A walk down the road that runs along the Marina Beach in Chennai will take you past statues of poets and poetesses from the Sangam Age. Among them is a statue of a woman holding an anklet in her ominously raised right hand, while the forefinger of her outstretched left hand points accusingly. She is Kannaki, the heroine of the epic, Silapadikaaram, written by Ilanko Adikal, a poet of the Sangam age.

Who was she? Why was her story written by the poet? The answers to these questions are found in the following story.

Silappadikaaram (The Saga of the Anklet) is the magnum opus among the five major epics of the Sangam Age, the others being Manimekalai, Seevaka Chintamani. Kundalakesi, and Valayapathi.