When Kannaki Was Given a Voice

Abstract

When ancient stories are retold for a new readership in contemporary times, subtle changes are made that reflect on society. Through the early decades of the twentieth century, the story of Kannaki, the heroine of the epic Silappatikaram, was retold several times in prose and as plays. The Kannaki of the Silappatikaram is vastly different from the Kannaki of the plays. For one, in many of the plays, Kannaki speaks much more than she was allowed to in the epic work by Ilango Adigal. This article is an attempt to understand the ‘silence’ of Kannaki in the epic and the ‘voice’ of Kannaki in one of the early plays by Nagai C. Gopala Krishna Pillai written in the social reform context of early twentieth-century Madras Presidency.