Page:The Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years Ago.djvu/117

Rh Kanaka, Vijaya, and several other princes fell captives into the hands of Chenk-kudduvan. He compelled Kanaka and Vijaya to change their royal garments for the garb of religious mendicants and sent them with his minister Villavan-Kothai and a military escort to the Himalayas. After the battle, the king returned to the southern banks of the Ganges, where the Karnas had constructed a magnificent palace in the midst of a lovely park for the use of the king and several mansions and buildings for his officers and army. Here the king distributed honors and rewards to those who had distinguished themselves in the battle, and to the sons of those who had fallen in battle. The king returned to Vanji after an absence of thirty-two months. His queen and the subjects received him with great rejoicings. From the banks of the Ganges he had sent the Aryan princes Kanaka and Vijaya in charge of his body-guard to be exhibited at the courts of the Pandya and Chola kings. After visiting Kavirip-paddinam and Madura, Nilan the commander of the body-guard returned to Vanji and informed the king that the Chola and Pandya kings condemned the cruel treatment accorded to the unfortunate Aryan princes. The Chera king was annoyed with the remarks made by the Tamil kings. The Brahmin Madalan who was then present, addressed the king as follows :—

“King of kings, may thou be ever victorious! Thou hast conquered Viyalur where wild elephants slumber in the shade of the pepper vine. Thou hast defeated nine Chola princes in a pitched battle at Neri-väyil and won a grand victory at Idumbil and now crossing the wide ocean thou hast defeated the Aryan princes who attacked thee on the banks of the Ganges. Master of the victorious army! wise monarch! may thou be appeased; may thou live as many years as there are grains of sand on the banks of the river Porunai. Pray, listen to my words, and scorn them not. Although thou art now fifty years of age thou hast spent all thy life in war and has not performed any religious sacrifice. Thou knowest well that our life is not everlasting. For, of the ancient heroes of thy race not one is alive. He who conquered the Kadambu in the middle of the sea, he who set the emblem of the bow on the Imaya mountains, he who enabled the Brahmin poet who composed verses in his praise, to attain heaven by per- Rh