Page:Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal Vol 7, Part 1.djvu/580

510 perform the expiation. In consequence he summoned a hall of audi- ence, and therein formally commissioned his minister to go and see justice so rendered. The minister set out in state ; and, on informing the young man of his orders, the young man gave his consent. The minister was in a sad dilemma, regretting on the one hand to kill so in- tellectual a young man, and bring on himself the guilt of blood- shedding, and on the other fearing punishment from the king, if he disobeyed orders. To extricate himself from the difficulty he slew him- self with his own sword. The king's son being astonished continued his meditation on tiyiigarar ; expecting some further interposition in his behalf. The king was embarrassed at the double accumulation of evil. His wife blamed him for not listening to her first suggestion. The king rejected it as not good ; and appointed the minister's son to succeed to the crown. The king set out, surrounded by a multitude of deeply-grieving people till he came to his son at Tiruvatur. The son remonstrated on the advantage that was about to be given to envi- ous neighbours, such as the Pandiyan and the Cher an. But the king considering that, if he did not sacrifice his son, there would be no rain, and no crops, ordered the chariot to move on, which ran over the young- man, when prostrate on the ground and cut him into two pieces. The people greatly rejoiced at the spectacle. The two pieces of the king's son were presented before the cow to its great joy ; and the crime of slaying the calf was expiated. The king next considered that he had now to expiate the sin of having occasioned the death of his minister. He accordingly was about to strike himself when the aforesaid Trimokti and other gods, composing the illusive cow, stayed his arm ; and' at the same time, raised to life again the minister and the kings' son. The son was installed under the title of Bhu'pala Cholam. The gods decreed that the old king, as a reward, should have the pleasure of seeing his son rule with himself. Afterwards without being exposed to the pain of any future birth, the king (for his merit), the king's wife, and the minister also, received final beatitude. On account of his long reign, distinguished by so many virtues, the gods ordered him to be commemorated by the title of Kribala Chola, or " the gracious ruler :" he ruled eighty years.

Bhd'pala Chola, being crowned when sixteen years of age, and having married when twenty-five years old, exceeded his father in beneficence, and prosperously governed. In a hunting excursion he discovered a large chasm which consumed and wasted the water of the Caveri river. He directed a great many men to be employed to fill it up ; all their efforts to fill it up were unavailing. Though much money