Comment on the idea of justice as expressed in Cilappatikaran.

The Cilappatikaran apart from the status as a ritual epic in Tamil Nadu is also noteworthy for the representation of justice in the early eras of Indian history. Woven around the mythological aspects of the epic is the idea of justice which has been subverted. Justice in early India can be seen in some early texts like the Arthashastra which brings out the early aspects of Maurayan rule and the idea of a King administering it with elaborate penalties for crime. The idea of a king as a divine figure administering justice is woven around the nature of the judgement. The king had to be impartial so that the miscarriage of justice did not take place. This formulation is very different from the ideas of justices as seen in a modern nation state where there are norms and rules not only in every country but there is also a forum where justice can be administered for nation states through agencies like the United Nations. 

The epic deals with early Indian social conditions where the idea of monarchy prevailed and hence, the conception of justice is based on the body of the king who is divinely appointed and imbued with the wheels of administering justice. The King needs to be a “just and fair King” who follows the Dharma as Dharma is important for administering justice. The entire universe in the Jain and Buddhist tradition is governed by Dharma and any subversion of this would obviously result in a physical catastrophe. This physical disturbance of space is noted in many cultures and is reflected in many national literatures. An example can be taken from Shakespeare’s King Lear where Lear abdicates his responsibilities as the custodian of the kingdom as he begins the process of dividing the Kingdom between his three daughters. This is a violation of the idea of a moral code imbued in the body of the king. Hence, any disturbance within this can lead to a physical catastrophe reflected n the civil war in King Lear and the subsequent death of King Lear. Something similar happens here in the Cilappatikaran when there is the miscarriage of justice. As a result of the miscarriage of justice by the Pandyan King, the city of Maturai burns. The error made by the Pandyan king was in not examining facts in the case of Kovalan. By ordering his death on the grounds that he was a thief he set up the problem of the violation of Dharma and he pays a price for this action. The violation of Dharma in ancient literature is not just an individual act but the consequences affect a large number of people. This is apparent in early Sanskrit epics like the Mahabharata where a single error by Drtharashtra in not dividing the kingdom between the Kauravas and the Pandavas results in the Mahabharata war leading to mass scale destruction of lives. In the next section we shall deal with how the city of Maturai comes to be destroyed, is resurrected and rises again.

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