Kannagi is a character in the epic Silappadhikaram who stands for justice. When her husband Kovalan is unjustly accused of stealing the queen’s anklet and executed, she is both devastated and wrathful. Showing the Pandya king of Madurai the matching anklet of rubies she possesses, she demands to know why her husband was executed without an investigation or fair trial. She then curses the city, and in an act of rage, burns it all down.
In Madras, the statue of Kannagi was first installed on the Marina in 1968 under the then DMK government at the beginning of the Second World Tamil Conference, a gift from students and teachers.
