Page:The Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years Ago.djvu/115

Rh the planets and stars and of the five parts of Astrology, stood up and said:–

“Mighty monarch, may victory ever attend thee This is the auspicious time; if thou art pleased to start at once in the direction that thou wishest to proceed all thy rival kings shall bow at thy sacred feet.”

Hearing this the king ordered at once that the royal sword and umbrella should be carried northwards. The warriors shouted joyously, the big drums thundered, the banners fluttered, and the five corporations, and the eight great assemblies, the priests and astrologers, the judges and ministers all exclaimed :— “Blessed be the king.” The royal sword and umbrella adorned with garlands of flowers were carried on the chief elephant in royal state to a fort outside the town. The king then entered his audience hall and there feasted the generals and chiefs of his army. Next day, while the morning drum was sounding at his palace gate, the king started from his palace wearing on his crown wreaths of Vanji flowers and visited the temple of Vishnu, and having offered his prayers to the god, he mounted his elephant. He received from the priest the symbols of the sacred feet of Siva and placed them devoutly on his crown and on his shoulders; and amidst the blessings of the priests from the golden temple of Vishnu, he left Vanji, seated on his elephant. under the shade of a white umbrella, accompanied by his military officers and a mighty host of warriors on foot, on horses, chariots and on elephants. He made his first halt at the foot of the Nilgiri hills. These hills do not appear to be the modern Nilgiris, but were most probably the rocky hills which project boldly forth to within sixteen or eighteen miles of the shore of the Bay of Bengal at Balasore in the Orissa district, which were known to the old navigators as the Nilgiri mountains. The journey from the Chera kingdom to Orissa appears to have been performed by sea, as stated at the end of the poem, where Chenk-kudduvan is praised as the king who with his army crossed the sea and reached the banks of the Ganges. When the Chera king was encamped at the foot of the Nilgiris. Sanjchaya, a general in the service of the Karnas, the rulers of the Magadha empire, arrived with one hundred dancing girls,