Research Chronicler
A peer-reviewed refereed and indexed international multidisciplinary research journal Volume I Issue I: October – 2013
CONTENTS
Sr. No. Title of the Paper Author Page No. Download
1 Dalit Subalternity in Omprakash Dr. Adya Prasad Pandey 1-10 111.PDF Valmiki’s Autobiography: Joothan
2 Subaltern Expression in Arundhati Dr. Rajendra Lokhande 11-15 112.PDF Roy’s The God of Small Things
3 Corruption: Its Nature and Effects Prof. Suresh Sutar 16-21 113.PDF on Human Life
4 Re-reading Motherhood: A study Prof. Jyoti Mundhe 22-29 114.PDF of Four Matriarchs in the Literature of African Diaspora
5 Emerging Promise of Business Prof. Gunasundari 30-36 115.PDF Ecosystem
6 Lakshmi Holmstrom’s Kannagi : Dr. Mythili Mukund 37-42 116.PDF A Feminist Perspective
7 Shatasthala in Veershaiva Religion Prof. Vishwajeet Pilake 43-48 117.PDF Dr. Dattatraya Gatade
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Lakshmi Holmstrom’s Kannagi : A Feminist Perspective Dr. Mythili Mukund Maharshi Dayanand College, Mumbai (MS), India
ABSTRACT The present paper attempts an in-depth analysis of Ilango Adigal‟s Silappadikaram from feminist perspective. The epic was originally written in Tamil and now has been translated into English as Kannagi by Lakshmi Holmstrom. The poem vividly presents the life styles of Tamil people of the time in all their forms: the sophisticated urban life, the small peasant villages, the village people and also the forest tribes. The poem presents Kannagi as a very relevant figure in the world today who can be considered as the global symbol of justice and of dignity of the individual.
Key Words: Kannagi, Epic poem, feminism, individuality.
This paper is an attempt to look at The Tamil country that Ilango wants the translation of Ilango Adigal‟s the readers to imagine is of the sangam age. Silappadikaram, a Tamil epic, into English Its limits were the Venkadam hills in the as Kannagi written by Lakshmi Holmstrom north and Kumari in the south. It is divided from a feminist perspective. into three ancient kingdoms - Chola, The story of Kovalan and Kannagi is Pandiya and Chera with their capitals - one of the oldest legends of the Tamil Puhar, Madurai and Vanji respectively. country. The earliest Tamil poetry called One of the interesting features of „Sangam Poetry‟ has been collected into „Silappadikaram‟ is the vivid account it eight anthologies and „Silappadikaram‟ was gives of the variety of life styles in the composed by Ilango Adigal, younger brother Tamil country, the sophisticated urban life of Cheran Chenguttavan and a possible date within the ancient walled cities, the small for the composition of „Silappadikaram‟ peasant villages outside, the village people could be 500 A.D. and the forest tribes.
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The story illustrates three truths: that girl with skin like beaten gold, a quiet girl kings who deviate from the path of with a rare self possession.‟ It clearly reveals righteousness will cause their own how even the colour of the bridegroom is destruction; that chastity and steadfastness crucial and how women are being are admired by the truly great; and that all of stereotyped. us must necessarily bear the consequences From the beginning though she was of the past deeds. needed into the mould she looked as It is named after Kannagi‟s anklet „solemn and remote as a small goddess‟ which symbolizes both hope and destruction around the fire during their wedding. in the poem. It is realistic in its careful Kovalan compared her to „the peacock for delineation of its characters and their her grace and movement and parrot for her motives. The story of Kovalan, Kannagi and pretty speech‟. Living in a patriarchal Madhavi may be an illustration of the society, Kannagi got married at the age of working of fate; Kannagi begins as a twelve and she knew that Kovalan‟s parents conventional character and ends as a looked to her to maintain the traditions and goddess. Ilango must have been unusual honour of her family. Therefore she both for a Jain and an ascetic, for the theme maintained a busy life, observing fast days of chaste and rebellious wife is above all a and feast days, receiving friends and celebration of human love. relatives, giving alms to the poor and In retelling this story Lakshmi feeding wandering merchants. After three Holmstrom has followed the text of years they shifted to a separate mansion „Silappadikaram‟ very closely and has made which was built by Masattuvan. no major changes though it is a free In the dancers‟ street in Puhar, some adaptation. She has shortened some years after their marriage, a young girl descriptions and didactic passages but has Madhavi got ready for her first public dance not tampered with the legends and performance. Her mother Chitrapati boasted supernatural events which are essential to of being the descendents of the celestial the atmosphere of the story. „Kannagi‟ is a Urvashi herself. She made her daughter creative modern version of Ilango‟s Tamil Madhavi learn dance through various classic „Silappadikaram‟- the tragic tale of masters. She also educated her, tutored her Kovalan and Kannagi. in how to dress and conduct herself and also The two merchants of Puhar, to converse intelligently and wittily. Masattuvan and Manaykan arranged the Sometimes she made her write poems to set marriage between their children Kovalan themes. Madhavi worked very hard and and Kannagi respectively. While Kovalan then started with a „natural gift for dancing was described as „a dark skinned, finely and quick witted intelligence‟. She looked featured youth who bore himself proudly strikingly beautiful with perfect features, which was lit with vivacity and laughter. and spoke well‟, Kannagi was shown as „a
