The epic is a tragic love story of an ordinary couple, Kannaki and her husband Kovalan. It is a poem of 5,730 lines in almost entirely akaval ( aciriyam) meter. "the Tale of an Anklet"), also referred to as Silappathikaram or Silappatikaram, is the earliest Hindu - Jain Tamil semi-legendary epic. Silappatikaram has introduced the merger of prose with poetry, which was not commonly seen in earlier Tamil literary works.Silappatikāram ( Tamil: சிலப்பதிகாரம், IPA: ʧiləppət̪ikɑːrəm, lit. Silappatikaram is not only the first identified Tamil epic poem, but it is also very significant for its contributions in literary innovations.
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But Kovilan is misunderstood for the person who has stolen the anklets of the queen and is thus put to death. Kannaki provides her precious silambu or anklets to Kovilan so that he can sell it and get some money. This literary epoch narrates the couple visiting Madurai in pursuit of their fortune. Kannaki volitionally accepts her husband who had previously deserted her because of a dancer by the name of Madhavi and got ruined in due course. The central characters of Silappatikaram are Kovilan and Kannaki and the epic gives an account of their tragic and beautiful story. Vanchikkandam, contains 7 divisions, and each of them is made of several sub-divisions called kaathais (story sections of the chapters).Maduraikkandam, is located in Madurai in the Pandya kingdom where Kovalan lost his life and wrongly blamed for the theft of the queen's anklet.Puharkkandam, which deals with the affairs in the Chola, city of Puhar, where Kannagi and Kovalan started their married life and Kovalan leaves his wife for the courtesan Madavi.Silappatikaram contains three chapters and a total of 5270 lines of poetry. The story includes the 3 Tamil kingdoms of the ancient era, the Chola, the Chera and the Pandya. The story of the epic revolves around the legendary Kannaki who set out to avenge the death of her husband Kovalan at the hands of a Pandya king. It is narrative in nature and contains a moralistic undercurrent.
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Silappatikaram, which literally means Lay of the Anklet. As a literary work, Silappatikaram is held in high regard by the Tamil people. Silappatikaram is an elaborate poetic interpretation of Tamil culture, its diverse religions, its towns and cities, the arts of music and dance and the blend of Arab, Greek and Tamil people. The writer of Silappatikaram was Ilango Adigal, King Cheran Chenguttuvans brother.
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Silappatikaram is one of the three surviving oldest epics in the world which was written during the end of the third primeval epoch of Tamil literature, the Sangam Age.