Kuṇṭalakēci

Kundalakesi ( Kuṇṭalakēci, lit. "woman with curly hair"), also called Kuntalakeciviruttam, is a Tamil Buddhist epic written by Nathakuthanaar, likely sometime in the 10th century. The epic is a story about love, marriage, getting tired with the married partner, murder and then discovering religion.

The Kundalakesi epic has partially survived into the modern age in fragments, such as in commentaries written centuries later. From these fragments, it appears to be a tragic love story about a Hindu or Jain girl of merchant caste named Kundalakesi who falls in love with Kalan – a criminal on a death sentence. The girl's rich merchant father gets the criminal pardoned and freed, the girl marries him. Over time, their love fades and they start irritating each other. During an argument, Kundalakesi reminds him of his criminal past which angers Kalan. A few days later, he invites her to a hike up a hill. When they reach the top, he tells her that he will now kill her. The wife requests that he let circumambulate him – her husband – three times like a god, before her death. He agrees. When she is behind him, she pushes her husband over into the valley below and kills him. She feels remorse for killing the boy she once fell in love with and someone she had married. She meets teachers of various religious traditions, adopts Buddhism, renounces and becomes a nun, then achieves Nirvana. Sections of the story are very similar to the Buddhist Pali Therigatha legend.