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 To my mother, Kamala

Kannagi Through the Ages.indd 7 30/11/22 5:25 PM

Kannagi Through the Ages.indd 8 30/11/22 5:25 PM
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My first encounter with Kannagi was as a girl when I saw her statue on
the Marina Beachfront as our taxi sped from Madras Central railway
station to our destination in the city. Who was this woman? What was
she holding in her hand? The responses to these questions were brief:
she is Kannagi, and she is holding an anklet. Kannagi flitted in and out
of my imagination in the 1970s and 1980s through stray references to
her in stories or serialised novels published in Ananda Vikatan or Kalki,
the Tamil weekly journals that were delivered at home. However, while
doing my MPhil, I noticed that she was strongly etched in the cultural
imagination of the Tamil region. This work is the product of a desire to
understand the contexts and complexities of her presence at diverse
locations in the regional cultural imagination of Tamil Nadu.
I have many to thank for their help and support while I worked on
this book. The help extended by the library staff of Connemara Public
Library, Chennai; U.V. Swaminatha Aiyar Library, Chennai; the French
Institute Library and Bharathidasan University Library, Pondicherry
and the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi, made access
to the material easy and joyful. The Maraimalai Adigal Library, which
was shifted to the Connemara Library, had some rare books. I must,
however, say that several of these books were falling apart. I do hope
some of them have been saved through digitisation. The library staff of
my college, Lady Shri Ram College for Women, New Delhi, was always
ready and eager to locate secondary material for me. I shall remain
thankful to the college principal, Dr Meenakshi Gopinath, for providing
me access to books for extended periods. I owe special thanks to Sally
Noble, who so kindly mailed me her unpublished thesis in full.
In April 2010, Kanchi University, officially called the Sri
Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi Viswa Vidyalaya (SCSVMV)
University, organised a national conference on the Silappatikaram. The
papers presented at this conference reflected the nature and extent of
research on the epic. My interaction with the scholars at this conference
was a highly rewarding experience.
This book is part of my ongoing research since my PhD. I thank my
then PhD supervisor, Professor V. Shivkumar, not only for his advice
and suggestions at every point but also his encouragement to start work
on this topic in the first place. He has continuously supported me, not
letting me slide into lethargy. I am grateful to Professor R. Nagaswamy
for being generous with his time and suggestions on this project. It is

xi

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 xii Acknowledgements

my deep sorrow and regret that Professor Nagaswamy passed away

while this manuscript was in preparation.
My friend Swati Parashar encouraged me to publish my work. She
just wouldn’t take no for an answer, and her persistence paid off. I am
thankful to her and Ravi Dutt Bajpai for going through the chapters
with enormous patience. I shall remain forever in debt to these dear
friends for what they have managed to pull off from a most reluctant
researcher. Vishakha Hoskote made sure the text fulfilled the
requirements of the publisher. I am thankful to her as well. The
Bloomsbury team, led by Chandra Sekhar, have been exceptionally
professional and supportive, accommodating my requests. Special
thanks to my editor, Aathira Ajitkumar, for attention to detail. Any
shortcomings that remain are to be laid at my door entirely.
Personal thanks are due to many. Radha and Veeramani in Chennai
made me welcome in their home every time I travelled to their city and
extended hospitality so generous and warm that I shall remember it
forever. The companionship and camaraderie that many of my
colleagues, who are also dear friends, provide at Lady Shri Ram College
is indispensable to my sense of well-being. I especially appreciate and
value the friendship of Mitali, Debatri and Meera. The passing away of
my father in 2015, and my mother in July 2022, are losses I feel deeply.
They would have been very proud to see this book. My mother,
especially, proved to be a gutsier feminist than I ever was. She gave me
a spine in adulthood when life seemed to overwhelm me.
Special thanks are due to Ayaan, who helped with the Tamil font.
Finally, I owe special thanks to my son, Govindan, who was at hand to
help a technically challenged mother get through her computer-related
problems. During the preparation of this manuscript, I acquired a
wonderful daughter-in-law, Shantha, and she and my son have given
me the space and the time that made the completion of this work
possible. To Rio, my golden retriever, my lovely non-human friend and
companion who brings so much joy in my life, thank you for being by
my side, entertaining me and cheering me up as I waded through the
research material and raced towards the completion of this book.

Kannagi Through the Ages.indd 12 30/11/22 5:25 PM

 INTRODUCTION

RETELLING EPIC STORIES

உண்ணும் அனைத்்ததையும் விண்ணுக்கு கொ�ொண்டு செல்லும்

ஓயாபெருநடனமே காப்்பபியம் என்்க. மண்்ணணில் அதற்க்கு
உணவாகாத எதுவும் இல்்லலை. தீண்டும் அனைத்்ததையும்
தாவி ஏறி உண்டு தன்்னனைப் பெருக்்ககிக் கோ�ோடி இதழ்்வவிரித்து
எங்கும் நிறையும் முடிவற்்ற நாக்கு அது.

Epic is the endless great dance that consumes everything and takes
it to the skies. There is nothing on earth that it does not feed on. It is
an endless tongue that expands itself, splits several times and spreads
everywhere by swallowing everything that it touches.
—Jeyamohan, Kottravai

An epic defines the society that produces it, and the epic Silappatikaram
is the quintessential marker of Tamil society. The historian N.K. Sastri
calls it ‘an unsurpassed gem’ (Sastri 1966, 372). The epic and its
protagonist, Kannagi, are important literary elements and entry points
for our understanding of this society. The story of the epic has been told
in many genres of literature and continues to reverberate in
contemporary popular culture. However, every retelling of the story
carries the imprint of the times. My first aim is to understand how
representations of a literary character like Kannagi from the epic
Silappatikaram differ in diverse narratives.1 I seek to understand how
Kannagi is represented in plays, commentaries on the epic and folk
narratives across different temporalities. When the story of an ancient
epic is rewritten by different authors for a new reading public in more
modern times, the concerns and anxieties of that society get reflected in
the new narratives. The protagonists of the story in these modern
narrations are represented differently from how they are in the ‘original’
classical work, and every new narrative reflects the historical changes in
the intervening period. A close study of the various representations of
Kannagi across different temporalities makes it possible to understand
how issues of gender and culture are addressed in politics and society at
different times. The story continues to be written in new forms because

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 2 Kannagi through the Ages

it still appeals to popular imagination despite the social and cultural

changes and still resonates with people in the changed social milieu. I
focus on the interface between a literary item, the Silappatikaram on the
one hand and a dynamic society on the other. This society derives its
sense of identity from the past through such an interface but embraces
new changes and civilisational metaphors. I analyse the continuities
and changes in the representations of Kannagi, the protagonist of the
epic, focusing on the interrelationship between the text and society and
between society and its representation of the category of ‘woman’ at
different times through symbols and icons, which is the character
Kannagi in this case. Within this broad frame, I analyse the social,
cultural and political processes that contributed to the emergence of
Kannagi as an icon of Tamil culture and the epitome of Tamil
womanhood.
The story of the Silappatikaram was retold several times as plays, and
numerous commentaries were written on the text since the publication
of the full version of the epic in 1892 by U.V. Swaminatha Aiyar as the
Silappatikaram. The story was also presented through visual media
when technological know-how became available. Every new
representation was selective in what it deleted and what it retained from
the original classic. The alterations made (in this case, both in the story
and in the character of Kannagi) tell us about Tamil society’s engagement
with issues of gender and culture. Different sections of the society
altered and consumed the epic story in different forms at varying social
locations. For instance, literary adaptations inform us about the
concerns of a new reading public to whose assumptions about gender
relations and aspirations as a collective the new narratives catered. On
the other hand, the folk performances of the story were part of the
experience of a less literate class, and Kannagi in these narratives is
vastly different from the scholarly versions and commentaries of the
20th century. These performances were unlikely to be true to any script.
As attested to by scholars like Sally Noble, random and often raunchy
comments were part of the impromptu improvisations during each
performance (1990, 224–225). Since the audiences for these
performances were fluid and informal, improvisations were perhaps
more readily accepted. The interface between the epic and the society is,
therefore, neither linear nor singular, and many Kannagis catered to
different sections of the society. The differences amongst them are
equally important to inform us about the social context and diversity.
Ramanujan, in a similar vein, reminds us of multiple representations of
Rama in the several retellings of the Ramayana (Ramanujan cited in
Dharwadker 2012, 131).

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 Introduction 3

Literary scholars agree that epic stories circulate as folk tales or in

the oral tradition for centuries before they are rendered in an epic
literary form (Parthasarathy 2004, 318), a point similar to that made
by Brockington about the Ramayana (1984, 1). While it is impossible
to point to a specific moment that marks the birth of an epic, this
evolution into an epic is the most critical moment in the life of the
story. The story, now an epic, becomes a reference point for many
future retellings in diverse literary genres, such as plays, poetry, folk
tales or, in more modern times, celluloid renderings. About the
Ramayana, however, Ramanujan has said that even though Valmiki’s
Ramayana is the most prestigious narrative, it is not his telling of the
story that is necessarily carried from one language to another.
(Dharwadker 2012, 134). However, every retelling of an epic story
registers subtle and not-so-subtle variations and shifts in emphasis
from the story of the epic, making the narrative both dynamic and
static simultaneously. In this sense, cultures that have produced epics
are in constant conversation with them (Thapar 2000, 4). To the extent
that each new narration reflects something of the society, each of
them ‘illuminates’ the time (vi). Thapar points out that Kalidasa’s
Shakuntala appealed to a section of the Indian reading public in a
colonial context as part of a nationalist ideology where the ‘idyllic
elements of the play were viewed as descriptive of reality’ (258). The
popularity of Kalidasa’s play in this context involved a process of
selection as well. What is taken as representative of the past and,
hence, ‘tradition’ was retained, and what is not was ignored (258).
Epic genres have been studied extensively for the sociological and
political information they yield about the time and context they were
written in. They have been studied to get an insight into class and gender
relations and shifts and subtle variations in the diverse renderings of the
story (Karve 2006). However, there are fewer studies of specific female
characters over several texts that span a period. Romila Thapar made a
major contribution when she analysed the varied representations of the
character of Shakuntala from the Mahabharata in the 19th-century and
20th-century retellings of the story (2000). She points out that the way
Shakuntala is presented in different versions of the story over time
shows a conjunction of issues of gender, culture and perceptions of the
past (1). More recently, an anthology of articles on Sita was published to
highlight the varied representations of her by different authors (Lal and
Gokhale 2009). The assertive Sita in two Bengali narratives from
medieval times echoes the voice of Sita in Valmiki’s Ramayana and runs
counter to the meek and submissive Sita in Tulsidasa’s Ramcharitamanas.
(Bose cited in Lal and Gokhale 2009). There are also the Sita of Bhojpuri
women’s songs, which express their empathy for Sita in her plight, and

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 4 Kannagi through the Ages

the Sita of the Pahari women in northern India, to whom Sita is like one
of them in her domestic duties but with mystical capabilities (Paul and
Jassal cited in Lal and Gokhale 2009).
Romila Thapar highlights the extent to which contemporary
concerns left their imprint on every new narration of the story. She
compares the story in the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata, a culmination
of several centuries of oral narrative tradition, with the play Shakuntala
by the medieval poet and playwright Kalidasa (2000). She points out
that Kalidasa, writing for an elite court audience, created a Shakuntala
less autonomous and more controlled than the Shakuntala of the epic
by Vyasa (52). She similarly points out how a new reading public in the
19th century received the story in a colonial context. Tagore’s essay on
the story of Shakuntala, where he saw her marriage to Dushyanta out of
her own free will as a ‘fall’, is illustrative of this response (250). Thapar’s
study of the commentaries of non-Indian translators of Kalidasa’s work
illustrates how a text and its protagonist (in this case, Shakuntala) are
presented to diverse readers and shows the engagement of a new literate
Indian middle class with its past. The translations of William Jones and,
later, Monier Monier-Williams introduced Kalidasa’s play to not only a
Western audience but also a new reading public in India to whose
traditions the play belonged, but the interpretations were also of the
translator/Indologist (218).
Epic stories engage with issues relating to the human condition. The
concerns of life on this earth, the trials, the tribulations, the purpose of
this life and the possibilities of a life beyond, are all issues addressed by
them. In this, the varied duties of men and women, husbands and wives,
sons and daughters, parents and all other relationships are delineated.
Transgressions invite punishment here and in the hereafter. In the
temporal world of the epics, the king maintains this social order and has
the authority to punish transgressions. But then who has the power to
punish the king if he is the transgressor? The epic Silappatikaram invests
the woman Kannagi with this power. She has this power not because
she is a woman but due to the very nature of the life she lived as a
woman. As Ilango states through an envoi:

தெய்்வந் தொ�ொழாஅள் கொ�ொழுநற் றொ�ொழுவாளைத்

தெய்்வந்தொழுந்்தகைமை திண்்ணணிதால் - தெய்்வமாய்
மண்்ணக மாதர்க் கணியாய கண்்ணகி
விண்்ணக மாதர்க்கு விருந்து. (Aiyar 2008, 508)

It is true that even the gods adore her

Who adores no god but her husband. A jewel

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 Introduction 5

Among the women of the earth, Kannaki became

A goddess and a guest of the women of heaven. (Parthasarathy 2004, 206)

The retelling of an epic reflects the prevalent power relations, social

structures, mores and values of the society at a particular time even as it
carries the values and sensibilities of earlier times. Arguably, every
subsequent reiteration of the story reflects the corresponding shifts in
social norms, values and structures, though this process is fraught with
tension. A society in transition holds ‘traditional values’ dear but aspires
to forge ahead and keep in step with the ever-changing world.
‘Traditional values’, thus, act as an anchor in the restoration of the self
for a culture that feels besieged by ‘outside’ forces. However, changing
social and political structures render some of the earlier social equations
untenable, and nowhere is this tension more starkly reflected than in
gender relations. In the Tamil region of peninsular India, we see this
tension in how Kannagi of the Silappatikaram was appropriated in the
numerous versions of the story written throughout the 20th century.
Contemporary concerns and conflicts about gender and identity are
projected through the narratives of the epics. These are addressed
through epics dating back several centuries because some values
belonging to the time of the epics are meant to be retained for
contemporary times. Legitimacy for these values is sought through
their location in the past. At the same time, by addressing issues of
current concern through an epic story, such issues are imbued with a
certain validity and continuity and, thereby, authenticity and
acceptability. Contemporary positions on these issues need not always
be more liberal or egalitarian. Gender norms and hierarchies and more
rigid positions on women and their subordination to men were sought
to be legitimised through contemporary retellings of epic stories.
Several subjects addressed in the epics are also deleted in later narrations
as every new narration then links and delinks with the epic story in
complex ways. In other words, the present connects and disconnects
from the past in varied ways.

THE SILAPPATIKARAM—TRAVELLING THROUGH

TIME

The Silappatikaram is in the akaval (அகவல்) metre and follows the

rules of grammar detailed in the Tholkappiyam.2 The Tamil version runs
to 5,730 lines and includes songs meant to go with dances. This work
also includes a few passages of prose. As with other epics, there is much
debate about the dating of the Silappatikaram. Given that its creator,

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 6 Kannagi through the Ages

Ilango, quotes Thiruvalluvar (the envoi earlier), the author of the

Thirukkural, it can be deduced that the Silappatikaram is a work later
than the Kural. Moreover, Ilango’s work is in the literary tradition of
Sangam literature and the Kural. The work stays true to the literary
sensibilities reflected in the earlier works but goes further than any of
them in literary achievement and popular appeal.
U.V. Swaminatha Aiyar, who published the first complete text of
the Silappatikaram with the commentaries of the 15th-century
commentator on the epic, Adiyarkunallar, accepts in his prologue
that Ilango Adigal, the author of the work, was the younger brother
of the Chera king Senguttuvan (2008, xvii). Historians ascertain
that this king lived in the 2nd century. V. Kanakasabhai’s The Tamils
Eighteen Hundred Years Ago examines the social, cultural and
political condition of the Tamils and endorses the fact that the epic
was written in the 2nd century (Kanakasabhai 1956b). However,
P.T. Srinivasa Iyengar, in the History of the Tamils: From the Earliest
Times to 600 A.D., published in 1929, suggests that the epic belonged
to the 6th century ad and not earlier. He challenges the synchronism
of Gajabahu and Senguttuvan, both from the text itself, on the
grounds of chronology (Iyengar 1989, 380).3 Iyengar further argues
against the common understanding that the Silappatikaram and the
Manimekalai are twin epics. The epic Manimekalai is the story of
the daughter (named Manimekalai) of Madhavi, the dancer in the
Silappatikaram, and is the Buddhist rival of the Jain work
Jeevikachintamani (603). Maybe we can see the epic Manimekalai as
the twin of the Silappatikaram and a rival of the Jeevikachintamani
for different but equally valid reasons.4
More recently, writers have called for a reassessment of the date of
the text. Aware that it is a sensitive issue in Tamil society where the
antiquity of the text is a matter of pride for many, Sujata (or S. Rangarajan
who wrote Tamil short stories, novels and screenplays) argues for the
dating of the epic to be researched dispassionately (2005). Another
writer, S. Govindan, suggests that the work may be from the 11th
century (1975). In a later work, Govindan continues to make the same
claim and asserts that the Pattini cult probably went to Sri Lanka in the
12th century (2007, 38).
However, the common understanding of the antiquity of the text was
challenged by Vaiyapuri Pillai, a lawyer who wrote extensively on Tamil
classics, in the 1950s. He insists—based on the language of the text and
the references of places and words in it and through cross-references
with later works—that the Silappatikaram might have been written
around the 8th century (Pillai 1962, 160). He states that the story might
be set in the 2nd century, but the work belongs to a later period. He

Kannagi Through the Ages.indd 6 30/11/22 5:25 PM

 Introduction 7

dismisses the mention of Ilango as a witness to the events by stating that

this was a ruse used often enough by authors to lend a certain credibility
to their story (143). Zvelebil calls the ruse a ‘fraud’ but one for which
Ilango may be forgiven (1973, 179).
Gananath Obeyesekere discusses the historicity of Gajabahu and
Senguttuvan at length and places the date of the text as the 9th century
or later (1987, 372). Through a comparative study of several literary
texts of Sri Lanka like the Pujavaliya, the Rajavaliya, the Rajaratnakara,
the Dipavamsa and the Mahavamsa, which were written between the
4th and the 17th centuries in Sri Lanka, Obeyesekere establishes
Gajabahu as a historical character who has been mythicised (377). He
points out that Senguttuvan might be to the Tamils what Gajabahu is to
the Sri Lankans—mythic heroes whose military exploits and cultural
achievements reaffirm the sense of self of their respective societies
(376). Obeyesekere also attempts to understand a process of
‘demythicization’, which involves an attempt by scholars to find ‘rational’
explanations for some of the cherished mythic stories of the society. In
the context of south India, he asserts that the Pattini cult is a viable tool
for contemporary educated South Indians ‘even though the cult has lost
all its religious significance’ (380). He further asserts that ‘the functions
of demythicization have to be seen in the context of the language and
cultural nationalism of contemporary South Indian politics’ (380).
Making a strong association between political consciousness and
regional language nationalism, Obeyesekere argues:

