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[[File:Puhar-ILango.jpg|thumb|An artist's representation of Ilango Adigal]]
[[File:MarinaBeach IlangoAdigal statue 2Feb2013.jpg|thumb|Statue of Ilango Adigal at [[Marina Beach]], [[Chennai, India]].]]
'''Ilango Adigal''' was a [[Jainism|Jain]] monk, a Chera prince, and a poet.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Who Was Ilango Adigal? – Amar Chitra Katha|url=https://www.amarchitrakatha.com/literature_details/ilango-adigal/|access-date=2020-09-13|website=www.amarchitrakatha.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Vimala|first=Angelina|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wZyLVdkA7cIC&q=Ilango+Adigal+jain&pg=PA52|title=History And Civics 6|date=September 2007|publisher=Pearson Education India|isbn=978-81-317-0336-6|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Lal|first=Mohan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KnPoYxrRfc0C&q=Ilango+Adigal+jain&pg=PA4098|title=Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature: Sasay to Zorgot|date=1992|publisher=Sahitya Akademi|isbn=978-81-260-1221-3|language=en}}</ref> He is traditionally credited as the author of ''[[Silappatikaram]]'', one of the [[Five Great Epics]] of [[Tamil literature]]. In a ''patikam'' (prologue) to the epic poem, he identifies himself as the brother of a famous [[Chera dynasty|Chera king]] Ceṅkuṭṭuvan ([[Senguttuvan]]). This Chera king, states Elizabeth Rosen, ruled over his kingdom in late 2nd or early 3rd century CE.<ref name=rosen1/>{{sfn|Adigal|1965|p=VIII}} However, this is doubtful because a Sangam poem in ''[[Patiṟṟuppattu]]'' – the fifth ten – provides a biography of Ceṅkuṭṭuvan, his family and rule, but never mentions that he had a brother who became an ascetic or wrote one of the most cherished epics.<ref name="Iḷaṅkōvaṭikaḷ2004"/> This has led scholars to conclude that the legendary author Ilango Adikal myth was likely inserted later into the epic.<ref name="Iḷaṅkōvaṭikaḷ2004">{{cite book|author1=Iḷaṅkōvaṭikaḷ|author2=R Partaasarathy|title=The Cilappatikāram: The Tale of an Anklet|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HWPg7EvPirgC|year=2004|publisher=Penguin Books|isbn=978-0-14-303196-3|pages=6–8}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author= Gananath Obeyesekere| title= Gajabahu and the Gajabahu Synchronism| journal= The Ceylon Journal of the Humanities|volume= 1|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=GV3abjkKdB4C|year=1970 |publisher=University of Sri Lanka |page=44}}</ref> In a 1968 note, [[Kamil Zvelebil]] suggested that, "this [Adigal claim] may be a bit of poetic fantasy, practised perhaps by a later member of the Chera Dynasty [5th or 6th century{{sfn|Kamil Zvelebil|1973|pp=174–176}}] recalling earlier events [2nd or 3rd century]".<ref name=rosen1>{{Cite journal|title=Prince ILango Adigal, Shilappadikaram (The anklet Bracelet), translated by Alain Damelou. Review.|journal=Artibus Asiae|volume=37|issue=1/2|date=1975|pages=148–150|last=Rosen|first=Elizabeth S.|jstor=3250226|doi=10.2307/3250226}}</ref>

==Biography==
Iḷaṅkõ Aṭikaḷ (''lit.'' "the venerable ascetic prince"), also spelled Ilango Adigal or Ivangovadigal, is traditionally believed to be the author of ''Silappatikaram''. No direct verifiable information is available about him.{{sfn|R Parthasarathy (Translator)|2004|pp= 6–7}} He is believed to have been a prince who became a Jain ascetic based on a ''patikam'' (prologue) composed and interpolated into the epic many centuries later.{{sfn|R Parthasarathy (Translator)|2004|pp=6-7}} Ilango is considered the younger son of [[Chera dynasty|Chera]] king [[Nedum Cheralathan|Nedum Cheralatan]] and Sonai/Nalchonai of the [[Chola dynasty]]. His elder brother is believed to be [[Senguttuvan]], the reputed warrior-king. The young Ilango chose to forgo the royal life because a priest had told the royal court that the younger prince will succeed his father, and Ilango wanted to prove him wrong. However, these traditional beliefs are doubtful because the Sangam era text ''[[Patiṟṟuppattu]]'' provides a biography of king Nedum Cheralatan and of king Senguttuvan, and in neither is Ilango Adigal ever mentioned.<ref name="Iḷaṅkōvaṭikaḷ2004"/>{{sfn|Kamil Zvelebil|1973|pp=52-53}}<ref name=gajabahu1970>{{cite journal|author= Gananath Obeyesekere| title= Gajabahu and the Gajabahu Synchronism| journal= The Ceylon Journal of the Humanities|volume= 1|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=GV3abjkKdB4C|year=1970 |publisher=University of Sri Lanka |pages=42–45}}</ref>

The author was a Jaina scholar, as in several parts of the epic, the key characters of the epic meet a Jaina monk or nun.{{sfn|R Parthasarathy (Translator)|2004|pp= 6–7}}{{sfn|Kamil Zvelebil|1973|pp=172–181}} The last canto of the epic, lines 155-178, mentions "I also went in", whose "I" scholars have assumed to be the author Adigal.{{sfn|R Parthasarathy (Translator)|2004|pp= 6–7}} The epic also mentions, among other details, the "Gajabahu synchronism".

