An Anklet for a Verse
So I was taking this auto to the US embassy on Monday to meet my mom and sis (my sis wanting to get a visa for her kid and all that) and was on this nice wide road called Anna Salai in the past and Mount Road currently, when, what should I see, but, a statue of good ol' Kannagi (is this supposed to end with a question mark or a full stop?) ? I was just thinking about the story of Kannagi and Kovalan and found it very strange to observe my musings appear, as it were, in solid VRML 3D rendering. It isn't every day, after all, that one gets to manifest one's thought onto the physical plane. And as if to make the point doubly clear, that the Almighty wished me to write on this topic, she was brandishing her anklets above her head. A day later, Kannagi is in the news, this time because the someone wishes to restore her statue in some other place, today's news says the Marina. Well, if this doesn't clinch it then nothing will. So here goes...
The story of Kannagi is an old one in Tamil Literature and was written by some Prince sometime back. It goes like this, Kannagi is the daughter of a well off trader who dotes on his daughter very much and likes to give her expensive, lustrous, shiny objects. One such shiny object is her husband, Kovalan, who is also a rather prosperous trader. The couple hit it off rather well and the future looks nice and rosy. Dances around trees and long marathons towards each other on the beach await the love-struck couple. However, dark clouds gather on the horizon, for the mind of man, as ever, is fickle and filled with lust.
The virile Kovalan, decides that Kannagi just doesnt cut it and begins to, if you would excuse the IIT lingo, put its with a dancer Madhavi. After his brief affair, he loses all his money and comes back home, like the prodigal son, to Kannagi. She rallies behind him and all that, and gives him one of her anklets to assay, that they might sell it and start of anew (I like that word). So, Kovalan goes to this jeweller to ascertain the value of the anklet. The jeweller, who happens to be the king's jeweller as well, also happens to be a thief and stealing the queen's anklets, which look pretty much like Kannagi's accuses Kovalan of the larceny. Swift justice is dispensed by the oh-so-wise king and Kovalan's head is chopped off. Slash!!!
News reaches Kannagi how goes wild with grief. Now, here's the best part. She rushes to the king's court, anklet in hand and demands of the queen what the jewels inside were her anlets were. When the queen replies that they were pearls, Kannagi strikes the anklet in question, the one that the jeweller took from Kovalan, onto the ground. The anklets sunders into a thousand and one pieces and, lo and behold!! gems scatter like grains of sand onto the curious floor. The king clutches his chest in pain and dies of a heart attack. It's all rather dramatic, yes. Kannagi screams out a curse on the city, resulting in a fire destroying the whole place. The arson does not quench Kannagi's anger and, in anguish, she tears off her left breast, climbs a mountain outside the city and, well, dies.
Very nice. The story, incidentally, is called the Silapadhikaram, and as GS tells me, means verses on an anklet, or something of the sort. It's supposedly a very poetic work and all that. However, a couple of points really interested me in the story. The first, is that Madhavi, the waif that Kovalan hangs out with, is actually considered to be as chaste a woman as Kannagi. This seems to indicate that society was probably much more liberal then, than the middle class morality we're mired in.
Second is the point that some people now consider Kannagi to represent, not that chaste woman fighting for her rights and the good name (kinda like Indians ask "What's your good name?") of her husband, but a repressed woman of society who couldn't stand up to her husband when he went painting the town red with the other woman. However, Kannagi seems a liberated woman who could stand up pretty well, if you ask me. No one speaks about the fact that Draupadi had five husbands do they? And the fact that Arjuna had take a long trip when he witnessed Yudhishtra and Draupadi coddling in her room? These same persons would probably say that Draupadi was forced into it. Oh well.
However, the point that actually interests me, is this. Why the hell would people place precious gems and pearls inside an anklet. I mean, what's the damn point? If you want to wear stones, wear them on the outside where they can be seen, goddamit!!! Not hidden in some inner tube in some circlet you wear on your feet. And if it was for security reasons, then dig a pit in your house and hide it in there. I know women like to wear these gaudy symbols of wealth and prosperity, but i thought they were meant to be shown off, not hidden in an anklet of all places. I don't know, someone enlighten me if they can. The question has been bugging me ever since I read the story of Kannagi as a kid in the Amar Chitra Katha comics we all loved so much. Full stop.
