Page:The Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years Ago.djvu/185

Rh Chola family, and hence it is not safe for her to go either to Champâti-vanam or Kavêra-vanam: but there is Uva-vanam which, under the blessing of Buddha, is ever full of flowers, and in it there is a crystal alcove, which contains a sacred seat of Buddha. Your daughter may safely go to that garden, and I shall go with her.” Mâthavi having expressed the assent, Manimekalai and Sutamati left the convent, and walked along the chariot road towards Uva-vanam. The festival of Indra having begun, there were crowds of revellers on the public roads. A drunkard stood before a naked Nigrantha monk, who carried a rattan in his hand, a pot siting on his shoulder, and addressed him “We!come, thou reverend Sir; I worship thy feet. Pray listen to me. The soul which dwells in thy unclean body pines like a prisoner confined in a close cell. Drink therefore of this toddy which is drawn from the spaltre of the cocoanut palm, and which will give you pleasure both in this world and see if my words are not true.” In another part of the street, a madman, clad in rags and bunches of leaves, daubed with sandal paste, and decked with the flowers of the wild alari and erukkai, was shouting and dancing and running to and fro, to the great merriment of the rabble. In another quarter, a man was acting the pantomimic play, of the eunuch who danced before the son of Krishna, in Bana’s great city. Groups of people strolled in the streets looking at these scenes, or at the children adorned with tiny jewels, who were riding on toy elephants set on wheels, or at the beautiful lifelike paintings on the walls of buildings, representing gods and human beings, and animals of all kinds. As the groups one by one caught sight of the slender and graceful form of Mani-mekalai, an unspeakable tenderness seemed to light up every face. Struck with her wonderful loveliness they gathered round her, and admired the exquisite beauty of her face and figure. Many of them could not help following her, and expressed their sorrow at the heartless conduct of Mâthavi in devoting her beautiful daughter, in the bloom of youth to the dull and joyless life of a nun. Both Sutamati and Manimekalai passed these crowds silently, the latter stepping so lightly that her footprint was scarcely visible on the soft ground; and they entered the Uva-vanam, which stretched before them like a sheet of