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94-548: The name Sammonkatu is based on the Finnish epic poetry , the Kalevala , like many other street names in the area. In the ancient poems of the Kalevala , Sampo is a mythical artifact that generates wealth. The light rail from the center of Tampere to Hervanta runs on a grass track in the middle of Sammonkatu. Tram traffic started in 2021. This Western Finland location article

188-551: A "story that centers around an anklet". The content and context around that center is elaborate, with Atiyarkkunallar describing it as an epic story told with poetry, music, and drama. The Tamil tradition attributes Cilappatikaram to the Iḷaṅkō Aṭikaḷ ("the venerable ascetic prince"), also spelled Ilango Adigal. He is reputed to have been a Jain Monk and the brother of Chera king Chenkuttuvan , whose family and rule are described in

282-555: A Shaiva Hindu and Tamil scholar, rediscovered palm-leaf manuscripts of the poem, along with those of the Sangam literature, in Hindu monasteries near Kumbakonam . These manuscripts were preserved and copied in temples and monasteries over the centuries, as palm-leaf manuscripts degrade in the tropical climate. This rediscovery in the second half of the 19th-century and the consequent publication brought Cilappatikaram to readers and scholars outside

376-671: A former Chief Minister behind the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Dravidian movement . These versions, some by avowed atheists, have retold the Cilappadikaram epic "to propagate their ideas of [Tamil] cultural identity", along with a hostility to "the North, the racially different Aryans, the Brahmins", and the so-called "alien culture", according to Prabha Rani and Vaidyanathan Shivkumar. The Tamil nationalistic inspiration derived from

470-468: A function like the Vedic sacrifice, states Ramachandra Dikshitar. This, and the fact that the epic comfortably praises Shaiva and Vaishnava lifestyle, festivals, gods and goddesses, has led some scholars to propose that author of this epic was a Hindu. Ilango Adigal has been suggested to be a contemporary of Sattanar , the author of Maṇimēkalai . However, evidence for such suggestions has been lacking. In

564-507: A great kavya has been the Tamil scholarly opinion prior to the modern era, states Zvelebil. These were popular and episodes from such maha-kavya were performed as a form of dance-drama in public. The Cilappatikaram is a Tamil epic that belongs to the pan-India kavya epic tradition. The Tamil tradition and medieval commentators such as Mayilaintar have included the Cilappatikaram as one of

658-451: A legend about a prince turned into a monk. This has been conflated as the story of the attributed author as a witness. However, little factual details about the real author(s) or evidence exist. Given the fact that older Tamil texts mention and allude to the Kannaki's tragic love story, states Parthasarathy, the author was possibly just a redactor of the oral tradition and the epic poem was not

752-403: A merchant, but the merchant falsely frames him as having stolen the anklet from the queen. The king arrests Kōvalaṉ and then executes him, without the due checks and processes of justice. When Kōvalaṉ does not return home, Kannagi goes searching for him. She learns what has happened. She protests the injustice and then proves Kōvalaṉ's innocence by throwing in the court the other jeweled anklet of

846-494: A product of his creative genius. The author was possibly a Jaina scholar, as in several parts of the epic, the key characters of the epic meet a Jaina monk or nun. The epic's praise of the Vedas, Brahmins, inclusion of temples, Hindu gods and goddesses and ritual worship give the text a cosmopolitan character, and to some scholars' evidence to propose that author was not necessarily a Jaina ascetic. According to Ramachandra Dikshitar,

940-452: A vision of a Tamil imperium, yet it also "emphatically is not exclusively Tamil", states Cutler. According to V R Ramachandra Dikshitar, the epic provides no evidence of sectarian conflict between the Indian religious traditions. In Cilappadikaram , the key characters pray and participate in both Shaiva and Vaishnava rituals, temples and festivals. In addition, they give help and get help from

1034-583: Is "indispensable" and more suited for scholarly studies due to its accuracy, while Daniélou's translation was more suited to those seeking the epic's spirit and an easier to enjoy poem. The Parthasarathy translation won the 1996 A.K. Ramanujan Book Prize for Translation. The epic has been translated into French by the same Alain Daniélou and RN Desikan in 1961 (before his English translation), into Czech by Kamil Zvelebil in 1965, and into Russian by JJ Glazov in 1966. Veteran Tamil writer Jeyamohan rewrote

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1128-612: Is a rhyming verse stanza form that consists of an interlocking three-line rhyme scheme. An example is found in the first lines of the Divine Comedy by Dante , who originated the form: Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita (A) mi ritrovai per una selva oscura (B) ché la diritta via era smarrita. (A) Ahi quanto a dir qual era è cosa dura (B) esta selva selvaggia e aspra e forte (C) che nel pensier rinnova la paura! (B) In ottava rima , each stanza consists of three alternate rhymes and one double rhyme, following

