Kannagi, a gem of housewife, a ‘paragon of chastity’, has been immortalized in the pages of silappadikaaram, the famous Tamil epic of Ilango, the Chera prince-turned-ascetic.

An ill-fated housewife, Kannagi loses her husband, Kovalan, to the art of a dancer, Madhavi, and finds him again only to lose him to the blind low of a king. Her story is set in the three ancient cities of South India – Poompuhhar, the Chola capital where she grew up; Madurai, the Pandya cpital where she fell; and Vanji, the Chera capital which placed her on a pedestal.

The epic is a rich record of a great civilization, vivid with descriptions of edifices, shrines, docks, market-places, squares; of laws and rituals, of Natya Shastra (the science of dance), musicology and musical instruments of the day. Known for its high dramatic content, Silappadikaaram is a shining jewel in Tamil literature.

Te Tamil Nadu Government has recently perpetuated the memory of Ilanga and his immortal classic by erecting at Kaveripattinam, a magnificent seven-storeyed art gallery called Silappadikaaram Kalaikoodam in ancient Dravidian architectural style. The structure narrates the story of Kannagi in stone carvings.