Jain Journal 1986 10

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 27

Kodungallur Bhagavati
V. G. NAIR the previous issue]
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Kannaki, the heroine of Silappadikaram was born in Kaveripoompattanam or Poompukar, the city of flowers on the banks of the Kaveri river in Tamilnadu. Her father was Manickam Chetty, a wealthy trader of Poompukar.
The Chettys or Shettys are traders. According to an inscription of the 3rd century B.C. in Prakrit inscribed in Brahmi discovered in a cave on the Malakuta hill in Nellore, Andhra Pradesh, the cave was dedicated to a Jaina ascetic by a Chetty who hailed from the Aruvala family of the Yadavas and the Shetty professed the Jaina faith. Nachinarkiniyar, a Jaina ascetic, who lived in Tamilnad several centuries ago in his commentary on Tolkapyam composed by Tolkapya Muni which is considered as the earliest and the first literary work in Tamil containing Jaina doctrines has stated that Srikrsna deputed Muni Agasthya to Tamilnadu to preach aram or dharma and civilise the people. Agasthya visited Tamilnad accompanied by a large number of Yadavas. The commentator has further stated that eighteen families of Velirs and Aruvalas from Yadava families came to Tamilnad and settled in Tondaimandalam. Ptolemy, the Greek historian, of the 2nd century B.C. has referred to Aruvanous or Aruvala people who lived in Tondaimandalam, Tamilnadu. Agasthya was a Jaina ascetic. He made the Tamil scripts and composed a literary work called Agasthyam after his own name but this great composition is no more extant today. Agasthya committed samlekhana on the Pothiyamalai, a hill in Tinnevelly District according to Saivaite scriptures. His chief disciple Tolkapya Muni was also a Jain by religion and was an ascetic. Agasthya's image is installed in temples and worshipped by Tamilians. Agasthya Muniis called Agasthisvara by Tamil people.
Kannaki, probably at the age of eighteen was married to Kovalan, the young son of Machottan Chetty, a rich merchant of Poompukar. On the wedding day, Madhavi, the young and ravaging beauty hailing from the Hindu Devdasi community performed classical dances and sang