1222-399: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This European road or road transport-related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Epic poetry An epic poem , or simply an epic , is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces , gave shape to

1316-695: Is a couplet), as well as long prose passages, so that at ~1.8 million words it is roughly twice the length of Shahnameh , four times the length of the Rāmāyaṇa , and roughly ten times the length of the Iliad and the Odyssey combined. Famous examples of epic poetry include the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh , the ancient Indian Mahabharata and Rāmāyaṇa in Sanskrit and Silappatikaram and Manimekalai in Tamil,

1410-635: Is as follows: Old English, German and Norse poems were written in alliterative verse , usually without rhyme . The alliterative form can be seen in the Old English " Finnsburg Fragment " (alliterated sounds are in bold): Ac on w acnigeað nū, w īgend mīne e alra ǣ rest e orðbūendra, But awake now, my warriors, of all first the men While the above classical and Germanic forms would be considered stichic , Italian, Spanish and Portuguese long poems favored stanzaic forms, usually written in terza rima or especially ottava rima . Terza rima

1504-445: Is consistent with the Tamil and the Indian tradition of merging a legend into its ideas of rebirth and endless existence. The language, and style of the third section is "perfectly homogeneous" with the first two, it does not seem to be the work of multiple authors, and therefore the entire epic should be considered a complete masterpiece. Fred Hardy, in contrast, states that some sections have clearly and cleverly been interpolated into

1598-402: Is heartbroken, but as the chaste woman, she waits despite her husband's unfaithfulness. During the festival for Indra , the rain god, there is a singing competition. Kōvalaṉ sings a poem about a woman who hurt her lover. Mātavi then sings a song about a man who betrayed his lover. Each interprets the song as a message to the other. Kōvalaṉ feels Mātavi is unfaithful to him and leaves her. Kaṇṇaki

1692-400: Is not a complete biography of Roland, but picks up from the plot of Orlando Innamorato , which in turn presupposes a knowledge of the romance and oral traditions . Epic catalogues and genealogies are given, called enumeratio . These long lists of objects, places, and people place the finite action of the epic within a broader, universal context, such as the catalog of ships . Often,

1786-442: Is penniless and destitute. He confesses his mistakes to Kannaki. She forgives him and tells him the pain his unfaithfulness gave her. Then she encourages her husband to rebuild their life together and gives him one of her jeweled anklets to sell to raise starting capital. Kovalan sells it to a merchant, but the merchant falsely frames him as having stolen the anklet from the queen. The king arrests Kovalan and then executes him, without

1880-408: Is perhaps Catullus 64 . Epyllion is to be understood as distinct from mock epic , another light form. Romantic epic is a term used to designate works such as Morgante , Orlando Innamorato , Orlando Furioso and Gerusalemme Liberata , which freely lift characters, themes, plots and narrative devices from the world of prose chivalric romance . Long poetic narratives that do not fit

1974-418: Is set in a flourishing seaport city of the early Chola kingdom. Kannaki and Kovalan are a newly married couple, in love, and living in bliss. Over time, Kovalan meets Matavi (Madhavi) – a courtesan. He falls for her, leaves Kannaki and moves in with Matavi. He spends lavishly on her. Kannaki is heartbroken, but as the chaste woman, she waits despite her husband's unfaithfulness. During the festival for Indra ,

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2068-490: Is still waiting for him. She takes him back. Kannagi and Kōvalaṉ leave the city and travel to Madurai , the capital of the Pandya kingdom . Kōvalaṉ is penniless and destitute. He confesses his deceit to Kannagi. She forgives him and tells him the hurt his adultery caused her. Then she encourages her husband to rebuild their life together and gives him one of her jeweled anklets to sell to raise starting capital. Kōvalaṉ sells it to

2162-636: Is the Epic of Gilgamesh ( c.  2500–1300 BCE ), which was recorded in ancient Sumer during the Neo-Sumerian Empire . The poem details the exploits of Gilgamesh , the king of Uruk . Although recognized as a historical figure, Gilgamesh, as represented in the epic, is a largely legendary or mythical figure. The longest written epic from antiquity is the ancient Indian Mahabharata ( c.  3rd century BC –3rd century AD), which consists of 100,000 ślokas or over 200,000 verse lines (each shloka

2256-525: Is the earliest Tamil epic. It is a poem of 5,730 lines in almost entirely akaval ( aciriyam ) meter. The epic is a tragic love story of an ordinary couple, Kaṇṇaki and her husband Kōvalaṉ . The Cilappatikāram has more ancient roots in the Tamil bardic tradition, as Kannaki and other characters of the story are mentioned or alluded to in the Sangam literature such as in the Naṟṟiṇai and later texts such as

