Page:Cilappadikaram The Earliest Tamil Epic.pdf/4

 achievements. Her essential nobility shines throughout the book. She could have quarrelled with her husband for having practically deserted her; she could have cursed her rival Mathavi, who came in the way of her marital happiness; she could have denied her husband access to her, when he often turned up for financial help. On the other hand, she gave him her anklets, the last of her jewels with a smile on her face, when she found he was in distress and in need of money, if only to please her rival, Mathavi. This gentle nature and nobility of her character have earned her everlasting fame. If Kannaki is not a heroine of the other type, winning wars and laurels, it is because at the time of composition of the epic, that is, the second century A.D. the Tamils had become a well-settled race, intent more on the arts of peace than of war. Moral courage, presence of mind, endurance under trying circumstances and desire to vindicate the honour of her husband are the distinguishing characteristics of this remarkable character.

The Pandya king, whose ideals of kingly honour and justice are so high that he actually collapses and dies on finding that he has been the instrument of a miscarriage of justice, deserves also to be regarded as a hero of the epic, even though his personal courage and prowess do not figure in the story. The circumstances in which he was placed misled him into a deviation from the normal course of justice, and in his anxiety to placate his queen he rashly ordered the execution of Kovalan (the husband of the heroine, Kannaki) on the basis of a false charge made by the real culprit but he does not think of the extenuating circumstances. Instead he is overwhelmed by his act of injustice and wills himself to death in order to save his honour. By thus sacrificing his life, he has won immortal glory. Here, again, we find man in his magnificence and nobility.

If a hero should surpass others in strength and courage, we find such a hero in Senkuttuvan, the Chera king, He