Page:The Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years Ago.djvu/113

Rh ill-luck led him to the king’s jeweller who having already stolen one of the queen’s anklets reported to the king that the stolen jewel had been brought to him for sale by a stranger and pointed out the merchant to the royal guards who came to arrest him. The merchant, surprised by the sudden turn of affairs, was unable to explain to the guards how he came by the jewel; the guards suspecting him to be the thief beheaded him on the spot, and took the jewel to the palace. The sad news of the execution of the merchant reached his wife, who was then lodging in a shepherd’s house. With tears streaming from her eyes, she ran to the spot where her husband lay a mangled corpse, and having heard from the people of the town that her husband was beheaded, because he had stolen one of the queen’s anklets, the disconsolate widow demanded an audience of the king and appearing before him proved to his satisfaction that the anklet found in the possession of her husband was her own and not that of the Pandyan queen. The king stung with remorse swooned from his throne and never recovered his life; and the queen ascended the funeral pyre. The unhappy widow cut off one of her breasts and threw it in the streets of Madura praying that the wicked town be destroyed by fire; and accordingly the palace and a part of the town were burnt to ashes. She then quitted Madura and travelling westwards came into the Chera kingdom and there died. Chenkudduvan and his queen Venmal were much affected by this story. The queen observed that the chaste but unfortunate widow was worthy of being worshipped as a goddess. The king approved of this idea, and looked at the learned men of his court for their advice; and they said that an image may be carved out of a block of granite from the Pothiya hill and anointed in the waters of the Kaviri, or that the statue may be fashioned from a stone from the Himalayas and bathed in the sacred waters of the Ganges. The king exclaimed that to obtain a stone from Pothiyam and bathe it in the Kaviri river was unbecoming one of his martial race: and he decided therefore to obtain a stone from the Himalayas. His minister Villavan-Kothai addressed the king as follows :—

“May thou be victorious for many years. Thy rival kings defeated in the battle-field of Kongu, abandoned their banners of