Tracing Roots of Kannagi's Ruby in Ancient Kongu
It has been centuries since the great Tamil epic Silapathikaram was written. It has been interpreted from different political and social angles, transcended generations, and Kannagi, its heroine, still remains a role model as the epitome of virtue.
At the same time, any keen reader of the epic can observe its storyline being man’s desire to possess gems like the rubies in Kannagi’s anklet, which the Pandya king failed to verify before executing her innocent husband Kovalan.
Incidentally, while present day Dravidian politicians hold the view that Kannagi is the symbol of Tamil womanhood, Periyar E V Ramasamy, noted rationalist, feminist and founder of the Dravidian movement, had criticised that Silapathikaram as nothing but a story ‘which starts from prostitution and ends in chastity and superstition’.
The Dravidian stalwart did not approve of Kannagi as a woman of self-respect as she continued to love her husband Kovalan in spite of his deserting her and living with the courtesan-dancer Madhavi.
As Kovalan was executed because of the treachery of a goldsmith who actually stole the anklet of the Pandya queen, this ‘community angle’ was used to lambast Prof V S Subramania Achariyar, author of ‘Silapathikaramum Arya Karpanayum’, for his criticism of the work. Detractors alleged that he had criticised the epic as he too belonged to the goldsmith community!
On the other hand, when Sir R K Shanmukham Chettiar of Coimbatore, the first finance minister of independent India, wrote commentaries praising Silapathikaram, he too received brickbats; he was eulogising the work because Kovalan and Kannagi were from the merchant class, like him!
However, unfolding a new platform to research Silapathikaram, ‘Milir Kal’, a modern Tamil novel penned recently by Coimbatore-based writer Murugavel, discusses the incidents narrated in the great epic and leaves a question why Kannagi is described as ‘Kongar Selvi’ in it and the hero named ‘Kovalan’ after ‘Kovalars’, the herdsmen tribe of Sivan Malai near Kangayam in the Kongu region.
Murugavel, through his characters in the novel, opines that the ancestors of Kovalan and Kannagi could be natives of Kongunadu who later migrated to the Chola country. Citing several works of classical Tamil literature and history about the Kongu region being rich in ruby, beryl and sapphire, Murugavel believes that the gems in Kannagi’s anklet could also be ‘natives’ of ancient Kongu!
Sources:
1. Silapathikaram - Panmuga Vaasippu
2. Milir Kal - R Murugavel