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Her dance performance was arranged and husband and his family”. But Kannagi did nobody consulted her for anything. Though not wear flowers or jewellery. Even when she looked delightful and happy, she Kovalan‟s parents visited her she remained subverted from within the community. She silent because she did not want to be in resisted giving public performance but then some way „disloyal to Kovalan‟. She she had to accept her lot, as she had to live remained very meek, docile and patient. in the dancers‟ community. She could In the meantime Madhavi‟s house overcome her nervousness and began to was rearranged to suit her own tastes and dance, „forgetting her mother, the audience became a lively centre for artists, musicians and the king, everything except the music and poets. Kovalan was amazed at and dance‟. Madhavi‟s great gift for enjoying After her faultless performance she everything. When they had a daughter, the was considered as the most promising of naming ceremony was celebrated and he Puhar‟s dancers. She was no longer „the spent lavishly. Madhavi continued to be daughter and pupil for whom every choice radiantly happy both in her private life with was made by others‟. With an awareness and Kovalan and her growing daughter understanding of her capacities, she tried to Manimekalai and also in her public assert herself with her head held high. performances. Even the finest of musicians Kovalan who usually attended all the music considered it an honour to accompany her and dance performances of Puhar was so due to her mastery in dance and popularity. much arrested and bewitched by her beauty Since Kovalan used to spend lavishly, his and wit that he bought her wreath for ancestral property started dwindling away. thousand gold coins as was the custom and In Puhar, Indra festival had been seemed to have forgotten his home and celebrated with great pomp. Madhavi found Kannagi. Kovalan in a strange and sullen mood, Kannagi was bewildered and realized without taking part in the merry making. She with a shock that she and her husband had did not know that he had joined a small grown much apart. As an ideal Hindu group of people gathered around a Jain nun woman she meekly accepted her lot which, who was preaching the value of a life of she was told, was determined by her acts in restraint and discipline. She made a special the last birth. She felt very hurt but „she said effort „to beautify herself for him‟. nothing‟. As Indira Mahindra says, “The With great reluctance Kovalan symbols of married women - bangles, a red accompanied Madhavi to the seashore for dot on the forehead, red powder in the the festival where he sang songs which parting of the hair, khol in the eyes, seemed to describe a cruel, heartless but colourful clothes, jewellery, spicy food - all beautiful fisher girl with eyes as sharp as these are meant to be symbols of happiness, arrowheads who drew men after her to their whatever the treatment she may get from her destruction. She took the lute from him and
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www.research-chronicler.com Research Chronicler ISSN: 2347 - 503X International Multidisciplinary Research Journal sang as if in answer. Her theme was that of a meekly? Am I to be as abject and useless as lonely and forsaken fisher girl lamenting for those widows who can only make terrible her absent lover. Madhavi wanted to assure vows at their husbands‟ funeral pyres? He Kovalan that she would keep faith in him loved and he is dead. How am I to live a half whatever he might choose to think. But he life without him, making futile pilgrimages misunderstood her thinking that she had lost to holy rivers?” Then as if divinely inspired, her heart to someone else and was trying to her face, blazing with anger, proceeded to wrap her deceit. He left her house all of a Pandiya‟s palace. She was no more a sudden. submissive and meek woman as she was When she sent a garland with a before. When she broke open her anklet king message through her servant Vasanta Malai, Nedunjezhiyan understood that it was filled Kovalan says, “Yes, she gives quite a with rubies whereas Koperundevi‟s anklets convincing performance. But you see, I were filled with pearls. He stared aghast and know by now that it is all a game to her. She collapsed immediately and with him the is after all an actress”. She was completely queen also died. marginalized in spite of her being so From a traditional Hindu wife, she affectionate towards Kovalan. Even though was transformed into a goddess and called Madhavi was educated, skillful and on the god of fire to burn the city. She said intelligent, she was always considered as the “Spare the priests and all virtuous men. „other‟ in the community for no fault of Spare faithful women, old people, children hers. Even the women of her community and cows, but do not on any account spare envied her as she had a relationship with the the wicked”. The fire raged and enveloped richest pearl merchant of Puhar. the whole city until everything was in ruin. After listening to the preaching of The other deities of Madurai pleaded to her the nun he changed his mind, left Madhavi and when she calmed down, the fire had also in wilderness, joined Kannagi and went to abated. It was said that after fourteen days Kovalan descended upon her and she went Madurai with just her anklets with a