Silappadikaram

Also called: Silappatikaram · Topic: Sangam Age and Early South India · NCERT: Class 7, Ch 6 "The Age of Reorganisation"; Class 9, Ch 5 "State and Society up to 1000 CE"; Class 12, Ch 2 "Kings, Farmers and Towns"

Meaning

Silappadikaram (also spelt Silappatikaram) means "the story of the anklet". It is a Tamil epic, traditionally said to be by Prince Ilango Adigal. It tells how the merchant Kovalan was wrongly put to death in Madurai, and how his wife Kannagi proved he was innocent and became a goddess [2][3]. It matters for the exam because Britannica calls it the earliest epic poem in Tamil [2]. It also shows us early Tamil society: its towns, its trade, its ideas of justice and its ideals for women.

Explanation

Background: author, date and style

• Author: Prince Ilango Adigal (Ilanko Adikal). By tradition he was a Chera prince who became a Jain ascetic (a monk who gives up worldly life) [3].
• Date: Britannica places the poem in the 5th–6th century CE [2][3]. Historians do not all agree on this date.
• Two time frames. Keep them apart:
• The society the epic shows belongs to the Sangam world (c. 300 BCE – 300 CE).

• The epic itself was written down later, c. 5th–6th century CE [2].

• Style: it mixes two traditions [2]:

• the mood poetry of the old Tamil Sangam poems

• the rich, decorated language of Sanskrit poetry

• Sangam literature was produced in literary academies (sangams) at Madurai, roughly in the 1st–4th century CE. It has 2,381 poems by 473 named poets. About 100 poems are anonymous [4].

The story, step by step

• Kannagi is married to Kovalan, a merchant of Puhar (Kaveripattinam), the Chola port.
• Kovalan spends all his wealth on the dancer Matavi [2].
• The couple go to Madurai, the Pandya capital, to start again [2].
• Kannagi gives Kovalan one of her anklets (silambu) to sell.
• The false charge:
• A goldsmith had stolen the queen's anklet himself.
• He blames Kovalan [2].

• The Pandya king has Kovalan executed without a proper trial [2].

• The proof: Kannagi comes to the court with the second anklet and breaks it open.

• Kannagi's anklet held rubies.

• The queen's anklet held pearls. [2]

• The results:

• The king sees that he has killed an innocent man and dies of shock.
• Kannagi curses Madurai, and the fire god burns the city.

• Kannagi walks west into the Chera kingdom and is deified (made into a goddess).

• Third book: a king leads an expedition to bring stone from the Himalayas to carve an image of Kannagi as a goddess of chastity (faithfulness in marriage) [2]. By tradition this king is the Chera ruler Senguttuvan.

Main themes: why historians read it

• Justice and the king's dharma (duty):
• A king's first duty is to protect justice.
• The Pandya king judged wrongly, and he lost his life and his city.

• The lesson: a king's bad judgement harms everyone, not just himself.

• A map of the Tamil land: the story passes through all three kingdoms:

• Chola (Puhar/Kaveripattinam)
• Pandya (Madurai)

• Chera (the west)

• City and trade: the story takes place in rich trading towns full of merchants, goldsmiths, dancers and royal courts.

• Mixed beliefs: Jain, Buddhist and Brahmanical ideas sit side by side in the story.

What it tells us about society

• Society was organised by occupation (the work people did): the Tolkappiyam (a work on grammar and poetics, 1st–4th century CE) names four groups [4][5]:
• arasar: kings and rulers
• vanigar: traders
• velar: farmers
• antanar: brahmanas, supported by the ruling families

• These groups were fluid: people could move between them. This was not the rigid varna system of the north.

• Ranks in the countryside:

• vellalar: large landowners
• uzhavar: ploughmen

• adimai: slaves

• Why the gap between these groups grew:

• Some families held more land and so could command more labour.
• They were the first to get better tools and control of water (iron tools, irrigation).

• So they kept the surplus (the extra produce), and the gap became fixed.

