Page:The Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years Ago.djvu/128

Rh clan during the reign of the Chera king Perunj-cheral-Irumporai. He invaded Maladu and sacked Kovalur the capital of Malayaman. The bard Paranar praised his achievements on that occasion. Being an ambitious and warlike chief he wished to extend his territory, and although the Chera king was willing to bestow on him all the land which lay around Kuthirai-malai, within sight from the top of that high mountain, the chief asked for more. This led to war and the Chera king had to march with his army to Thakadoor to subdue the refractory chief. During the siege of Thakadoor, Nedumán-anchi was mortally wounded and died soon afterwards. I have described the siege already in the account of the Chera king Perunj-cheral-Irumporai. The poetess Avvaiyar who was a great favourite in the court of the Athiyaman describes in the following verse the terror with which neighbouring chiefs beheld him and his fierce soldiers :—

“Those who see thy brigades of war elephants marching with their tusks blunted by battering thy enemies’ forts, renew the strong bars with which the gates of their fort are bolted; those who see thy troops of horse whose hoofs are covered with the blood of their foes whom they had trampled to death, block the entrances to their fort with stout thorny trees: those who see thy sharp lances which pierce the hardest shields, repair and strengthen their shields; those who see thy fierce soldiers who bear on their body many a scar caused by sword cuts, waste not the arrows from their quivers: and thou, not deterred by the poisonous smoke of the seeds of the Iyyavi, which thy enemies burn at their fort-gates to keep off your army, seize and kill them like the god of death. Alas! Who can save the fertile lands of thy enemies whose fields are covered with waving corn ?“