2350-539: Is the most popular. In Serbian poetry, the decasyllable is the only form employed. Balto-Finnic (e.g. Estonian, Finnish, Karelian) folk poetry uses a form of trochaic tetrameter that has been called the Kalevala meter. The Finnish and Estonian national epics, Kalevala and Kalevipoeg , are both written in this meter. The meter is thought to have originated during the Proto-Finnic period. In Indic epics such as

2444-618: Is to Tamil what the Iliad and Odyssey are to Greek — its importance would be difficult to overstate." The first English translation of Cilappadikaram was published in 1939 by V R Ramachandra Dikshitar ( Oxford University Press ). In 1965, an English translation of the epic was published by Alain Daniélou. R. Parthasarathy 's English translation was published in 1993 by Columbia University Press and reprinted in 2004 by Penguin Books. Paula Saffire of Butler University state that Parthasarathy's translation

2538-583: Is to the Tamil culture what the Iliad is to the Greek culture , states R. Parthasarathy . It blends the themes, mythologies and theological values found in the Jain, Buddhist and Hindu religious traditions. It is a Tamil story of love and rejection, happiness and pain, good and evil like all classic epics of the world. Yet unlike other epics that deal with kings and armies caught up with universal questions and existential wars,

2632-593: The Iliad ) or both. Epics also tend to highlight cultural norms and to define or call into question cultural values, particularly as they pertain to heroism . In the proem or preface, the poet may begin by invoking a Muse or similar divinity. The poet prays to the Muses to provide them with divine inspiration to tell the story of a great hero. Example opening lines with invocations: An alternative or complementary form of proem, found in Virgil and his imitators, opens with

2726-626: The epyllion (plural: epyllia), a brief narrative poem with a romantic or mythological theme . The term, which means "little epic ", came into use in the nineteenth century. It refers primarily to the erudite, shorter hexameter poems of the Hellenistic period and the similar works composed at Rome from the age of the neoterics ; to a lesser degree, the term includes some poems of the English Renaissance , particularly those influenced by Ovid . The most famous example of classical epyllion

2820-509: The Ancient Greek adjective ἐπικός ( epikos ), from ἔπος ( epos ), "word, story, poem." In ancient Greek , 'epic' could refer to all poetry in dactylic hexameter ( epea ), which included not only Homer but also the wisdom poetry of Hesiod , the utterances of the Delphic oracle , and the strange theological verses attributed to Orpheus . Later tradition, however, has restricted

2914-486: The Cilappadikaram is a selective reading and appropriation of the great epic, according to Cutler. It cherrypicks and brackets some rhetorical and ideological elements from the epic but ignores the rest that make the epic into a complete masterpiece. In the third book of the epic, the Tamil king Cenkuttuvan defeats his fellow Tamil kings and then invades and conquers the Deccan and the north Indian kingdoms. Yet, states Cutler,

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3008-616: The Cilappadikaram is the "first literary expression and the first ripe fruit of the Aryan-Dravidian synthesis in Tamilnadu". In early 20th-century, the Cilappadikaram became a rallying basis for some Tamil nationalists based in Sri Lanka and colonial-era Madras Presidency. The epic is considered as the "first consciously national work" and evidence of the fact that the "Tamils had by that time [mid 1st-millennium CE] attained nationhood", or

3102-534: The Cilappatikāram is an epic about an ordinary couple caught up with universal questions and internal, emotional war. The Cilappatikaram legend has been a part of the Tamil oral tradition. The palm-leaf manuscripts of the original epic poem, along with those of the Sangam literature, were rediscovered in monasteries in the second half of the 19th century by UV Swaminatha Aiyar – a pandit and Tamil scholar. After being preserved and copied in temples and monasteries in

3196-511: The Kovalam Katai . It is attributed to a prince-turned-monk Iḷaṅkō Aṭikaḷ , and was probably composed in the 2nd century CE. The Cilappatikāram is set in a flourishing seaport city of the early Chola kingdom. Kaṇṇaki and Kōvalaṉ are a newly married couple, in love, and living in bliss. Over time, Kōvalaṉ meets Mātavi (Mādhavi) – a courtesan. He falls for her, leaves Kaṇṇaki and moves in with Mātavi. He spends lavishly on her. Kaṇṇaki

3290-451: The Ramayana and Mahabharata , the shloka form is used. The primary form of epic, especially as discussed in this article, is the heroic epic , including such works as the Iliad and Mahabharata . Ancient sources also recognized didactic epic as a category, represented by such works as Hesiod 's Works and Days and Lucretius's De rerum natura . A related type of poetry is