The story of Kannagi is an old one in Tamil Literature and was written by some Prince sometime back. It goes like this, Kannagi is the daughter of a well off trader who dotes on his daughter very much and likes to give her expensive, lustrous, shiny objects. One such shiny object is her husband, Kovalan, who is also a rather prosperous trader. The couple hit it off rather well and the future looks nice and rosy. Dances around trees and long marathons towards each other on the beach await the love-struck couple. However, dark clouds gather on the horizon, for the mind of man, as ever, is fickle and filled with lust.
The virile Kovalan, decides that Kannagi just doesnt cut it and begins to, if you would excuse the IIT lingo, put its with a dancer Madhavi. After his brief affair, he loses all his money and comes back home, like the prodigal son, to Kannagi. She rallies behind him and all that, and gives him one of her anklets to assay, that they might sell it and start of anew (I like that word). So, Kovalan goes to this jeweller to ascertain the value of the anklet. The jeweller, who happens to be the king's jeweller as well, also happens to be a thief and stealing the queen's anklets, which look pretty much like Kannagi's accuses Kovalan of the larceny. Swift justice is dispensed by the oh-so-wise king and Kovalan's head is chopped off. Slash!!!
News reaches Kannagi how goes wild with grief. Now, here's the best part. She rushes to the king's court, anklet in hand and demands of the queen what the jewels inside were her anlets were. When the queen replies that they were pearls, Kannagi strikes the anklet in question, the one that the jeweller took from Kovalan, onto the ground. The anklets sunders into a thousand and one pieces and, lo and behold!! gems scatter like grains of sand onto the curious floor. The king clutches his chest in pain and dies of a heart attack. It's all rather dramatic, yes. Kannagi screams out a curse on the city, resulting in a fire destroying the whole place. The arson does not quench Kannagi's anger and, in anguish, she tears off her left breast, climbs a mountain outside the city and, well, dies.
Very nice. The story, incidentally, is called the Silapadhikaram, and as GS tells me, means verses on an anklet, or something of the sort. It's supposedly a very poetic work and all that. However, a couple of points really interested me in the story. The first, is that Madhavi, the waif that Kovalan hangs out with, is actually considered to be as chaste a woman as Kannagi. This seems to indicate that society was probably much more liberal then, than the middle class morality we're mired in.
Second is the point that some people now consider Kannagi to represent, not that chaste woman fighting for her rights and the good name (kinda like Indians ask "What's your good name?") of her husband, but a repressed woman of society who couldn't stand up to her husband when he went painting the town red with the other woman. However, Kannagi seems a liberated woman who could stand up pretty well, if you ask me. No one speaks about the fact that Draupadi had five husbands do they? And the fact that Arjuna had take a long trip when he witnessed Yudhishtra and Draupadi coddling in her room? These same persons would probably say that Draupadi was forced into it. Oh well.
However, the point that actually interests me, is this. Why the hell would people place precious gems and pearls inside an anklet. I mean, what's the damn point? If you want to wear stones, wear them on the outside where they can be seen, goddamit!!! Not hidden in some inner tube in some circlet you wear on your feet. And if it was for security reasons, then dig a pit in your house and hide it in there. I know women like to wear these gaudy symbols of wealth and prosperity, but i thought they were meant to be shown off, not hidden in an anklet of all places. I don't know, someone enlighten me if they can. The question has been bugging me ever since I read the story of Kannagi as a kid in the Amar Chitra Katha comics we all loved so much. Full stop.
posted by TenG at 10:43 PM
3 Have Spoken Thus
You must be speaking about Manimekalai, which talks about Madhavi's daughter.
By the way, in latest news, the truck that was supposed to restore the Kannagi statue to the Marina has apparently damaged it. Others contend the steel rod supporting the statue has been cut and removed. Talk about support for women.
i thought they were meant to be shown off
Many in India consider jewellwry as a
mobile treasure.MAny women in Kumaon have huge nose rings which are also supposed to be symbols of Fmily wealth. This was probably an attempt to keep some cash if some natural emaegency or a invader raid were to suddenly happen.Being in the Anklet , the woman would not become a Particularly interesting target .
What I want to know is how the pawnbroker/jeweller was planning to assess the worth of the anklet if the gems inside it weren't aparent? And did Kovalan know there were gems in there? If he did, why didn't he challenge the queen just as Kannagi did later? And if he didn't know, did he make a bum deal with the jeweller?
My guess: Kovalan's sex-appeal was of a higher order than his IQ.
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