Critically discuss the concept of chastity and power in silappadikaram
Answers
Answer:
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.
Answer:
Cilappatikaram (literally, “The Tale of an Anklet”) is a Tamil epic, a remarkable example of one of the earliest pieces of Sangam Poetry (poetry that talks of love), passed down through oral traditions. Often considered somewhat feminist, written by a Jain monk Ilango Adigal between first and third century AD, Cilappatikaram is an interesting piece of literature that makes a woman the lead of the story. More than that, she ends up defending her husband and “winning” him back in some ways.
Cilappatikaram starts with the marriage of Kannaki, the “noble daughter of a prince among merchants” to Kovalan, an equally virtuous man. The ideals of virtue around this time, for a woman, had much to do with her “chastity”. Kannaki is portrayed as the prime “wife-material”, so to speak, literally mentioned in how “beyond all praise was Kannaki’s name renowned for making a home”. But as it so very often happens with the men in classical literature, Kovalan inevitably falls in love with Matavi, a courtesan, and “under her spell” abandons Kannaki. Courtesans around this time were one of the only women to be highly educated, skilled in arts and crafts traditionally reserved for men. The use of “under her spell” however, points to the relatively similar sentiments of the public itself. She is someone who is almost “witch-like”, someone who will “steal” away the man -by “bewitching” him.