Kannagi statue is a statue at the Marina Beach,

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

, India. It is located at the intersection of Bharathi Salai and Kamarajar promenade. On 2 January 1968, it was erected as

Kannagi Kannagi ( ta, கண்ணகி) sometimes spelled Kannaki, is a legendary Tamil woman who forms the central character of the Tamil epic ''Cilappatikaram''. Kannagi is described as the chaste woman who stays with her husband despite his unfai ...

holding an anklet in her hand and demanding justice.

History

In 1967, the

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (; DMK) is a political party based in the state of Tamil Nadu where it is currently the ruling party having a comfortable majority without coalition support and the union territory of Puducherry where it is curre ...

(DMK) leader

C. N. Annadurai Conjeevaram Natarajan Annadurai (15 September 1909 – 3 February 1969), popularly known as Anna also known as Arignar Anna or Perarignar Anna (''Anna, the scholar'' or ''Elder Brother''), was an Indian Tamil politician who served as the fo ...

became chief minister of Tamil Nadu. His government conducted second

World Tamil Conference The World Tamil Conference ( ta, உலகத் தமிழ் மாநாடு) is a series of occasional conferences to discuss the social growth of the Tamil language. Each conference is attended by thousands of Tamil enthusiasts around t ...

in January 1968, Chennai. As part of the conference, the statues of the ten Tamil icons who associated with the history of Tamil literature were erected on the marina beach. This includes 10 foot bronze statue of Kannagi, a female protagonist character in the ''

Silapathikaram ''Cilappatikāram'' ( ta, சிலப்பதிகாரம் ml, ചിലപ്പതികാരം,International Phonetic Alphabet, IPA: ʧiləppət̪ikɑːrəm, ''lit.'' "the Tale of an Anklet"), also referred to as ''Silappathikaram' ...

'', one of the

Five Great Epics The Five Great Epics ( ta, ஐம்பெரும்காப்பியங்கள் ''Aimperumkāppiyaṅkaḷ'') are five Tamil language, Tamil epics according to later Tamil literary tradition. They are ''Silappatikaram, Silappatikār ...

of Tamil literature. In May 2001,

All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (; AIADMK) is an Indian regional political party with great influence in the state of Tamil Nadu and the union territory of Puducherry. It is a Dravidian party founded by the former chief mini ...

(AIADMK) leader

J. Jayalalithaa Jayaram Jayalalithaa (24 February 1948 – 5 December 2016) was an Indian politician and actress who served as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for more than fourteen years over six terms between 1991 and 2016. From 9 February 1989 to 5 December 2 ...

became chief minister of Tamil Nadu. On 21 September 2001, she resigned due to the corruption charges. In December 2001, the AIADMK government removed the Kannagi statue after a lorry damaged the pedestal of the statue and kept it in the

Government Museum, Chennai The Government Museum, Chennai, or the Madras Museum, is a museum of human history and culture located in the Government Museum Complex in the neighbourhood of Egmore in Chennai, India. Started in 1851, it is the second oldest museum in India af ...

. While the opposition DMK alleged that the statue removed on the advice of the Jayalalithaa's astrologers as "the statue could bring misfortune to her". DMK leader M. Karunanidhi, as a PWD minister who oversaw the 1968 conference, considered the removal of statue as a "a challenge to Tamil pride". After Karunanidhi come to power in 2006, he re-installed the statue.

References

Monuments and memorials in Chennai {{sculpture-stub