Demythicization, sociologically viewed, provides a new charter for

political and social action among south Indian nationalists and,
psychologically viewed, functions to enhance their self-esteem and
to ‘overcompensate’ those who have felt systematically neglected by
the Brahmanic North. Demythicization tries to deny or minimize
the influence of Sanskrit on South Indian culture and affirms the
antiquity and glory of its own civilization. (380)

REREADING KANNAGI AND THE EPIC

Anthropologists, historians and sociologists have studied the

significance of the emergence of Kannagi as an icon of Tamil nationalism
in the middle decades of the 20th century. Jacob Pandian studies ‘how
the religious/conceptual category of chastity in Kannagi’s life acquired
political and ethnic significance’ (1987, 179). He asserts that Kannagi
united all Tamils through the spiritual power derived from her chastity

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 8 Kannagi through the Ages

despite the existence of religious and occupational differences amongst

them (185). The Tamil word karpu (கற்பு) is translated as ‘chastity’ for
want of a better word. Even though Pandian does not define the word
‘chastity’ in his work, one can infer that it is understood in purely sexual
terms when he points out that the Tamil term for rape means ‘destroying
of chastity’ (187) He argues:

To recognise the sacredness of women who are chaste is to celebrate

the sanctity of one’s linguistic and cultural heritage, which is chaste.
In this sense the symbol of the goddess assures personal and cultural
integrity. The violation of one’s language and culture is a moral act
similar to the destruction of female chastity. (188)

By equating language, culture and women as items at par in society, to

be corrupted or retained ‘pure’, Pandian seems to agree with the
Dravidian political parties that supported full citizenship and freedom
but confined women, half its citizens in the republic, within notions of
‘chastity’ and ‘spirituality’. While Pandian recognises that Tamil
cultural nationalism is a product of the 20th century, he does not
question why ‘the religious theme of chastity symbolised by the
goddess Kannagi’ was important to an avowedly rationalist party like
the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) (178). Nor does he
appreciate the ways in which this movement selectively elevated some
cultural symbols from the past to the status of icons. The way the
Dravidian parties, particularly the DMK, read the epic and then used
it for a certain cultural purpose is only one of the several ways the epic
can be read. Pandian’s claim that the significance of the goddess for
Tamil society remained unchanged over several centuries can also not
be accepted (78), even more so because there was no ‘one’ Kannagi but
several.
C.S. Lakshmi contends that in the Tamil world imagined by men,
Tamil women are ‘taken in’ as mothers (1990, ws73). She argues that
Kannagi wrenches out her breast to burn the city of Madurai out of
anger because ‘her breasts don’t serve the purpose they are supposed
to—she never became a mother’ (ws73). The symbolism of motherhood
is powerful in Tamil culture from Sangam times, but Kannagi cannot
always be located within it. While it is possible to read more than what
is delineated by the author in the epic, I contend that Kannagi became
part of the Tamil nationalist imagination as a chaste woman seeking
justice, ‘chaste’ being the operative word here. She could emerge as a
symbol because she was the heroine of a literary text that was elevated
as a symbol of Tamil literary genius and deep cultural past. Further, in
the chapter on the epic, I argue that Kannagi tearing off her breast is her

Kannagi Through the Ages.indd 8 30/11/22 5:25 PM

 Introduction 9

rejection of the life she has lived that left her with nothing at the end.
Both her husband and the king, protectors at different levels in a
patriarchal order, fail her. She does not punish herself, as Lakshmi
asserts. She delivers the punishment by burning down the city of
Madurai, which symbolises the social order that framed her life with a
promise of protection and then reneged on that promise.
In a significant work on women and spirituality, Vijaya Ramaswamy
argues that Kannagi’s spiritual power, born of her ‘chastity’, has to be
understood in the context of concepts like karpu (கற்பு) and anangu
(அணங்கு),5 which are dominant themes in pre-epic Sangam literature
(1997). However, she points out that in the context of Dravidian culture,
female spirituality, even as represented in Kannagi, did not have a
transcendental quality. Female spirituality has to be understood in
association with dead spirits, possession and similar beliefs and
practices (Ramaswamy 1997, 51). In another article, she analyses the
varied representations of women in Tamil myths and legends and states
that the coupling of the two terms anangu and karpu ‘lends a more
nuanced understanding of chastity by connecting it with the nature of
female sexuality’ (Ramaswamy 2009, 59) She observes that the
representation of Kannagi changes when the legend moves to Sri Lanka.
She is a wife seething with ‘righteous anger’ in Tamil Nadu but
transforms into a vengeful wife in Sri Lanka.
Vijaya Ramaswamy states that Kannagi appears as a historical figure
in Sangam literature wherein the poet Paranar refers to the consecration
of a stone memorial to Kannagi by the king Senguttuvan (1997, 49). She
further fortifies her argument by drawing our attention to another
Sangam work, Narrinai, which refers to the incident of Kannagi casting
off her breasts in fury (50).
David Kinsley studies the myths relating to the origin of Kannagi as
a goddess within the rubric of village goddesses whom men have
wronged (1988). Like Mariamman, Kannagi is wronged by men and
becomes destructive and finally achieves the status of a goddess (Kinsley
1988, 201). This reading of goddesses is inadequate because there are, to
this day, several kinds of goddesses in Tamil society: goddesses who
protect infants from diseases of all kinds, goddesses who bestow
children or even goddesses like Korravai (even when subsumed within
the Shakti cult) who are worshiped for the bestowal of victory. Many of
these goddesses are stand-alone goddesses and have no spouses or a
background story of being victims of male injustice. Also, to read the
life of Kannagi as a victim of male injustice would be a very narrow
understanding of her angst at the court of the king of Madurai. Her
anger is not limited to the man, the king and their actions and has
broader implications.

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 10 Kannagi through the Ages

In a work on the emergence of Korravai/Durga in the Tamil

tradition, R. Mahalakshmi discusses the importance of the epic
Silappatikaram to understand the processes involved in the emergence
of Korravai, an indigenous Tamil goddess of victory, and her eventual
assimilation as Durga/Kali of the northern tradition (2011, 65–66).
She presents the epic itself as reflective of a time when no religious
tradition had gained the upper hand and Buddhist, Jain and
Brahminical religious traditions coexisted (78). However,
Mahalakshmi asserts that ‘the veneration offered to Kannagi as a
chaste wife from the very beginning drew upon the Brahmanical value
system and not on tribal mores and customs’ (85). She points out that
in the agam poetic tradition, extramarital situations are under the
rubric of karpu (85). She argues that, on the contrary, the Kannagi
myth should be traced instead to the tribal traditions through the
‘motif of an angry, fierce and vengeful woman and goddess’ (85).
Women tearing off their breast or threatening to do so can also be
located within this tribal tradition. She further argues that the Kannagi
cult got subsumed within the already existent strong tradition of
Korravai worship (86). While this might have been true, her argument
that the veneration of Kannagi as a chaste wife drew upon the
Brahminical value system cannot be accepted without further
questioning and critique. As Hart and Heifetz argue, there is a very
strong notion of karpu as chastity and the power of a chaste woman in
Sangam poetry (1999, xvii). As I argue in the chapter on the literary
traditions that Ilango drew upon, chaste women possessed a power
that had to be controlled. Vijaya Ramaswamy has stated that in the
Sangam age, women ‘derived their spiritual power directly from their
marital status’ (1997, 49). Karpu or chastity ‘gave the chaste wife
immense spirituality and transformed her into a Goddess—Pattini-
Deivam, literally wife-Goddess’ (49). There is, she argues, a close
association between karpu and godliness in several Purananuru
poems. In one such poem, karpu of the wife is likened to godliness,
kadavul chandra karpu, and in another, karpu is synonymous with
divinity or kadavul karpu (49). Therefore, notions of chastity, the
power that inhered in a chaste woman and the divine qualities of such
a woman were all part of ancient Tamil society as reflected in Sangam
literature.
A comparative analysis of the varied presentations of the epic in the
20th century was made by an American scholar, Sally Noble (1990). She
compares the epic by Ilango with folk songs, folk ballads and stage drama
of the story. She analyses the theme and structure of the epic and presents
a critical analysis of the ways in which the other narratives varied in
subject matter and emphasis. Also, while studying the nature of the

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 Introduction 11

relationship between Kannagi and the Tamil cultural movement, she

points out that Kannagi was elevated as a symbol of Tamil nationalism
by the Dravidian movement precisely because she was no longer
worshipped as a goddess in the Tamil regions of peninsular India (Noble
1990, 244) Noble writes extensively about how various authors modify
the text to suit their audience or their social and political inclinations.
She analyses the epic Silappatikaram by Ilango, Kovalan Kadai by
Pukazhendi Pulavan and about forty renderings of the text in the 20th
century, including the plays of Bharatidasan and Karunanidhi. Her thesis
is crucial to our understanding of how cultural items change in form and
tenor as they move from one sociopolitical context to another at different
historical times. I depart from her work in three ways: I focus on Kannagi
throughout and trace her journey from the Sangam poems to the 20th-
century narratives by Karunanidhi and Bharatidasan, and unlike Noble,
I insist that Kannagi continues to be present in folk traditions as a
goddess to this day albeit as Kali or Bhagawati, a tradition that the
playwrights mentioned earlier wished to obliterate. I also study
the emergence of Kannagi as a symbol of social reform and as an icon of
Tamil culture, an area of enquiry that Noble does not touch upon.
Brenda Beck is another sociologist who compares various versions
of the text. There is a suggestion in her article that she took the story’s
events to be historical, but she does not offer a detailed discussion on it
(Beck 1972, 23). She brings out the similarities and differences in oral,
printed and ‘scholarly literary’ versions of the story and points out that
whereas Kannagi’s chastity and the power that stems from it are
emphasised in all the versions, chastity itself is viewed very differently
in the various versions. In the literary accounts, Beck points out, the
definition of chastity is

predominantly internal. Here it is the thought and the intentions of the

heroine which count. Thus, Kannagi is portrayed as infinitely patient,
sweet and loving. She always speaks kindly to her husband, never once
nagging or contradicting him even in the depths of her loneliness and
despair. In the bardic version, by contrast, Kannagi is a more fully
developed personality with an independent will. She argues repeatedly
with her husband, even though she is always in the end persuaded by
him. In this version the heroine’s chastity lies not in her, blameless,
subservient character but rather in her physical purity. (24)

Importantly, even in the literary accounts, Kannagi’s physical purity is

assumed, even though not virginal, just as Ilango’s Kannagi was not a
virgin but was ‘pure’ by virtue of her fidelity to Kovalan. Also, the ‘fully
developed personality’ of the bardic version is the proverbial shrew who

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 12 Kannagi through the Ages

is tamed in the scholarly literary versions, where her karpu is expressed

in her subservient behaviour pattern as well. For the audience that
consumed the ‘scholarly literary’ versions of the story, Kannagi’s
restraint in speech and other externalities of behaviour were what made
her a ‘fully developed personality’.
A more recent retelling of the story is by Lakshmi Holmstrom
(1996). In this narrative, Kannagi and Kovalan are presented as having
grown up together. There is also a suggestion that Kannagi’s serious
and withdrawn temperament distanced her from Kovalan. Interestingly,
Holmstrom seems to agree with the multitude of commentators on the
epic in the 1930s and 1940s and right up to the works of Karunanidhi
and Bharatidasan who found fault with Kannagi for Kovalan’s wayward
behaviour. She introduces the feminist argument that Kannagi rejected
the choices that were available to widowed women—to live a life of
severe austerity or accompany the husband on the funeral pyre.
Holmstrom asserts that it is Kannagi’s actions as an avenging wife that
stand out.
In a 2012 rendition of the story in Tamil by Jeyamohan, Kannagi is
closely associated with Korravai, the goddess of victory of the Sangam
age. Unlike several commentators of the 20th century who ignored the
repeated pleas of Kannagi of the Silappatikaram that she was innocent,
he has Kannagi ask rhetorically if she was at fault (Jeyamohan 2012,
399). He also makes the denouement of the city of Madurai a result of
the combined power of the women of that city. His rendition stands
apart in several ways. Two of them are the role he gives to the women of
Madurai and the recognition of the influence of the northern traditions
in the matrix of religions of the south in the period of the epic. However,
at several points in the narration, he presents the Brahmins as wanting
in righteous behaviour. At one point in the story, he presents the women
in a Brahmin settlement quite innocent of the concept of karpu or even
the idea of marriage (297–298).
The 20th century was an opportune time for the numerous studies
that were undertaken on the Silappatikaram. These studies located the
text as an example of the rich literary tradition in Tamil and an authentic
reflection of Tamil society several centuries before. Categories like
Tamil people (தமிழ் மக்்கள் or Tamiz makkal) or Tamil woman
(தமிழ்்ப்பபெண் or Tamiz pen) were crystallised through these studies.
Critical studies on the story’s protagonists mirrored contemporary
concerns about women and their ‘role in society’. Through these studies,
very often, the characteristics of an ideal Tamil woman (தமிழ்்ப்பபெண்)
was etched out. I study these commentaries on the text as primary
sources for understanding how Kannagi in the epic was received and
presented again to a reading public in these years. General essays on

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 Introduction 13

women and Tamil culture, of which there were many in these years,
only add to our understanding of how the society juggled between the
concerns of the present and claims of a cherished past.
Kannagi continues to be important to the Tamils as a symbol of
Tamil culture, but in a recent film, Jai Bheem, the hero likens the fight of
the film’s protagonist for justice to Kannagi’s fight for justice. In this
short dialogue, he does not refer to karpu at all. This delinking of karpu
from a quest for justice is an interesting deviation from the traditions of
representations of Kannagi.

SOURCES AND METHODOLOGY

I study the epic Silappatikaram and the several retellings of the story
over a period to understand the varied ways in which the protagonist,
Kannagi, is represented in each of them. I propose to situate Kannagi
within the sociopolitical context in which the story is narrated. The
conflicts on social issues and concerns during the colonial period
were addressed through the retelling of the story and commentaries
on the epic in the first half of the 20th century. Many Tamil scholars
engaged with the issue of sex work, for instance, through the
Silappatikaram story. In the same story, the text and the character of
Kannagi became a site to address and resolve issues of regional and
cultural identity in the latter half of the same century. From a woman
seeking justice for her husband, she transformed into a Tamil woman
seeking justice to restore the fair name of all Tamils. Nevertheless,
some aspects of her personality are common to all narrations
regardless of genre or time.
This study concludes with a discussion on the Dravidian movement
and its culmination in the formation of a government in the state of
Madras in 1967 by the DMK. The formation of the government was
also marked by the International Tamil Conference held in Chennai in
1968, indicating state patronage for the Tamil language. The use of
Kannagi as an icon of Tamil nationalism, womanhood and cultural
pride during the Dravidian movement in the middle decades of the
20th century and the installation of the statue of Kannagi (among
others) as a tangible success of that movement by the DMK provides
the rationale for the choice of temporality of my study. The inscription
on the platform on which her statue stands at Marina Beach is further
testimony to her importance in Tamil regional nationalism and culture.
She is described as the cultural symbol of the Tamils, and there is
another inscription in English that describes her as ‘Kannagi: The
Perfection of Chastity’.

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 14 Kannagi through the Ages

CHAPTER OUTLINE

The study of the literary character of Kannagi and her varied

representations at different times must begin with an understanding of
the one narration of the story that became important for all subsequent
narrations in the 20th century. Even though there may have been several
versions of the story at any given time, the Silappatikaram by Ilango
Adigal is the earliest available version that has become the reference point
for subsequent renderings. However, even a cursory glance at Ilango
Adigal’s work makes it clear that he drew heavily from Sangam literature
for literary rules, symbolisms and sensibilities. The epic must be located
in the literary tradition to which it belongs, and therefore, the first chapter
looks at the Tamil literary tradition. I touch upon the importance of
studying the Tholkappiyam and the Kural to fully appreciate the parallels
and the departures from them that Ilango made with his work. I focus on
poems that reflect on women and kings more than any other theme
because, in the epic, Ilango brings together the power of a chaste woman
and a king in the penultimate events of the story.
The second chapter discusses the epic in detail. I analyse the location
of Kannagi in the epic and in relation to the other characters in the
story. I emphasise in this chapter how Ilango presents Kannagi and
Kovalan as firmly embedded in the social, cultural and religious milieu
of the Tamil society that he describes. This manner of presentation must
be appreciated because playwrights and commentators would relocate
Kannagi and Kovalan in diverse socio-religious contexts in the 20th
century. I emphasise that Brahmins were very much a part of the socio-
religious tapestry of the society that Kannagi and Kovalan inhabited. I
also stress the nature of Kovalan’s involvement with the dancer Madhavi
and his return to Kannagi. The commentators of the early decades of
the 20th century were uncomfortable with these aspects of the story,
and the scholar-politicians of the Dravidian movement like Karunanidhi
and Bharatidasan were even more so.
Kannagi may have reappeared as the protagonist of an epic to the Tamil
reading public in 1892. Indeed, she was never absent from the religio-
cultural space of large parts of peninsular India. Versions of her story were
probably ritually enacted in several temples for centuries before Ilango
presented her as the heroine of the epic. There are several folk versions of
the story, which are a fit subject for a separate study. In the Tamil
performance tradition, they would be called koothu. 6 The story is also
performed in the villupattu performance tradition in many parts of Tamil
Nadu to this day. The third chapter is a brief analysis of a few folk narratives
of the story. To indicate the many forms in which the story circulated for
several centuries before Ilango Adigal’s epic work came into print in the

