Kannagi - Epic Heroine turned Goddess

Kannagi Statue in Chennai

 
I planned to write this post four years ago after a trip to Kodungallur in Kerala. Recently I watched the Tamil movie "Elaam Arivu (7th sense). That movie inspired me to execute my four year plan now. With the (imagination mixed) information from Elaam Arivu, now we all know that "Bodhidharma", a Buddhist monk from South India (Kanchipuram) went to China to transmit Zen/Mahayana Buddhism, who is worshipped as a great master in the shaolin temples all over the world. But how many of us know that a Tamil epic heroine, Kannagi, is worshipped as goddess in the neighboring Kerala and Srilanka?

That was August 2007. I was on my way to Cochin from Guruvayur on a 4 days trip to kerala with my family. As per the itinerary, we had a plan to visit Kodungallur bhagavathy temple before reaching Cochin. When we reached Kodungallur, I saw a name board "Kannagi guest house". The board was written in English, Malayalam and Tamil. I told my wife that the name could be because of a Tamil donor who would have offered huge contributions to this temple's guest house. It was around 3 p.m. The temple was closed and we had to wait in the hall of temple's inner entrance. Above the main gate of the entrance I saw a painting.

Kannagi in the royal court of Pandya King

 In the portrait (realistic than the one shown here) I saw a furious woman with wide red eyes and a hand in raised position with an anklet. She was standing in the mid of a King's court. Anyone who knows Silappathikaram (One of the 5 great Tamil epics written by Elango Adigal, a prince turned Jain monk) can immediately understand that the portrait is nothing but the depcition of Kannagi in the court of Pandya King Nedunjcheliyan. I wondered why this portrait is placed at the entrance of this temple.

When I was walking through the inner prakaaram of the temple, I saw an idol with a name "Kannagi". I got a little surprised to see that. I called an old woman (believe me.. I called an old woman only!) to understand more about it. Though I could not understand much her Malayalam, I understood that the idol is nothing but Kannagi and she is considered as the sister of Bhagavathy. I thought I should collect more details about it later.

Few days after coming back to Chennai, I started searching the internet for the connection between Kodugallur and Kannagi. The following findings of my search showed a larger image of Kannagi than what I learnt in my school.

Goddess Pattini with anklets

After cursing and setting ablaze Madurai, Kannagi leaves the city. She attains salvation and wanders in the western ghats. Finally she reaches Kodungallur and remains there as Bhagavathy. The temple at Kodungallur is said to be built by Cheran Chenkuttuvan (Kodungallur had a port which was known as 'Musiris' by Greeks. When I read about the port 'Musiri' in my 9th standard history, I used to get confused that with another 'Musiri' in Trichy district, though the 'Musiri' port was part of Chera kingdom and 'Musiri' in Trichy district should have been a part of Chola kingdom). Kannagi on her way to Kodungallur, gives dharshan to the people of Attukal. They built a temple for
Kannagi. The Attukal Bhagavathy temple and it's Atukkal Pongala festival is very popular. Attukkal pongala festival is attended by millions of women every year.

Goddess Pattini

On further search about Kannagi, I found that she is worshipped as goddess in Sinhala Buddhism too. She is known as 'Pattini' in Sri Lanka. She is worshipped by Hindus and Buddhists of Sri Lanka.

There are some more references, which compare Kannagi and Egyptian Goddess Isis.

It is not about Kannagi's chaste and loyalty to her husband that we need to talk about. It is about the courage of a woman that questioned the king and punished him and his kingdom for his mistake. While she is worshipped as a goddess outside Tamilnadu, there were problems in keeping her statue in the same state where she lived.

I am not sure whether the story of Kannagi is taught in the schools now. Unless we tell the stories of the great legends lived in our own soil, our children will always look towards  West for role models.


References:

http://www.storytellinginstitute.org/
http://www.sripambattisiddhar.com/articles/kodungallur.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodungallur
http://www.hindu.com/2006/06/16/stories/2006061603461100.htm - Kannagi statue in Marina
http://groundviews.org/2011/01/11/female-deities-of-theravada-buddhism-kannagi-and-pattini/
http://poonaattukaldevi.com/kannagi.html
http://www.scribd.com/doc/17679901/Isis-In-India
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pattini
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kannagi
http://www.attukal.org/