Cilappatikaram

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Cilappatikāram (Malayalam:
ചിലപ്പതികാരം Tamil:
சிலப்பதிகாரம்,IPA: ʧiləppət̪ikɑːrəm, lit.
"the Tale of an Anklet"), [1] also referred to
as Silappathikaram[2] or Silappatikaram,[3]
is the earliest Tamil epic.[4] It is a poem of
5,730 lines in almost entirely akaval
(aciriyam) meter.[5] The epic is a tragic love
story of an ordinary couple, Kannaki and
her husband Kovalan.[6][7] The
Cilappatikaram has more ancient roots in
the Tamil bardic tradition, as Kannaki and
other characters of the story are
mentioned or alluded to in the Sangam
literature such as in the Naṟṟiṇai and later
texts such as the Kovalam Katai.[8][9][10] It
is attributed to a prince-turned-monk
Iḷaṅkõ Aṭikaḷ, and was probably composed
in the 5th or 6th century CE.[2][5][11]
The Cilappatikaram is set in a flourishing
seaport city of the early Chola kingdom.
Kannaki and Kovalan are a newly married
couple, in love, and living in bliss.[12] Over
time, Kovalan meets Matavi (Madhavi) – a
courtesan. He falls for her, leaves Kannaki
and moves in with Matavi. He spends
lavishly on her. Kannaki is heartbroken, but
as the chaste woman, she waits despite
her husband's unfaithfulness. During the
festival for Indra, the rain god, there is a
singing competition.[12] Kovalan sings a
poem about a woman who hurt her lover.
Matavi then sings a song about a man
who betrayed his lover. Each interprets the
song as a message to the other. Kovalan
feels Matavi is unfaithful to him and leaves
her. Kannaki is still waiting for him. She
takes him back.[12]

Kannaki (above) is the central character of the Cilappatikāram epic. Statues, reliefs and temple iconography of Kannaki are
found particularly in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

Kannagi and Kovalan leave the city and

travel to Madurai, the capital of the Pandya
kingdom. Kovalan is penniless and
destitute. He confesses his deceit to
Kannagi. She forgives him and tells him
the hurt his adultery caused her. Then she
encourages her husband to rebuild their
life together and gives him one of her
jeweled anklets to sell to raise starting
capital.[12] Kovalan sells it to a merchant,
but the merchant falsely frames him as
having stolen the anklet from the queen.
The king arrests Kovalan and then
executes him, without the due checks and
processes of justice.[12][13] When Kovalan
does not return home, Kannagi goes
searching for him. She learns what has
happened. She protests the injustice and
then proves Kovalan's innocence by
throwing in the court the other jeweled
anklet of the pair. The king accepts his
folly. Kannagi curses the king and the
people of Madurai, tearing off her breast
and throwing it at the gathered public. The
king dies. The society that had made her
suffer, suffers in retribution as the city of
Madurai is burnt to the ground because of
her curse.[12][13] In the third section of the
epic, gods and goddesses meet Kannagi
at Cheranadu and she goes to heaven with
god Indra. The King Cheran Chenkuttuvan
and royal family of the Chera kingdom
(Today Kerala) learn about her and resolve
to build a temple with Kannagi as the
featured goddess. They go to the
Himalayas, bring a stone, carve her image,
call her goddess Pattini, dedicate a temple,
order daily prayers, and perform a royal
sacrifice.[12]

The Cilappatikaram is an ancient literary

masterpiece. It is to the Tamil culture what
the Iliad is to the Greek culture, states R.
Parthasarathy.[12] 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. Yet
unlike other epics that deal with kings and
armies caught up with universal questions
and existential wars, the Cilappatikaram is
an epic about an ordinary couple caught
up with universal questions and internal,
emotional war.[14] The Cilappatikaram
legend has been a part of the Tamil oral
tradition. The palm-leaf manuscripts of the
original epic poem, along with those of the
Sangam literature, were rediscovered in
monasteries in the second half of the 19th
century by UV Swaminatha Aiyar – a
pandit and Tamil scholar. After being
preserved and copied in temples and
monasteries in the form of palm-leaf
manuscripts, Aiyar published its first
partial edition on paper in 1872, the full
edition in 1892. Since then the epic poem
has been translated into many languages
including English.[15][16][17][18]

