal near Thiruvanthapuram, capital of Kerala State and another one at a
place called Kodungallur near the famed Guruvayoor, where Sri Krishna temple is
located.
The presiding deity at
Kodungallur temple is also believed to be Kannagi, who, it is widely believed,
made that place as her final destination.
In both Attukal and
Kodungallur, worship of this powerful deity goes on every year, with their own
special, exotic rituals.
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