Kannaki & Madavi Poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar

Dharma will become Yema to erring kings;
Great men would adore a repute chaste lady;
Destiny will manifest itself and be fulfilled;
These truths centre round an anklet story.

In the late second century AD,
There lived in the shore city of Puhar
During the reign of Karikal Chola,
Two wealthy merchants, who got their children-
Covalan at sixteen and kannaki
At twelve married, following with the fire-rites
Prescribed in Vedic literature.
They were led to the nuptial bed that night. 1

Covalan looked into the face of Kannaki,
And spoke to her in words of prattling tone.
‘Your forehead is the Siva's crescent moon;
Your eye brows are the sugarcane bow held
By the God of Love, and the thunderbolt
Of Indra is your waist, and two long eyes
Of you are the lance held by six faced God.
By your gait, you have put to shame the swan.'2

‘Parrots are ashamed, listening to your voice.
Let go of ornaments other than Tali.
In place of paste of Kasturi for hair
Common frankincense is quite sufficient.
Likewise, with the sandal paste applied
On your beautiful breasts, there is no need
For a string of pearls.' went on Covalan
In praise of Kannaki under the moonlight. 3

‘O purest gold! O conch-white pearl!
O faultless fragrance! O sugar-cane, honey!
Unattainable beauty, life-giving nectar!
O noble child of nobly-born merchants!
Shall I say that you are an unborn gem
Of the hills? Shall I say that you are nectar
Not produced from the sea? Shall I say
That you are melody not born of the yal (lute) ?
O my girl of dark and flowing hair! '' 4

Uttering ceaselessly such well-worded speeches,
Covalan, sensual, ecstatic lover
Spent with his fair lady-love days and days,
And soon they moved to have their own dwelling.
Covalan and Kannaki locked each other
Like a holy Cobra and its mate and
Like Kama (god of love)and his wife Rati, sensing
About the impermanence of the life.5


Madavi displayed on the dancing stage
Her skill in numbers, letters, the five texts
And four melodies, and did eleven kinds
Of dance and her fame spread upon the earth.
Madavi is known for her charm and dance
As much as her broad shoulders and dense tresses.
The king presented a green leaf garland
With a sum, recognising her merit. 6

‘This garland is worth the sum that who buys
Becomes the husband of our creeper like lady.'
Said a woman in open for Madavi.
Who else could it be other than Covalan?
He entered Madavi's bridal chamber
And embraced her to be captivated
Of her charm that made him forget his wife
Uncomplaining, and his home unsullied.7

Finding in her bed chamber, where the bed
Was strewn with jasmine, that the rich clothing
On her waist had slipped, and the coral gridle
Enveloping it had become displaced,
Madavi, who was in a wishful mood,
Gave Covalan alternate moments
Of unions and sulks with a loving heart,
His wealth draining in giving comforts to her.8

To end the sulks sustained by Covalan
From her applauded public performance,
She bathed her black hair in the perfumed oil,
And dried the tress in the fuming incense.
She adorned her feet, limbs, chest, neck and ears
With pearls, gems, jewels, flowers and what not.
She then gave him the joys of sexual union
And sexual sulks and went tired in her chamber9

Kannaki was sad at heart, with anklet
No more on her feet, with gridle no more
On her soft waist cloth and with no more paste
Of vermillion on her unclaimed breasts.
Nor was collyrium on her fish like eyes.
No jewel other than her tali did she wear;
Her sparkling teeth unshown to Covalan,
Without perspiration she passed her days.10

The moon is milky to the loving pair
And is sultry to the sulking couple.
So was it to Madavi and Kannaki
In their relationships to Kovalan.
Puhar hosted festival for Indra.
The dark eyes of Kannaki and the red eyes
Of Madavi throbbed and filled with tears
Of sorrow and joy respectively that time. 11

The king mingled with the tumult caused
By men and women of the four castes thereDuring the first freshes in the Caveri.
The long eyed Madavi was on the shore,
Enjoying the company of Covalan.
Madavi took the lute and played it on
And gave it to Kovalan's outstretched hand;
He began playing odes to the Caveri. 12

‘Caveri! Even if our Chola king
Extends his sceptre far and weds the Ganges,
Thou wilt not sulk. Not sulking is the virtue
Of chaste ladies even if it happens so.
‘If our king extends his unbending sceptre
Far and weds Kanni (Kanyakumari) , O Caveri!
Thou wilt not sulk. Not sulking is the virtue
Of ever chaste ladies even if it is so.'13

Further he sang like the man in distress
That he didn't get love from the one loved,
‘The handworks of fish, bow, dark cloud and Kama
Are seen on her face, the Moon fearing Rahu.
Yema is seen in those eyes as spears
That flutter from one side to the other.
Is she, seen as guarding the dry fish from birds,
The girl that confuses and troubles onlookers? ' 14

He went on, ‘the faultless words of this damsel,
Her big youthful breasts, her moon like face,
Her bow-like curved brows, and her lightning waist -
It is these that have caused distress to me.
The fragrance-spreading tresses, this face and
The carp-like eyes have caused distress to me.
Her young teeth like sprouting shoots, moon lit face
And her youthful breasts have caused distress to me.'15

Having listened to Covalan's sea song,
Madavi felt that his song was indicative
Of his intention to leave her for good.
Pretending that she was pleased though sulking,
She took the lute from him and began to play
An ode to the sea to the people's joy.
She sang in the praise of the Cavery,
Puhar and the lovers, and continued.16

