Cilappadikaram,
The Earliest Tamil Epic
An epic has been defined as a narrative of length dealing with events of importance and grandeur. Its events and persons stimulate us because they enhance our faith in the worth of man's achievement and his nobility and dignity. Though Cilappadikaram consists of not more than ave thousand lines of poetry, only half in length of Virgil's Aeneid, it is nevertheless a long poem and celebrates the great achievements of Kannaki (the heroine of the poem) and of a Pandya and a Chera king, who are to be regarded as the other heroes of the poem. Kannaki stands pre-eminent because she is represented as having emerged successful in the conflict with the Pandyan king, who admitted his guilt in ordering the death of her innocent husband wrongly convicted of theft. To her the gods render allegiance: the fire-god obeys her commands and swallows the city of Madurai, leaving unhurt such of those as she exempted; the sun-god speaks to her in response to her pointing to the innocence of her husband; the guardian angel of Madurai city (called Madura dēvi) treads before her with faltering steps, waits long to gain access to her and cajoles her into giving a hearing (Canto XXIII); the celestials under the lead of Indra descend from heaven, appear before her, show her her dead husband in flesh and blood and then escort her to heaven. She re-appears, after reaching heaven, to bless the Chera king, Senkuttuvan, who had consecrated a temple in her honour. She also forgives and blesses the Royal dynasty of the Pandya who had wronged her. In these achievements of hers, the poet Ilanko expresses the significance of human