3384-602: The Ramayana was known to the Cilappatikaram audience many centuries before the Kamba Ramayanam of the 12th century CE. The 17th cannot of the epic explains the Beauty and greatness of Lord Vishnu with respect to his forms and Various incarnations. Vishnu was the deity most mentioned in Tamil Sangam literature and is said to be one of the favourite gods of the people who lived in the Sangam time. The epic states that "Vain are

3478-453: The aimperunkappiyankal , which literally means "five great kavyas". According to D. Dennis Hudson – a World Religions and Tamil literature scholar, the Cilappatikaram is the earliest and first complete Tamil reference to Pillai (Nila, Nappinnai, Radha), who is described in the epic as the cowherd lover of Krishna. The epic includes abundant stories and allusions to Krishna and his stories, which are also found in ancient Sanskrit Puranas. In

3572-585: The performative verb "I sing". Examples: This Virgilian epic convention is referenced in Walt Whitman 's poem title / opening line "I sing the body electric". Compare the first six lines of the Kalevala : These conventions are largely restricted to European classical culture and its imitators. The Epic of Gilgamesh , for example, or the Bhagavata Purana do not contain such elements, nor do early medieval Western epics that are not strongly shaped by

3666-515: The temples of Unborn Shiva , of Murugan [beauteous god of Youth], of nacre white Valliyon [Balarama] brother of Krishna , of dark Vishnu called Nediyon, and of Indra himself with his string of pearls and his victorious parasol. Vedic rituals are performed and stories from the Puranas are told, while temples of the Jains and their charitable institutions can be seen about the city. The Cilappatikaram

3760-572: The "great war", just like the story was familiar to the Sangam era poets too as evidenced in Puram 2 and Akam 233. One of the poets is nicknamed as "The Peruntevanar who sang the Bharatam [Mahabharatam]", once again confirming that the Tamil poets by the time Cilappatikaram was composed were intimately aware of the Sanskrit epics, the literary structure and significance of Mahakavyas genre. To be recognized as an accomplished extraordinary poet, one must compose

3854-518: The 16th century the Spenserian stanza and blank verse were also introduced. The French alexandrine is currently the heroic line in French literature, though in earlier literature – such as the chanson de geste – the decasyllable grouped in laisses took precedence. In Polish literature, couplets of Polish alexandrines (syllabic lines of 7+6 syllables) prevail. In Russian, iambic tetrameter verse

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3948-456: The ABABABCC rhyme scheme . Example: Canto l'arme pietose, e 'l Capitano Che 'l gran sepolcro liberò di Cristo. Molto egli oprò col senno e con la mano; Molto soffrì nel glorioso acquisto: E invan l'Inferno a lui s'oppose; e invano s'armò d'Asia e di Libia il popol misto: Chè 'l Ciel gli diè favore, e sotto ai santi Segni ridusse i suoi compagni erranti. The sacred armies, and

4042-501: The Chera kingdom learns about her, resolves to build a temple with Kannaki as the featured goddess. They go to the Himalayas, bring a stone, carve her image, call her goddess Pattini , dedicate a temple, order daily prayers, and perform a royal sacrifice. The manuscripts of the epic include a prologue called patikam . This is likely a later addition to the older epic. It, nevertheless, shows

4136-482: The Cilappatikaram are set in the akaval meter, a meter found in the more ancient Tamil Sangam literature . It has verses in other meters and contains five songs also in a different meter. These features suggest that the epic was performed in the form of stage drama that mixed recitation of cantos with the singing of songs. The 30 cantos were reciting as monologues. The Tamil epic has many references and allusions to

4230-536: The Fifth Ten of the Patiṟṟuppattu , a poem of the Sangam literature . In it or elsewhere, however, there is no evidence that the famous king had a brother. V. Kanakasabhai opined that Ilango was a monk of a nirgrantha sect of Jain . The Sangam poems never mention Ilango Adigal, the epic or the name of any other author for the epic. The Ilango Adigal name appears in a much later dated patikam (prologue) attached to

4324-510: The Homeric epics, the earliest works of Western literature, were fundamentally an oral poetic form. These works form the basis of the epic genre in Western literature. Nearly all of Western epic (including Virgil's Aeneid and Dante's Divine Comedy ) self-consciously presents itself as a continuation of the tradition begun by these poems. In his work Poetics , Aristotle defines an epic as one of

4418-542: The Jains and the Ajivikas. There are Buddhist references too in the Cilappadikaram such as about Mahabodhi, but these are very few – unlike the other Tamil epic Maṇimēkalai . Yet, all these references are embedded in a cordial community, where all share the same ideas and belief in karma and related premises. The major festivals described in the epic are pan-Indian and these festivals are also found in ancient Sanskrit literature. U. V. Swaminatha Iyer (1855-1942 CE),

