Page:The Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years Ago.djvu/207

Rh preached by the great Buddha. You seem to forget this duty which you owe to your subjects.”

“Anyhow I am so eager to visit Mani-pallavam that I will not be satisfied unless I go there. You ought to look after the Government and the palace for the period of a month,” said the king, and commanded at once that arrangements be made for his voyage. As soon as a ship was ready, he went on board, and with favourable winds, the ship arrived at Mani-pallavam. Manimêkalai received the king with sincere pleasure, and took him to the sacred seat of Buddha. The king reverently went round the seat and worshipped it, and at once, his former birth came to his recollection as clear as if it had been reflected in a mirror. “I know my former birth and my sorrow is removed," exclaimed the king, “Thou Goddess of Learning! of Dakshina-Mathura in the Tamil-land: on a rainy night when a number of beggars came to me, at thy shrine, for food, and I was at a loss to find meals for them, you were pleased to place in my hands a miraculous cup out of which any number of people could be fed. Ever in my future births I shall worship thee as I have done in the past.” He then left the seat with Mantmêkalai and rested in the shade of a Punnai tree. Deepa-thilakai, the guardian deity of the sacred seat, appeared before them and accosted the king. “Welcome! thou pious man who brought the wonderful cup and died on this island. Behold the skeleton of thy former body which lies at the foot of yonder tree, under a heap of sand thrown up by the waves of the sea.” She then addressed Manimêkalai as follows: “Thou good maid, who now holds the miraculous cup in thy hand! your native city has been destroyed by an eruption of the sea. I shall tell you the cause of the calamity. Peeli-valai, the daughter of the king of Nâga-nâd, visited this island with her son, to worship the Buddha’s seat, which had been placed here by Indra. When she was staying here, a ship belonging to a merchant of Kavirip-paddinam happened to anchor at the island. The princess having ascertained that the ship was to sail to Kavirip-paddinam, entrusted to the merchant’s care her son, to be taken to his father, the Chola-king Killi-valavan. The merchant received the prince with great pleasure on board his ship, and sailed immediately: But violent winds wrecked the ship on an adjacent coast at