Page:Madras Journal of Literature and Science, series 1, volume 6 (1837).djvu/217

1837.] Kuna Pandyan was married to Vani Daswani the daughter of the Chola Raja, who was a devout worshipper of Siva. She invited Gnyana Samandar, a famous teacher of her sect, to Madura, and an opportunity soon occurred of gaining for him the countenance of the Raja Kuna, who was attacked by a fever which resisted the drugs and spells of his Jaina priests. Gnyana Samandar undertook his cure, engaging to make his success a test of the superiority of his religion. His opponents accepted the challenge; and the medical skill of the Saiva surpassing their expectations, they found themselves vanquished. Attributing the success of Gnyana Samandar to magic, they proposed other tests, to which he readily agreed. Leaves, with the sacred texts of their respective parties were thrown into the Vaiki, under a stipulation that the sect should triumph whose mantra floated upwards against the current. The Saiva charm prevailed: it ascended the river to a place called Tiruvedaka, where Siva, in the form of an old man, took it out of the water, and brought it back to Gnyana Samandar. In commemoration of the event, a city was founded on the spot to which the leaf was borne, and a temple was erected by the king to Tiruvedaka Nat’h. The Samanal were persecuted and hanged, or banished, to the number of eight thousand. Kuna Pandyan, who before his conversion was deformed, as his name implies (Kuna meaning "hunch-backed"), no sooner received the initiatory mantra of the Saiva faith, than be became erect and straight, and thenceforth assumed the name of Sundara (the "handsome") Pandyan. Gnyana Samandar was established as the chief pontiff of the religious faith which he had restored; and he seems to have instituted a peculiar hierarchy which still subsists, several convents being found in the south of India tenanted by Brahmacharia, or cœnobites, of the Saiva persuasion, whose spiritual head bears the hereditary title of "Gnyani Siva Achari."