4512-653: The Mongols , the Kyrgyz Manas , and the Malian Sundiata . Epic poems of the modern era include Derek Walcott 's Omeros , Mircea Cărtărescu 's The Levant and Adam Mickiewicz 's Pan Tadeusz . Paterson by William Carlos Williams , published in five volumes from 1946 to 1958, was inspired in part by another modern epic, The Cantos by Ezra Pound . The first epics were products of preliterate societies and oral history poetic traditions. Oral tradition

4606-1068: The Persian Shahnameh , the Ancient Greek Odyssey and Iliad , Virgil 's Aeneid , the Old English Beowulf , Dante 's Divine Comedy , the Finnish Kalevala , the German Nibelungenlied , the French Song of Roland , the Spanish Cantar de mio Cid , the Portuguese Os Lusíadas , the Armenian Daredevils of Sassoun , the Old Russian The Tale of Igor's Campaign , John Milton 's Paradise Lost , The Secret History of

4700-490: The Sanskrit epics and puranic legends. For example, it describes the fate of Poompuhar suffering the same agony as experienced by Ayodhya when Rama leaves for exile to the forest as instructed by his father. The Aycciyarkuravai section (canto 27), makes mention of the Lord who could measure the three worlds, going to the forest with his brother, waging a war against Lanka and destroying it with fire. These references indicate that

4794-474: The ascetic-prince legend about Ilango Adigal as included in the last canto of Cilappadikaram is odd. In the epic, Ilango Adigal attends a Vedic sacrifice with the Chera king Cenkuttuvan after the king brings back the Himalayan stone to make a statue of Kannaki. If the author Ilango Adigal was a Jain ascetic and given our understanding of Jainism's historic view on the Vedas and Vedic sacrifices, why would he attend

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4888-459: The beliefs, the ideologies, and the customs portrayed in the Cilappatikāram , which makes the early dating implausible. Further, the epic's style, structure and other details are quite similar to the texts composed centuries later. These point to a much later date. According to Zvelebil, the Cilappatikāram that has survived into the modern era "cannot have been composed before the 5th- to 6th-century". According to other scholars, such as Iyengar,

4982-685: The canto where Kannaki is waiting for Kovalan to return after selling her anklet to a Madurai merchant, she is in a village with cowgirls. These cowherd girls enact a dance, where one plays Mayavan (Krishna), another girl plays Tammunon (Balarama), while a third plays Pinnai (Radha). The dance begins with a song listing Krishna's heroic deeds and his fondness for Radha, then they dance where sage Narada plays music. Such scenes where cowgirls imitate Krishna's life story are also found in Sanskrit poems of Harivamsa and Vishnu Purana , both generally dated to be older than Cilappatikaram . The Tamil epic calls portions of it as vāla caritai nāṭaṅkaḷ , which mirrors

5076-417: The capitals of the three major early Tamil kingdoms: The katais range between 53 and 272 lines each. In addition to the 25 cantos, the epic has 5 song cycles: Canto V of Silappadikaram The entire Canto V is devoted to the festival of Indra , which takes place in the ancient city of Puhar . The festivities begin at the temple of the white elephant [Airavata, the mount of Indra] and they continue in

5170-540: The caste system of Indian society and the life of the lower levels of society, such as cobblers and shepherds, see C.N. Ramachandran, "Ambivalence and Angst: A Note on Indian folk epics," in Lauri Honko (2002. p. 295). Some Indian oral epics feature strong women who actively pursue personal freedom in their choice of a romantic partner (Stuart, Claus, Flueckiger and Wadley, eds, 1989, p. 5). Japanese traditional performed narratives were sung by blind singers. One of

5264-635: The classical traditions, such as the Chanson de Roland or the Poem of the Cid . Narrative opens " in the middle of things ", with the hero at his lowest point. Usually flashbacks show earlier portions of the story. For example, the Iliad does not tell the entire story of the Trojan War, starting with the judgment of Paris , but instead opens abruptly on the rage of Achilles and its immediate causes. So too, Orlando Furioso

5358-427: The due checks and processes of justice. When Kovalan does not return home, Kannaki goes searching for him. She learns what has happened. She protests the injustice and then proves Kovalan's innocence by throwing in the court the other jeweled anklet of the pair. The king accepts his mistake. Kannaki curses the king and curses the people of Madurai, tearing off her breast and throwing it at the gathered public, triggering

5452-545: The early verses of the third section. This part adds nothing to the story, is independent, is likely to be of a much later century. Other scholars, including Zvelebil, state that this need not necessarily be so. The third section covers the third of three major kingdoms of the ancient Tamil region, the first section covered the Cholas and the second the Pandya. Further, states Zvelebil, the deification of Kaṇṇaki keeps her theme active and

