Spgm 107 - Sandra On Silappadigaram Part Ii Poem by Rajaram Ramachandran

When Kannagi sees her husband we hear her heart's lament in these eloquent verses:

On the floor she saw him lying.
The evening sun started setting.
The Madurai City raised its noise,
When it heard her sad voice.

That morning only a flower,
She had it from her lover,
But she saw him speechless,
In a pool of blood motionless. (180) .

Her cry, in intense, passionate poetry, echoes through the town:

"Is there a woman here?
Like me who is born to suffer?
Who can bear this loss like me?
Is there any one like me?

"Is there a God in this town?
Where the justice has fallen?
The king's rule is broken.
Is there a God in this town? " (181) ,

therefore, she decides to confront King Pandian for his sins:

Tears flowed from her eyes
She remembered her dreams
She wiped out her tears
And reached Pandian's palace (182) .

Before the King and Queen she stands and declares in a bold voice:

"I married the son of Masathuvan,
The son's name is Kovalan
Kannagi is my name
To sell my anklet he came."

"He was killed by your guard
I came here for justice, my lord.
The truth you don't know
The other anklet I want to show." (186) ,

and as she bends down to remove her anklet she declares:

"My Lord this anklet of mine,
Inside it contains rubies fine"
My lady, this anklet of mine,
Inside it contains pearls fine."

To prove her side she broke
A ruby stone shot at one stroke
Right on the King's face as fire,
And then it fell on the floor (186-187) .

It is then that the king's terrible mistake is revealed and his conscience becomes his executioner. We hear his impassioned cry in these powerful verses:

"On the goldmith's complaint,
On my part with no restraint,
I acted in haste, so I'm the thief
Unfit to be this country's chief" (187) .

So saying, he falls down dead. Her heart, as broken as Kannagi's anklet, the Queen touches her beloved husband's foot and joins him in death.

The poet sums up what has happened in these sad words:

Those who did acts of injustice,
At the end, they'll never meet justice.
The king's judgment error
Took away three lives forever (187-188) .

Kannagi's heartrending cries from two thousand years ago still have the power to move us, for grief knows no barriers of time, distance, or culture:

"If I'm also a chaste woman,
Let me also die with my man,
Not before I destroy this town,
And reap vengeance of mine." (191) .

Thus, she invokes the gods to send down fire from Heaven on Madurai. Then she circles the city three times and with her own hands cuts off her left breast. The gods hear her and the city burns, nor is the fire selective in spite of Kannagi's desperate prayer:

": Cows, sages, Brahamins,
Chaste women, old persons,
Children, let them be free.
And let not evils go free"

The fire turned serious,
And it became furious
It burnt the Pandian's city,
Showing no mercy or pity." (192) .

It is impossible to say how many people died that day because of something so delicate and so beautiful as Kannagi's musical anklet. Everything was prewritten. Not even the prayer of a chaste woman could change it.