Page:The Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years Ago.djvu/111

Rh The king died at Chikkar-palli and was henceforth known as Chikkar-palli-thunjchiya chelvak-kadunk-ko-vâli-Athan or “Athãn, the fierce king who died at Chikkar-palli.”

Chenkudduvan alias Imayavarmman succeeded his father Athan II about A.D. 90. Soon after his accession to the throne he captured Viyalûr the capital of Irunko-vênmân king of a mountainous country where gold mines were worked. Some years afterwards Nalank-killi the son of Karikal-Chola died, and the Chola crown passed to Killi-valavan, grandson of Karikal Chola and cousin of Chenkudduva Chera. Killivalavan’s authority was not however acknowledged by other members of the Chola royal family. Nine of the Chola princes revolted. Hearing of this rebellion Chenk-kudduvan marched with a large army to the assistance of his cousin. He defeated the nine rebel princes at Neri-vâyil and established the power of his cousin. Soon afterwards he attacked Mohoor, the capital of Palayan-Mâran in the southern part of the Pandyan kingdom. He undertook this expedition to Mohoor on behalf of a chieftain named Arukai who had been ill treated by Palayan-Mâran. Being in close friendship with the Karnas, kings of Magadha, he accompanied his widowed mother Sonai to the banks of the Ganges where the queen bathed in the sacred waters. Many years later Chenkkudduvan again visited the Ganges under peculiar circumstances which are related as follows in the Chilapp-athikaram :—

“Kothai, the lord of the “celestials,” who wields the sharp sword, who overthrew the Kadambu which stood encircled by the sea, and who set the banner of the bow on the Imaya mountains to the astonishment of the “celestials,” who inhabited that region, while seated one day in his silver palace with his queen Venmâl was pleased to command that arrangements be made to proceed on a short tour to visit the mountains covered with green woods on which the clouds ever rest and the music of whose water-falls never ceases. He set out from Vanji with a large retinue of the daughters of the “celestial race” desirous of sporting with them in the flowery groves, and encamped on a sand-hill on the banks of the Periyâr, where the river quits the