The Cilappatikäram - Canto 5

The billowing sea, her robes. The hills,
Her breasts. The broad rivers, her garlands.
The clouds, her shock of hair. This vast
And boundless Earth seemed a woman.

The Cilappatikäram - Canto 4

ENVOI
The Moon at night helps flowers to blossom.
A native of the heavens, he offers
Cool shade to those who honor him, glowing
Heat to others. Like the white parasol
Of the Cola king who protects, he appeared
Benign to Matavi, ominous to lonely Kannaki

The Cilappatikäram - Canto 3

ENVOI
The gold-bangled Matavi of Pumpukar caused
Her fame to spread over the earth. On the stage
She showed by word of mouth her talent
Concerning numbers, letters, the five types
Of literary Tamil, the four melodic patterns,
And the eleven kinds of dance that followed them.

The Cilappatikäram - Canto 2

ENVOI
Like snakes coupled in the  heat of passion,
Or Kama and Rati smothered in each
Other's arms, so Kvalan and Kannaki
Lived in happiness past speaking,
Spent themselves in every pleasure, thinking:
"We live on earth but a few days."

The Cilappatikäram - Introduction

Kannaki undergoes precisely such an "incandescence" when she hurls her severed breast on Maturai. By her unprecedented action, she is, in fact inscribing her curse, writing it as a lasting record, stamping it on the face of Maturai. So effective is her curse that a fire soon engulfs the city and burns it down. Nowhere in literature that I am aware of is the power of a woman's body - a body that has, throughout history, been possessed, exploited, and abused by patriarchy - so fiercely depicted. Abandoned women such as Kannaki have the power to strike terror in the hearts of men and are therefore dreaded.

The Cilappatikäram - Introduction

Thus the Indian and Greek worldviews are fundamentally different. Faced with the inevitability of death, the Indian mind turns to metaphysical reflection while the Greek mind engages itself with life more fully and urgently. This difference is reflected in their epics. Consistent with the four ends of humans, the protagonists in the Indian epics are urged to renounce this world as unreal and to seek enlightenment. The protagonists in the Greek epics, on the other hand, cherish life and enjoy it to the utmost. While Homer lies embalmed in a book and is the special preserve of scholars, the daily life of the Hiindus continues to resonate with the uplifting stories from their epics.

The Cilappatikäram - Opening

Prologue

"A chaste woman with only one breast
Stood  in the thick shade of the kino
Tree, incandescent in its golden flowers.
Indra, lord of the immortals, with kindred gods
Came down, revealed her loving husband to her,
And before our very eyes led her to heaven.
It passed our belief. Be pleased to know this."


Columbia University Press wishes to express its appreciation
of assitance given by the Pushkin Fund in the publication of
this translation.

Ilankovatikal.
[Cilappatikaram.  English]
The Cilappatikaram of Ilanko Atikal: an epic of South India /
translated, with an introduction and postscript, by R.
Parthasarthy.
&copy

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