hope to start a business. It was Kavundi, the nun with him to the other world. who accompanied them to Madurai and Throughout the book she had been helped them a lot. Unfortunately when depicted as a submissive conventional wife Kovalan went to sell the anklet, he was but suddenly in the end, she turned out to be misunderstood by the king due to the a goddess. Even though she became a rebel cunningness of the goldsmith who had and fought for justice, she was also regarded stolen one of the queen‟s anklets and was as the „other‟ by making her a goddess. As killed by the king‟s soldiers. the Tamil novelist Siva Shankari says, “As Kannagi could hardly believe it. She long as Kannagi accepted her position cried out saying: “O What shall I do now?... patiently, the patriarchal society acknowledged her as one among them. But How can I consent to bear it all humbly and
Volume I Issue I : October 2013 (40) Editor-In-Chief: Prof. K.N. Shelke
www.research-chronicler.com Research Chronicler ISSN: 2347 - 503X International Multidisciplinary Research Journal the moment she became a rebel, they could her husband - also gives her the moral right not do anything but to glorify her as a to burn down a city. It is interesting to note goddess and considered her as the „other‟ of that the epic never talks of the couple having all the chaste women of the Tamil country”. a child, because epics tend to source The twentieth century Tamil poet women‟s power to chastity - motherhood Vairamuthu points out that both Kannagi being a venerated state gives them the and Madhavi were considered as the „other‟ benefit of virtue. Besides, anger in a mother in their own communities. Kannagi who was is read as being an extension of protective very conventional turned out to be a maternal instinct, as opposed to the denial of Goddess whereas Madhavi who was a rebel femininity. Kannagi never seeks justice for initially became a Buddhist nun. h erself within the sacred relationship. She The events related to Kannagi have does not question it. Her rage is justified not high influence in the traditions and culture only because of the injustice of killing a man of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Kannagi or for a crime he did not commit, it is more so Kannagi Amman is eulogized as the epitome the injustice of having widowed her. of chastity and is still worshipped as Kannagi has been criticized as being goddess. She is praised for her extreme foolish to fight on behalf of her husband devotion to her husband in spite of his who had done her injustice. It is one of the adulterous behaviour. She is worshipped as mysteries of life that many a woman goddess Pathini in Sri Lanka by the continues to love her man despite his Sinhalese Buddhists, Kannagi Amman by failings. Vairamuthu, a very popular Tamil the Sri Lanka Tamil Hindus and as poet, in his first book on poems „Vaigarai Kodungallur Bhagvathy and Attukal Megangal‟ has written that the reason for Bhagvathy in South Indian state of Kerala. Kovalan leaving Kannagi is because the It must be noted that Kannagi is also latter does not know how to keep her viewed as a brave woman who could husband to herself. demand justice directly from the king and A well known column writer Gnani even dared to call him „unenlightened king‟. wrote in „Anandha Vikatan‟, a Tamil The point here is that while she was magazine that Kannagi is just a teddy bear behaving in a non-interfering manner with doll. Strangely he made his comments just a her domestic problems, she was no meek day before the reinstallation of the statue of woman that would brook injustice in the rule Kannagi. People were shocked and copies of of the law. the magazines were burnt in protest. The central identity of the Eric Miller‟s work on “Tamil Nadu‟s protagonist is that of a married woman. Silappadhikaram, Epic of the Ankle Because she is a good married woman who Bracelet; Ancient Story and Modern forgives her husband and is chaste, she Identity” is extremely interesting and becomes powerful. Her grief - that of losing insightful. He travelled through Tamil Nadu
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www.research-chronicler.com Research Chronicler ISSN: 2347 - 503X International Multidisciplinary Research Journal taking pretty much the same route that City Hall‟. But Kannagi proved that you can Kannagi had travelled, reflecting on fight City Hall, and this is the core of the contemporary identity in Tamil Nadu. His story. That one person - with no money, in a conversations with people along the route place that was not native to her, with no gave him a clearer perspective on why the family in sight – could go before the highest story of Kannagi appeals to the psyche and civic authority, and speak, and win her case is seen as the representative of the culture. - that is great.” The political leaders of the world should Kannagi is a very relevant figure in know the story of Kannagi and how the the world today and she is the global symbol Pandiyan king punished himself when he of justice and of the dignity of the realized he had made a mistake. Eric Miller individual. Definitely she is not a teddy bear says, “In my home town, New York city, we doll. have a pessimistic saying: „You cannot fight
References:
1. Holmstrom, Lakshmi. Kannagi. Mumbai : Orient Longman Ltd., 1980. 2. Miller, Eric. Tamil Nadu’s Silappathikaram, Epic of the Ankle Bracelet: Ancient Story & Modern Identity. A self published booklet, 1991. 3. Anandha Vikatan. A Tamil magazine( 2nd June 2006).
Volume I Issue I : October 2013 (42) Editor-In-Chief: Prof. K.N. Shelke