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 Introduction 15

late 19th century, I focus on the narrative of Kovalan Kadai, a folk narrative
written presumably by the medieval poet Pugazhendi, and two other
narratives written in the folk ballad style published in 1967 as Kovalan
Karnagi Natagam and as Kovalan Karnagai Kadai in 1979. Another
version of the story, by Nirmala Devi, was published in 2003 as Kovalan
Kadai, which I have included in my work. I also study a version of the folk
narrative that was retold as an audio record as Kovalan Drama in the early
1930s. It was a novel way of rendering an ancient story using modern
technology. Folk versions continue to be an important part of local
traditions and are closely associated with temples and their festivals. The
Dravidian movement exalted the epic by Ilango Adigal as a representative
of Tamil culture, but some aspects of the folk narratives were selectively
used by Karunanidhi and Bharatidasan in their narratives of the story.
What they selected from these narratives informs us about their politics as
well. Noble points out that performers in the folk tradition are encouraged
to base their renderings on Ilango’s Silappatikaram. (1990, 299–300).
In the early decades of the 20th century, several Tamil scholars
presented the story of the epic as a play meant to be performed. I look
at some of these as well to investigate the changes that the story and the
character of Kannagi undergo in these narratives. They were to be
performed but not in the koothu tradition. Strictly speaking, these plays
fall in the category of ‘popular’ but not folk. They were not located in
temple festival contexts, and they catered to a less fluid and more captive
audience in theatres. Some of these plays appear to have been relayed on
radio as well. Unlike Kovalan Drama, these plays followed the story as
told by Ilango. They carried the full weight of the concerns of the times.
I analyse these for how much they reflected the anxieties of the times.
This book is not an exhaustive study of all the genres in which the
story of the Silappatikaram was told in the region in the 20th century. It
confines itself to plays, prose narratives of the story and commentaries
in Tamil on the epic since the publication of the full version in 1892. The
20th-century retellings of the story fall broadly into three categories.
The first, which I discuss in Chapter 4, are those that address the
concerns of social reform through the Silappatikaram and Kannagi.
Those were years of intense debate on issues of social reform, with the
focus of many discussions being women and their role in society. The
Kannagi-Kovalan story was narrated in the early decades of the 20th
century and reflected the social reform concerns of the time. The story
and Kannagi were looked at through the prism of reform of a society
that looked both to the past for a sense of self and to the future in order
not to be seen as backward and wanting in its ability to move to a
‘modern’ future. Kannagi, in these plays, is both a symbol of the ‘new’
woman who carried the message of social reform and an icon of a

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 16 Kannagi through the Ages

forgotten cultural past. One important way in which modern renderings

of epic stories differ from the epics is that the female characters who
were silent or spoke sparsely in the epics get to express opinions much
more, especially when the story is rendered as a play. Their messages are
crucial (Rani 2011). Eloquence does not necessarily mean that they are
‘speaking their mind’ or that their opinions are more liberating for
themselves; the reverse might be true. As in the epics, their ‘voice’ is the
voice of the storyteller where the playwright expresses his opinions on
contemporary concerns through his characters in a genre that allows
for a certain verbosity. When the character chooses to express these
opinions as a woman and, as often happens, the female protagonist of
the play, we get an insight into contemporary concerns and what
opinions women were expected to hold on these issues.
The second would be narratives that I slot in the category of ‘Tamil
culture’. A parallel development of the 19th century was the
conceptualisation of the south as a space distinct from the north in its
culture, language, and social traditions. British philologists and
administrators spearheaded the research on these lines, and indigenous
scholars quickly picked up the theme. The discovery and publication of
the Sangam texts and the epics in the latter half of the 19th century fed
into this idea of the south as a space with a deep history and sociocultural
traditions and enabled the creation of what Benedict Anderson might
have called an ‘imagined community’ (Anderson 2006). Kannagi came to
be presented as a symbol of a distinctive ‘Tamil culture’, the contours of
which were being etched out in these years. In Chapter 5, I analyse this
development and locate the narratives of the Silappatikaram to
demonstrate the role that Kannagi now had to play as a symbol of a newly
framed ‘Tamil culture’ and its ‘traditions’. Some elements certainly overlap
with the previous paradigm, but I believe there are enough differences for
these narratives to be slotted within the frame of ‘Tamil culture’.
The third category that I discuss in Chapter 6 are those narratives
which were firmly placed in the paradigm of ‘Tamil cultural pride’ but
were also designed to realise political objectives (Rani and Shivkumar
2011). I discuss the narratives of the story of the Silappatikaram as plays
by M. Karunanidhi and Bharatidasan.7 In 1962, Bharatidasan published
his work called Kannagi Puratchi Kappiyam. In 1968, the then chief
minister of Madras, M. Karunanidhi, published his play Silappatikaram,
Nataka Kappiyam. The plays of these two writers differ from the
narratives and plays I discuss in Chapter 5. These writers took pride in
a presumed distinctive Tamil culture and elevated Kannagi as a symbol
of that culture. However, they rarely attacked the north, the Brahmins
or the Aryans as representatives of a different and culturally less
developed society. M. Karunanidhi and Bharatidasan, through their

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 Introduction 17

renderings of the story as plays, created a picture of a ‘Tamil’ society

untarnished by influences from the north. Each in his own way
presented the north as wanting in ethics and morals. To understand the
ideological roots of these writers and the departures they made from
them, I first discuss the Self-Respect Movement led by E.V. Ramasami
(henceforth EVR). During this movement, the culture of the north
(framed as ‘Brahmin/Aryan’ culture) was critiqued and considered
deficient against the yardstick of rationalism. The Ramayana and the
Mahabharata were dismissed as unworthy of the veneration they
enjoyed amongst large sections of the people, and the rejection of Sita as
an ideal of womanhood was a repetitive theme. EVR challenged any
custom or tradition that did not meet his standard of equality and
rationality. Therefore, he even questioned hallowed concepts like karpu.
Yet, Kannagi, the very embodiment of karpu in the writings of several
Tamil scholars in these years, emerged as an icon of Tamil nationalism
and Tamil culture in the narratives of Karunanidhi and Bharatidasan,
two stalwarts of the rationalist, atheist ideology of the Self-Respect
Movement. In Chapter 6, I analyse the nature of the impact of this
movement on the narratives of the Silappatikaram and Kannagi and the
way she was appropriated to suit the needs of the now electorally
powerful DMK. Even though both works emerged from within the
Dravidian movement and its ideology, they deviated in very fundamental
ways from EVR’s ideological legacy. I study them to bring out the
similarities and differences between the two as delineated in
the character of Kannagi and the story of the Silappatikaram.
My study is limited to the contemporary Tamil region of peninsular
India, where very few Kannagi temples are found.8 I am aware that
Tamils have a strong presence in South-east Asia and northern and
eastern parts of Sri Lanka, and Kannagi thrives amongst them in various
forms. The Kannagi cult thrives in Kerala, where, according to the epic
story, Kannagi was installed as a goddess by the Chera king Senguttuvan.
However, the cult has been absorbed into the Bhagawati goddess
tradition (Parthasarathy 2004). The pongala ritual performed by women
at the Attukal Temple in Kerala every year is an example of this
absorption where the presiding deity, Bhagawati, is believed to be the
incarnation of Kannagi (Mini 2016, 63–64). Several texts have been
produced on the goddess in Malayalam in the last several decades.
Torram pattu or origin song is one of them (Parthasarathy 2004, 332).
The Pattini cult is a thriving goddess cult in certain parts of Sri Lanka
(Obeyesekere 1987). The cult may have travelled to parts of South-east
Asia as well through emigrant Tamil groups from India and Sri Lanka.
My work does not look into these traditions or the literature that may be
associated with them.

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 18 Kannagi through the Ages

I have used translations of Tamil works where available. Several

poems of Sangam literature, the Tholkappiyam and the epic have been
translated into English by different authors, and I have drawn from
them. However, several plays and commentaries on the epic in Tamil
have not been translated. In such cases, I have translated them wherever
needed to bring out the gist of their meaning. I hope this proves helpful
for readers who may not know Tamil.
The epic can be read in different ways. It is the story of a couple who
go through phases of love and reunion. It is the story of the faith and
fidelity of a wife in the face of betrayal by her husband. It is also the
story of the might of a king humbled by the power of a wife seeking
justice for her husband. It brings together a virtuous woman, a powerful
king and the concept of justice on a single platform to test their
respective powers. However, the powers of the woman and the king are
conditional: the woman can be powerful if she is virtuous, while the
king can rule if he does not stray from the path of justice. The husband,
ironically, is only incidental in the story even though both the wife and
the king acquire their power or lose it in relation to him. The story was
read and narrated by several authors for very different readers
throughout the 20th century while large sections of the people of Tamil
Nadu consumed it in its folk form. Kannagi became the spokeswoman
for social reform, an icon for Tamil culture and then an epitome of the
ideals of Tamil womanhood in these decades. At the hands of
the ideologues of the Dravidian movement, the story would transform
into a symbol of a glorious Tamil past and its literary and cultural
achievements. It would also yield to them the protagonist Kannagi who
would be elevated to the status of an icon of Tamil culture and Tamil
womanhood. I hope that the readers will undertake this intellectual
journey with me in the pages ahead to understand and situate Kannagi,
and to appreciate how she serves as a canvas to write and rewrite notions
of culture, not unlike a palimpsest, transforming in each rendering and
yet not completely erasing elements of the previous writing.

NOTES

1 I use the term ‘epic’ in its strict dictionary meaning of ‘a long poem
describing the actions of heroic figures’. If kappiyam (Tamil) is kavya
(Sanskrit) and means ‘epic’, then early commentators of the work have
called the Silappatikaram an epic. If it is a natagakappiyam as some
have described it, then it is an epic drama with songs and dance. The
prologue of the work by Ilango Adigal describes it as a poem with songs
blended with prose.

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 Introduction 19

2 Akaval metre is a rhyming verse. The Tholkappiyam is the oldest Tamil

grammar.
3 Gajabahu was the king of Sri Lanka from 113 ce to 135 ce. Senguttuvan
was the Chera king in the 2nd century. Exact dates are uncertain.
4 The Silappatikaram, the Manimekalai, the Jeevikachintamani, the
Kundalakesi and the Valayapathi are the five epics of Tamil land,
the Aiperungappiyam.
5 Karpu is commonly translated as ‘chastity’. Anangu has different
meanings—beautiful woman, divine woman or even demoness.
Ramaswamy uses the word here to mean female sexuality.
6 Koothu and villupattu are some of the folk performance traditions of story
telling in the Tamil regions of southern India. It involves the narration of
stories interspersed with songs and dances. Typically, these are performed
during temple festivals.
7 Muthuvel Karunanidhi, a prolific writer in Tamil from his early years,
became a powerful orator and scriptwriter for films with strong political
and social messages. He became the chief minister of Tamil Nadu several
times, beginning 1969. Bharatidasan or Kanakasabai Subbu was also a
prolific writer in Tamil. He wrote extensively through the 1950s and 1960s
until his death in 1964.
8 I understand there is now an attempt to revive Kannagi worship in some
parts of Tamil Nadu. A temple was erected for Kannagi in Puhaar in 1973
with private funds. However, the decision to build this temple was taken in
1951 (Pattini Kottam 1973, v). The foundation stone was laid in 1968 in the
presence of M.P. Sivagnanam and M. Karunanidhi (vi). There is, however,
the temple near Theni and Idukki in the Western Ghats called the Mangala
Devi Kannagi Temple.

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Kannagi Through the Ages.indd 20 30/11/22 5:25 PM
 Chapter 1

WOMEN IN TAMIL LITERARY TRADITION

Tamil literature has a long history and can legitimately claim to

represent one of the longest unbroken literary traditions of any of the
world’s living languages (Zvelebil 1974, 2). David Shulman refers to
this literature as a ‘signal’ contribution to world literature (2016, 27).
By the first two or three centuries of the current era, the Tamil language
probably had treatises on grammar. Alluding to mythical stories of the
origin of Tamil grammar, Shulman mentions the Agattiyam, which
predated the extant grammar, the Tholkappiyam (30–31). There are
references to earlier masters of grammar that the Tholkappiyam
mentions (Varadarajan 2008, 6). These references attest to the existence
of literature for several centuries, now lost to us, since treatises on
grammar follow literary works. Kamil Veith Zvelebil argues that
‘literature yields grammar’ and cites an aphorism of the Agattiyam:
‘There is no grammar without literature, just like there is no oil without
the sesamum-seed’ (1974, 4). About 2,300 poetic compositions are
available in two collections called Ettuthogai and Pathupattu. Some of
these poems are anonymous, but several are known by proper names
and some compositions are by women. These compositions are usually
dated as predecessors to the work on grammar, the Tholkappiyam,
meaning the ‘old composition’ (Ramanujan 1986, 97). Ramanujan
identifies the grammar called the Tholkappiyam as ‘the most important
expository text for the understanding of early Tamil poetry’ and posits
that the Tholkappiyam is ‘not only a grammar of the Tamil of that time
but also a work of rhetoric’ (102).
There are disagreements over the chronology of the appearance of
grammar vis-à-vis these poetic works. As Ramanujan states, according
to legend and some modern scholars, grammar antedates these poetic
works. However, Ramanujan, whose translations of Sangam poems are
a testimony to his mastery over that literature, argues that ‘poems do
not seem to be the outcome of a work of rhetoric’ (1986, 100). To
substantiate his claim, Ramanujan posits that it is possible that ‘the
rhetorician summarised what was a live and continuing tradition’, and
‘because of the strength of this tradition some 500 poets appear to share
to an unusual degree the poetic prescriptions of Tholkappiyam’ (100).
George L. Hart III argues that while the Tholkappiyam ‘has often been

21

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 22 Kannagi through the Ages

considered to be even older than the earliest anthologies, it has now

been shown to describe palaeographic features which do not enter the
language until the fifth century ad’ (Hart cited in Stein 1976, 41).
Apart from the scholarly differences over the chronological order of
poetry and grammar, there is much debate about the date and authorship
of these poetic compositions. Some historians date them to the first
three or four centuries of the common era (Sastri 1966, 216; Zvelebil
1974, 9; Hart and Heifetz 1999, xv). However, a few scholars have
pushed the date back to the 4th century bce (Aiyangar 1914, 117). The
issues related to the dating of Tamil literature are numerous and almost
intractable given the ‘highly non-probabilistic universe of classical
Tamil poetry’ (Shulman 2016, 68). There is general agreement amongst
scholars that Sangam literature predated the epics (Shulman 2016, 98;
Ramanujan 2012, 59; Pillai 1962, 35). The Tamil grammar Tholkappiyam
of Tholkappiyar and the anthologies of poems Ettuthogai and Pathupattu
form the three compositions of what is called early Sangam literature.
The Kural preceded the epics Silappatikaram and Manimekalai and is
listed amongst the later Sangam works.
The word Sangam means ‘an academy or fraternity’, and Ramanujan
suggests that ‘the word is probably borrowed from the vocabulary of
Buddhism or Jainism, the two religions competing with Hinduism
around the 6th and 7th centuries in South India’ (1986, 98). He claims
that ‘a 7th-century commentator applied the term to poets and spoke of
three academies or Sangam of poets under the patronage of Pãṇḍya
kings’ (98). The term Sangam does not occur in any of the three works,
the Ettuthogai, the Pathupattu and the Tholkappiyam. A work by
Iraiyanar, dated later than the 10th century, mentions that there were
three Sangams and that the Pathupattu and the Ettuthogai
were compositions of the third Sangam (Dandayudam 1978, 19).
Conventionally, the Tholkappiyam is assigned to the second Sangam,
while, remarkably, no work has been assigned to the first Sangam. Kamil
V. Zvelebil preferred to call the Sangam literature canror ceyyul or the
poetic compositions of ‘the noble’ since the existence of a Sangam is still
in dispute (Zvelebil 1986, 92; Iyengar 1989, 225). The compositions
were mostly of poets or panans who presented their works to the kings
and hoped to be rewarded. The poems are of lengths varying from three
to over eight hundred lines.
On the Tholkappiyam, Zvelebil suggests that one person did not
author the work and it may have been the work of a grammatical school,
and the final text may belong to the 5th century (1973, p. 146). However,
he concludes that the earliest original version may belong to the pre-
Sangam period (143). Vaiyapuri Pillai pushed the date of the
Tholkappiyam to the 6th or 7th century ad (1962, 361). Conversely,

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 Women in Tamil Literary Tradition 23

Ilakkuvanar, who took on the task of translating this work, pushed the
date of the work by a thousand years to 6th century bc (1963, 9). More
recently, in a biography of the Tamil language, Shulman mentions the
mythical story according to which the Tholkappiyam was written by
Trinadumagni, the son of Jamadagni, who was the disciple of sage
Agathiyar (2016, 30). Zvelebil speculates that ‘Tholkappiyan was a Jaina
scholar, well versed in pre-Paninian grammatical system called aintiram,
and that he lived in southern Kerala sometime in the 3rd–1st century
bc’ (1973, 137). This debate about the identity of the author or authors
of the Tholkappiyam might never be resolved. I shall refer to him as
Tholkappiyar as most Tamil scholars do.
The Ettuthogai and the Pathupattu, the Tholkappiyam, the Kural and
the epics collectively defined Tamil society and illuminated the areas of
concern for them. The codes of conduct by which women and men
lived and what defined the righteous rule of a king were encompassed
in this literature.

WOMEN IN SANGAM LITERATURE

Women feature in Sangam literature in their varied roles in relation to

men—as mothers, lovers and wives. Women also feature in relation
to each other as friends, mother and daughter or wife and concubine.
However, given the need for royal patronage, a harmonious society is
imagined as one where the king’s justice is the pivot around which the
society revolves. Thus, the king is an integral part of this literature. If
women represented the inner world of love and emotions in general,
the king represented the outside world, signified by war, valour and
power. Women and kings shared the quality of a sacred force called
Anangu that inhered in them (Hart 2009, 23). When ‘contained within
the paradigm of a chaste wife’, Anangu ‘could be auspicious, making
her a sumangali. But outside the marital status, whether as a virgin or
as a widow, the Ananku was a deadly and destructive power’
(Ramaswamy 1997, 48). The Silappatikaram, Ramaswamy says, ‘does
associate Ananku with female spiritual power and personifies it into
Ananku, the youngest of the seven virgin sisters “who make Siva
dance”’ (Ramaswamy 1997, 49). Anangu was to be found in a widowed
woman who had to undergo the most severe form of asceticism to
acquire and control this power, and sometimes, the only way for a
young ‘chaste’ widow to keep her power in check was for her to take her
own life on her husband’s funeral pyre (Hart 2009, 24). N.K. Sastri
argues that some women preferred to die and earn fame as sati rather
than live an extremely difficult life (1966, 135–136).

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 24 Kannagi through the Ages

The Tamil epics Silappatikaram and Manimekalai drew heavily from

this literary tradition for their themes and their treatment, and so, it is
important to locate the epic Silappatikaram in this literary tradition to
fully appreciate the continuities and the departures. Both the structure
of the work (prosody, norms for similes and metaphors) and the
sensibilities of the work are along lines defined by the Sangam.
The Tholkapppiyam, as we shall see further, has detailed the themes
relating to women, war and the king and the rules to be followed by a
poet when working on any theme relating to them.