5546-516: The ears which do not hear the glory of Rama who is Vishnu, Vain are the eyes which do not see the dark hued Lord, the great God, the Mayavan Vishnu, Vain is the tongue that will not praise him who triumphed over the deceit of the foolish schemer Kamsa ( Krishna ), Vain is the tongue which does not say ‘ Narayana ’. According to Zvelebil, the Cilappatikaram mentions the Mahabharata and calls it

5640-460: The epic as performing Vedic sacrifices and rituals, where Agni and Varuna are invoked, and the Vedas are chanted. These and numerous other details in the epic were neither of Dravidian roots nor icons, rather they reflect an acceptance of and reverence for certain shared pan-Indian cultural rituals, symbols and values, what Himalayas and Ganges signify to the Indic culture. The epic rhetorically does present

5734-442: The first expression of a sense of Tamil cultural integrity and Tamil dominance. This view is shared by some modernist Tamil playwrights, movie makers, and politicians. According to Norman Cutler, this theme runs in recent works such as the 1962 re-rendering of the Cilappadikaram into Kannakip Puratcikkappiyam by Paratitacan, and the 1967 play Cilappatikaram: Natakak Kappiyam by M. Karunanidhi – an influential politician and

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5828-412: The first two sections of the epic were likely the original epic, and third mythical section after the destruction of Madurai is likely a later extrapolation, an addendum that introduces a mix of Jaina, Hindu and Buddhist stories and practices, including the legend about the ascetic prince. The hero (Kōvalaṉ) is long dead, and the heroine (Kaṇṇaki) follows him shortly thereafter into heaven, as represented in

5922-514: The flames of a citywide inferno. The remorseful king dies in shock. Madurai is burnt to the ground because of her curse. The violence of the Kannaki fire kills everyone, except "only Brahmins, good men, cows, truthful women, cripples, old men and children", states Zvelebil. Kannaki leaves Madurai and heads into the mountainous region of the Chera kingdom. Gods and goddesses meet Kannaki, the king of gods Indra himself comes with his chariot, and Kannaki goes to heaven with Indra . The royal family of

6016-509: The form of a song or a dance, which does not go well with western audience as they are assessed to be inspired on the spur of the moment. According to a Calcutta review, the three-epic works on a whole have no plot and no characterization to qualify for an epic genre. A review by George L. Hart , a professor of Tamil language at the University of California, Berkeley , "the Silappatikaram

6110-425: The form of palm-leaf manuscripts, Aiyar published its first partial edition on paper in 1872, the full edition in 1892. Since then the epic poem has been translated into many languages including English. According to V R Ramachandra Dikshitar, the title Silappatikāram – also spelled Silappadikaram – is a combination of two words, "silambu" ( anklet ) and "adikaram" (the story about). It therefore connotes

6204-499: The forms of poetry, contrasted with lyric poetry and drama (in the form of tragedy and comedy). Harmon & Holman (1999) define an epic: Harmon and Holman delineate ten main characteristics of an epic: The hero generally participates in a cyclical journey or quest, faces adversaries that try to defeat them in their journey, and returns home significantly transformed by their journey. The epic hero illustrates traits, performs deeds, and exemplifies certain morals that are valued by

6298-453: The god Indra . The King Cheran Chenkuttuvan and royal family of the Chera kingdom (Today Kerala) learn about her and resolve to build a temple with Kannagi as the featured goddess. They go to the Himalayas, bring a stone, carve her image, call her goddess Pattini , dedicate a temple, order daily prayers, and perform a royal sacrifice. The Cilappatikāram is an ancient literary masterpiece. It

6392-499: The godly knight, That the great sepulchre of Christ did free, I sing; much wrought his valor and foresight, And in that glorious war much suffered he; In vain 'gainst him did Hell oppose her might, In vain the Turks and Morians armèd be: His soldiers wild, to brawls and mutines prest, Reducèd he to peace, so Heaven him blest. From the 14th century English epic poems were written in heroic couplets , and rhyme royal , though in

6486-412: The importance of line consistency and poetic meter. Ancient Greek epics were composed in dactylic hexameter . Very early Latin epicists, such Livius Andronicus and Gnaeus Naevius , used Saturnian meter. By the time of Ennius , however, Latin poets had adopted dactylic hexameter . Dactylic hexameter has been adapted by a few anglophone poets such as Longfellow in " Evangeline ", whose first line

6580-402: The legends in the epic itself are a weak foundation for dating the text. A stronger foundation is the linguistics, events and other sociological details in the text when compared to those in other Tamil literature, new words and grammatical forms, and the number of non-Tamil loan words in the text. The Sangam era texts of the 100–250 CE period are strikingly different in style, language structure,