‘You destroyed the ruts caused by the wheels
Of my perfect lover's strong, big chariot.
You destroyed the ruts on the way, and yet
You pretended to be a friend of mine.'
‘My eyes shed tears of sorrow from which
it is impossible for me to recover.'
‘He who went away spoiling our sport,
Would not leave my love-stricken mind.'17

‘Someone came slipping through the fence, destroyed
Our games of sand houses and went away.
That man is not going from my loving heart.
Someone came slipping through the fence of seaside,
Stood before us and asked us to grant him
A favour; that man will not forget our looks.
Someone saw the swan dancing with its mate;
That man stood watching us and won't leave us.' 18

Hearing this, Covalan said, ‘I sang the kanalvari
But she, the cunning one, with deceitful lies,
Sang with her mind upon someone else.'
Prompted by the Fate, the lute on its pretext,
He withdrew his hands from his lady love.
‘Since the day has come, we shall make a move.
She betook herself home with a sad heart,
Unaccompanied by her lover in the carriage. 19

‘The moon who has risen with the love anguish
Would kill the lonely poor ones, love stricken,
Whether they're the lovers who'd departed and delayed
Or lovers who'd deserted and forgotten.
Obey to Kama; be generous to come '
With this letter Madavi sent for Covalan,
Who refused the letter. Kannaki had dreamt
That she and her husband would have bad time 20

‘By consorting with a false woman
Who makes every false thing appear like truth,
I have lost the rich store of my ancestral wealth.
O, I am ashamed.' said he on return
To Kannaki, to which she soothed him,
‘O, do not grieve! You yet have my anklets.'
To which he assured ‘I will use this anklet
As my capital to recover things lost.'21

The fate has decreed their doom long ago;
Kannaki's dreams emptied Madavi's words.
Kannaki and Covalan then decided to leave
Puhar and make a new life for themselves
In Madurai, both making a long journey
On foot with the aid of local people,
Who invariably were Jain nuns and monks,
And they reached the outskirt of the city.22

During the voyage he got another letter
From persuasive Madavi through a sage.
'My Lord, I fall prostrate before your feet.
Kindly forgive me. What is my mistake
Which made you leave (our city)during the night
With your wife unknown even to your parents?
My mind suffers in ignorance.' He felt,
‘She is not in the wrong; I alone am to blame' 23

Madurai was Pandya's capital city
Where every kind of affluence flowed down.
Caught in the eye-nets of the goddess-like damsels,
Even holy men took leave of their discipline
While young men dallying carnally with girls
Like bees sucking honey from flower after flower,
And wouldn't pass those mansions flooded with girls
skilled in the sixty-four arts, without a stare. 24

Covalan said: ‘O thou who hast given up
Thy parents and relations, menial servants,
Nurse-maids and female attendants, and taken
As thy great aids modesty, credulity. good conduct,
And chastity, hast rid me of my troubles
By accompanying me. I shall go with
One of the anklets to exchange for money.'
He then left his wife with a cowherdess. 25

Covalan made his way to the city,
Where he found a goldsmith after a search.
The goldsmith resembled Yama's messenger,
Who found the anklet looking like the queen's,
Which the goldsmith himself had stolen.
He brought it to the notice of the king
And implicated Covalan as the thief.
‘Kill him and bring the anklet.' said the king. 26

Covalan was arrested and executed
As ordered by king without a hearing.
Kannaki heard the news and fled to the court.
Enraged with the injustice done to her husband,
She proved to the king that the ankle recovered
From her husband was not the queen's missing one.
It was, instead, her own. To convince the king,
Kannaki broke her anklet, which scattered rubies.27

The queen's anklet being studded with pearls,
Pandyan Nedunchezhian felt his error.
The never-crooked sceptre of the Pandyan,
Became crooked as a result of pre-ordained fate.
The king fell down from the throne and died of quilt.
The queen too fell dead, with no more life left.
Dharma will become the god of Death
To those kings who commit sinful deeds. 28

Kannaki, not content with the death of the king,
In a final burst of anger, tore off
One of her breasts and flung it at the city,
Which then was engulfed in flames with her fury.
All fled from the fire which raged the palace.
'Spare Brahmanas, the righteous cows, chaste women,
The aged and children', ordered she further.
The power of chastity was behind her act. 29

The goddess of the city glorified
Her who had wrung off her fierce young left breast,
As the Goddess of Wealth, the Goddess of Learning, ®
And the God who killed the demon Mahisasura.
She entered the city with her husband
By the eastern gate and left by the western gate.
Kannaki then herself withdrew to a hill
in the distant Chera kingdom, where she died. 30

And from where she rose to join Covalan.
Cheran Senkuttuvan was well impressed
With Kannaki, who was deified in his realm.
He undertook a journey to the North
Into the Himalaya and brought a stone,
From which Kannaki was sculptured
And installed on the hill where she died.
Great men will adore a repute chaste lady. 31

(Ilango Adikal, younger brother of King Cheran Senkuttuvan has written Cilappadikaram in Tamil. It must be during 4th or 5th century AD. About the incident, it can be before 2nd century AD. The epic is erotic in Chola kingdom, heroic in Pandya kingdom and mythic in Chera kingdom. V R Ramachandra Dekshider,1939 translation is based on.)
(Yema - the God of death; dharma - virtue, Kama - the god of love, Tali - a neck chain with a pendant tied by the groom around the bride's neck at marriage, to be worn for ever as a mark of commitment to husband, rahu - a shadow planet, Kanalvari - sea shore songs)