THOLKAPPIYAM

The Tholkappiyam is not a work on grammar alone but also a treatise on

themes appropriate for literature. It covers many aspects of life but
primarily love and war and the themes connected to them. The detailed
presentation of literary conventions, and not only the structure of
literature, sets the Tholkappiyam apart from other works on grammar in
any contemporaneous language. In several verses, the author,
Tholkappiyar, indicates that the conventions were established by other
pulavars or scholars who preceded him, which hints at other works now
lost to us but also establishes authority for his work.1
The Tholkappiyam is divided into three sections, Ezhuthu, Sol and
Porul, and the last is on rules in literary conventions. Mainly from this
last section, we get a sense of Tamil society before Ilango Adigal’s epic.
Whether the conventions presented by the author are a description of
the society as it was or only rules set for literature is debatable. For
example, there appears to have been a custom for men to ride a horse
made of Palmyra stems to demonstrate their love for a woman (madal
eruthal). This kind of demonstration falls within the perunthinai
category of love, which is the last of the seven categories mentioned by
the author.2 Tholkappiyar states that this kind of demonstration of love
was not appropriate for a woman (Murugan 2002, verse 984). We cannot
be certain if a lover only threatened to ride a palmyra horse to force the
friend of his beloved to arrange more meetings (Zvelebil 1986, 22–23).
When the author states that women might not ride a horse made of
Palmyra stems, was he saying that it was not a theme fit for literary
expression or that women should not do it at all? Such questions remain,
but the author was setting the rules for literature, and such rules are also
a reflection of society. If a woman riding on a horse made of palmyra
stems was not a theme fit for literary expression, it reflects certain
notions of feminine propriety. There are several such restrictions on
women relating to what they can do and not do throughout the ‘Porul’

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 Women in Tamil Literary Tradition 25

section of the Tholkappiyam. For instance, women may not join their
husbands on their sea voyages or express passion for a man openly
(Murugan 2001, verse 1052). The Tholkappiyam describes in some
detail the categories of man–woman relationships, the rules governing
them and how poets should handle them.

THE THOLKAPPIYAM AND AGAM POETRY

Tamil literary tradition has some characteristic features. The poetry is

divided into agam and puram, the inside and the outside. Agam poetry
concerns the mind, emotions, family and love. Poets had to follow strict
rules when they composed poems on agam themes. Proper names are
not to be mentioned, for instance, since the poems express the inner
world (Ramanujan cited in Dharwadkar 2012, 199). Of the seven types
of love, the first and the last, Perunthinai and kaikilai, are not appropriate
as themes for agam poetry since they are common, undignified and
abnormal and suitable only for servants (200). The middle five types are
fit as themes for agam poetry. The hero and heroine of agam poetry
should be well matched in every way, making them fit for the full range
of emotions—love, union, separation, anxiety, betrayal and forgiveness
(200). We can infer that the grammar of agam poetry anticipated the
protagonists of Ilango’s Silappatikaram.
The chapter ‘Akattinai Iyal’ in Tholkappiyam is about love and the
many moods of people in love. The range of emotions in agam poetry
corresponded to tracts of land and to the seasons. For example, kurinji
corresponds to mountains as well as to the cool months. In this chapter,
the author details the meeting of the lovers, their separation and their
pining for each other as the major themes of agam. Marriage and the
fulfilling life of a householder, surrounded by children and relatives, are
also themes within agam poetry. The man, kilavan (கிழவன்), may
separate from his woman, kilatti (கிழத்்ததி), for three reasons—for
learning, going to war or performing an ambassadorial duty. Elopement
is an important theme in ‘Akattinai Iyal’. There are clear rules for the
mother, foster mother, friend and passers-by when the lovers elope
(Murugan 2001, verses 985, 986, 988, 989). In another chapter on
‘meypattu iyal’ (manifest emotions in love), the author details the
different states of the kilatti as she experiences passion and consents to
a union with the kilavan (verses 1203–1208).
The third section, ‘Porul’, like the other two, is divided into nine
chapters: ‘Ahathinai Iyal’, ‘Purathinai Iyal’, ‘Kalavu Iyal’, ‘Karpu Iyal’,
‘Porul Iyal’, ‘Meypattu Iyal’, ‘Uvamai Iyal’, ‘Seyyul Iyal’ and ‘Marapu
Iyal’. ‘Kalavu Iyal’ and ‘Karpu Iyal’ deal specifically with love and

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 26 Kannagi through the Ages

sexual union, and extramarital and marital love, respectively. An

entire chapter on kalavu iyal or secretive or hidden love is also unique
to this literary tradition. In the Tholkappiyam, fifty verses deal with
kalavu iyal, within which each verse details the progression of a love
affair between the kilavan and the kilatti, the woman and her lover,
from their first sight of each other to their first meeting and sexual
union. The Tholkappiyam does not mention the ages of the kilavan
and kilatti. The ideal ages of sixteen and twelve, as in the Silappatikaram,
for man and woman respectively, to come together in love or marriage
appears to be a later convention. However, the qualities of the man
and the woman are clearly defined. Two verses state that nobility,
courage and intellect are the qualities of the man, and fear, modesty
and incredulity are the woman’s qualities (Nachinarkiniyar 1970, 11–
12). However, she expresses her desire for union with her lover
through fragrance, appearance, behaviour and other indicators, which
are understood by her friend or thozhi (verse 114). The author makes
it clear that if the two meet alone, they may express their desire
directly as well (verse 119). They may meet near her house during the
night and on the outskirts of her town during the day, but other spots
for rendezvous are not exempted either (Murugan 2001, verses 1075–
1078). He does not exempt their meeting during the three days of her
menses.3 The qualities of women are not limited to bashfulness and
modesty. In the chapter on ‘Porul’, a verse includes the facility of
language and knowledge as the qualities of women (verse 1152).
In the Tholkappiyam, the word karpu occurs several times.
Interestingly, this word is used in the context of kalavu iyal as well,
where the kilavi (woman) expresses her desire for her lover and arranges
to meet him in secret places. One verse is very important in this regard.
It states that for a woman, modesty or bashfulness is greater than life,
but karpu is greater than modesty (Nachinarkiniyar 1970, verse 113).
Nachinarkiniyar states in his commentary that when the kilatti goes to
meet her lover, she should know in her heart the saying of the wise that
faultless karpu (kurram theertha karpu) is greater than modesty. Again,
in another verse, karpu has been translated as wedded state or ‘wedded
course of steadfast love’ (Murugan 2001, verse 1175). However,
Ilakkuvanar translates it as ‘upholding the chastity of the lady-love’
(1963, 115). The last verse in this section on secret love clarifies that
even though secret love revealed stands equal to wedded love (karpinodu
oppinum), parting of the kilavan from his kilatti for reasons of learning,
call of war or embassy should not be equated with the husband
separating from his wife for these reasons if he has not married her
before such parting. In verse 152 under ‘Karpu Iyal’, karpu is used to
indicate a code of conduct learnt through the husband and others

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 Women in Tamil Literary Tradition 27

(Nachinarkiniyar 1970, 241–242). In a verse under ‘Porul’, the wife is

referred to as one who follows the path of chastity (karpuvazhi pattaval)
(Murugan 2001, verse 1175). These indicate that karpu was related to
the wedded status, and within that, it carried the meaning of fidelity.
The chapter on karpu iyal begins with a verse that states that karpu is
when the kilavan and kilatti are brought together through karanam by
the elders. Karanam here is a ceremony of marriage (Nachinarkiniyar
1970). Karpu then is wedded love. However, the next verse states that
there is karanam even in the absence of koduppor when the lovers elope.
Koduppor refers to those elders who are in a position to give them to
each other in marriage (Nachinarkiniyar 1970, verse 143).
There are several references to the husband visiting a parattai (sex
worker) and the pain he causes to the wife. In these circumstances, a wife
may not directly reproach him but may indicate her displeasure through
other means. However, the wife’s friend may rebuke the husband
(Nachinarkiniyar 1970, verse 158). Parattai and kamakilatti are references
to sex workers and courtesans, who appear to have been a very important
part of society. Visiting them appears to have been routine for married
men and also a fit subject for literary expression. What the wife experiences
when her husband goes to a parattai and the code of conduct for her
under the circumstances forms an important part of karpu iyal (verse
151). Her duties as a wife are clearly stated in Verse 152 of ‘Karpu Iyal’. The
duties of a wife include extending hospitality to guests and the extended
family and performing duties befitting a householder. The duty of the
husband was to be with his wife for twelve days after her menstruation
(verse 187). Together they must live the life of good householders,
surrounded by family, and find happiness (verse 192).
A long verse refers specifically to kamakilattiyar or concubines and
details the situations in which they may speak. These include their
anguish when they witness their lover seeking the company of other
women, their pleasure at the sight of their lover’s children or when they
see themselves as being at par with the wedded wife (Murugan 2001,
472). In another chapter, Tholkappiyar mentions a situation where the
parattai complains to the wife about the husband, indicating some
interaction between wives and parattaiyar (506). Another verse states
that the wife may speak well of the parattai, but she would still have
discord in her heart (506).
Men taking more than one wife occasioned situations that poets may
comment on.

பின்முறை ஆகிய பெரும்பொருள் வதுவைத்

தொ�ொன்முறை மனைவி எதிர்்ப்பபாடு ஆயினும்
மின்்னனிழைப் புதல்்வனை வாயில்கொண்டு புகினும்

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 28 Kannagi through the Ages

இறந்்த துணைய கிழவோ�ோன் ஆங்்கட்

கலங்்கலும் உரியன் என்்மனார் புலவர்.
(Sundramathy and Manuel 2010, verse 170)

This verse refers to wives who received their ‘co-wives’ with lamps, as
highlighted in the explanations by translators (Ilakkuvanar 1963, verse
172; Sundramathy and Manuel 2010, verse 170; Sastri 2002, verse 170).
However, V. Murugan’s translation of the same verse does not refer to a
second wife. Instead, he translates the verse thus:

The hero stands weighed down by remorse

Pricked by his union with strumpets
As he is back home
To the heroine of ancient connectedness
Who has handed him a prized heir to his legacy
And entering his house
With his son decked with lustrous ornaments
For his interceder, so do the literate men hold. (Murugan 2001, verse 1116)

This verse does seem to indicate the first wife entering the husband’s
new household with their son in her arms. Earlier translators may be
more accurate.
Women admonishing and embracing their husbands as mothers when
the husbands are in a mood of despondency is the theme of another verse.
It is honourable for a wife to protect her husband from infamy, and a
husband must know that his honour is in the honour of his son’s mother.

அவன் சோ�ோர்பு காத்்தல் கடன் எனப்்படுதலின்,

மகன் தாய் உயர்பும் தன் உயர்பு ஆகும் –
செல்்வன் மணி மொ�ொழி இயல்பு ஆகலான்.
(Sundramathy and Manuel 2010, verse 172)

Murugan refers to classical commentators and indicates that there is a

suggestion of a concubine in the preceding verse. Ilakkuvanar’s
translation of Verse 174, P.S. Subrahmanya Sastri’s translation of verse
172 and Sundramathy and Manuel’s translation of verses 171–172 refer
to co-wife and kamakilatti in the translation even though the verse does
not mention any word that may be translated as either.
Wives are not to accompany their warrior husbands to the battlefield
(Murugan 2001, verse 1119). However, the following verse is intriguing.
It has been translated differently by various scholars.

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 Women in Tamil Literary Tradition 29

The verse: புறத்தோர் ஆங்்கண் புணர்்வது ஆகும்.

[purathor aangan punarvadu akum] (verse 1120)

Murugan’s translation:

Women assigned to duties other than love

Will be there around in war-camps. (verse 1120)

Ilakkuvanar’s translation is linked to the previous verse, which together

would read as:

Verse 175: They will not take their wives to the war camp.
Verse 176: With others outside the ‘aham’ this rule will not be
applicable.
(Ilakkuvanar 1963, 199)

P.S. Subrahmanya Sastri’s translation:

Verse 174: They say that union with women other than irkilatti and
kamakkilatti is allowable. (Sastri 2002, 112)

Sundramathy and Manuel state that women other than the wife, like
courtesans and nurses, could be taken to the war camp. They do not translate
the words punarvadu akum (Sundramathy and Manuel 2010, verse 174).
How does one explain this variance? Punarvadu akum refers to sexual
union. If Purattor is a woman of the outside, Ilakkuvanar’s and Sastri’s
translations are closer to the meaning suggested by the verse. Murugan,
Sundramathy and Manuel appear to needlessly gloss over the clear
suggestion of sexual activity in army camps. Sangam literature and the
rules of grammar appear to reflect a more open society when it came to
women’s bodies and their functions and sex and sexuality amongst men
and women in society, quite in contrast to the hesitation amongst some
scholars who translated or commented on them in our own times. This
hesitation amongst some scholars can only be explained by an inability to
confront the nature of the Tamil society as reflected in Sangam poems.
Scholars do not seem to differ as much in their translations and
interpretations of puram poetry, which we shall see next.

THOLKAPPIYAM AND PURAM POETRY

Puram poetry, the poetry of the outside, has war, power and king as its
themes.4

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 30 Kannagi through the Ages

The different stages of a war, the nature of death, victory and

celebration are the themes recommended by the author of the
Tholkappiyam for this kind of poetry. One of the verses describes
the stages involved in the consecration of a stone in the image of a
warrior who died a heroic death on the battlefield, to make it fit for
worship (Sundramathy and Manuel 2010, verse 1009). However, women
appear in this poetry as wailing wives and mothers. A verse refers to the
details of the warrior’s heroism and his death and wives going to the
battleground after the battle is over and wailing and lamenting on
finding the bodies of their husbands (Murugan 2001, verse 1023). The
same verse details other situations within the Kanji theme, which
include wives joining the funeral pyre along with their dead husbands
or killing themselves with the spears that killed them. The verse also
refers to the situation where a warrior’s mother offers to kill herself.
These references to wives dying with their dead warrior husbands
invoke the practice of sati amongst some communities in the north of
India.
In the context of puram poetry, we get a deeper sense of the demands
on a woman who is widowed or a woman who is the mother of a warrior.
The generalisations we make of women and their place in society
through puram poetry can only be about women of warrior families.
We may not surmise, for instance, that all widowed women were
expected to die with their husbands. The code of conduct expected of
women who were unrelated to warriors may not have been the same.
The value attached to physical courage and the expectations from
warriors extended to the wives and mothers of warrior families. If it was
shameful to lose courage in battle, it would be equally disreputable to be
wives or mothers of such warriors. Nevertheless, losing a husband was
a calamity for a woman, as several poems testify. However, whether
women generally took to shaving their heads or killing themselves on
the death of their husbands is not clear.
The battlefield is the platform for the actions of men. Here, the
courage and heroism of men as warriors are displayed when they took
spears and arrows on their chests or cut up their enemies. However, the
men also guarded the border, spied on their enemies and were vigilant
against the spies of the enemy. They rounded up the enemy’s cattle and
brought them to their own settlements. When they were victorious,
they came back to accolades. The king presided over this world of war,
victory and defeat. He is the protagonist in the chapter ‘Purattinai Iyal’
in the Tholkappiyam.
Several verses refer to the qualities of a king. The monarch is referred
to as fiery and is likened to the divine Mayon (Murugan 2001, verse
1009). The warrior, when he returns victorious, is decorated with an

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 Women in Tamil Literary Tradition 31

anklet and bestowed with lands (verse 1009). The king’s duty is to be
generous to his victorious warriors and lead the community in erecting
a memorial stone for a heroic warrior (verse 1011). He is expected to be
protective, generous and kind. He patronises poets who sing his praise
and gives them generous gifts (verse 1024). The poems of the Sangam
anthologies, which we shall see next, illustrate this world of the inside
and the outside.

SANGAM POETRY: THE ETTUTHOGAI AND THE

PATTHUPATTU

The anthologies of ancient Tamil poetry, the Ettuthogai and the

Pathupattu, follow certain literary conventions. The poems can be
categorised as agam or puram. They can be grouped according to
landscape and mood as well. Collectively, they reflect a society engaged
with love, separation in love, marital happiness and anguish when the
husband seeks his pleasure elsewhere. In this world, women’s lives are
completely circumscribed by the demands of a society with agriculture
and war as its prime occupations. George L. Hart argues that this poetry
reflects society and culture before it was influenced by the Sanskritic
culture of the north (Hart 1973, 233). Rajan Gurukkal sees the primacy
of a heroic society’s ‘values and passions’ in the poems. He observes that
even poems devoted to non-martial themes establish links with the
heroic literature, and they collectively reflect the values of a society
based on plunder and a redistributive economy (Gurukkal cited in
Champakalakshmi and Gopal 1996, 320).
Women feature in this poetry only in their relationship to men—as
mothers, wives and concubines. References to any occupation of women
are rare; if they are not wives or lovers, they are concubines. Women’s
lives are defined by love, marital happiness, motherhood and pining for
a separated husband. It is perhaps appropriate to point out here that
ancient Tamil poetry was composed for a literate, wealthy and aristocratic
class. It was not ‘bardic’ in the sense of being composed for the
consumption of the masses. It was court poetry, albeit a court which was
often no more than like the ‘court’ of a zamindar (Zvelebil 1986, 87).
However, several poems deal with poverty and misery, particularly the
impoverished state of poets and their families.
In agam poetry, however, we hear the voices of women as lovers,
wives and mothers. They are active participants in the processes of
sexual attraction, meeting with lovers and elopement or marriage.
Some of the poems are attributed to women poets, including a few to
Auvaiyar.

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 32 Kannagi through the Ages

AGAM: WOMEN IN LOVE AND WITHIN FAMILY

In this world of love and experiences of the home, a girl belonged not to
her own family but to another. In a beautiful poem in Kalithogai, the
grieving mother of an eloped daughter is told that her daughter
belonged not to her but to another, like the pearl does not belong to the
sea, the music does not belong to the musical instrument and
the fragrance of sandalwood does not belong to the forest (Tiru
Ilavazhaganar 1959, 1:16). Several poems describe elopement, but many
more, falling within the kalavu iyal theme, describe young women
falling in love and engaging in sexual rendezvous with their beloveds in
great detail. Burning with passion, women rage against the world that is
unaware of their agony:

What She Said

Shall I charge, like a bull
Against this sleepy town,
Or try beating it with sticks,
Or cry wolf
Till it is filled with cries
Of Ah’s and Oh’s?

It knows nothing, and sleeps

Through all my agony, my sleeplessness,
And the swirls of this swaying south wind
O what shall I do
To this dump of a town. (Ramanujan 1986, 28)

This poem and several others are an important illustration of what was
permitted within literary conventions in expressing the pain and agony
of the women on separation from their beloveds. Ilango, while crafting
the character of Kannagi, chose to ignore altogether this rich tradition
of articulation of passion by the heroine and the pangs of separation she
experiences when separated from her beloved. Ilango silenced Kannagi
and did not allow her any expression of pain about her separation from
Kovalan.
Many of the poems are vivid descriptions of lovers meeting:

Co coo
crowed the cock, and my poor heart missed a beat
that the sword of morning came down
to cut me off from my lover
twined in my arms. (Ramanujan 1986, 157)

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 Women in Tamil Literary Tradition 33

A poem by Kapilar in the Kurunthogai describes the emotional state of a

girl who worries about her lover forsaking her after they had made love.

