In the late 19th century, a Tamil scholar, U V Swaminatha Iyer, chanced upon a few collections of poems that we now call Sangam poetry and other ancient works in the language. Among these was Silapatikaram, the Epic of the Anklet.
It narrates the story of Kannagi, who got deified after her revenge on the Pandya king and the kingdom for deviating from the path of justice and wrongly killing her beloved husband Kovalan.
The author of the epic, Ilanko-Adigal, was a prince from the royal family of Cheras, rulers of the Kerala region during the Sangam period.
Most historians of Tamil literature and culture have no issue in accepting Ilanko as a prince who renounced his position in the royal household and the succession rights and lived in a separate enclosure, enjoying the company of his contemporary poets like Sattanar, the author of Manimekalai.
The third chapter of the epic itself is Vanjikandam, dealing with incidents in the city of Vanji or rather the Chera side of the story, the other chapters being named after Kaveripoompattinam (also known as Puhar) under the Cholas and Madurai ruled by the Pandyas.
However, there exists a controversy on the place where he compiled Silapatikaram, which in fact was also the capital of the Chera empire that is referred to in the epic as well as many other sources as Vanchi/ Vanji/ Vanci.
Silapatikaram begins with the affairs of Puhar where Kannagi was born and brought up and got married to Kovalan. Unfortunately, their married life was disrupted because Kovalan fell in love with Madavi, a courtesan. Soon Kovalan exhausted all his wealth and Madavi’s love for him too diminished.
Kannagi, as a devoted wife, welcomed her husband back despite his mistake. To begin life afresh, the couple moved to Madurai, the capital city of the Pandyas. Reaching Madurai, Kovalan went to the royal goldsmith to sell an anklet given by Kannagi. The goldsmith wrongly accused him of stealing the anklet of the queen. The Pandya king, enraged by the theft, ordered the execution of Kovalan without making any enquiries.
Kannagi, hearing this, reached the court and threw her anklet down, due to the breaking of which rubies spilled on the floor—proving that the anklet sold by Kovalan indeed belonged to her, not the queen’s that had pearls in it. An enraged Kannagi cursed the city and “Madurai was razed by the rising flames from the undeveloped breast of that great lady of chastity, who threw it in wrath”.
Leaving the burning Madurai and the Pandya kingdom, Kannagi reached the Chera country and ascended to heaven. The Kurava girls who witnessed the miracle reported the incident to Senguttavan, the Chera king, who decided to build a temple for Kannagi at his capital Vanchi/ Vanji/ Vanci.
Silapatikaram mentions Vanchi, Kaveripoompattinam and Madurai as the main cities of Tamilagam along with references to other cities such as Kanchi and Uraiyur. While Kanchi and Madurai are doubtlessly the present Kanchipuram and Madurai in the state of Tamil Nadu, there is no place in Kerala with the name Vanchi, except Tiruvanchikulam near Kodungallur.
Most of the scholars identify Kodungallur, a port town in central Kerala or some of its surrounding villages, with Vanci, including Karurpadanna as Karoura, which was the capital of Kerabotros according to Ptolemy. If we take Pliny’s view, it will be closer to Kerala as he states that “the king of Muziris, at the date of publication, was Caelobothras”.
William Logan, Raghava Aiyangar and Ramachandra Dikshitar are of the opinion that Karoura of Ptolemy and thus the Chera capital of Vanci is the present-day Karur in Tamil Nadu. Aiyangar also refers to an inscription from Karur where it is referred to as Vanjimaanagaram. Karur on the Kaveri River can also boast about another town with the name Musiri nearby, which prompted Dikshitar to settle the issue and declare Karur of Tamil Nadu the Chera Vanji.
Interestingly, as we travel 75 kilometres east on the Kaveri from Karur, another town called Uraiyur will appear on the southern bank. Aiyangar and Dikshitar do swear that Uraiyur was the second capital of the early Cholas. Were the Chera and Chola capitals so close?
Dikshitar also suggests that Kodungallur cannot be identified as Vanci as there is no Vishnu temple in the vicinity as mentioned in Silapatikaram, unaware of the existence of Trikkulasekharapuram in the Kodungallur region.
Moreover, he ignores the references to Vanci flowers repeatedly mentioned in the epic. Vanci tree (Calamus rotang), as modern-day science would argue, “grows in sacred groves near coastal regions and backwaters”, as noted by N Sasidharan from the Kerala Forest Research Institute.
Just as Dikshitar could not find a Vishnu temple in the Kodungallur region, one cannot find coastal regions and backwaters around Karur. The descriptions in Silapatikaram about Vanci flowers and the coexistence of ancient Siva and Vishnu temples and a temple dedicated to Goddess Pattini with female oracles only point towards the Kodungallur region.
Here is where Ilanko, the Chera renunciate, wrote Silapatikaram, a Tamil epic from present-day Kerala, sitting in his abode, Gunavayirkottam, outside the city of Vanchi/ Vanji/ Vanci.
Jayaram Poduval
Head, Department of Art History, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda
(jpoduval@gmail.com)