Ilango Adigal's Silent Rebellion: Constructing a Complete Bhasha World in the Shadow of the Sanskrit Cosmopolis

Abstract

The Cilappadikāram (c. 5th–6th century CE), traditionally classified as
one of the Five Great Epics (Aimperumkāppiyam) of Tamil, has largely
been studied within the narrow confines of regional Tamil literary
history or as a Jain moral allegory. This paper repositions the text as the
earliest and most complete manifestation of what can be called “bhasha
literature” in the Indian subcontinent: a vernacular literary tradition that
consciously constructs an autonomous aesthetic, ethical, and political
universe independent of (and often in tension with) the pan-Indian
Sanskrit cosmopolitanism. By examining its narrative architecture,
akam–puram poetics, performative registers, and Dravidian cultural
geography, the paper argues that Cilappadikāram is not merely a Tamil
classic but the inaugural masterpiece of bhasha consciousness,
prefiguring the later vernacular revolutions in Kannada (Pampa),
Telugu (Nannaya), Malayalam (Ezhuthachan), and early forms of
Bangla and Marathi courtly literatures.