What She Said

Except for the thief, there was no one.
And if he lies, what shall I do?
A heron too was there,
Its thin legs yellow as millet stalks,
Looking out for sand eels in the running water
The day he took me. (25)

Another woman explains to her friend why she would not forsake her
love for fear of scandal:

What She Said

If I should just give up my love
To end this dirty talk,
I will be left
Only with my shame. (Ramanujan 1986, 112)

And again:

What She Said to Her Girl Friend

On beaches washed by seas
older than the earth,
in the groves filled with bird-cries
on the banks shaded by a punnai
Clustered with flowers,
when we made love
my eyes saw him
and my ears heard him;
my arms grow beautiful
in the coupling
and grow lean
as they come away. (299)

In another poem in Akananuru, the poet Kapilar describes a woman’s

attraction to a man most beautifully. The poem in part:

What She Said

He had a garland on his chest,
a strong bow in his grip,
arrow already chosen,

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 34 Kannagi through the Ages

and he asked which way the elephant went

with an arrow buried in its side.
He stood at the edge
of a ripened millet field.
But, among all the people
who saw him standing there,
why is it
that I alone lie in bed
in this harsh night,
eyes streaming,
arms growing lean? (Ramanujan 2011, 7)

The wife cooked and served food to her husband and took pleasure in
his praise. She even forgot the smoke that irritated her eyes while
cooking when he praised her (Tiru Ilavazhaganar 1959, 1: 23,
Kurunthogai 167). Husbands became separated from their wives
because of wealth or dalliance with a concubine. While it was not
dishonourable to spend parental property, a man who inherited wealth
should not just live off it but should add to it and make his own wealth.
However, adding to the inherited wealth often entailed separation
(Kurunthogai 283). The wife, under these circumstances, pined for him
and worried about his welfare. However, if he left her to be with another
woman, it gave her grief of a different kind, and several poems express
the anguish of such a wife. Nevertheless, a virtuous woman would not
reproach him when he returned (Hart 1973, 237). Her friend, the thozhi,
however, who is the voice of the wife, speaks to him about the neglect
towards his wife (Tiru Ilavazhaganar 1959, 1:71). Even queens pined for
faithless separated husbands. A puram poem by Paranar describes the
state of Kannagi, the wife of the king Pekan:

How can you be so coldly cruel,

So without compassion?
As we were playing our small yals in
The cevvali raga of longing
And singing of your forest, the look of it
During the monsoon!
we saw a young woman in grief that
Seemed to have no end,
Her darkened eyes glowing like dusky,
Fragrant waterlilies but
Overflowing
With tears that fell to wet her
Breasts adorned with their

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 Women in Tamil Literary Tradition 35

Ornamentation.
Bowing down to her, we asked of
Her, ‘Young woman! Are you
Some relation to the lord who wants
Us to be with him?’
With her fingers like budding red
Kantal flowers she brushed
Away her tears and then
Said to us, ‘I am no relation
Of his!
Hear me out! Pekan, whose fame
glows, hungers for the beauty,
they say, of another woman who
resembles me and in his
resounding chariot he pays his frequent visits
to the lovely city that is all encircled
with jasmine!’ (Hart and Heifetz 1999, verse 144)

The plight of this queen inspired another poem by the same author,
Paranar:

I come to you not because I am hungry,

Not because of the burden
Of my family! But the gift for
Which I beg is that tonight
You may mount your chariot
strung with bells and free her
of the anguish she lives with, and for
that I sing ‘May those
Who love mercy act with justice!’ (verse 145)

A happy household includes children. No matter how wealthy you may

be, your happiness is incomplete if you are not blessed with children
(Tiru Ilavazhaganar 1959, 1: 30). A couple together in a cot with their
child would consider themselves fulfilled (1: 29).

PURAM: WOMEN IN THE WORLD OF WAR, MEN

AND MONARCH

Puram poems are about kings, power and war. The values of this society
were defined to a large extent by the atmosphere of war. War and death
in battle are the themes that dominate puram poems. In this world, a

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 36 Kannagi through the Ages

woman was expected to send her men into battle, even the last or the
only son she had alive:

May her will be broken! What she had decided on is so cruel

But yet it is fitting for a woman descended from an ancient line!
Her father, the day before yesterday in battle,
Brought down
An elephant and then fell dead on the field! Yesterday
Her husband drove back a long rank of warriors and then
Was cut down in the fight! And today she heard the sound
Of the war drum and she was overwhelmed
With desire! Her mind
Whirling, she put a spear into the hand of her only son and she wound
A white garment around his body and smeared oil upon the dry
Topknot of his hair and having nothing
But him said ‘Go now!’ and sent him off into the battle! (Hart and
Heifetz 1999, verse 279)

If a brave warrior was likened to a lion, the womb of a woman became

his den:

Like a cave of rock

That a tiger inhabited and then abandoned
Is this womb which gave birth to him
You will find him out there somewhere on the battlefield. (verse 86)

If it was the duty of a young man to prepare to be a good warrior and

fight with courage in battle, the duty of his mother was to give birth to
him and to raise him:

It is my duty to bear him and to raise him. It is

His father’s duty to make him into a noble man. It is
the duty of the blacksmith to forge and give him a spear.
It is the king’s duty to show him how to behave rightly
and the duty of a young man is to fight
Indomitably with his shining sword, kill
elephants, and come back home. (verse 312)

However, the mother’s adulation was expected to be reserved for a son

who died a heroic death, not one who lost courage on the battlefield
(Hart and Heifetz 1999, verse 278). Therefore, being a mother, even the
mother of a son in this social context, was not enough. Her honour and
pride were in her son’s valour in war or his heroic death. Her connection
to her son was not through the womb alone but also through her breasts

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 Women in Tamil Literary Tradition 37

that she had given him to suckle. So his acts of courage in battle and
even his death validated her and the milk she had fed him with as an
infant. Several poems in the Purananuru refer to the breasts of a
warrior’s mother. As an old woman, she sheds tears of joy at the heroic
death of her only son on the battlefield (verse 277). However, she also
vows to cut off the breasts that her warrior son suckled if it was true that
he fled from the battlefield. Conversely, on finding that her son had died
a heroic death, she experiences joy more intense than what she had
experienced at his birth:

When she heard the many voices saying, ‘The aged woman with dry,
veined arms where the soft flesh hangs down, she whose belly
is wrinkled like a lotus leaf-her son was afraid of the enemy army
And he showed them his back and ran!’ then rage overcame her and
she said,
‘If he fled in the furious battle, I will cut off the breast- at which he
sucked!’
And she snatched up a sword and she
turned over every body lying there on the blood-soaked field.
And when she found her son who was scattered
In pieces, she felt happier than she had been the day she bore him.
(verse 278)

Breasts are the theme in another Purananuru poem that describes the
shrivelled breasts of a mother suddenly oozing with milk at the sight of
her brave warrior son’s body. Ironically, she becomes a mother again at
the sight of her dead son:

cutting open space until he died between the two hosts,

That warrior’s mother, with her inflexible will
Was overcome by love then and again her withered breasts gave milk.
(verse 295)

Ilango Adigal carried forward the motif of the breast to devastating

effect in his epic. In all of the poems earlier, women threaten to tear off
their breasts in grief. However, Ilango would transform the breast into a
destructive force in his characterisation of Kannagi.
If the birth of a son and the nature of his death reconnected the
woman to her body, her husband and his death severed her connection
with life, for, with his death, she often chose to end her life as well.
Several poems of Purananuru describe the widowed women insisting
on dying with their husbands. George L. Hart argues that it was not the
dread of austerities alone that motivated a wife to kill herself at the

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 38 Kannagi through the Ages

death of her husband. Instead, he argues, ‘She was thought to be full of

a sacred power which rendered her dangerous to herself and everyone
else’ (Hart and Heifetz 1999, 242). However, if poems describing
incidents of women entering the fire on their husbands’ death are
anything to go by, we get a sense that women did not want to undergo
the austerities expected of them. In a poem attributed to Perunkoppentu,
the wife of Putapantiyan says (while entering the fire):

All of you noblemen! All of you noble!

You do not let me go, you do not allow me
to put
an end to my life! All of you noblemen
with your perverse planning!
I am not a woman to endure eating
a ball of boiled rice
squeezed within a hand and left
lying overnight on a leaf
without a touch of fine fragrant
ghee pale as the seeds
from a curving cucumber striped
like a squirrel and split
open with a sword, or to eat food of
streamed velai leaves
cooked in tamarind and a paste of
white sesame seeds,
nor am I one to sleep, without a mat,
upon a bed of stones!
To you the pyre of black branches that
has been raised
on the burning ground may well
be fearful but to me,
now that my husband with his
powerful arms has died,
a lake flowing with water where
lotuses
open their luxuriant petals and
the fire are the same! (verse 246)

Austerities expected of women might have included shaving of the head

as well:

that hero with his victorious

spear is gone and now he has become

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 Women in Tamil Literary Tradition 39

a memorial stone. Because of this,

like his wife who mourns
all alone,
who has shaved off her hair
in the anguish of widowhood
and had her ornaments slipped away. (verse 261)

Another poem refers to widowed women with shaven heads:

But far harder it is for me to think

of going on living like the widows who have shed
their ornaments, water trickling down my close-shaven
head caked with mud, and for food the seeds
of the small white lily that was his garland of war! (verse 280)

The Sangam boasts of poetesses too. The most important was Auvaiyar.
The poems attributed to her in the Purananuru give us the impression of
a woman who composed her poems in keeping with the traditions and
conventions of her times. Even the sensibilities seem similar. Her
descriptions of battles are as violent as the poems of any poet. For example,
Auvaiyar sings in praise of Atiyaman Netuman Anci in this poem:

As did the ancient lineage of your ancestors who served the Gods
and offered oblations and secured the gift, hard to gain, of sugarcane
for this word and rolled the wheel of their power around
the earth that is surrounded by the ocean, you inherited by right
the war anklet of fine gold you wear on your leg, the garland
of flourishing Palmyra, your garden filled with flowers, the long spear
stained from recent passage through flesh, the seven symbols, and your
precious, immutable title to the land. But these were not enough for you
and you advanced against the seven kings with their great drums
resounding! Eager for war, you attacked and you showed your power
you warrant! But Paranar now has sung of you, of your arms
with which you held the discus that destroys
strongholds and that demolished fiercely inimical Kovalur!
(Hart and Heifetz 1999, verse 99)

She composes another poem for the same monarch, this time to warn
the enemy of his fearsome persona:

You, our enemies! Think twice before you come on to the field!
We have a warrior among us who will go against you in battle.
He is like a wheel fashioned with great care

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 40 Kannagi through the Ages

over a month by a craftsman who creates eight chariots a day! (verse 87)

However, there was more than one poet by that name. The note on her
in The Tamil Plutarch refers to her as a sister of Thiruvalluvar, the author
of the Kural (Chitty 1982, 19). Her real name is not known. Auvaiyar
means ‘the elderly lady’. Other Auvaiyars have been referred to as well
who belong to later centuries. However, there was one who was a
contemporary of Thiruvalluvar. She was apparently abandoned by her
mother and was reared by a panan or minstrel/bard. She chose to
remain celibate and miraculously prolonged her life to 240 years! As
legend would have it, she then chose to end her life. Her works are on
ethics and virtue. Two of her major works are Attichudi and Kondei
Venden. She appears to have thought little of the cerebral and emotional
abilities of men. One story about her goes that when she overheard
some men reviling the character of women, she composed four lines as
a retort, which as translated by Ellis is as follows:

All women would be good by nature if men did not spoil them: And
most men would have a tolerable stock of sense if the women did not
make fools of them. (19)

Another Auvaiyar is reputed to have lived during the time of the poet
Pugazhendi. Legend would make Pugazhendi a contemporary of Kambar
and Ottakuter during the reign of Kulottunga Chola in the 11th century.
Other women poets included in the Purananuru collection, however,
sing of the plight of women and, in one case, the palace when the king
meets his death in battle:

You at whose gateway those coming in need were halted

by the rice and best of meat crackling with the sound
of frying spices, you whose cool and fragrant pavilion
halted the weeping of bards, O wealthy, mighty palace!
You have lost everything, you and the wife who has cut off
her hair and shed her small bangles and eats nothing
but water lily seeds, now that the father of sons, who would
refuse white rice because they wanted it only
mixed with sweet milk has gone to the lonely burning ground!
(Hart and Heifetz 1999, verse 250)

Yet, not all women spoke of war, death and desolation. One poet,
Perunkoli Naykan Makal Nakkannaiyar, speaks about her pining for a
handsome warrior:

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 Women in Tamil Literary Tradition 41

Because of the young warrior who wears war anklets on his legs
and whose beard is the colour of collyrium, the bangles hang loose
on my arms and I am afraid of my mother. Yet if I should embrace
those shoulders of a warrior, I may be shamed before the assemble!
may this bewildered city tremble as much
as I do, forever, not able to choose, divided between two minds! (verse 83)

The king is central to this world. He is responsible for maintaining every

order, and people feel at peace under his protection. One Purananuru
poem brings the importance of a virtuous wife and a protective king
together. When asked why his hair was still not grey though he was not
young, the poet Kopperuncolan answered:

My children have gone far in learning. My wife is rich in virtue!

My servants do what I wish and my king, who shuns corruption,
protects us!
And in my city there are many noble men who through their deep
knowledge,
have acquired calm, have become self-controlled,
and the choices they make in their lives are built on the quality of
restraint! (Hart and Heifetz 1999, verse 191)

A happy, contented and secure life was rooted in the presence of a

virtuous wife and good, learned children in one’s life and a protective
king and men of knowledge in the society. Even the fame of a courageous
king was protection against the designs of enemies:

For someone to kill his enemies is not difficult, blunting the iron tips
Of spears and winning victories in the fierce battles,
But when they know my lord is in the camp, which then becomes
Like a hole where a cobra lurks or like the yard where
A murderous bull roams to and fro, then enemies though their
strength
Is imposing feel fear before
His flashing fame, he who raises his long spear in victory! (verse 309)

The king was the reason for the prosperity of his lands, for he was life
itself:

Rice is not the life of the world nor is water the life!
The king is the life of this world with its wide expanses!
And so it is incumbent upon a king who maintains an army

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 42 Kannagi through the Ages

wielding many spears to know of himself: ‘I am this world’s life!’

(Hart and Heifetz 1999, verse 119)

The death of such a king entailed calamitous developments. The event

changed the course of nature:

The leaves plucked to make the curry will wither. The wood
carried in for fuel will dry out. The city now ruled
by that great being whose dark wife is as soft and lovely
as a peacock, that rich city where a small bird, beside his mate
with her colorless crest, a black-throated male living in the eaves
of a house eats rice from paddy that was grown in a broad field
while resting in his nest made of shavings from the lute strings,
of bards and the hair of lions that seems
like frayed peacock feathers-that city will go hungry should the king
perish. (verse 318)

When we consider that the poems were composed by poets whose

livelihood depended on their ability to please the chiefs and monarchs
they sang the praises of, a little hyperbole is understandable. Still,
collectively, the poems reflect a society that set a high value on the
centrality of the king and expected qualities of valour, compassion and
generosity from him. His rule maintained social order, and with his
exit, the natural order of things ended.

THE SHIFTS IN VALLUVAR’S THIRUKKURAL

A Tamil work that enjoys tremendous influence is the Thirukkural by

Thiruvalluvar. The text is usually accepted as belonging to the late
Sangam period. It is dated earlier than the epics because Ilango has
quoted Valluvar in the Silappatikaram. The Kural is a composition that
has been described as distichs that are maxims on every aspect of life.
Valluvar’s work is well structured with 1,330 maxims divided unequally
into three sections—aram, porul and inbam or righteous behaviour,
wealth and love. The first has 380 maxims or distichs, the second 700
and the third 250. The 1,330 maxims cover every aspect of life, including
kingship, governance, diplomacy, righteous conduct, family life and
children. The text is a didactic work meant for a class of people who
could understand the finer sentiments embedded in it. While the work
reflects the concerns of a literate class, it also defines a code of conduct
suited to them. It codifies the ideal after which anyone can pattern his
or her life.

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 Women in Tamil Literary Tradition 43

Some shift in the attitude towards women is noticeable in Vaaluvar’s

work. While karpu was an important concept that regulated and often
defined women’s lives in the early period of the Sangam, it takes on a
different and more demanding meaning in the Kural. Karpu meant, as
noted earlier, good conduct that has been learnt, which involved
restrained behaviour and modesty. A woman who exercised restraint in
every aspect of her behaviour acquired power that could be equated
with the sacred or the divine (Hart 1973, 243). In the Kural, however,
while a woman who behaved with modesty acquired merit, it also
implied that she should worship her husband. In bestowing divinity to
the husband in the wife’s eyes, the Kural shifts from the early Sangam
period. What is more, a woman who worshipped her husband instead
of any other god acquired supernatural powers. Such a woman could
make the rains come down to earth.

தெய்்வந் தொ�ொழாஅள் கொ�ொழுநன் தொ�ொழுதெழுவாள்

பெய்்யயெனப் பெய்யும் மழை. (Narayanasamy 2009, verse 55, 22)

V.V.S. Aiyar translates this verse as:

Behold the woman who worshippeth not other Gods but worshippeth
her husband even as she riseth from bed: the rain-cloud obeyeth her
commands. (Aiyar 1916, verse 55, 15)

However, expectations of this nature from women would make

the converse true as well: if the rains failed, it could be attributed to the
slackening morals of women. By the age of Valluvar, there was a clear
emphasis on wifely duties and virtues. Karpu retains its elevated status
as a quality that could bestow a woman who possessed it with
supernatural powers. However, it could be acquired only through
conduct that was defined by society. A woman protected her modesty
through her behaviour.
Valluvar devotes an entire chapter of ten verses to the idea of an ideal
life partner (வாழ்்க்ககை துணை நலம் or Vazhkai Thunai Nalam).
However, the chapter is written with the man in mind because the ten
verses are about ideal qualities in a wife. These qualities include
spending within the means of the husband, loving the husband and
begetting children, besides worshipping the husband. She was expected
to protect herself through good conduct and care for her husband.

