This week, we’re going to talk about a story from Tamil Nadu. It’s about heartbreak, loyalty, betrayal, a misunderstanding and poor decision making, and revenge served warm and toasty rather than ice cold.
Kannagi waited at home for her husband Kovalan to return. But just like every other day it was a pointless wait. It hadn’t been long since their wedding, but their marriage was already turning sour.
It had started off quite well actually! They’d just returned from their honeymoon. They’d snorkeled in the Andamans, shared a warm hot chocolate while riding a horse carriage through a park, and brought lots of stuff from the souvenir stalls.
They got off the ship and Kovalan carried his bride over the threshold of their home. Everything was still great as they settled into their domestic life. They even tolerated each other’s cooking. And then the rift began. And this was at a poerty festival.
While one school of thought has it that poetry festivals are generally boring this one featured some of the most famous Tamil poets.
Kannagi wasnt much of a poet, but Kovalan was one! He dazzled the crowd with one poem after another that he’d compose on the fly.
And then, there appeared a lady. Madhavi who was as much an expert at poetry as Kovalan.
The two had a bit of a poetry duel, which finally ended in a tie, and left each person deeply respectful of the other.
Kannagi should have seen this as a sign of the trouble to come but she had a misplaced sense of faith in her husband.
The next evening, when Kovalam claimed that it was poker night with his buddies, Kannagi did not even suspect that he was sneaking off to visit Madhavi. But after a while when for the seventh evening in a row Kovalam asked her not to wait up for him, she suspected something might be up. She followed him one evening and when she saw that the Madhavi’s house was definitely not hosting poker parties every day, her heart was broken.
She prayed for a change in him but day after day, he disappointed her. He would return home in the morning drunk, call in to work sick and sleep it off till the evening. And then he’d go to Madhavi again.
If a routine like that makes you wonder how they were running the household, its a good question. Pretty soon, they ran out of cash.
At this point normally you’d expect the wife to do something about an unfaithful husband. But Kannagi held on to her belief that there was still good in him. If you’ve seen the Star Wars movies, this may remind you of Queen Amidala’s faith in Darth Vader.
Finally one day their life changed again. And just like last time, it started at another poetry festival. Kannagi decided to sit this one out.
Kovalan went with Madhavi of course.
He said to her “Honey bunny! Wait till you hear my poem! You’ll love it! I was thinking of you when I wrote it”
“Pumpkin pie! Wait till you hear mine! It’s about you as well” she replied.
Madhavi recited her poem first. It was about a boy who had been unfaithful to the girl he loved. She definitely had Kovalan in mind when she wrote it, but the girl wasnt herself. It was Kannagi she had in mind.
Kovalan didnt realize that. He quietly assumed that Madhavi was silently accusing him of having cheated on her. It’s a little silly how the alternative explanation didnt pop into his head, but it just didnt. Maybe he should have been sober
“Well two can play at this game” he thought. He changed his own poem. He’d written it about Madhavi, but now he changed it to be about a girl who hurt the boy she loved.
That broke poor Madhavi’s heart!
So much so that Kovalan and Madhavi did not even look at each other anymore.
At this point, Kovalan had no choice but to return home. He couldnt possibly go to Madhavi’s after what had happened.
That alone shoud tell you that Kovalan and Madhavi’s romance was doomed to fail. If a couple doesnt even talk out their differences to clear what might simply be a misunderstanding, they are unlikely to be successful.
Now in a moment that may have us collectively facepalming ourselves, Kannagi took Kovalan in. She completely believed Kovalan’s claims that he was now reformed and he would never speak to Madhavi again. He would immerse himself into earning money for them. But it had been too late for them in their village. Weeks of partying without a steady income had left Kovalan bankrupt. His credit rating in the village was so low they wouldnt let him buy a cup of coffee on credit.
The only way out was to start in a new place.
“How about Madurai?” suggested Kovalan.
“Well known for textiles” said Kannagi. “You could buy some material and setup shop. I can help you make cloth”
“But we need some money to get us started. How do we buy material and loom?” asked Kovalan.
Now if someone has lied to you everyday and taken money from home and blown it all away on someone else, you might not want to immediately trust them with more. But Kannagi did.
She revealed her backup of a backup plan. She took off the anklet on her foot and gave it to Kovalan to sell.
“It’s pure gold with diamonds inside. You should be able to fetch a pretty penny for this.”
“Fantastic!” said Kovalan, failing to notice the utter expression of loss on his wife’s face. The anklet had held sentimental value to the girl. It had been her mother’s.
“But Kannagi if the diamonds are completely encased within the anklet and cant be seen, will a prospective buyer even believe they are there?”
“They will Kovalan. Here’s the certificate from the jewelers who made it. What’s more – all of those diamonds are Kimberley process certified. No blood diamonds here.”
