Page:The Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years Ago.djvu/93

Rh “As true wealth and happiness follow in the wake of virtue, the umbrellas of thy two rivals (the Pandia and Chera) follow thine, which is resplendent like the full moon. Ambitious of fame thou wouldst stay nowhere but in thy camp. Thy elephants whose tusks are blunt with battering the walls of thy enemies’ forts, chafe at being idle and are restless. Thy soldiers who wear the warriors’ anklets are eager to march, though they have to cross wide forests to reach thy enemies’ lands. Thy war steeds, starting from the eastern sea stay not till the waves of the western ocean wash their hoofs, and northern kings, trembling with the fear that thou mayest march against them, watch (their frontiers) with sleepless eyes.”

His frequent absence from his capital appears to have weakened his authority over the younger members of the royal family; and Neduñkilli, a Choia prince, was induced to revolt against him. He took possession of the capital, Uraiyur ; but the king, hearing of this rebellion, hastened to Uraiyur and laid siege to the fort. During the siege, a minstrel Ilanthathan, entered Uraiyur, and Nedunkilli suspecting him to be a spy, was about to seize and kill him, when, the poet, Kovur-kilar pleaded for the minstrel and saved his life. The stanza addressed by him to Nedunkilli on the occasion is as follows :—

“They fly like birds and cross many a forest in search of patrons and sing their praises as best their tongue can speak them: pleased with what they get, they feast with all their train; eat without saving, give without stinting and pine only for honor :— the minstrel race who live on what others willingly give them. Do these ever think of doing evil to others ? No ! Exulting in their triumphs over rival bards, while their rivals’ faces are cast down, they walk proudly, as they have for their patrons great kings of this earth like thyself.”

From Uraiyur, the rebel prince fled to Avur, another fortified town in the Chola kingdom. Nalankilli pursued him thither and besieged Avur. The siege continued so long that the inhabitants were reduced to starvation. The miseries endured by the people and the army in Avur are described in the following stanza :-

“The male elephants that have not been led along with Rh