தற்்ககாத்து தற்கொண்்டடான் பேணித் தகைசான்்ற

சொ�ொற்்ககாத்துச் சோ�ோற்்வவிலாள் பெண். (Narayanasamy 2009,
verse 56, 23)

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 44 Kannagi through the Ages

V.V.S. Aiyar’s translation:

She is the good housewife who guardeth her virtue and her reputation,
and tendeth her husband with loving care. (1916, verse 56, 16)

In the age of Valluvar, society found it necessary to protect the wife

from sexual transgression. Revealingly, the word chirai or ‘prison’ is
used in the context of women’s virtue. We can guess the restrictions on
women when we read this verse:

சிறைகாக்குங் காப்புஎவன் செய்யும் மகளிர்

நிறைகாக்குங் காப்்பபே தலை. (Narayanasamy 2009, verse 57, 23)

V.V.S. Aiyar translates it as:

Of what avail is close confinement? It is her own continence that is

the best guardian of a woman’s virtue. (1916, verse 57, 16)

There are corresponding codes of correct behaviour for men who might
covet another’s wife. The chapter on the topic of ‘Adultery’ (‘Piranil
Vizhayamai’) is entirely about how men should not covet the பிரனில்
விழியாமை or ‘wife property’. Should a man yield to every sin, he
should at least desist from the sin of coveting another’s wife:

அறன்்வரையான் அல்்ல செயினும் பிறன்்வரையாள்

பெண்்மமை நயவாமை நன்று. (Narayanasamy 2009, verse 150, 41)

V.V.S. Aiyar’s translation:

Though thou shouldst transgress and yield to every other sin, it were
well for thee if though desire not thy neighbour’s wife. (Aiyar 1916,
verse 150, 34)

The household had become central to at least the elite society by

Valluvar’s time, and the place of woman within it was clearly defined.
Even the relative positions of wife and husband were unequal. While
she was the queen of the household and her efficient running of the
house ensured fame and prosperity for her husband, she was to be
subservient to the husband.
Interestingly, this ideal of a wife is consistent with the stories that
abound about the married life of Valluvar. Legend has it that he had a
happy married life with his wife, Vasuki. However, if the stories are
anything to go by, this happiness appears to have depended on the

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 Women in Tamil Literary Tradition 45

unquestioning devotion of his wife. One story is that Valluvar tested his
future wife’s worthiness to be his wife by asking her to cook a handful of
iron pieces. She did so, and he married her. The second story relates to
their married life. Valluvar wanted to recommend married life to a
visiting sage who was not sure. He ordered Vasuki to use a handheld fan
to cool the cold rice she had served him and his guest. Even though she
was drawing water from the well at that moment, she abandoned that
task and rushed to do as she was asked. Two things happened as a
consequence, which established several things at the same time. Firstly,
steam began to rise from the cold rice. Secondly, the pot of water she
was drawing from the well stood still in mid-air where she had left it!
The sage was impressed by Vasuki’s unquestioning obedience and was
convinced that if one could find a wife like Vasuki, married life may be
a good idea. The story also established the supernatural power that a
woman acquired through devotion to her husband. The third story is
about how Valluvar, working in broad daylight, asked his wife to use a
light to look for a shuttle he had dropped. She did so without asking
why he needed a light at all. Legend also has it that he became an ascetic
after she died (Aiyar 1916, i–xliv).
If unquestioning obedience and devotion were the most valued
quality in a woman, men were warned that the reverse should never be
true. Valluvar devotes a chapter to warning men of the harm that would
come if they succumbed to women. From the verses, he means women
in general and wives:

இல்்லலாள்்கண் தாழ்்ந்்த இயல்்பபின்்மமை எஞ்்ஞஞான்றும்

நல்்லலாருள் நாணுத் தரும். (Narayanasamy 2009, verse 903, 232)

V.V.S. Aiyar translates this verse as:

The weakling who humbleth himself before his wife will always be
ashamed to show his face before the worthy. (1916, 187)

Or:

இல்்லலாளை அஞ்சுவான் அஞ்சுமற் றெஞ்்ஞஞான்றும்

நல்்லலார்க்கு நல்்ல செயல். (Narayanasamy 2009, verse 905 ,905)

This is translated as:

The man who feareth his wife will never have the courage to do a
service even to the worthy. (Aiyar 1916, 187)

Kannagi Through the Ages.indd 45 30/11/22 5:25 PM

 46 Kannagi through the Ages

Even though Valluvar devotes seven chapters to kalavu iyal in the

section on ‘Inbam’, he gives eighteen to karpu iyal. Even within
the kalavu iyal, far fewer verses are from the woman’s point of view.
Unlike several poems in the Ettuthogai, Valluvar rarely refers to the
male body and the woman’s enchantment with it. In the chapters of
Karpu iyal, we hear the woman’s voice much more, fearing separation
from her husband and pining for him when separated. The metaphors
used to indicate pining in separation are common among poets of the
early Sangam: arms growing thin and bangles sliding off them. From
the Sangam to the Kural, there is a noticeable shift in social expectations
from women. Ilango carries forward this changed and heightened
expectation in his creation of Kannagi.
If the attitude to women’s position in family and society had
become more rigid, we find a corresponding change in the attitude to
the parattai in Valluvar’s work. Significantly, he chose to devote an
entire chapter to warning men against their deceit, untrue love and
greed for wealth. The women in the society are then neatly divided
into virtuous wives and sex workers. If a woman is not one, then she is
the other.
The king continued to be central to the society that Valluvar lived in.
He was as essential to life as the rains:

துளியின்்மமை ஞாலத்்ததிற்கு எற்்றற்்றறே வேந்்தன்

அளியின்்மமை வாழும் உயிர்க்கு. (Narayanasamy 2009, verse 557,
151)

How fareth the earth under a rainless sky? Even so fare the people
under the rule of a cruel prince. (Aiyar 1916, 118)

Life and society prospered when he was benevolent and kind, but they
perished when he was a tyrant. However, now, it was not enough for the
king to be a good warrior. Instead, he must listen to wise counsel and
act upon it. His subjects looked to his staff of justice (கோ�ோல் or kol) as
all living beings looked to the sky:

வான்னோக்்ககி வாழும் உலகெல்்லலாம் மன்்னவன்

கோ�ோல்நோக்்ககி வாழும் குடி. (Narayanasamy 2009, verse 542, 148)

The world looketh up to the raincloud for life; even so do men look
up to the sceptre of the prince for protection. (Aiyar 1916, 115)
(Kudi here is people or subjects)

Kannagi Through the Ages.indd 46 30/11/22 5:25 PM

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his mind upon what overt acts would constitute the treason of
levying war; and to prevent mistake, he had reduced this opinion to
writing, and for the information of the counsel on both sides (no
partial selection) he gave a copy of this opinion to each of them, and
intended to give another to the jury to take out with them. The jury
should have this opinion where they could not mistake it, instead of
their memories where it might be misunderstood. Is not this, sir, a
fair and just epitome of the facts given in evidence? Is it not the full
measure and amount of the judge’s crime and corruption?
We have heard much about the agitation of the bar on this
occasion. The particular cause of it has not been clearly explained. It
might have been produced by the demeanor of Mr. Lewis, which,
from his own account, was violent and indignant, or it might have
been the mere bustle produced by the different efforts that were
made to get hold of the obnoxious paper which Mr. Lewis cast from
him with so much feeling as too foul for his hand; or from a
combination of these with other causes. Another circumstance
equally immaterial has been dignified with much importance by the
attention the Managers have bestowed upon it—I mean the novelty
of the proceeding. Every witness was asked in solemn form, “Did
you ever see the like before?” “How long have you been a practising
lawyer?” “How many criminals have you defended?” “Was not this
mode of forming and giving opinions by the Court a novelty to you?”
Granted—it was a novelty—I say granted for argument’s sake—it
was a novelty; and what follows? Is it therefore impeachable? Every
innovation, however just and beneficial, is subject to the same
consequence. But, sir, if this novelty proceeded not from impure
intentions, and was not followed by oppressive or injurious
consequences, where is its injustice or criminality? There were many
other novelties in that trial. It was a novelty that a man named John
Fries should commit treason, and be tried and convicted for it. I
never heard of precisely the same thing before. It was a novelty that
counsel should desert their cause in the abrupt manner in which it
was then done. But I presume it will not be pretended that these
things were wrong merely because they were novel; much less that
a judge is to be convicted of high crimes and to be removed from
office for a harmless novelty. The articles charge not the judge with
innovations and novelties in legal forms, but with depriving John
Fries and his counsel of their constitutional rights; and if he has not
done this, the rest is of no importance now. But what is this strange
novelty that excites so much interest and alarm? Is it that a law
judge had a law opinion, and was capable of making it up for himself
without the assistance of learned counsel? I hope not. I should be
sorry to suppose this is a novelty in the United States. Was it then
the reducing this opinion to writing, putting it on paper with pen and
ink, that makes the dangerous novelty? To have the opinion is
nothing; but to write it constitutes the crime. And yet, sir, where is
the difference to the prisoner? Except that in the latter case there is
more certainty; less chance of misapprehension and mistake on the
part of the jury than when it is delivered to them verbally. It should
be recollected, sir, and I am sure it is too important to be forgotten
by this honorable Court, this written opinion contained all the
limitations and discriminations on the law of treason which could
serve the prisoner, as well as those which might operate against
him. But, sir, I deny that there was so much novelty either in forming
this opinion, or in reducing it to writing, as is pretended. Is it
uncommon for judges to state their opinions on particular points of
law to counsel, even before argument, for the direction of their
observations? And was it ever before considered a prejudication of
the case, or an encroachment upon the rights of the bar? In criminal
courts the practice is constant and universal. Previous to the trial of
the cases of treason, after the restoration of Charles II., the judges
of England met together, and did form and reduce to writing
opinions, not only upon the mode of proceeding upon the trials, but
also on all those questions or points of law which they supposed
would arise and require their decision in the course of the trials.
(See Kelynge’s Reports, pp. 1, 2, &c.—11.) Here the judges met in
consultation expressly for the purposes now deemed so criminal in
Judge Chase, and took to their aid the King’s counsel. Our judge did
not take to his assistance the Attorney of the United States in
forming his opinion; nor did the judges in England deliver to the
counsel of the accused the result of their deliberations, but doubtless
it would have been received as a favor if they had. In the only two
points of difference, therefore, between the two cases, we have
most decidedly the advantage.
Suffer me now, sir, to offer you some observations on the second
specification of the first article of impeachment. I hope it will not be
necessary to trespass greatly on your patience in refuting it. It
charges Judge Chase with “restricting the counsel for the said John
Fries from recurring to such English authorities as they believed
apposite, or from citing certain statutes of the United States, which
they deemed illustrative of the positions upon which they intended
to rest the defence of their client.” This charge consists of two parts;
it complains of a restriction as to English authorities, and as to
American statutes. I will consider them distinctly. First, sir, permit me
to remark that these allegations are made to support the general
charge of partiality, oppression, and injustice. But what becomes of
these pretences when we bear in mind the testimony of Mr. Rawle,
the district attorney, and always, and in every situation, a gentleman
whose character, in all its relations both public and private, bears the
first stamp of respectability, and fears no competition for credit? He
has informed this honorable Court that this restriction so grievously
complained of, and now the subject of a criminal prosecution, was
imposed upon him as well as upon the counsel of Fries. Is this the
character or the conduct of partiality or oppression? Does it evince
that strong appetite the judge is said to have, to drink the heart’s
blood of this unfortunate German, and stain the pure ermine of
justice with his gore? I have always understood by partiality in a
judge, a favoring bias to one party to the prejudice of the other; but
where a restriction is put equally on both sides, I cannot conjecture
how it can be resolved into partiality or oppression. It will be seen
presently that as far as this restriction could have any operation, it
was friendly in that operation to John Fries. But, sir, what was this
restriction so much complained of, and now magnified into a high
crime? That certain English decisions in the law of treason, made
before the Revolution of 1688, should not or ought not to be read to
the jury; and pray, sir, what were these decisions? I will take their
character from Mr. Lewis himself, and no man is better acquainted
with them. He says they were decisions of dependent and corrupt
judges, who carried the doctrine of constructive treason to the most
dangerous and extravagant lengths. True, they were so—sanguinary,
cruel, and tyrannical in the extreme; and could the exclusion of such
cases injure John Fries? If cases which extenuated and softened the
crime of treason had been rejected, he might indeed have suffered;
but how he was or could be injured by keeping from the jury those
cases which aggravated his offence, I am really at a loss to learn.
The restriction there was on the United States. Had they been
adduced by the Attorney-General, no doubt they would have been
ably answered by the defendant’s counsel; but the ability of the
counsel was not inferior to Fries’s counsel; and if Judge Chase had
indeed a design to oppress and injure John Fries, and to convict him
on strained constructions of treason, his best policy would surely
have been to have suffered these cases to have come forward, and
if supported by his authority and the talents of the counsel of the
United States, they might have had their influence with the jury,
notwithstanding the able refutations they might have received.
May I not now flatter myself, sir, that all the criminality charged
upon the respondent, in the second specification of the first article of
impeachment, is washed away from the minds of this honorable
Court? Under this hope and impression, I will proceed to consider, as
briefly as possible, the third and last specification. In this the judge
is charged with “debarring the prisoner from his constitutional
privilege of addressing the jury (through his counsel) on the law as
well as on the fact which was to determine his guilt or innocence,
and at the same time endeavoring to wrest from the jury their
indisputable right to hear argument, and determine upon the
question of law, as well as the question of fact, involved in the
verdict which they were required to give.” This charge is absolutely
unfounded and untrue, and is, in all its parts, most completely
disproved by the evidence. As to debarring counsel from being
heard, I need only refer you, sir, to the testimony of Messrs.
Tilghman and Meredith, who expressly swear, that Judge Chase,
when he threw down the paper containing the opinion the Court had
formed on the law, explicitly declared, that, nevertheless, counsel
would be heard against that opinion. It is, indeed, true that Mr.
Lewis seems, throughout the business, to have been under an
impression that nothing would be heard in contradiction to that
opinion; and that his professional rights were invaded. But this
appears to be a hasty and incorrect inference or conclusion of his
own, from the conduct of the Court. He wholly misapprehended the
Court, and has charged his misapprehension to their account. This is
the usual effect of such precipitate proceedings. The Managers have
greatly relied on this circumstance; they urge that Mr. Lewis, through
the whole affair, and in all he said concerning it, took for granted
and stated that he was debarred from his constitutional privileges.
He did so; but he did so under a mistake of his own, not proceeding
from the Court. It is not only that no other witness speaks of any
such restriction, but expressly negative it and say, some of them at
least, that none such was imposed; but Mr. Rawle has further
informed you, that it appeared to him throughout the business that
Mr. Lewis had wholly misunderstood the Court and mistook their
intention. But, surely, sir, we are not to be condemned because we
have been misunderstood; especially as the mistake seems to have
been peculiar to Mr. Lewis, and no other witness fell into the same
error. I rely most implicitly on Mr. Rawle’s testimony, not only from
the strength and correctness of his character, but from the unusual
pains he took to be accurate in his knowledge of this transaction. His
notes are copious, connected, and satisfactory, and although he has
no notes of the first day’s proceeding, yet he seems to have given an
uncommon and cautious attention to every circumstance to which he
has testified. This gentleman negatives every idea of any restriction
upon the arguments of counsel, and is supported by every witness
but Mr. Lewis.
But, sir, there is one circumstance in this second day’s proceeding,
which has been introduced to show, that the respondent continued
the same tyrannical spirit with which he is charged on the first day,
and which it may be incumbent on him to remove. I mean the
“unkind menace,” as it has been termed by one of the witnesses,
used to the counsel of Fries, when the judge told them they would
proceed in the defence at the hazard or on the responsibility of their
character. To ascertain the true nature of the expression, whatever it
was, which fell from the Court in this respect, I will refer to the same
guide I have endeavored to follow throughout my argument, I mean
the evidence. The aspect of this pretended menace will then be
changed into a complimentary confidence in the discretion of the
counsel, or at least into no more than such a menace as every
gentleman of the bar acts under in every case; that is, to manage
every cause before a jury with a due regard to their own reputation;
to urge nothing as law to the jury, which they are conscious is not
law, and to introduce no matter which they know to be either
improper or irrelevant. This, in its worst character, will be found to
be the whole amount of this terrible menace. What account does Mr.
Lewis give of this occurrence? After stating that the Court
manifested a strong desire that he and his colleague should proceed
in the defence of their client; that every restriction, if any had been
imposed, was now removed, and that they were at full liberty to
address the jury on the law and the fact as they thought proper; the
judge said that this would be done “under the direction of the Court,
and at the peril of their own character, if we conduct ourselves with
impropriety.” And was it not so? And where is the criminality of
saying so? Mr. Lewis did not consider this as a menace intended to
restrict him in the exercise of the rights just before conceded him by
the Court, but rather as an unwarranted suspicion of his sense of
propriety; for, says he, “I did not know of any conduct of mine to
make this caution necessary.”
A very strange and unexpected effort has been made, sir, to raise
a prejudice against the respondent on this occasion, by exciting or
rather forcing a sympathy for John Fries. We have heard him most
pathetically described as the ignorant, the friendless, the innocent
John Fries. The ignorant John Fries! Is this the man who undertook
to decide that a law which had passed the wisdom of the Congress
of the United States, was impolitic and unconstitutional, and who
stood so confident of this opinion as to maintain it at the point of the
bayonet? He will not thank the gentleman for this compliment, or
accept the plea of ignorance as an apology for his crimes. The
friendless John Fries! Is this the man who was able to draw round
himself a band of bold and determined adherents resolved to defend
him and his vile doctrines at the risk of their own lives, and of the
lives of all who should dare to oppose? Is this the John Fries who
had power and friends enough actually to suspend, for a
considerable time, the authority of the United States over a large
district of country, to prevent the execution of the laws, and to
command and compel the officers appointed to execute the law to
abandon the duties of their appointment, and lay the authority of
the Government at the feet of this friendless usurper? The innocent
John Fries! Is this the man against whom a most respectable grand
jury of Pennsylvania, in 1799, found a bill of indictment for high
treason; and who was afterwards convicted by another jury, equally
impartial and respectable, with the approbation and under the
direction of a judge, whose humanity and conduct, on that very
occasion, have received the most unqualified praise of the honorable
Manager who thus sympathizes with Fries? Is this the John Fries,
against whom a second grand jury, in 1800, found another bill for
the same offence, founded on the same facts, and who was again
convicted by a just and conscientious petit jury? Is this innocent
German the man who, in pursuance of a wicked opposition to the
power and laws of the United States, and a mad confidence in his
ability to maintain that opposition, rescued the prisoners duly
arrested by the officers of the Government, and placed those very
officers under duress; who, with arms in his hands and menace on
his tongue, arrayed himself in military order and strength, put to
hazard the safety and peace of the country, and threatened us with
all the desolation, bloodshed, and horror of a civil war; who, at the
moment of his desperate attack, cried out to his infatuated followers,
“Come on! I shall probably fall on the first fire, then strike, stab, and
kill all you can?” In the fervid imagination of the honorable Manager,
the widow and orphans of this man, even before he is dead, are
made in hypothesis to cry at the judgment seat of God against the
respondent; and his blood, though not a drop of it has been spilt, is
seen to stain the pure ermine of justice. I confess, sir, as a
Pennsylvanian, whose native State has been disgraced with two
rebellions in the short period of four years, my ear was strangely
struck to hear the leader of one of them addressed with such
friendly tenderness, and honored with such flattering sympathy by
the honorable Manager.
It is not unusual, sir, in public prosecutions for the accused to
appeal to his general life and conduct in refutation of the charges.
How proudly may the respondent make this appeal! He is charged
with a violent attempt to violate the laws and constitution of his
country, and to destroy the best liberty of his fellow-citizens. Look,
sir, to his past life, to the constant course of his opinions and
conduct, and the improbability of the charge is manifest. Look to the
days of doubt and danger; look to that glorious struggle so long and
so doubtfully maintained for that independence we now enjoy; for
those rights of self-government you now exercise, and do you not
see the respondent among the boldest of the bold, never sinking in
hope or in exertion, aiding by his talents and encouraging by his
spirit; in short, putting his property and his life in issue on the
contest, and making the loss of both certain by the active part he
assumed, should his country fail of success! And does this man, who
thus gave all his possessions, all his energies, all his hopes to his
country and to the liberties of the American people, now employ the
small and feeble remnant of his days, without interest or object, to
pull down and destroy that very fabric of freedom, that very
Government, and those very rights he so labored to establish? It is
not credible; it cannot be credited, but on proof infinitely stronger
than any thing that has been offered to this honorable Court on this
occasion. Indiscretions may have been hunted out by the
perseverance of persecution; but I trust most confidently that the
just, impartial, and dignified sentence of this Court, will completely
establish to our country and to the world, that the respondent has
fully and honorably justified himself against the charges now
exhibited against him; and has discharged his official duties, not only
with the talents that are conceded to him, but with an integrity
infinitely more dear to him.

