Page:The Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years Ago.djvu/163

Rh the fifth day after the birth of the child, one thousand dancing girls met at Mâthavi’s house, and with great ceremony they blessed the child and named her Manimekalai, as desired by Kovilan, the favourite deity of whose ancestors was Manimekhala, the goddess of the ocean. Kovilan gave away handfuls of gold to the Brahmins who assisted at the ceremony. The birth of the child seemed to strengthen the ties of affection between Mâthavi and Kovilan, and he became more attached to the actress than ever. A few years of the gay and luxurious life he led drained his resources. Having spent all his patrimony, he began to remove and sell one by one, the jewels of his wife, who willingly parted with them, in order to please her husband whom she continued to love as faithfully as she did in the days when no rival had estranged his affections.

The annual festival in honor of Indra was celebrated with much pomp and splendour in the city of Pukâr. The joyous city put on its gayest appearance during the festivities which lasted eight and twenty days. On the first day of the festival the king attended in person the opening ceremonies. He started from his palace, surrounded by an imposing cavalcade consisting of the chief officers of State, the five great assemblies, the eight groups of attendants, and the nobility and gentry of the city, mounted on horses, elephants or chariots, and proceeded to the banks of the Kâviri. In the presence of the king, the sacred water of the river was filled in golden pots by youths of the royal family, and the procession then marched to the temple of Indra, where the image of the king of gods was bathed with the sacred water amid the acclamations of the multitude, and the flourish of musical instruments. At the close of the festival, the princes and nobles with all their retinue bathed in the sea at the mouth of the river Kâviri. On the last night of one of these festivals, Mâthavi wished to see the spectacle at the beach, of people bathing and sporting in the sea. She decked herself with her magnificent jewels, in the most charming style, and drove in a carriage, accompanied by a few of her female attefldants. Kovilan rode on a mule followed by a number of his footmen. They wended their way through the market road to the beach, where