சிலப்பதிகாரம்
Silappatikaram
The story of Kannagi, whose husband Kovalan is wrongfully executed by the Pandya king of Madurai, and whose grief and fury burn the city down — a foundational Tamil epic that gave rise to the widespread Pattini (Kannagi) cult of chastity and justice.
The Silappatikaram ('The Tale of the Anklet'), attributed to the Jain monk-prince Ilango Adigal, is regarded as one of the Five Great Epics of Tamil literature. It tells the story of Kovalan, a wealthy merchant of Puhar, and his devoted wife Kannagi, whose marriage is strained by Kovalan's infatuation with the courtesan Madhavi. Reduced to poverty, the couple travels to Madurai, where Kovalan is falsely accused of stealing the queen's anklet and executed on the Pandya king's orders. Kannagi proves his innocence by breaking open her own matching anklet before the court, and in her grief and rage curses the city of Madurai, which then burns. Her chastity and righteous fury lead to her deification as Pattini, and the epic's final section recounts the Chera king Senguttuvan's consecration of a temple in her honor. Structured across three books set respectively in Puhar (the Chola capital), Madurai (the Pandya capital), and Vanchi (the Chera capital), the epic is unusual for weaving together all three ancient Tamil kingdoms into a single narrative, and it remains a rich source for Sangam-era social detail, music, and dance traditions.
Highlights
- One of the Five Great Epics of classical Tamil literature
- Tells the tragedy of Kannagi and Kovalan and Kannagi's deification as Pattini
- Uniquely spans all three ancient Tamil kingdoms — Chola, Pandya, and Chera
- A major source for Sangam-era music, dance, and urban life
Ilango Adigal
Epic poem (one of the Five Great Tamil Epics)
Traditionally linked to the 2nd century CE Chera court; linguistic scholarship suggests composition closer to the 5th–6th century CE
Explore the Connections
The Sangam Age
சங்க காலம்
The formative age of Tamil literature and society, named for the three legendary Sangams (poetic academies) said to have flourished under Pandya patronage, producing the earliest surviving corpus of Tamil poetry.
Ilango Adigal
இளங்கோ அடிகள்
A Chera prince who renounced his claim to the throne to become a Jain monk, and who literary tradition credits as the author of the Silappatikaram, one of the Five Great Epics of Tamil literature.