Friday, February 22.

Mr. Key.—Mr. President, I rise to make some observations on the
second, third, and fourth articles of the impeachment. I shall not
apologize for the manner in which I shall discharge a duty which I
have voluntarily undertaken, but merely regret that indisposition has
prevented my giving the subject that attention which it merits. It will
be at once perceived that these articles relate to the trial of
Callender. Before, however, I go into an examination of the second
article, it may be proper to notice the situation in which the judge
found himself and the state of the public mind at the time. The
sedition law was passed in the year 1799. It immediately arrested
the public attention, and strongly agitated the public feelings. In the
State of Virginia it was peculiarly obnoxious; many of the most
respectable characters considered it as unconstitutional, and as a
violation of the liberty of the press; most deemed it impolitic; while
some viewed it as a salutary restraint on the licentiousness of the
press, more calculated to preserve than to destroy it. In this state of
the public mind it became the duty of the respondent, in the
ordinary assignment of judicial districts, to go into the district of
Virginia, where he was entirely a stranger, to carry the laws into
execution. It is scarcely necessary to observe that when laws are
considered obnoxious, much of the odium attending them inevitably
falls on those who carry them into effect. In May, 1800, Judge Chase
went to Richmond to hold a court; and soon after it was in session,
the grand jury found a presentment and afterwards a bill against
James T. Callender for an infraction of this law, in publishing the
book entitled “The Prospect before Us,” which brought into issue its
constitutionality. Professional men of talents, carried along by the
tide of public opinion, volunteered their services in defence of the
accused; and every effort was exhausted to wrest the decision from
the respondent. Exceptions were accordingly taken at every stage of
the case; and when the jurors were brought to the book, a question
arose which forms the foundation of the charge contained in the
second article.
If we extract from this article the epithets it contains nothing will
remain, and epithets fortunately do not constitute crimes. The
offence and fact charged is, the permitting Mr. Basset to be sworn
on the jury with an intention to oppress the traverser, which is not in
the least supported by the testimony. The article alleges that Mr.
Basset wished to be excused. I appeal to the testimony, whether he
did wish or desire to be excused. The observations he made arose
entirely from a scruple in his own mind, and not from any objection
to serving. Instead of his wishing to be excused, the real fact is that
which he said flowed from the peculiar situation in which he stood;
and he says that he declared himself willing to serve, provided in law
he was competent. The fact, therefore, on which this article rests, is
not supported by the testimony, and not being supported, I might
here dismiss this branch of the subject without further
animadversion.
Suppose we are mistaken in the fact, which we say is proved, that
Mr. Basset did not desire to be excused; admit that he did pray to be
excused; still, so far as he has himself, on oath, explained the
situation of his mind, there was no cause for challenge.
Admit, also, that we are mistaken in the law we have laid down,
does it follow as a necessary consequence that the directing Basset
to be sworn on the jury, was done with an intent to oppress the
traverser? We call for the facts that impeach the motives of Judge
Chase. In the opening of this case we were told that the respondent
was highly gifted with rich attainments of mind. It was correctly
said; and it might have been added that his integrity was equal to
his talents. But the observation was made to raise his head at the
expense of his heart. I will examine this argument.
The truth is that no judge is liable for an error of judgment. I
apprehend this is conceded by the article itself, which states a
criminal intent. Now for the evidence. What criminal intention do the
honorable Managers draw from it? It is said that the respondent is
highly gifted with intellectual powers, and must have known in this
instance the law. Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes. I dislike the
compliment; the best-gifted mortals are frail, and a single erroneous
decision may be made by any man.
I will now proceed to the third article, which, when correctly
understood, will be found as destitute of impeachable matter as
either of the other articles. It is as follows: “That, with intent to
oppress and procure the conviction of the prisoner, the evidence of
John Taylor, a material witness on behalf of the aforesaid Callender,
was not permitted by the said Samuel Chase to be given in, on
pretence that the said witness could not prove the truth of the whole
of one of the charges contained in the indictment, although the said
charge embraced more than one fact.”
In opening the case one of the honorable Managers inquired what
human subtilty or ingenuity could devise to extenuate this act of the
respondent. Our reply is that it requires no subtilty or ingenuity; that
it was correct in point of law, and that the case is so clear, that he
who runs may read. The Court must permit me to observe that the
article presents an abstract case, not growing out of, or connected
with the evidence. This Court, I apprehend, is not sitting here to
decide this abstract point, whether in any case it is admissible to
prove one fact contained in a particular charge by one witness, and
one by another; but to determine whether in this case, where one
witness was offered to prove part of one charge, and no other
witness offered to the same charge, it was proper to receive
testimony offered. I contend that the decision was correct on the
case before the Court.
Mr. Robertson says, “The attorney for the United States having
concluded, the counsel for the traverser introduced Colonel Taylor as
a witness, and he was sworn; but at the moment the oath was
administered, the judge called on them, and desired to know what
they intended to prove by the witness. They answered, that they
intended to examine Colonel Taylor, to prove that Mr. Adams had
avowed principles in his presence which justified Mr. Callender in
saying that the President was an aristocrat—that he had voted
against the sequestration law, and the resolutions concerning the
suspension of commercial intercourse with Great Britain.” This was
then the object and view with which Colonel Taylor was called on.
What is the charge in the articles of impeachment? That the
testimony of Colonel Taylor was rejected “on pretence that the said
witness could not prove the truth of the whole of one of the charges,
contained in the indictment, although the said charge embraced
more than one fact.” The charge in the indictment is that the
President “was a professed aristocrat; that he proved faithful and
serviceable to the British interest:” and Colonel Taylor was called to
prove that Mr. Adams had voted against the sequestration law, and
the resolutions concerning the suspension of commercial intercourse
with Great Britain. Was it competent to Colonel Taylor to give
evidence on this point? The best evidence the nature of the case will
admit must be adduced. Colonel Taylor then was clearly an
incompetent witness on this point; as there was better evidence, the
journals of this honorable body, within the reach of the traverser. It
only then remained for Colonel Taylor to prove that the President
had avowed principles which showed him to be an aristocrat; which,
if proved, would have been altogether immaterial. To prove no other
facts was he called upon. Are then counsel to be indulged in
consuming the time of courts in the examination of witnesses, who
have nothing relevant to offer?
I will now proceed to the fourth article, which contains five distinct
specifications of facts charging misconduct on the respondent at
Richmond.
This conduct is said to have been evinced, in the first place, “In
compelling the prisoner’s counsel to reduce to writing, and submit to
the inspection of the Court, for their admission or rejection, all
questions which the said counsel meant to propound to the above-
named John Taylor, the witness.”
 If this was incorrect, I cannot perceive its injustice to Callender,
nor its partiality or intemperance. But did the conduct of the Court in
this instance correspond with the law and the practice? I apprehend
that it did. I understand it to be a clear and admitted principle of
law, that the Court is the only competent tribunal to determine the
competency, the admissibility, and the relevancy of evidence; when
admitted, its credibility is the exclusive province of the jury. I have
before stated the reasons which rendered it necessary in this case to
know what Colonel Taylor could prove. To understand the object for
which he was produced with greater certainty and precision, the
judge ordered the questions proposed to be put to be previously
reduced to writing. I am not sufficiently acquainted with the practice
in the courts of Virginia to say this was not novel, but I may surely
venture to affirm that there was nothing criminal in it. I know well
that in different States there are different forms of practice. I can
only say, that Judge Chase, going from Maryland, where the practice
does prevail, would naturally carry to Virginia the knowledge of the
practice of the State from which he went.
The second specification is in the following words:
“In refusing to postpone the trial, although an affidavit was
regularly filed, stating the absence of material witnesses on behalf of
the accused; and although it was manifest that, with the utmost
diligence, the attendance of such witnesses could not have been
procured at that term.”
This charge is grounded on the fact of a refusal to postpone the
trial on an affidavit. That the Court acted correctly in this instance
will appear from this consideration. Nothing is more clear than that,
under the common law, all applications for a continuance, on
affidavit, are founded on the discretion of the Court. Is it not
wonderfully singular that there should have been an application
founded on an affidavit, if the law of Virginia, as stated in the 6th
article, applied to the case? One thing is clear: either that the
Attorney-General and Mr. Hay lost all recollection of the existence of
this law of Virginia respecting continuances, or that they considered
it inapplicable; for they would not otherwise have founded the
application on an affidavit. They would have produced the law and
have demanded a continuance. Did they do so? No. If, then, the law
officer of the State and Mr. Hay both forgot that it existed, is it
surprising that it should be unknown to Mr. Chase? If those
gentlemen did recollect the existence of the law, they must surely
have been of opinion that it did not apply to the case of Callender, or
they would have saved themselves the trouble of filing an affidavit.
It will however be shown that it did not apply, and hence their
application founded on affidavit.
On the third specification, which charges the respondent with “the
use of unusual, rude, and contemptuous expressions towards the
prisoner’s counsel; and in falsely insinuating that they wished to
excite the public fears and indignation, and to produce that
insubordination to law, to which the conduct of the judge did, at the
same time, manifestly tend;” I have but a few observations to make.
I should indeed have spared many of the remarks I have made,
were it not for an ignorance of the peculiar ground on which the
honorable Managers mean to rely in their reply, and were it not for
the fear that an omission to notice any of the charges preferred,
might be considered as an abandonment of our defence as far as
related to them.
I have nowhere discovered in the evidence any thing that supports
in point of fact the charge against Judge Chase, of falsely insinuating
that the prisoner’s counsel wished to excite the public fears and
indignation to produce insubordination to law. The judge did say that
the counsel used a popular argument, calculated to mislead and
deceive the populace; and this is the extent and head of his
offending; but there is a wide difference between this and the
charge laid to his door. He told the counsel, and told them truly, that
they were availing themselves of a popular argument, calculated to
mislead and deceive the people. Attend, I pray you, to the testimony
of Mr. Hay. Did not the counsel for the prisoner say they had no
hope of exculpating him on the facts? Did they not say they did not
argue for Callender? That it was the cause, and not the man, they
defended? That they did not expect to convince Judge Chase, or any
other federal judge, of the unconstitutionality of the sedition act?
Were they not then laboring with their whole talents to catch the
popular ear? Did they not expressly declare that they had little hopes
of the jury, and that their object was to make an impression on the
public mind? And when the judge declared that the constitutionality
of the act could not be discussed before the jury, did they not, failing
in their object, abandon the defence? The ground which they meant
to have taken was withdrawn, and they withdrew with it.
As to the use of unusual, rude, and contemptuous expressions
towards the prisoner’s counsel, no particular facts appear to be
relied on. The term captious may be unusual; the phrase young
gentlemen, which in the opening the honorable Manager
metamorphosed into boys, but which last word does not by the
testimony appear to have been used, may have been obnoxious to
the ears of those to whom it was applied. There may not have been
manifested in this language the most refined decorum; but let us
recollect that our honorable client is not now on his trial for a
violation of the decorums of society. Possessed of great ardor of
mind and quickness of feeling, he conceives with rapidity, and
expresses with energy his ideas. This may be a weakness; but it is a
weakness of nature. Had he a colder heart, and weaker head, he
might not be exposed to these little indiscretions. But where is the
vade mecum from which a judge is to derive precedents for his
behavior? Courts are instituted, not to polish and refine, but to
administer justice between man and man. One judge may possess a
more pleasing urbanity of manners than another; but are we to infer
that because a man is warm in the expression of his sentiments, he
is, therefore, angry? It will not be contended that when the counsel
for the traverser spoke of the necessity of the indictment being
verbatim et literatim, in the witty reply of the judge that they might
as well insist that it should be punctuatim, there was any violation of
decorum manifested. The reply grew out of the occasion, and never
was a remark better applied.
 I know of no other unusual language, except the expression of
non sequitur; and surely there was nothing improper in that. We
have been told that it is the usual habit of Judge Chase to interrupt
counsel when they attempt to lay down as law that which is not law.
In this case, he certainly did so; but it does not appear that he
departed from his ordinary course; and if he had, where is the rule
which, on such occasions, is to govern a judge? Such conduct, as I
have before observed on another point, violates no moral obligation,
infringes no statutory provision. The judge may not have displayed
the urbanity, the suavity, and the patience, which so happily
characterize some high characters; but where or when has the
absence of these minor qualities been considered as criminal? Some
of the witnesses, and among them Colonel Taylor, have described
the conduct of the judge as imperious, sarcastic, and witty; but no
witness has pronounced it tyrannical or oppressive.
With regard to the fourth specification, which relates to the
interruption of counsel, I shall say but little. A judge has a right at all
times to interrupt counsel whenever they act improperly. It is the
inherent right of courts. When that is laid down as law which is not
law, it is not only their right, but it is their duty, to stop them. Such
interruptions may be considered vexatious by the counsel that are
interrupted; but of such matters the Court only can be the judge.
One witness, examined on the frequency of the interruptions of
counsel on the trial of Callender, has said that more interruptions
occurred in a case before Judge Iredell, whose eulogium has been
pronounced by an honorable Manager; and another witness has
informed us that it is the habit of Judge Chase frequently to
interrupt counsel in civil as well as criminal cases; that the habit
arises from the vigor of his mind, and the ardor of his feelings; that
this is somewhat embarrassing to counsel, but that a little suavity on
their part soon restores the judge to good humor. On this point I
have no further observations to make. I will leave it to the good
sense of this honorable body to determine how far the conduct of
the respondent was, on this occasion, indecorous, and how far, on
account of this conduct, he is liable to impeachment.
 As to the fifth specification, which is in these words: “In an
indecent solicitude, manifested by the said Samuel Chase, for the
conviction of the accused, unbecoming even a public prosecutor, but
highly disgraceful to the character of a judge, as it was subversive of
justice.” I have no precise idea of the meaning of the term indecent
solicitude—solicitude means mental anxiety. If we are to understand
by solicitude that the judge felt anxiety for the furtherance of justice,
that is simply an operation of the mind, and to determine whether it
is praiseworthy or reprehensible, some overt act must be shown. For
is it possible that, in any interesting case, a judge can sit on the
bench without feeling some interest in the issue? This is more than
falls to the lot of mortal. No, he must have feelings; and all that can
be required is, that he restrain them from breaking out into acts
subversive of justice. I will endeavor, on this point, to condense the
testimony. It is said that the solicitude of the respondent is evinced
by his indecent behavior to the counsel, and by his conduct previous
to the trial. A jocular conversation is resorted to; and expressions
made in the most unguarded moments are drawn forth in judgment
against him. After he had delivered a charge at Annapolis, Mr. Mason
came up to him, and asked him what kind of charge he had
delivered, whether it was to be considered as legal, religious, moral,
or political. To which the judge replied that it was a little of all. Some
conversation ensued on the licentiousness of the press, and he
observed that when he went to Richmond, if a respectable jury could
be found, he would have Callender punished. All this is worked up,
as it were by magic, to prove a deliberate purpose on his part to
institute a prosecution. That a man of the intelligence of Judge
Chase, had he conceived such a project, should thus jocosely, as is
proved, and in public have divulged it, is beyond all belief. Let not a
casual conversation of this light and sportive kind be tortured into
evidence of a deliberate design. No man, the least acquainted with
the general character of Judge Chase, will entertain the idea for a
minute.
Another circumstance complained of, is, that Judge Chase was
provided with a scored copy of “The Prospect before Us;” and this is
adduced to prove his purpose to oppress Callender. But we have
given it in testimony that this copy was scored by Mr. Martin, who
handed it to the judge, when he was about going to Richmond, to
amuse him on the road, and to make such other use of it as he
pleased. What was there improper or indecent in this? Further: the
respondent is next hunted through a line of stages on his passage
from Dumfries to Richmond; and Mr. Triplet is brought forward to
prove that he expressed a wish that the damned rascal had been
hanged. Had there been a settled purpose to convict or oppress
Callender, would it not have been manifested by concealment and
prudence, instead of being divulged by such an intemperate impulse
of feeling?
We next find the respondent at Richmond. And here a gentleman
states that having moved the Court for an injunction, he went to the
chambers of Judge Chase on the subject, on the morning
subsequent to the motion being made, and before the judge had
gone to court; that while he was there, Mr. David M. Randolph, the
marshal, came in, and showed the judge the panel of jurors for the
trial of Callender; that the judge asked him whether there were on it
any of the creatures called democrats; and added, if there are, strike
them off. Here must be some mistake. The witness must have heard
some other person say so. Sure I am that the testimony will show
that the statement of Mr. Heath cannot be received as correct. I
impute no criminal intention to the witness; this is not my habit; but,
for ascertaining the weight which it ought to have, I will collect and
compare the several parts of the testimony on this point.
It appears that Mr. Heath was at the judge’s chambers but once.
Mr. Marshall, the clerk of the Court, called on Judge Chase the same
morning that Mr. Heath was there—he cannot recollect whether Mr.
Randolph went with him, according to his usual practice, but he is
certain, from a conversation he states, that they walked together to
court; he met Mr. Heath either in the act of coming out of the
judge’s room, or exterior to the door; and he heard no such
conversation as he relates. What says Mr. Randolph? That no such
conversation ever did take place. Here, then, the testimony is
directly opposed. But it is said that our testimony is negative, and is
therefore outweighed by the positive testimony of Mr. Heath; this,
however, is not the fact. Much of our testimony is positive. Mr.
Randolph declares that he has never shown the panel of a jury to a
judge, except in the case of a grand jury offered to the Court to
select a foreman; and he is positive that the panel in the case of
Callender was not made out until the morning of the third of July, in
court, when his deputies came forward with the names of the jurors
they had summoned, on small slips of paper; and in corroboration of
this evidence, it appears on the testimony of Mr. Basset, who was
sworn on the jury, that he was not summoned until the third of July;
and that the marshal sent out his deputies that very morning to
summon jurors. We oppose, then, to the simple declaration of Mr.
Heath, unaccredited by other witnesses, the clear and strong
evidence of Mr. Randolph, corroborated by that of Mr. Marshall and
Mr. Basset.
It does, then, appear to me that none of the alleged facts are so
supported as to show an indecent solicitude on the part of the
respondent.
Mr. Lee.—May it please this honorable Court: We are now arrived,
Mr. President, in the course of the defence, to the fifth article of
impeachment. I have, sir, been led to believe, that the present
prosecution is brought before this honorable Court as a court of
criminal jurisdiction, and that this high Court is bound by the same
rules of evidence, the same legal ideas of crime, and the same
principles of decision which are observed in the ordinary tribunals of
criminal jurisdiction. The articles themselves seem to have been
drawn in conformity to this opinion, for they all, except the fifth,
charge, in express terms, some criminal intention upon the
respondent. This doctrine relative to impeachment is laid down in 4
Black., 259, and in 2 Woodeson, 611. “As to the trial itself, it must of
course vary in external ceremony, but differs not in essentials from
criminal prosecutions before inferior courts. The same rules of
evidence, the same legal notions of crimes and punishments, prevail.
For impeachments are not framed to alter the law, but to carry it
into more effectual execution, where it might be obstructed by the
influence of too powerful delinquents, or not easily discerned in the
ordinary course of jurisdiction, by reason of the peculiar quality of
the alleged crimes. The judgment, therefore, is to be such as is
warranted by legal principles and precedents.” The Constitution of
the United States appears to consider the subject in the same light.
By the third section of the third article, “the trial of all crimes, except
in cases of impeachment, shall be by jury;” and by the fourth section
of the second article, the nature and extent of the punishment in
cases of impeachment is defined. Hence it may be inferred that a
person is only impeachable for some criminal offence. With this view,
I have examined and re-examined the fifth article of impeachment,
to know against what the defence should be made. Looking at it
with a legal eye, I find no offence charged to have been committed;
and although it may seem strange, it is not the less true, this
circumstance has produced the greatest difficulty and
embarrassment in what manner the defence should be made.
In conformity to the rule of the Supreme Court and the authority
of the case just cited, Judge Chase determined that the laws of the
State of Virginia, which require a summons to be issued in cases of
the Commonwealth, did not apply to the courts of the United States.
Why, let me again ask, should this section receive the construction
contended for by the honorable Managers? It has been shown that
the laws of the United States provide fully in regard to the process to
be issued by their courts: that, for the furtherance of justice, such a
construction is neither necessary nor convenient, and is inconsistent
with other parts of the same statute. It is therefore perfectly correct
in the Court to bestow no attention upon the laws of Virginia
concerning the process to be awarded against Callender. When a
presentment was found by the grand jury, it was the duty of the
Court to act; it was their duty to award a proper process for
arresting the offender. This is not only warranted by the principles
and reasons already adduced, but is inferrible from various passages
of the laws of Congress, particularly from the 19th and 20th sections
of the statute passed 30th April, 1790, 1st vol. page 108.
 I will now proceed to make some observations upon the sixth
article of impeachment: “And whereas it is provided by the 24th
section of the aforesaid act, entitled ‘An act to establish the judicial
courts of the United States,’ that the laws of the several States,
except where the constitution, treaties, or statutes of the United
States, shall otherwise require or provide, shall be regarded as the
rules of decision in trials at common law in the courts of the United
States, in cases where they apply; and whereas by the laws of
Virginia it is provided, that in cases not capital, the offender shall not
be held to answer any presentment of a grand jury until the Court
next succeeding that during which such presentment shall be made;
yet the said Samuel Chase, with intent to oppress and procure the
conviction of the said James Thompson Callender, did, at the Court
aforesaid, rule and adjudge the said Callender to trial, during the
term at which he, the said Callender, was presented and indicted,
contrary to law in that case made and provided.”
The charge in this article against the respondent is in substance
that he, with intent to oppress and procure the conviction of
Callender, ruled him to trial during the term at which he was
presented and indicted, contrary to the laws of Virginia, which it is
alleged have provided that in cases not capital, the offender shall
not be held to answer any presentment of a grand jury until the next
succeeding Court.
This article it is admitted does contain an accusation of crime; but
I hope I shall be able to satisfy this honorable Court, that in this
instance no crime or offence was committed. I shall undertake to
show that no error in law was committed, and that if the judge had
done otherwise he would have been more liable to censure than he
now is. If this be made to appear, as a supposed illegality of his
conduct is the foundation of the charge, there will remain nothing to
support the charge.
The accused judge had sworn to support the Constitution of the
United States, and to administer justice without respect to persons,
and to perform all the duties of his office according to the laws of
the United States. If in ruling Callender to trial at the same term at
which he was indicted, he acted according to law, the judge
performed his duty, and ought not to be charged with oppression.
The article may be understood as affirming, that there exists some
law of Virginia which positively prohibits the trial of a misdemeanor
at the same term at which the indictment is found. No such law has
been produced, and I must be allowed to deny that any such law of
Virginia exists. When the party appears and answers the
presentment, the trial may immediately take place. When the party
appears and answers an indictment, the trial may immediately take
place, if so ruled by the Court, who are vested with a discretion
unfettered by any positive statute. The defence of this article may
therefore be placed on two grounds, either of which will be
sufficient. 1st. There is no law of Virginia which prohibits the trial of
a misdemeanor at the same term the indictment is found. And, 2dly.
If there be such a law, the same is not binding on the courts of the
United States, in respect to offences against the United States.
In cases where bail is requirable, to delay the trial may be used to
the oppression of the accused. It is therefore enjoined by the
constitution and by the laws that there shall be no delay. If the
honorable judge, who stands accused of trying Callender too soon,
had deferred the trial to another term, that is to say six months, and
the traverser could not have given bail, he would have been
imprisoned six months without a trial. After he was convicted, the
sentence of imprisonment pronounced by the same judge was only
an imprisonment of about nine months. He had acted, therefore, not
only according to law, but with humanity, in bringing the traverser to
trial at the same term at which he was indicted. If the trial had been
postponed to another term, and Callender in the mean time had
been imprisoned, such a conduct in the Court would have given
cause of complaint against the judge, who would then have been
accused of postponing the trial of an innocent man, for the purpose
of oppression. What in such a case ought the judge to have done?
Exactly what he did. Obeying the constitution and the laws of the
United States, he brought the traverser to a speedy and public trial.
 It is, may it please the honorable Court, upon these grounds that
the respondent stands justified in his conduct, in relation to the
charge contained in the sixth article of impeachment.
In the distribution of the articles of impeachment among the
counsel of the respondent, he assigned to me the 5th and 6th, and I
humbly indulge the hope that the defence which has been made will
be deemed satisfactory. But before I conclude, I hope I may be
allowed shortly to advert to some of the remarks which have fallen
from the honorable Managers in respect to this part of the
accusation.
The honorable Managers have attempted to show a difference
between a presentment and an indictment, and that until the
indictment was found, a capias ought not to have been issued, even
if it were lawful to issue it upon an indictment. That there is no such
distinction, I appeal to those passages of the acts of Congress to
which reference has been already made. I appeal to the reason of
the thing and to the nature of a presentment. It is a species of
indictment, an informal indictment; it is an accusation of a grand
jury. There are cases where it would be improper in a court to wait
until a presentment shall be put in the form of an indictment.
Circumstances may be such that the offender would escape if
process was not issued upon the presentment.
It has been objected that the judge misconducted himself towards
the counsel during the trial of Callender in various instances, which it
has been argued proceeded from a desire to convict and punish the
traverser, howsoever innocent. I will observe with great deference,
that if in the opinion of some gentlemen the judge did not act with
becoming politeness to the counsel, it is not a high crime or
misdemeanor that may be examined or tried in this honorable Court.
But I trust, upon a view of the circumstances as they have been
given in evidence, that this Court will be of opinion that the
respondent behaved to the counsel with sufficient propriety. One of
the counsel, Mr. Wirt, offered to the Court a syllogism, to which the
honorable judge promptly replied in a technical phrase of logic, and
this excited in the audience some diversion. When another of the
counsel, Mr. Nicholas, was speaking on the favorite topic of the right
of the jury to consider the constitutionality of the sedition law, he
was not interrupted by the judge. But Mr. Nicholas has been proved
to have been always civil, always respectful to a court of justice,
consequently the Court would be civil to him. A third counsel, Mr.
Hay, who was extremely desirous, as he has himself testified, to
make an oration, not only for the purpose of satisfying the jury but
the audience that a jury had a right to judge of the constitutionality
of the sedition law, was interrupted by the judge, who denied his
position. Mr. Hay had stated other matters during the trial which
appeared to the judge to be erroneous. He had stated that a jury in
this case of Callender, was the proper tribunal to assess the fine, in
which he had been corrected by the Court; that one of the jurors,
Mr. Basset, was not qualified to serve, &c. His zeal in the cause of
liberty and the constitution made him pertinacious in some things
which the judge pronounced to be errors. It was no wonder then
that such an advocate was stopped and often interrupted by the
Court. If any thing was done amiss by the judge during the trial, it
was his desiring Mr. Hay to proceed in his own way, and promising to
interrupt him no more let him say what he would; but this
circumstance plainly evinces that the interruptions did not arise from
corrupt motives. It may truly be said that Judge Chase, in his
behavior to counsel, was “all things to all men.” To the logical Mr.
Wirt, he was logical; to the polite Mr. Nicholas, he was polite; to the
zealous and pertinacious Mr. Hay, he was warm and determined. If
the counsel had conducted themselves with propriety towards the
Court there would have been no interruptions; but when the judge
found that the opinions of the bench were slighted, and that the
conduct of the bar had a tendency to mislead and influence the
public mind against a statute of Congress, he endeavored to turn
their sentiments and reasoning into ridicule, and he produced by his
wit a considerable degree of merriment at their expense, of which
no doubt Colonel John Taylor, who has proved it for the prosecutors,
was, from his natural temper, a full partaker.
 You are now about to set an example in a case of impeachment
which will have a most important influence in our country. It will be
an example to the tribunals in the several States who like you
possess the power of trying impeachments, and who may learn from
you by what rules the doctrine of impeachment is to be regulated. It
will be a polar star to guide in prosecutions of this kind. You are
about to set an example to the ordinary tribunals of justice in every
corner of the United States. They will know how this high Court has
done justice between the House of Representatives of the American
nation and a single individual, and hence they may learn how to do
justice to the most weak and friendless individual, when accused in
their courts by the most powerful. An upright and independent
judiciary is all-important in society. Let your example be as bright in
its justice as it will be extensive in its influence. If the people shall
find that their confidential servants, the House of Representatives,
have brought forward an accusation against another of their
servants for high crimes and misdemeanors in his exalted office,
which after a fair and patient hearing has not been supported by
evidence, it will afford them pleasure to hear of his honorable
acquittal, and such, may it please this honorable Court, will be, I
trust, the result of your deliberations.