6674-449: The literary value of the epic to later Tamil generations: We shall compose a poem, with songs, To explain these truths: even kings, if they break The law, have their necks wrung by dharma; Great men everywhere commend wife of renowned fame; and karma ever Manifests itself, and is fulfilled. We shall call the poem The Cilappatikāram , the epic of the anklet, Since the anklet brings these truths to light. Twenty-five cantos of

6768-399: The main epic, and these additions may be of 7th- to 8th century. Daniélou concurs that the epic may have been "slightly" reshaped and enlarged in the centuries after the original epic was composed, but the epic as it has survived into the modern age is quite homogeneous and lacks evidence of additions by multiple authors. Iravatham Mahadevan states that the mention of a weekday (Friday) in

6862-467: The modern era, some Tamil scholars have linked the Ilango Adigal legend about he is being the brother of king Cenkuttuvan, as a means to date this text. A Chera king Cenkuttuvan is tentatively placed in the 100–250 CE, and the traditionalists, therefore, place the text to the same period. In 1939, for example, the Tamil literature scholar Ramachandra Dikshitar presented a number of events mentioned within

6956-425: The mortal universe for their descendants. With regard to oral tradition , epics consist of formal speech and are usually learnt word for word, and are contrasted with narratives which consist of everyday speech where the performer has the license to recontextualize the story to a particular audience, often to a younger generation. The English word epic comes from Latin epicus , which itself comes from

7050-498: The most famous, The Tale of the Heike , deals with historical wars and had a ritual function to placate the souls of the dead (Tokita 2015, p. 7). A variety of epic forms are found in Africa. Some have a linear, unified style while others have a more cyclical, episodic style (Barber 2007, p. 50). People in the rice cultivation zones of south China sang long narrative songs about

7144-683: The origin of rice growing, rebel heroes, and transgressive love affairs (McLaren 2022). The borderland ethnic populations of China sang heroic epics, such as the Epic of King Gesar of the Mongols , and the creation-myth epics of the Yao people of south China. Silappatikaram Cilappatikāram ( Tamil : சிலப்பதிகாரம் , Malayalam : ചിലപ്പതികാരം , IPA : ʧiləppət̪ikɑːrəm, lit. "the Tale of an Anklet"), also referred to as Silappathikaram or Silappatikaram ,

7238-406: The pair. The king accepts his folly. Kannagi curses the king and the people of Madurai, tearing off her breast and throwing it at the gathered public. The king dies. The society that had made her suffer, suffers in retribution as the city of Madurai is burnt to the ground because of her curse. In the third section of the epic, gods and goddesses meet Kannagi at Cheranadu and she goes to heaven with

7332-544: The phrase balacarita nataka – dramas about the story of the child [Krishna]" – in the more ancient Sanskrit kavyas . According to the Indologist Friedhelm Hardy, this canto and others in the Tamil epic reflect a culture where "Dravidian, Tamil, Sanskrit, Brahmin, Buddhist, Jain and many other influences" had already fused into a composite whole in the South Indian social consciousness. According to Zvelebil,

7426-407: The poem, and the authenticity of this attribution is doubtful. According to Gananath Obeyesekere, the story of the purported Cilappadikaram author Ilango Adigal as the brother of a famous Chera king "must be later interpolations", something that was a characteristic feature of early literature. The mythical third section about gods meeting Kannaki after Kovalan's death, in the last Canto, mentions

7520-706: The poet is also paying homage to the ancestors of audience members. Examples: In the Homeric and post-Homeric tradition, epic style is typically achieved through the use of the following stylistic features: Many verse forms have been used in epic poems through the ages, but each language's literature typically gravitates to one form, or at least to a very limited set. Ancient Sumerian epic poems did not use any kind of poetic meter and lines did not have consistent lengths; instead, Sumerian poems derived their rhythm solely through constant repetition and parallelism , with subtle variations between lines. Indo-European epic poetry, by contrast, usually places strong emphasis on

7614-417: The rain god, there is a singing competition. Kovalan sings a poem about a woman who hurt her lover. Matavi then sings a song about a man who betrayed his lover. Each interprets the song as a message to the other. Kovalan feels Matavi is unfaithful to him and leaves her. Kannaki is still waiting for him. She takes him back. Kannaki and Kovalan leave the city and travel to Madurai of the Pandya kingdom. Kovalan

7708-417: The real date of composition, states Alain Daniélou – a French Indologist who translated the Cilappadikaram in 1965. Daniélou states that the epic – along with the other four Tamil epics – were all composed sometime between the last part of the Sangam and the subsequent centuries, that is "3rd to 7th-century". Other scholars, such as Kamil Zvelebil – a Tamil literature and history scholar, state that

