Page:Introduction to Tamil Poetry.pdf/16

 15 The very sight of her in the court of the king, forlorn, dis- mayed and furious was enough to strike a note of terror into the hearts of the king and his men. That scene truly evokes pity and fear. Her innocent husband had been murdered without proper enquiry. She knew that her husband had not stolen the anklets of the queen; she knew that by mistaking her own anklets for the queen's he had been killed. She could not rest until she proved that her husband was not guilty. Her strength was the strength of hundred as she was pure. Hence when she appeared before the king she spoke in a reproachful language : Tērā mannā ceppuvatudaiyen ; Narriram padara korkai vānté ! When the Pāndyan king asked her who she was and what business brought her there, her reply was given in such a manner as to give us the impression that she knew the pro- cedure of the court. She began by describing the place of her origin, mentioned the names of her husband and his father and gave out her own name. She said to him, 'My husband came to your city with a view to setting up a busi- ness, O! valiant king! He came here to sell the ornament worn by me at the ankle but alas ! he has been killed”. These words are replete with significance. They imply that she and her husband had passed through several forests where wild beasts roam and that they who had emerged safe through the thick woods and deserts had suffered injury in a city inhabited by human beings and ruled over by the Pandyan king. They imply further that a king who was responsible for killing a guiltless person cannot be deemed valiant and that after all it was for the ornament of her foot (and not the head) that Kõvalan her husband had been the victim. The moment she proved with the aid of her matching anklet that her husband was not the thief the Pandya king repented and fell down dead. The language in which this is couched is remarkable for its poetic beauty :-