Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 7.djvu/438

VELLALA him to single combat, but the Rāja, not thinking it proper to accept a challenge from a rash youth, demanded if he had any witnesses to prove his claim. He answered 'The earth and sky, and the fruit of the adhonda tree, which I wear suspended from my neck, are witnesses to the truth of my assertion. This circumstance brought the old occurrence to the Rāja's recollection, and he owned his son, and told him that, as he had already abdicated the throne, he trusted he would not insist upon the fulfilling of the promise which had been made to his mother, but consent to live in a private station under the dominion of his elder half-brother. The young man nobly replied ' I with pleasure waive the performance of your promise, but point out to me your enemy, and assist me with some troops, and I will conquer a kingdom for myself.' The Rāja gave him an army, and directed him to subdue the Kurubavāru or shepherds, to clear the woods, and to form himself a kingdom between the rivers Kistna and Kāvēri. He accordingly advanced into the wilderness, and, without meeting much opposition, soon subjected the Kurubavāru, who, knowing nothing of cultivation or sinking of tanks or watering the country from the rivers, and the conqueror wishing to introduce agriculture among them, he was obliged to repair to his father, and make known his difficulties. The Rāja was much pleased with the enterprising spirit of his son, conferred on him the title of Adhonda Chakra, wrote and permitted him to take with him such of the Vellāla caste as chose to emigrate. The young Rāja held out great encouragement, and got a number of adventurers of that caste to accompany him back, to whom he gave large grants of waste land, and told them to pitch upon such spots of ground as met with their approbation, and