7802-554: The same book places an "undeniable prestige" for a "rock from the Himalayas", the "river Ganges" and other symbols from the north to honor Kannaki. Similarly, the Pandyan and the Chera king in various katais , as well as the three key characters of the epic (Kannaki, Kovalan and Madhavi) in other katais of the Cilappadikaram pray in Hindu temples dedicated to Shiva, Murugan, Vishnu, Krishna, Balarama, Indra, Korravai (Parvati), Saraswati, Lakshmi, and others. The Tamil kings are described in

7896-436: The society the epic originates from. Many epic heroes are recurring characters in the legends of their native cultures. In the Indian mahākāvya epic genre, more emphasis was laid on description than on narration. Indeed, the traditional characteristics of a mahākāvya are listed as: Classical epic poetry recounts a journey, either physical (as typified by Odysseus in the Odyssey ) or mental (as typified by Achilles in

7990-577: The temples. This helped trigger an interest in ancient Tamil literature. Aiyar published its first partial edition in 1872, the full edition in 1892. Since then, the epic poem has been translated into many languages. S Ramanathan (1917-1988 CE) has published articles on the musical aspects of the Silappadikaram . To some critics, Maṇimēkalai is more interesting than Cilappadikaram , but in terms of literary evaluation, it seems inferior. According to Panicker, there are effusions in Cilappadikaram in

8084-551: The term 'epic' to heroic epic , as described in this article. Originating before the invention of writing, primary epics, such as those of Homer , were composed by bards who used complex rhetorical and metrical schemes by which they could memorize the epic as received in tradition and add to the epic in their performances. Later writers like Virgil , Apollonius of Rhodes , Dante , Camões , and Milton adopted and adapted Homer's style and subject matter , but used devices available only to those who write. The oldest epic recognized

8178-584: The text and the negative portrayal of a Pandya king narrows the probable date of composition to between 450 and 550 CE. This is because the concept of weekdays did not exist in India until the 5th century CE, and the Pandya dynasty only regained power in 550 CE, thus meaning that Jains could freely criticise them without any threat to their lives. The Cilappatikaram is divided into three kantams (book, Skt: khanda ), which are further subdivided into katais (cantos, Skt: katha ). The three kantams are named after

8272-523: The text and thereby derived that the text was composed about 171 CE. According to Dhandayudham, the epic should be dated to between the 3rd and 5th century. Ramachandra Dikshitar analysis that the epic was composed before the Pallava dynasty emerged as a major power in the 6th-century is accepted by most scholars, because there is no mention of the highly influential Pallavas in the epic. His chronological estimate of 171 CE for Cilappadikaram cannot be far from

8366-562: The traditional European definition of the heroic epic are sometimes known as folk epics. Indian folk epics have been investigated by Lauri Honko (1998), Brenda Beck (1982) and John Smith, amongst others. Folk epics are an important part of community identities. The folk genre known as al-sira relates the saga of the Hilālī tribe and their migrations across the Middle East and north Africa, see Bridget Connelly (1986). In India, folk epics reflect

8460-574: The whole epic into a novel as Kotravai in 2005. The novel having adapted the original plot and characters, it revolves around the ancient South Indian traditions, also trying to fill the gaps in the history using multiple narratives. H. S. Shivaprakash a leading poet and playwright in Kannada has also re-narrated a part from the epic namely Madurekanda . It has also been re-narrated in Hindi by famous Hindi writer Amritlal Nagar in his novel Suhag Ke Nupur which

8554-425: Was a hit when it was released. The movie Poompuhar , penned by M. Karunanidhi is also based on Cilapathikaram. There are multiple dance dramas as well by some of the great exponents of Bharatanatyam in Tamil as most of the verses of Cilappathikaram can be set to music. Cilappatikaram also occupies much of the screen time in the 15th and 16th episodes of the television series Bharat Ek Khoj . Pallavi Joshi played

8648-399: Was published in 1960. He had also written a 1.25-hour radio-play on the story which was broadcast on Aakashvani in 1952. There have been multiple movies based on the story of Cilappathikaram and the most famous is the portrayal of Kannagi by actress Kannamba in the 1942 movie Kannagi . P. U. Chinnappa played the lead as Kovalan. The movie faithfully follows the story of Cilappathikaram and

8742-455: Was that oral epics tend to be constructed in short episodes, each of equal status, interest and importance. This facilitates memorization, as the poet is recalling each episode in turn and using the completed episodes to recreate the entire epic as he performs it. Parry and Lord also contend that the most likely source for written texts of the epics of Homer was dictation from an oral performance. Milman Parry and Albert Lord have argued that

8836-453: Was used alongside written scriptures to communicate and facilitate the spread of culture. In these traditions, poetry is transmitted to the audience and from performer to performer by purely oral means. Early 20th-century study of living oral epic traditions in the Balkans by Milman Parry and Albert Lord demonstrated the paratactic model used for composing these poems. What they demonstrated

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