Kundalakesi

Nathakuthanaar, author

Parts of the Kundalakesi epic have been preserved up to the current day, such as commentary written centuries later. According to these fragments, it is a tragic love story about Kundalakesi, a Hindu or Jain girl from a merchant caste, who falls in love with Kalan, a Buddhist criminal who is serving a death sentence. The girl's wealthy merchant father pardons and frees the felon, and she marries him as a result. They start to irritate one another as their love slowly fades. He warns her that he will now kill her when they reach the summit. Before she passes away, the woman asks if she can circle her husband three times like a deity, and he agrees. She kills her spouse by pushing him down the valley below as she is behind him. She regrets what she did and longs for the ex-husband of the boy she once loved. She encounters religious educators from many faiths, accepts Buddhism, gives up her vocation and becomes a nun, and eventually attained Nirvana.