Saturday, February 23.

Mr. Martin.—Mr. President: Did I only appear in defence of a
friend, with whom I have been in habits of intimacy for nearly thirty
years, I should feel less anxiety on the present occasion, though that
circumstance would be a sufficient inducement; but I am, at this
time, actuated by superior motives. I consider this cause not only of
importance to the respondent and his accusers, but to my fellow-
citizens in general, (whose eyes are now fixed upon us,) and to their
posterity, for the decision at this time will establish a most important
precedent as to future cases of impeachment.
My observations thus far have been principally with a view to
establish the true construction of our constitution, as relates to the
doctrine of impeachment. I now, Mr. President, will proceed to the
particular case before this honorable Court; and, in the first place, I
agree with the honorable Managers, that there is a manifest
difference even between the credibility of witnesses, and the
credibility of testimony, for, I admit, if witnesses are equally credible,
and some swear that words were uttered, or acts were done, and
others, that they did not hear the words, or that they did not see the
acts done, the presumption is certainly in favor of the positive, and
against the negative testimony. But this must be admitted with
considerable restrictions.
If immediately after a transaction, there is a full and clear memory
of the words spoken, or the acts done, there is great reason to credit
the testimony; but, even in that case, if there are a number of
persons equally respectable, having equal opportunity to hear and
see, and who were attentive to what took place, and none of them
heard or saw what is testified by a single witness, there would be
great reason to suspect the affirmative witness to be mistaken; more
so if the transactions had happened for some years antecedent to
the examination.
But, as to Heath, we do not contradict him merely by negative
testimony; we contradict him by a series of positive facts which my
honorable colleague (Mr. Key) has detailed, proved by characters,
whose veracity cannot be doubted, which positive facts incontestably
show that what he swore never could have taken place. And, here
again, permit me, sir, to make a further observation, that, where a
person is charged criminally for words he is supposed to have
uttered, those words ought to be proved with precision. Every
witness on this occasion, who hath been examined as to expressions
used by my honorable client, either on the one or the other charge,
which are held as exceptionable, declares he cannot pretend to
recollect the express words uttered by the judge, but only to state
what at this distance of time he can consider the amount of what
was said. Nay, Messrs. Lewis and Dallas declare further, that they
cannot pretend to say with accuracy, what part of the conversation,
of which they give testimony, took place on the first or the second
day, or in what order. Such kind of testimony, therefore, ought to be
received with great caution, and not to be considered as conclusive.
Having laid down these general principles as to the relative rights
and duties of the Court, the bar, and the jury, I shall proceed with
my honorable client to the State of Pennsylvania.
It was known that John Fries, charged with treason, had, on a
former trial, been found guilty, and that a new trial had been
granted upon a suggestion, which I hope will not become a
precedent, will never be a rule for decisions. When I say this, I mean
not to detract from the merit of that highly-respectable character
who presided, and who granted the new trial. His conduct flowed, I
am convinced, from his humanity; his was the error of the heart, not
of the head. It was an honest, nay, an amiable error. My honorable
client knew, when he arrived at Philadelphia, that the trial of Fries
was to take place that term. He has been acknowledged by the
honorable Managers, to be a gentleman of the highest legal talents.
In this they have only done him justice; and have been as prodigal
of their praise as his warmest friends could have wished. It would
have given me great pleasure if they had been as just in expressing
their sense of his integrity. He had been in the practice of the law for
forty years, and also a judge for a number of years, and for about
six years, I believe, presided in the criminal court of Baltimore
County, where, during that time, there were more criminal trials
probably than in any other court in America. I believe I speak
moderately, when I say, that I have attended, on behalf of the State,
at least five thousand criminal trials in that court. From those
circumstances it is to be presumed that he was not deficient in
knowledge of what related to criminal proceedings; but would he
have acted the part of an upright judge, if he had not endeavored to
make himself master of the law of treason, when a case of that
nature was about to come before him; particularly the law of
treason, as it related to levying war against the United States, or in
adhering to those who levied war against them, which is the only
kind of treason that our constitution acknowledges; although I have
heard, I must own, of treason against the principles of the
constitution, and treason against the sovereignty of the people—
words well enough suited to a popular harangue, or a newspaper
essay, but not for a court of justice.
When Judge Chase arrived at Philadelphia he had the advantage
of perusing the notes of Judge Peters and the district attorney,
relating to the former trial; he thereby became well acquainted with
all the points at that time made by the counsel for Fries; and Mr.
Lewis has sworn, that all the points which were intended to have
been made before Judge Chase, had been made at the former trial.
Why then should the Court either wish, or be obliged to hear counsel
again on the law? In two previous cases the law had been settled.
Judge Patterson, a gentleman of the first abilities, mild and amiable,
whom no person will charge of being of a vindictive, oppressive
disposition, and who certainly has more suavity of manners than my
honorable client had, after a most patient and full hearing, where
eminent counsel attended, decided the law as it was decided by the
respondent. Judge Iredell, whose encomium has been most justly
given us by the Managers, a gentleman of great legal talents, than
whom no worthier man has left this for a better world; and who,
while living, honored me with his friendship, after having heard
Messrs. Lewis and Dallas, and after full and patient investigation,
gave, in the case of Fries himself, a similar decision; in both which
opinions Judge Peters perfectly coincided. Under these
circumstances, Judge Chase, who had no doubt of the propriety of
those decisions, to prevent waste of time when there was so much
business to transact, and to facilitate the business, thought it best to
inform the counsel on each side, that the Court considered the law
to be settled, and in what manner. For which purpose they delivered
to the clerk three copies of their opinion, one for the counsel on
each side, the third to be given to the jury, when they left the bar.
On this subject, Mr. Lewis, in his testimony, said it was to be given to
the jury when the counsel of the United States had opened, or after
he had closed the pleadings, but he believed the last. Mr. Rawle is
clear that it was to be given to them, when the case was finished, to
take out with them.
 No gentleman on behalf of the impeachment has denied the
correctness of this opinion. But the criminality of the judge is, we are
told, not in the opinion itself, but in the manner and the time in
which it was given.
Was there any thing improper that the opinion should be reduced
to writing? Why are opinions given? Surely to regulate the conduct
of those to whom given; for this purpose they ought to be perfectly
understood, and in no degree subject to misconception; delivering
the opinion, in writing, greatly facilitates these objects; if, therefore,
it was proper to give an opinion, it was meritorious to reduce it to
writing, and Judge Chase, in so doing, most certainly acted with the
strictest propriety. And, unless a court of justice is bound to sit and
hear counsel on points of law, where they themselves have no
doubts, before they give their opinion, my honorable client could not
be incorrect in delivering it at the time when it was delivered. If the
opinion was proper, how, I pray, could any injury be done to Fries by
its being delivered? The honorable Managers say, it was intended to
influence the jury. In the first place, this assertion is not supported
by the evidence. When the paper was thrown on the clerk’s table,
not one word was said of its contents; nor did the Court declare any
opinion on Fries’s case. They only determined the indictment correct
in point of form, and not liable to be quashed. They determined that
the overt acts stated were overt acts of treason, if Fries had
committed them, but whether Fries had committed those acts
remained for the jury to determine upon the evidence; as to that
part of the case the Court gave no opinion. But the honorable
Managers have told us that Judge Chase must have known what
were the facts in the case, because they had been disclosed in the
former trial. And I pray you, sir, if he had the knowledge, could it
alter the law in the case, or render the declaration of what the law
was more improper? But, as a new trial was granted, the judge
could not know what additional evidence might be brought forward
to vary the case from its former appearance.
But if the opinion had been publicly read and known, how could it
have injured Fries? He was to have an impartial trial. What is the
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