Sakthi Thamil Changam - English articles                                      

  Kannagi - 3

Kovalan and Kannagi were born in Poompuhar city. They belong tovery rich merchant family. Their parents were very close friends. They celebrated Kovalan - Kannagi's wedding in most luxurious way. The young couple were placed in separate house for living and guided by parents for trade and earnings.

Unfortunately Kovalan met the beautiful dancer Madhavi and started loving her. Both of them entered into a separate new life. Even they got a child called Manimekalai.

Kovalan was very much interested in performing arts and at the same time he was very possessive in character. He did not like Madhavi's dance consorts during festivals and slowly he started developing hat redness towards her.Madhavi was helpless because she was the royal dancer and she needs to obey the king.

Slowly Kovalan lost his wealth and he too did not concentrate in trade. One fine evening he left Madhavi and came to Kannagi. Kannagi who was just living in solitude welcomed him and advised him to accept her silambu [ anklet ] to sell and invest in new business.

Kovalan was very much upset about his life and he felt guilty to face his parents and in-laws. So along with Kannagi he left to Madurai city immediately without informing any one.

They were guided by a Jain monk called Kavundi adikal. She made them to take abode under a cowherd woman called Madhari. Kovalan left Kannagi and saw the various areas of Madurai city and came back. Then he took one of her anklet and left to see some goldsmiths to sell.

Mean while the Pandiyan queen's anklet was missing. There was chaos in the palace. The royal gold smith was the real thief who took the anklet. By fate Kovalan also met the royal goldsmith and the game started. The anklets look alike generally. So Kovalan was blamed as the thief and informed to the king. The king asked his soldiers to kill Kovalan if he was the real thief.

Without analyzing the goldsmith made the soldiers to kill Kovalan. The news spreaded all over the city and Kannagi came to know this. First she was very emotional, later she analyzed the problem and left to see the king with the another anklet.

The case was argued between the king and Kannagi. The king said that  the queen's anklets has pearls within it. Kannagi said that her anklets has gems. So the anklet taken away from Kovalan was brought and Kannagi just broke that anklet. She also broke its pair which she was holding. After seeing the gems the king felt bad for his injustice and he died because of heart attack. The  queen also died.

Then Kannagi cursed the Madurai city to be burnt and walked all along the bank of Vaigai river and reached the western ghats near Kambham [ a place near Kerala and Tamilnadu border . It is a valley in western ghats ] . There after 14 days  she died. The great heroic deed performed by Kannagi  got spreaded across the countries and she became a goddess of virtue and braveness. The tribal people who welcomed her in the ghats started worshipping her.

When the Chera king Sengukkuvan and his queen Venmol visited the ghats for summer , the history was explained to them. Elango adikal [ Chera king's younger brother] and Seethalai chathan [ a poet ] decided to write Kannagi's life history as a beautiful literature. Mean while the Chera king marched towards noth India and brought a granite from Himalayas and carved Kannagi's idol out of it. On the western ghats her memorial temple was erected.

Meanwhile Elango adikal traveled across  the entire Tamil country and collected in formations about the varous aspects of arts, culture, traditions, religion and wrote the enchanting Tamil epic Silappathikaaram. His friend Seethalai chathan wrote the life history of Manimekalai [ Kovalan's daughter].

So we are in search of  Kannagi's foot prints across the country. Now we are in Madurai.

    
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