"woman with curly hair"), also called Kuntalakeciviruttam, is a Tamil Buddhist epic written by Nathakuthanaar, likely sometime in the 10th-century.
[1][2][3] The epic is a story about love, marriage, getting tired with the married partner, murder and then discovering religion.
[1] The Kundalakesi epic has partially survived into the modern age in fragments, such as in commentaries written centuries later.
She meets teachers of various religious traditions, adopts Buddhism, renounces and becomes a nun, then achieves Nirvana.
Various Tamil scholars dated between 10th- and 16th-centuries have called the Buddhist epic as a work of tarukkavadam (polemics and controversy).
[2] The epic was authored by a Buddhist poet named Nathakuthanaar (Skt: Nathagupta), likely born in a merchant class.
[2] A Pali language Vinaya commentary titled Vimativinodani states the author of Kundalakesi was a Buddhist elder named Nathakuthanaar.
[2][6] Some surviving fragments imply that Kundalakesi was a Jain girl who first defeated all the Hindu scholars with her arguments, but ultimately converted to Buddhism.
Kundalakesi is a Hindu girl in some versions, in some she converts to Buddhism before she kills Kalan, and the story details of the epic vary such as in the late Tamil text Vaiciyapuranam.
Veera Sozhiyam's commentator Perunthevanar and the 14th century anthology Purathirattu both describe it as a akalakavi — a large poem.
[11][1] The love fades, and one day, the sulking Kundalakesi reminds Kalan of his criminal past.
[6][12] One version of the epic says that Kundalakesi was a Jain nun who moved around India, expounding Jainism and challenging anyone who had alternate views.
[13] The song "Neela Warala" by Sri Lankan musician W. D. Amaradeva mentions Kundalakesi repeatedly in the chorus.