Nomenclature

According to V R Ramachandra Dikshitar,

the title Silappatikāram – also spelled
Silappadikaram[19] – is a combination of
two words, "silambu" (anklet) and
"adikaram" (the story about). It therefore
connotes a "story that centers around an
anklet".[20] The content and context around
that center is elaborate, with
Atiyarkkunallar describing it as an epic
story told with poetry, music, and drama.[4]
Author

Statues and reliefs of Ilango

Adigal are found in India and
Sri Lanka. He is believed to be
the author of
Cilappatikaram.[21]

The Tamil tradition attributes

Cilappatikaram to the Iḷaṅkō Aṭikaḷ ("the
venerable ascetic prince"), also spelled
Ilango Adigal.[22] He is reputed to be as
Jain Monk and the brother of Chera king
Chenkuttuvan, whose family and rule are
described in the Fifth Ten of the
Patiṟṟuppattu, a poem of the Sangam
literature. In it or elsewhere, however, there
is no evidence that the famous king had a
brother.[23][22] V. Kanakasabhai opined that
Ilango was a mon of nirgrantha sect of
Jain.[24] The Sangam poems never
mention Ilango Adigal, the epic or the
name of any other author for the epic. The
Ilango Adigal name appears in a much
later dated patikam (prologue) attached to
the poem, and the authenticity of this
attribution is doubtful.[22] According to
Gananath Obeyesekere, the story of the
purported Cilappadikaram author Ilango
Adigal as the brother of a famous Chera
king "must be later interpolations",
something that was a characteristic
feature of early literature.[25]

The mythical third section about gods

meeting Kannaki after Kovalan's death, in
the last Canto, mentions a legend about a
prince turned into a monk. This has been
conflated as the story of the attributed
author as a witness. However, little factual
details about the real author(s) or
evidence exist.[22] Given the fact that older
Tamil texts mention and allude to the
Kannaki's tragic love story, states
Parthasarathy, the author was possibly
just a redactor of the oral tradition and the
epic poem was not a product of his
creative genius.[22] The author was
possibly a Jaina scholar, as in several
parts of the epic, the key characters of the
epic meet a Jaina monk or nun.[22] The
epic's praise of the Vedas, Brahmins,
inclusion of temples, Hindu gods and
goddesses and ritual worship give the text
a cosmopolitan character, and to some
scholars' evidence to propose that author
was not necessarily a Jaina
ascetic.[26][27][28]

According to Ramachandra Dikshitar, the

ascetic-prince legend about Ilango Adigal
as included in the last canto of
Cilappadikaram is odd. In the epic, Ilango
Adigal attends a Vedic sacrifice with the
Chera king Cenkuttuvan after the king
brings back the Himalayan stone to make
a statue of Kannaki.[29] If the author Ilango
Adigal was a Jain ascetic and given our
understanding of Jainism's historic view
on the Vedas and Vedic sacrifices, why
would he attend a function like the Vedic
sacrifice, states Ramachandra
Dikshitar.[30] This, and the fact that the
epic comfortably praises Shaiva and
Vaishnava lifestyle, festivals, gods and
goddesses, has led some scholars to
propose that author of this epic was a
Hindu.[29]
Ilango Adigal has been suggested to be a
contemporary of Sattanar, the author of
Manimekalai. However, evidence for such
suggestions has been lacking.[31]

