is the author of
Silappatikaram, one of the five great epics of
Tamil literature.
Cilappatikāram 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 and is a tragic love story of a wealthy couple, Kannaki and her husband Kovalan. It is set in
Poompuhar a seaport city of the
early Chola kingdom. Kannaki and Kovalan are a newly married couple, blissfully in love. Over time, Kovalan meets Madhavi – a courtesan and falls for her, leaves Kannaki and moves in with Madhavi. He spends lavishly on her. Kannaki is heartbroken, but as the chaste woman, she waits despite her husband's unfaithfulness. During the festival for
Indra, the rain god, there is a poem recital competition. Kovalan recites a poem about a woman who hurt her lover. Madhavi then recites a song about a man who betrayed his lover. Each debated on what is the chasity? and how a woman should be treating her husband. Each interprets the song as a message to the other. Kovalan feels Madhavi is unfaithful to him, leaves her, returns to Kannaki. Kovalan is poor, they move to Madurai, and try to restart their life. Kannaki gives him one from her pair of jeweled anklets to sell and raise capital. Kovalan sells it to a merchant who grows suspicious of the stranger and falsely accuses of theft of the queen' jeweled anklet which is also missing. The king orders his execution, hurrying the checks and processes of justice. Kannaki learns what has happened. She protests the injustice and then proves Kovalan's innocence by breaking the remaining anklet of the pair in the court . The king accepts his mistake. Kannaki curses the king and the people of Madurai, tears off her left breast and throws it at the gathered public. The king dies of heartbreak and the city of Madurai is burnt to the ground. In the third section of the epic, gods and goddesses meet Kannaki and she goes to heaven with god
Indra. The royal family of the Chera kingdom learns about her, resolves to build a temple with Kannaki as the featured goddess. They go to the Himalayas, bring a stone, carve her image, call her goddess
Pattini, dedicate a temple, order daily prayers, and perform a royal sacrifice.
Manimekalai Manimekalai, also spelled Manimekhalai or Manimegalai, Manimekalai, is a Tamil epic composed by Kulavāṇikaṉ Cittalaic Cātaṉār (குல வணிகன் - சீத்தலைச் சாத்தனார்) probably around the 6th century. It is a Buddhist "anti-love" sequel to the
Cilappatikaram, with some characters from it and their next generation. The epic consists of 4,861 lines in akaval meter, arranged in 30 cantos.
Manimekalai is the daughter of Kovalan and Madhavi, who follows in her mother's footsteps as a dancer and a Buddhist nun. The epic tells her story. Her physical beauty and artistic achievements seduces the Chola prince Udhayakumara. He pursues her. She, a nun of Mahayana Buddhism persuasion, is committed to free herself from human ties. She rejects his advances, yet finds herself drawn to him. She hides, prays and seeks the help of her mother, her Buddhist teacher Aravana Adikal and angels. They teach her Buddhist mantras to free herself from fears. One angel helps her magically disappear to an island while the prince tries to chase her, grants her powers to change forms and appear as someone else. On the island, she receives a magic begging bowl. Later, she takes the form and dress of a married woman in the neighborhood, as the prince pursues her. The husband sees the prince tease her, and protects "his wife" – Manimekalai-in-hiding – by killing the prince. The king and queen learn of their son's death, order the arrest of Manimekalai, arrange a henchman to kill her. Angels intervene and Manimekalai miraculously disappears as others approach her, again. The queen understands and repents. Manimekalai is set free. Manimekalai converts the prison into a hospice to help the needy, teaches the king the dharma of the
Buddha. In the final five cantos of the epic, Buddhist teachers recite main doctrines of Buddhism. She goes to goddess
Kannaki temple in Vanci (Chera kingdom), prays, listens to different religious scholars, and practices severe self-denial to attain
Nirvana (release from rebirths).
Cīvaka Cintāmaṇi Cīvaka Cintāmaṇi, an epic of the 10th century CE was written by Thiruthakka Thevar, a
Jain monk. The epic is organized into 13 cantos and contains 3,145 quatrains in viruttam poetic meter. It narrates a supernatural fantasy story of a prince who is the perfect master of all arts, perfect warrior and perfect lover with numerous wives. The epic begins with the story of a treacherous coup, where the king helps his pregnant queen escape in a peacock-shaped air machine but is himself killed. The queen gives birth to a boy. She hands him over to a loyal servant to raise and becomes a nun herself. The boy grows up into a super-human man perfect in every art, every skill, every field of knowledge. He excels in war and peace, kills his enemies, wins over and marries every pretty girl he meets, then regains the kingdom his father had lost. After enjoying power, sex and begetting many sons with his numerous wives, he renounces the world and becomes a Jain ascetic.
Kundalakesi The
Kundalakesi epic has partially survived into the modern age in fragments, such as in commentaries written centuries later. From these fragments, it appears to be a tragic love story about a Hindu or Jain girl of merchant caste named Kundalakesi who falls in love with Kalan – a Buddhist criminal on a death sentence. The girl's rich merchant father gets the criminal pardoned and freed, the girl marries him. Over time, their love fades and they start irritating each other. During an argument, Kundalakesi reminds him of his criminal past which angers Kalan. A few days later, he invites her to a hike up a hill. When they reach the top, he tells her that he will now kill her. The wife requests that he let her circumambulate him – her husband – three times, before killing her and he agrees. When she is behind him, she pushes her husband over into the valley below to his death. She feels remorse for her actions and pines for the boy she once fell in love with and married. She meets teachers of various religious traditions, adopts Buddhism, renounces and becomes a nun, then achieves Nirvana.
Vaḷaiyāpati Vaḷaiyāpati is another lost work, that has survived in fragments as quoted in other Tamil texts. There is no actual story for
Vaḷaiyāpati or Valayapathi. The story that is popularly spread in books and the Internet has no connection with the poem or its core moral. Through some misinterpreted oral and written traditions, the
Vaḷaiyāpati poem got a story and no one has challenged it yet. According to the mystical story - It is a story of a father known as Navakodi Narayanan who has two wives, abandons his second wife from lower caste who gives birth to their son, and the son grows up and seeks his real father. The available content and the commentaries that mention
Valayapathi, suggest that it was partly a
Jain text that disputed and criticized other Indian religions, that it supported the ideologies found in early
Jainism, such as asceticism, horrors at meat consumption, and monastic aversion to women. It is therefore "almost certain" to be a Jain epic, written by a Jain ascetic, states Kamil Zvelebil – a Tamil literature scholar. However, the substantial sections on Shaivism have led to uncertainty. ==Style==