page_title: Kannaki Amman
section_title: The plaintive Life of a Woman turned goddess
hierarchical_section_title: Kannaki Amman / The plaintive Life of a Woman turned goddess
caption_attribution_description: English: Kodungallur Bhagavathy
context_page_description: Kannaki Amman is the deified form of Kannagi, the heroine of the great Tamil epic Silapathikaram, worshipped mainly in Sri Lanka and Kerala. As the goddess of chastity, rain and fertilization, she is well praised by the Malayalis and the two main ethnicities of Sri Lanka, the Sri Lankan Tamil Saivites and also by the Sinhalese Buddhists as Pattini Deviyo.
context_section_description: Silapathikaram, the literary work of Ilango Adigal describes the poor life of Kannaki with her husband merchant Kovalan, who lost his all wealth during his life with a lavish courtesan dancer called Madhavi and travelled to Madurai to start a new life. While kovalan selling anklets of Kannaki for money in Madurai, he was misunderstood as the thief of Pandya queen's anklet and beheaded by King's order without any inquiries. Kannaki became furious and advocates at the court of the King and by breaking the anklets, she proves that anklet seized from Kovalan is hers. Pandya King shocked and died while Kannaki took an oath to express her chastity by burning the City, Madurai. Then, She wanders towards west and at Neduvel Kunram, She became a celestial goddess.
caption: Kodungallur Bhagavathy Amman
exif: {}