Welcome to my Telugu version of Silappadikaram
In Tamil literatrure, Silappaidikaram (the story of the anklet) is one of the most famous, well-known epics (kavyam) from the Tamil Sangam era of more than two thousand years ago. This is the story of Kovalan and Kannagi. In Tamil Nadu, Kerala and some parts of southern Andhra, Kannagi is worshipped as goddess of great virtue.
Since this is ancient literature, historians and scholars have already done extensive research and collated the original literature. The original version in ancient Tamil verse is believed to have been written by Ilango Adigal (Yuvaraja Swamy) in 2nd century CE.
This epic can be considered the crown jewel of ancient Tamil Sangam literature. In this, as much importance is given to the culture, music and dance of that period as the story. I succinctly reproduced as much of it as I could. One can also see that Buddism and Jainism were already part of mainstream culture of those days. In addition, one can get a glimpse of rich maritime trade of Tamilians with Greece, Egypt and other foreign countries.
Till I read this, I thought ancient Sangam era Tamil society was still independent of and untouched by vedic traditions and was still free of any mainstream religion. But I was surprised to discover otherwise!
Why this translation? As always, my aim is to provide a good translation of well-known and read-worthy works of Indian literature in our (Indian) languages, especially Telugu, that being my primary and favourite language. I could't find any translation in simple Telugu. The only one available wasin very difficult Telugu verse. Hence this attempt. I hope you enjoy reading it.
For this endeavour, I referred many translations and treatises, a few of which I am listing below
- Telugu translation (in verse) by Sri Puthalapattu Sriramulu Reddy, 1957, sponsored and published by Tirumala Tirupati Devastanam
- Tamil (original) version (circa 1920) by Ve. Saminathan
- Book-Tamil-Silappadhikaram-U-Ve-Sa-1920.pdf by Elango Adigal (2nd century CE)
- A good treatise/summary: https://indianculture.nvli.in/stories/silappadikaram-tale-anklet
- Desikar's most authentic translation: https://ia801406.us.archive.org/27/items/in.ernet.dli.2015.201802/2015.201802.The-Silappadikaram.pdf
Best regards,
K. Nagarajan
Bangalore/Bengaluru
Email:knr_sh@yahoo.com