She was born as a wealthy merchant's daughter and brought up in Pukar, the maritime capital of the Chola kingdom. She married Kovalan, the young scion of another affluent merchant family and the years that followed were bliss and sunshine. However, the wedge came in the form on Madhavi, a court dancer. Kovalan beguiled by her charms, spent all his waking time at Madhavi's house. He lavished his love, time and money on her. However, Kovalan fell on bad days, his business dwindled. And as was the wont of most courtesans, Madhavi did not have any use for a pauper.
Kovalan, jolted out of his lustful reverie, returned back to his wife, a wiser, more faithful albeit a poor man. Kannaki welcomed him back with open arms and the two set out to the neighbouring Pandya kingdom to try their luck and start life anew. On the outskirts of the Pandya capital, they halted for the night at a cowherd colony. Since they did not have any capital with which to invest in a business, it was decided that Kovalan would go into the city on the morrow and sell Kannaki's golden anklet. With the money that came from the sale, they would then start a trade.
Accordingly Kovalan went into the capital city of Madurai and located a goldsmith. He produced the anklet and asked the goldsmith to name a price. As luck would have it, the goldsmith whom Kovalan had approached was a black-hearted thief. He had just stolen the Pandyan queen's anklet and was looking to cover his tracks. Now, here was a godsend. This simpleton can become my scape-goat, thought the goatsmith. He informed the palace guards and had Kovalan arrested and produced before the King. The King, without a fair trial, ordered Kovalan to be executed.
Kannaki, on hearing the news, rushed to the palace and confronted the king. With her hair in wild disarray, her eyes flaming and her sindoor smeared across her tear-stricken face, she accused the King of a great injustice. She produced the other anklet of her pair and broke it to smithereens on the floor. The king, when he saw what was inside the anklet, immediately fell down dead, filled with remorse and horror on his gross injustice. For the Queen's anklet contained pearls, while Kannaki's anklet contained.....emeralds. He had sent Kovalan to his death without a fair trial; he had violated the centuries-old tradition of justice in the pandya kingdom.
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