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Celebrations were held in Vavuniya to commemorate the earliest Tamil epic poet, Ilango Adigal, and his contribution to Tamil literature. On the full moon day in May, near the Cinnaputhukulam Sivan Kovil, a statue of Ilango Adigal was garlanded, and guest speakers spoke about how he had shaped Tamil literature.
Ilango Adigal, who is attributed as the author of Cilappathikaram, a Tamil epic poem that follows the life journey of Kannaki and Kovalan, was probably authored between the 5th and 6th Century, in the Sangam era, which was the flourishing of Tamil literature and consciousness. Although his identity is generally attributed to a prince of a Chera dynasty, and as the brother of Cenkuttuvan who became a Jain ascetic, based on the prologue of the Cilappathikaram, scholars of Tamil literature dispute this as there is evidence of the prologue being composed and included in the poem many centuries later. Others theorise that Ilango Adigal could be a number of unknown poets that were active during the Sangam period who collectively composed the Cilappathikaram.
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The Cilappathikaram follows the tragic story of Kannaki and Kovalan, through their falling in love, their marriage, Kovalan’s unfaithfulness to Kannaki, and his tragic death at the hands of the King of Madurai. The Jain epic poem has heavily influenced not only literature but also religion and syncretism between Buddhism and Hinduism in Sri Lanka. Kannaki is even remembered and deified as Pattini throughout Sri Lanka and was one of the four guardian deities of the Buddha Sasana at one point.