Kovalan agreed that was enough to convince prospective buyers.
They headed off towards Madurai the next morning and made it there in good time.
Kannagi was optimistic. Yes, she’d had lots of trouble with her husband, she had to deal with a lot of lies. And she realized that ultimately Kovalan had returned to her only because he was annoyed with Madhavi and not because he’d remembered his vows to Kannagi. But she was willing to give their marriage another chance. Hers wasnt a guarded optimism either. She was thrilled and immersed herself into thinking positive thoughts about their new life together.
Kovalam went off to the market to sell the anklet while Kannagi stayed at their new home – an abandoned hut at the edge of the village. A few hours later, Kovalan returned with sacks of groceries, lots of material for their new venture, and a big smile on his face.
“I got a great deal for the anklet” he told Kannagi. “I sold it to the royal jeweler himself”.
He paused and continued “It was funny how he kept asking me if it belonged to someone royal. I laughed it off by saying it belonged to my Queen. Ha ha …. Oh”
They suddenly stopped as a bunch of soldiers stormed in to their motel room.
“Are you the one who sold an anklet to the royal jeweler?”
When Kovalan nodded they arrested him and began reading him his rights. Kovalan was told he had the right to remain silent. And he was silent at that moment, out of shock.
“What! What has he even done?” asked Kannagi
“You have to take it up with the King” replied the soldiers.
“Believe me, I will!” and she stormed off to the palace just as she was. She wasnt very presentable at that moment, but Kannagi couldnt be bothered by that. She had priorities.
She got to the palace and had to wait in line for an audience with the King. After a few hours when she finally had her chance, she jumped into the problem.
“What has my husband done?”
The minister who had a huge book open in front of him, scrolled down to the “K”s and “Kovalan, here got it. Arrested today on charges of having stolen the Queen’s anklet”
“The Queen’s anklet?! That was my anklet. Where is this anklet that he’s said to have stolen?”
The article, Exhibit A was immediately brought forward.
Kannagi slipped off the anklet off of her other foot and held it up next to Exhibit A. They were identical.
“But then what about the Queen’s anklet?” asked the King
At this point the Queen decided to interject. “I’m not missing an anklet dear” She showed her ankles, there was an anklet on each.
“Oh my god!” said King. “But we can set this right. I’ll make sure you’re compensated. You needed seed money to setup your enterprise, I’ll provide it. No harm, no foul. All water under the bridge and fault on both sides and all that, okay?” he asked.
Kannagi didnt say anything.
The King cleared his throat and ordered a guard to release Kovalan immediately and to bring him here.
The guard asked “do you want me to bring both the head and the body?”
That shocked everyone. But the punishment for the non-existent crime had already been carried out. Kovalan had been beheaded.
Kannagi did not cry. She flew into a rage.
She cursed the King and the City.
“Justice,
you call this?
I’d take Kafka any day.
But for now, I’ll make you pay.
This city will perish.
And you, King, will become a dervish”
Not bad, she thought to herself, maybe she was getting the hang of this poetry thing that seemed to be all the rage these days.
But there werent any more poetry festivals in her future. Unable to bear the loss of her husband, Kannagi passed on as well. But in her final moments she was happy that she would be happy to join her husband in the afterlife.
The city of Madurai did perish in a fire and the King died repentant. And the Queen probably deserves credit for reviving the textile industry.
That’s all for this episode
Some notes on the show
This story is part of a poem called Silappatikaram written about 1500 years ago.
It was written by a prince who became a monk. And no. I don’t mean the Buddha.
The name Silappatikaram means the Story of an Anklet. The Anklet plays an important role, but frankly, it should have been called the Story of Kannagi. She’s the central character of the story.
Here are some links to statues of Kannagi
Kannagi @ Marina Beach, Chennai
A Kannagi idol being worshipped
Kannagi Kovalan statue
The poem was composed during the time of the Chola dynasty. If you haven’t heard about this dynasty, it was one of the longest-ruling in world history, having ruled for over 1600 years!
But the King who ordered the execution was part of the Pandya dynasty. The poem has the young couple move from the Chola empire to the Pandya one, and there’s a bit of theme here of Chola justice contrasted with Pandya justice.
The city of Madurai is a real one. It’s well known for its Meenakshi temple. Meenakshi is an avatar of Parvati whom we’ve encountered before on this podcast. We’ll continue to do more stories of her.
That’s all for this week.
A New Format
I’ll be changing the format of the show a little bit. On the mid-week episodes, we’ll no longer be doing characters of the week. We’ll instead do a story so that I don’t sound as boring as a Wikipedia article.
Next Time
And this will be in effect from the very next mid-week episode. We’ll do a story from the Panchatantra. It’s a story about building castles in the air and counting your chickens before they are hatched.