Date

In the modern era, some Tamil scholars

have linked the Ilango Adigal legend about
he is being the brother of king
Cenkuttuvan, as a means to date this text.
A Chera king Cenkuttuvan is tentatively
placed in the 100–250 CE, and the
traditionalists, therefore, place the text to
the same period.[32][26] In 1939, for
example, the Tamil literature scholar
Ramachandra Dikshitar presented a
number of events mentioned within the
text and thereby derived that the text was
composed about 171 CE.[33][34] According
to Dhandayudham, the epic should be
dated to between the 3rd and 5th
century.[35] Ramachandra Dikshitar
analysis that the epic was composed
before the Pallava dynasty emerged as a
major power in the 6th-century is accepted
by most scholars, because there is no
mention of the highly influential Pallavas in
the epic. His chronological estimate of
171 CE for Cilappadikaram cannot be far
from the real date of composition, states
Alain Daniélou – a French Indologist who
translated the Cilappadikaram in 1965.
Daniélou states that the epic – along with
the other four Tamil epics – were all
composed sometime between the last
part of the Sangam and the subsequent
centuries, that is "3rd to 7th-century".[36]

Other scholars, such as Kamil Zvelebil – a

Tamil literature and history scholar, state
that the legends in the epic itself are a
weak foundation for dating the text.[37] A
stronger foundation is the linguistics,
events and other sociological details in the
text when compared to those in other
Tamil literature, new words and
grammatical forms, and the number of
non-Tamil loan words in the text. The
Sangam era texts of the 100–250 CE
period are strikingly different in style,
language structure, the beliefs, the
ideologies, and the customs portrayed in
the Cilappathikram, which makes the early
dating implausible.[37] Further, the epic's
style, structure and other details are quite
similar to the texts composed centuries
later. These point to a much later date.
According to Zvelebil, the Cilappathikram
that has survived into the modern era
"cannot have been composed before the
5th- to 6th-century".[37]
According to other scholars, such as
Iyengar, the first two sections of the epic
were likely the original epic, and third
mythical section after the destruction of
Madurai is likely a later extrapolation, an
addendum that introduces a mix of Jaina,
Hindu and Buddhist stories and practices,
including the legend about the ascetic
prince. The hero (Kovalan) is long dead,
and the heroine (Kannaki) follows him
shortly thereafter into heaven, as
represented in the early verses of the third
section. This part adds nothing to the
story, is independent, is likely to be of a
much later century.[37]
Other scholars, including Zvelebil, state
that this need not necessarily be so. The
third section covers the third of three
major kingdoms of the ancient Tamil
region, the first section covered the Cholas
and the second the Pandya. Further, states
Zvelebil, the deification of Kannaki keeps
her theme active and is consistent with the
Tamil and the Indian tradition of merging a
legend into its ideas of rebirth and endless
existence.[37] The language, and style of
the third section is "perfectly
homogeneous" with the first two, it does
not seem to be the work of multiple
authors, and therefore the entire epic
should be considered a complete
masterpiece.[37][34] Fred Hardy, in contrast,
states that some sections have clearly and
cleverly been interpolated into the main
epic, and these additions may be of 7th- to
8th century.[38] Daniélou concurs that the
epic may have been "slightly" reshaped
and enlarged in the centuries after the
original epic was composed, but the epic
as it has survived into the modern age is
quite homogeneous and lacks evidence of
additions by multiple authors.[39]

Iravatham Mahadevan states that the

mention of a weekday (Friday) in the text
and the negative portrayal of a Pandya
king narrows the probable date of
composition to between 450 and 550 CE.
This is because the concept of weekdays
did not exist in India until the 5th century
CE, and the Pandya dynasty only regained
power in 550 CE, thus meaning that Jains
could freely criticise them without any
threat to their lives.[40]

Contents

The epic is based in the ancient

kingdoms of Chola (Book 1), Pandya
(Book 2) and Chera (Book 3).
Structure of Cilappatikaram

The Cilappatikaram is divided into three

kantams (book, Skt: khanda), which are
further subdivided into katais (cantos, Skt:
katha). The three kantams are named after
the capitals of the three major early Tamil
kingdoms:[41]