These verses state Adikal attended the Animal sacrifice by king Senguttuvan in the presence of Gajabahu, someone believed to have been the king of Ceylon ([[Sri Lanka]]) between 171 and 193 CE.{{sfn|Kamil Zvelebil|1973|pp=174–177}} This has led to the proposals that Adikal lived in the same period. These lines also mention that he became a ''[[Sannyasa|sannyasi]]'' in a monastery outside Vanci – the capital of the 2nd-century Chera kingdom (now parts of [[Kerala]]). This declaration has been interpreted as renouncing and becoming a Jain monk.{{sfn|R Parthasarathy (Translator)|2004|pp= 6–7}}

According to Kamil Zvelebil, all this must have been a fraudulent statement added by Ilango Adikal to remain a part of the collective memory in the epic he wrote.{{sfn|Kamil Zvelebil|1973|p=179}} Adikal was likely a Jain who lived a few centuries later, states Zvelebil, and his epic "cannot have been composed before the 5th- or 6th-century".{{sfn|Kamil Zvelebil|1973|pp=174–177}}

Gananath Obeyesekere – a scholar of Buddhism, Sri Lankan religious history and anthropology, considers the epic's claims of Gajabahu and the kinship between Ilango Adigal and Senguttuvan to be ahistorical, and that these lines are likely "a late interpolation" into the Tamil epic.<ref name=gajabahu1970/>{{sfn|R Parthasarathy (Translator)|2004|pp= 6–7}} The author was likely not a prince, nor had anything to do with the Chera dynasty, says R Parthasarathy, and these lines may have been added to the epic to give the text a high pedigree status, gain royal support, and to "institutionalize the worship of goddess Pattini and her temples" in the Tamil regions as is described in the epic.{{sfn|R Parthasarathy (Translator)|2004|pp= 6–7}}

According to another Tamil legend, an astrologer predicted that he would become the ruler of the land. To stop this, and let his elder brother be the king, the prince became a Jain monk taking the name of Ilango Adigal.{{citation needed|date=November 2019}}

== Legacy ==
The ''Silappatikaram'' epic credited to Ilango Adigal inspired another Tamil poetic epic called ''[[Manimekalai]]''. This poetic epic acts as a sequel to Silappatikaram. It revolves around the daughter of [[Kovalan]] (the protagonist of Silappatikaram) and [[Madhavi (Silappatikaram)|Madhavi]] (who had an affair with Kovalan in Silappatikaram), named Manimekalai. Although Manimekalai's mother was Madhavi, she worshipped goddess [[Kannagi|Pattini]] (Kannaki, Kovalan's wife).

==See also==
* [[Five Great Epics]]
* [[Tamil literature]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

===Bibliography===
* {{citation |author=V R Ramachandra Dikshitar |title=The Silappadikaram |year=1939 |publisher=Oxford University Press | url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.201802/page/n5 }}
* {{citation |last=Adigal |first=Prince Ilangô |title=Shilappadikaram: (The Ankle Bracelet) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Uu3QelRpmsgC |translator=[[Alain Daniélou]] |publisher=[[New Directions Publishing|New Directions]] |date=1965 |isbn=9780811200011 }}
*{{cite book|author = R Parthasarathy (Translator) | title=The Cilappatikāram: The Tale of an Anklet (Iḷaṅkōvaṭikaḷ)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HWPg7EvPirgC|year=2004|publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-0-14-303196-3}}
* {{cite book|author=Kamil Zvelebil|title=The Smile of Murugan: On Tamil Literature of South India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=degUAAAAIAAJ|year=1973|publisher=BRILL|isbn=90-04-03591-5}}

==External links==
* {{Librivox author |id=8437}}

{{Cilappatikaram}}
{{Tamil language}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Tamil epic poets]]
[[Category:Indian Jain monks]]
[[Category:2nd-century Indian Jains]]
[[Category:2nd-century Jain monks]]
[[Category:2nd-century Indian monks]]
[[Category:2nd-century Indian poets]]

[[Category:Silappatikaram]]
[[Category:Indian male poets]]

Ilango Adigal - Revision history

CleanupBot at 22:16, 3 June 2021