Introduction
Merchant of Puhar (Kaveripoompattinam), husband of Kannagi and protagonist of the Silappatikaram
Family
- Father: Masattuvan
- Spouse: Kannagi (married)
- Spouse: Madhavi (married) (relationship outside formal marriage, per the text)
- Children: Manimekalai
Textual Notes
Note: Left his wife Kannagi to live with the courtesan-dancer Madhavi for years before returning to her; travelled with Kannagi to Madurai to sell her anklet for capital, where he was wrongly executed by the Pandya king Nedunjeliyan on a false charge of theft.
This article records a figure from Sangam-era and early medieval Tamil literature and dynastic tradition — the Chera, Chola, Pandya and Pallava royal lines, the legendary Kadai Ezhu Vallalgal patrons, and the Silappatikaram/Manimekalai epic cycle. Chronology and genealogy in this corpus are drawn from praise-poetry and literary narrative rather than administrative record, and are recorded here as attested textual tradition rather than settled history; the Pallava kings in particular postdate the classical Sangam corpus by several centuries, as noted in their individual entries.