Pugarkkandam (Malayalam: പുഹാർ

കണ്ടം Tamil: புகார்க் காண்டம்),
based in the Chola capital of Pugar
(Kaveripoompattinam, where river Kaveri
meets the Bay of Bengal). This book is
where Kannagi and Kovalan start their
married life and Kovalan leaves his wife
for the courtesan Madhavi. This
contains 9 cantos or divisions. The first
book is largely akam (erotic love)
genre.[41]
Maturaikkandam (Malayalam: മധുരൈ
കണ്ടം Tamil: மதுரைக் காண்டம்),
based in Madurai which then was the
capital of the Pandya kingdom. This
book is where the stories about the
couple are told after leaving Puhar and
as they try to rebuild their lives. This is
also where Kovalan is unjustly executed
after being falsely framed for stealing
the queen's anklet. This book ends with
the apotheosis of Kannaki, as gods and
goddesses meet her and she herself is
revealed as a goddess. The second
book contains 11 cantos and belongs to
the puranam (mythic) genre of Tamil
literature, states Parthasarathy.[41]
Vanchikkandam (Malayalam: വഞ്ചി
കണ്ടം Tamil: வஞ்சிக் காண்டம்),
based in the capital of Chera country,
Vanci. The third book begins after
Kannaki has ascended to the heavens in
the chariot of Indra. The epic tells the
legends around the Chera king, queen
and army resolving to build a temple for
her as goddess Pattini. It contains the
Chera journey to the Himalayas, the
 battles along the way and finally the
successful completion of the temple for
Kannaki's worship. This book contains 5
cantos. The book is the puram (heroic)
genre.[41]

The katais range between 53 and 272 lines

each. In addition to the 25 cantos, the epic
has 5 song cycles:[41]

The love songs of the seaside grove

The song and dance of the hunters
The round dance of the herdswomen
The round dance of the hill dwellers
The benediction
Main characters

Statue of Kannagi at Chennai

Marina Beach.

Kannagi – the heroine and central

character of the epic; she is the simple,
quiet, patient and faithful housewife fully
dedicated to her unfaithful husband in
book 1; who transforms into a
passionate, heroic, rage-driven revenge
seeker of injustice in book 2; then
becomes a goddess that inspires Chera
people to build her temple, invade, fight
wars to get a stone from the Himalaya,
make a statue of Kannaki and begin the
worship of goddess Pattini.[42] Lines
1.27–29 of the epic introduces her with
allusions to the Vedic mythology of
Samudra Manthan, as, "She is Lakshmi
herself, goddess of peerless beauty that
rose from the lotus, and chaste as the
immaculate Arundhati".[43]
Kovalan - husband of Kannaki, son of a
wealthy charitable kind merchant in the
seaport capital city of early Chola
kingdom at Poompuhar; Kovalan inherits
his wealth, is handsome, and the women
of the city want him. The epic introduces
him in lines 1.38–41 with "Seasoned by
music, with faces luminous as the
moon, women confided among
themselves: "He [Kovalan] is the god of
love himself, the incomparable
Murukan". His parents and Kannaki's
parents meet and arrange their
marriage, and the two are married in
Canto 1 of the epic around the
ceremonial fire with a priest completing
the holy wedding rites.[44] For a few
years, Kannaki and he live a blissful
householder's life together. The epic
alludes to this first phase of life as (lines
2.112–117), "Like snakes coupled in the
heat of passion, or Kama and Rati
smothered in each other's arms, so
Kovalan and Kannakai lived in happiness
past speaking, spent themselves in
every pleasure, thinking: we live on earth
but a few days", according to R
Parthasarathy's translation.[45]
Madhavi - A young, beautiful courtesan
dancer; the epic introduces her in Canto
3 and describes her as descended from
the line of Urvasi – the celestial dancer
in the court of Indra. She studies folk
and classical dances for 7 years from
the best teachers of the Chola kingdom,
perfects the postures and rhythmic
dancing to all musical instruments and
revered songs. She is spellbinding on
stage, wins the highest award for her
dance performance: a garland made of
1,008 gold leaves and flowers.[45]
Vasavadaththai - Madhavi's female
friend
Kosigan - Madhavi's messenger to
Kovalan
Madalan - A Brahmin visitor to Madurai
from Poomphuhar (Book 2)
Kavunthi Adigal - A Jain nun (Book 2)
Neduncheliyan - Pandya king (Book 2)
Kopperundevi - Pandya Queen (Book 2)
 Indra – the god who brings Kannaki to
heaven (Book 3)
Senguttuvan - Chera king who invades
and defeats all Deccan and north Indian
kingdoms to bring a stone from the
Himalayas for a temple dedicated to
Kannaki (Book 3)