• Women:

• Women worked in the economy. They planted, weeded, husked and winnowed paddy, reared cattle, spun thread, fished, made salt and sold garlands.
• Women also composed poetry. Avvaiyar is the best-known Sangam poetess. Vennikuyattiyar was a woman potter who was also a poet.
• Yet the epic's highest ideal for a woman is Kannagi, the faithful wife who becomes a goddess. Both pictures come from the same age.

Time, place and evidence

• Story world: Sangam-age Tamilakam (the Tamil land), c. 300 BCE – 300 CE.
• Composition: c. 5th–6th century CE, according to Britannica [2]. The date is debated.
• Places:
• Puhar/Kaveripattinam (Chola)
• Madurai (Pandya)
• the Chera country in the west

• the Himalayas, the source of the stone for Kannagi's image [2]

• Key people:

• Ilango Adigal (author)
• Kannagi and Kovalan
• Matavi (the dancer)
• the Pandya king and the goldsmith

• the Chera king of the third book (by tradition Senguttuvan)

• Related sources:

• Tolkappiyam for social groups [5]
• Pattinappalai for a busy trading society of merchants, salt-makers, fishermen, artisans, farmers and warriors

• the wider Sangam corpus of akam poems (love, "interior") and puram poems (war, kings, virtue, "exterior") [4]

• Living tradition: Kannagi is still worshipped as a goddess in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

• NCERT: Class 12, Ch 2 "Kings, Farmers and Towns" quotes the epic on forest people bringing gifts (such as ivory, spices and animals) to the Chera chief Senguttuvan.

Don't confuse with

• Tolkappiyam: a work on grammar and poetics (1st–4th century CE), not a story. It is the source of the four groups arasar, vanigar, velar and antanar [4][5]. Silappadikaram is a narrative epic.
• Sangam anthologies: 2,381 short poems by 473 poets, from the academies at Madurai [4]. Silappadikaram is one long epic by one author, and it was written later [2].
• Pattinappalai: a Sangam poem that describes a trading society. It is not the Kannagi–Kovalan story.
• Manimekalai: the "twin epic" that continues the story through Manimekalai, the daughter of Kovalan and Matavi. It has a Buddhist focus and is by a different author (Sattanar). Silappadikaram is by Ilango Adigal.

Prelims Hooks

• Silappadikaram means "the story of the anklet". Its author is Ilango Adigal, a Chera prince who became a Jain ascetic. Britannica calls it the earliest Tamil epic (5th–6th century CE) [2][3].
• Anklet trap: Kannagi's anklet held rubies; the queen's held pearls [2]. Do not swap them.
• Kovalan was executed by the Pandya king at Madurai, not by a Chola or Chera king [2].
• Kannagi went west to the Chera kingdom and was deified. She is still worshipped in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
• The epic's third book tells of an expedition to the Himalayas to bring stone for Kannagi's image [2].
• The epic mixes Sangam mood poetry with Sanskrit rhetoric (decorated speech) [2].

Mains Points

• Literature as a source has limits:
• The epic was written down centuries after the society it shows [2].
• It is a moral tale, not an official record.

• Use it for social detail: crafts, towns, trade and ideals for women. Check political facts against inscriptions and archaeology.

• A South Indian idea of rightful rule:

• The Pandya king dies because he failed in his dharma to protect justice.

• This is a strong example for answers on legitimate kingship (what made a ruler's power rightful) in early India. It can be set beside Ashoka's dhamma.

• Regional differences in early Indian society:

• The epic and other Sangam texts show a society organised by occupation, with fluid groups: arasar, vanigar, velar, antanar [5].
• Over time, unequal control of land, labour and technology produced the vellalar–uzhavar–adimai ranks.
• This fits the wider Indian story of surplus (extra produce) and state formation. It also shows how Tamilakam differed from the birth-based varna order of the Gangetic north.

Related concepts

• Ilango Adigal
• Kannagi
• Pattini cult
• Avvaiyar
• Vellalar
• Murugan

Read more

• Silappadikaram and Sangam society