Story

Book 1
Canto V of
The Cilappatikaram is Silappadikaram
set in a flourishing The entire
seaport city of the Canto V is
early Chola kingdom. devoted to the
Kannaki and Kovalan festival of Indra,
are a newly married which takes
couple, in love, and place in the
living in bliss.[12] Over ancient city of
time, Kovalan meets Puhar. The
Matavi (Madhavi) – a festivities begin
courtesan. He falls for at the temple of
her, leaves Kannaki the white
and moves in with elephant
Matavi. He spends [Airavata, the
lavishly on her. mount of Indra]
Kannaki is and they
heartbroken, but as continue in the
the chaste woman, temples of
she waits despite her Unborn Shiva,
husband's of Murugan
unfaithfulness. During [beauteous god
the festival for Indra, of Youth], of
the rain god, there is a nacre white
singing Valliyon
competition.[12] [Balarama]
Kovalan sings a poem brother of
about a woman who Krishna, of dark
hurt her lover. Matavi Vishnu called
then sings a song Nediyon, and of
about a man who Indra himself
betrayed his lover. with his string
Each interprets the of pearls and
song as a message to his victorious
the other. Kovalan parasol. Vedic
feels Matavi is rituals are
unfaithful to him and performed and
leaves her. Kannaki is stories from the
still waiting for him. Puranas are
She takes him told, while
back.[12] temples of the
Jains and their
Book 2
charitable
Kannaki and Kovalan institutions can
leave the city and be seen about
travel to Madurai of the city.
the Pandya kingdom.
—Elizabeth
Kovalan is penniless
Rosen, Review
and destitute. He
of Alain
confesses his
Daniélou's
mistakes to Kannaki.
translation of
She forgives him and
Silappatikaram
tells him the pain his [46]
unfaithfulness gave
her. Then she encourages her husband to
rebuild their life together and gives him
one of her jeweled anklets to sell to raise
starting capital.[12] Kovalan sells it to a
merchant, but the merchant falsely frames
him as having stolen the anklet from the
queen. The king arrests Kovalan and then
executes him, without the due checks and
processes of justice.[12][13] When Kovalan
does not return home, Kannaki goes
searching for him. She learns what has
happened. She protests the injustice and
then proves Kovalan's innocence by
throwing in the court the other jeweled
anklet of the pair. The king accepts his
mistake. Kannaki curses the king and
curses the people of Madurai, tearing off
her breast and throwing it at the gathered
public, triggering the flames of a citywide
inferno. The remorseful king dies in shock.
Madurai is burnt to the ground because of
her curse.[12][13] The violence of the
Kannaki fire kills everyone, except "only
Brahmins, good men, cows, truthful
women, cripples, old men and children",
states Zvelebil.[47]

Book 3

Kannaki leaves Madurai and heads into the

mountainous region of the Chera kingdom.
Gods and goddesses meet Kannaki, the
king of gods Indra himself comes with his
chariot, and Kannaki goes to heaven with
Indra. The royal family of the Chera
kingdom learns about her, resolves to build
a temple with Kannaki as the featured
goddess. They go to the Himalayas, bring
a stone, carve her image, call her goddess
Pattini, dedicate a temple, order daily
prayers, and perform a royal sacrifice.[12]

Literary value and

significance

The manuscripts of the epic include a

prologue called patikam. This is likely a
later addition to the older epic.[48] It,
nevertheless, shows the literary value of
the epic to later Tamil generations:

We shall compose a poem, with

songs,
To explain these truths: even
kings, if they break
The law, have their necks wrung
by dharma;
Great men everywhere
commend
wife of renowned fame; and
karma ever
Manifests itself, and is fulfilled.
We shall call the poem
 The Cilappatikāram, the epic of
the anklet,
Since the anklet brings these
truths to light.[49]

Twenty-five cantos of the Cilappatikaram

are set in the akaval meter, a meter found
in the more ancient Tamil Sangam
literature. It has verses in other meters and
contains five songs also in a different
meter. These features suggest that the
epic was performed in the form of stage
drama that mixed recitation of cantos with
the singing of songs.[50] The 30 cantos
were reciting as monologues.[51]
Sanskrit epics

Sculpture of Vishnu as the god

who measured the 3 worlds in
Kallalagar Temple.

The Tamil epic has many references and

allusions to the Sanskrit epics and puranic
legends. For example, it describes the fate
of Poompuhar suffering the same agony
as experienced by Ayodhya when Rama
leaves for exile to the forest as instructed
by his father.[52] The Aycciyarkuravai
section (canto 27), makes mention of the
Lord who could measure the three worlds,
going to the forest with his brother, waging
a war against Lanka and destroying it with
fire.[52] These references indicate that the
Ramayana was known to the
Cilappatikaram audience many centuries
before the Kamba Ramayanam of the 12
Century CE.[52]

The 17th cannot of the epic explains the

Beauty and greatness of Lord Vishnu with
respect to his forms and Various
incarnations. Vishnu was the deity most
mentioned in Tamil Sangam literature and
is said to be one of the favourite gods of
the people who lived in the Sangam time.
The epic states that "Vain are the ears
which do not hear the glory of Rama who
is Vishnu, Vain are the eyes which do not
see the dark hued Lord, the great God, the
Mayavan Vishnu, Vain is the tongue that
will not praise him who triumphed over the
deceit of the foolish schemer Kamsa
(Krishna), Vain is the tongue which does
not say ‘Narayana’.[53]

According to Zvelebil, the Cilappatikaram

mentions the Mahabharata and calls it the
"great war", just like the story was familiar
to the Sangam era poets too as evidenced
in Puram 2 and Akam 233.[4] One of the
poets is nicknamed as "The Peruntevanar
who sang the Bharatam [Mahabharatam]",
once again confirming that the Tamil poets
by the time Cilappatikaram was composed
were intimately aware of the Sanskrit
epics, the literary structure and
significance of Mahakavyas genre.[54] To
be recognized as an accomplished
extraordinary poet, one must compose a
great kavya has been the Tamil scholarly
opinion prior to the modern era, states
Zvelebil. These were popular and episodes
from such maha-kavya were performed as
a form of dance-drama in public. The
Cilappatikaram is a Tamil epic that belongs
to the pan-India kavya epic tradition.[54]
The Tamil tradition and medieval
commentators such as Mayilaintar have
included the Cilappatikaram as one of the
aimperunkappiyankal, which literally means
"five great kavyas".[55]

According to D. Dennis Hudson – a World

Religions and Tamil literature scholar, the
Cilappatikaram is the earliest and first
complete Tamil reference to Pillai (Nila,
Nappinnai, Radha), who is described in the
epic as the cowherd lover of Krishna.[56]
The epic includes abundant stories and
allusions to Krishna and his stories, which
are also found in ancient Sanskrit Puranas.
In the canto where Kannaki is waiting for
Kovalan to return after selling her anklet to
a Madurai merchant, she is in a village
with cowgirls.[56] These cowherd girls
enact a dance, where one plays Mayavan
(Krishna), another girl plays Tammunon
(Balarama), while a third plays Pinnai
(Radha). The dance begins with a song
listing Krishna's heroic deeds and his
fondness for Radha, then they dance
where sage Narada plays music. Such
scenes where cowgirls imitate Krishna's
life story are also found in Sanskrit poems
of Harivamsa and Vishnu Purana, both
generally dated to be older than
Cilappatikaram.[56] The Tamil epic calls
portions of it as vāla caritai nāṭaṅkaḷ, which
mirrors the phrase balacarita nataka –
dramas about the story of the child
[Krishna]" – in the more ancient Sanskrit
kavyas.[56][note 1] According to the
Indologist Friedhelm Hardy, this canto and
others in the Tamil epic reflect a culture
where "Dravidian, Tamil, Sanskrit, Brahmin,
Buddhist, Jain and many other influences"
had already fused into a composite whole
in the South Indian social
consciousness.[58]

According to Zvelebil, the Cilappadikaram

is the "first literary expression and the first
ripe fruit of the Aryan-Dravidian synthesis
in Tamilnadu".[59]

Tamil nationalism

In early 20th-century, the Cilappadikaram

became a rallying basis for some Tamil
nationalists based in Sri Lanka and
colonial-era Madras Presidency. The epic
is considered as the "first consciously
national work" and evidence of the fact
that the "Tamils had by that time [mid 1st-
millennium CE] attained nationhood",[60] or
the first expression of a sense of Tamil
cultural integrity and Tamil dominance.[55]
This view is shared by some modernist
Tamil playwrights, movie makers, and
politicians. According to Norman Cutler,
this theme runs in recent works such as
the 1962 re-rendering of the
Cilappadikaram into Kannakip
Puratcikkappiyam by Paratitacan, and the
1967 play Cilappatikaram: Natakak
Kappiyam by M. Karunanidhi – an
influential politician and a former Chief
Minister behind the Dravida Munnetra
Kazhagam and Dravidian movement.[55]
These versions, some by avowed atheists,
have retold the Cilappadikaram epic "to
propagate their ideas of [Tamil] cultural
identity", along with a hostility to "the
North, the racially different Aryans, the
Brahmins", and the so-called "alien
culture", according to Prabha Rani and
Vaidyanathan Shivkumar.[61]

The Tamil nationalistic inspiration derived

from the Cilappadikaram is a selective
reading and appropriation of the great
epic, according to Cutler.[62] It cherrypicks
and brackets some rhetorical and
ideological elements from the epic but
ignores the rest that make the epic into a
complete masterpiece.[61][62] In the third
book of the epic, the Tamil king
Cenkuttuvan defeats his fellow Tamil kings
and then invades and conquers the
Deccan and the north Indian kingdoms.
Yet, states Cutler, the same book places an
"undeniable prestige" for a "rock from the
Himalayas", the "river Ganges" and other
symbols from the north to honor
Kannaki.[62] Similarly, the Pandyan and the
Chera king in various katais, as well as the
three key characters of the epic (Kannaki,
Kovalan and Madhavi) in other katais of
the Cilappadikaram pray in Hindu temples
dedicated to Shiva, Murugan, Vishnu,
Krishna, Balarama, Indra, Korravai
(Parvati), Saraswati, Lakshmi, and
others.[63] The Tamil kings are described in
the epic as performing Vedic sacrifices
and rituals, where Agni and Varuna are
invoked, and the Vedas are chanted. These
and numerous other details in the epic
were neither of Dravidian roots nor icons,
rather they reflect an acceptance of and
reverence for certain shared pan-Indian
cultural rituals, symbols and values, what
Himalayas and Ganges signify to the Indic
culture. The epic rhetorically does present
a vision of a Tamil imperium, yet it also
"emphatically is not exclusively Tamil",
states Cutler.[62][63]

According to V R Ramachandra Dikshitar,

the epic provides no evidence of sectarian
conflict between the Indian religious
traditions.[63] In Cilappadikaram, the key
characters pray and participate in both
Shaiva and Vaishnava rituals, temples and
festivals. In addition, they give help and
get help from the Jains and the Ajivikas.[63]
There are Buddhist references too in the
Cilappadikaram such as about Mahabodhi,
but these are very few – unlike the other
Tamil epic Manimekalai. Yet, all these
references are embedded in a cordial
community, where all share the same
ideas and belief in karma and related
premises. The major festivals described in
the epic are pan-Indian and these festivals
are also found in ancient Sanskrit
literature.[63]