Page:The Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years Ago.djvu/94

Rh their females to bathe in the lakes outside the fort, nor fed with balls of rice mixed with butter, chafe at the posts to which they are chained, and rolling on the ground trumpet loud as thunder. Children cry for want of milk, women tie their hair without flowers, people weep and wail for want of water to drink. To stay here any longer is, alas! Disastrous! Thou master of fleet steeds! If thou wouldst be just, open the gates and give up the fort to thy King, if bent on war, lead out thy soldiers and fight the enemy. Doing neither, to close the strong gates of the fort and to shut ourselves within these high walls is shameful indeed.”

The poet rebuked Nedunkilli for not obeying the King and succeeded eventually in reconciling the rebel prince and the King. One of the stanzas uttered by him is as follows :–

“He does not wear the white flowers of the Palmyra. He does not wear the garland of the dark Margosa. You wear a wreath of the Ar, and so does he who wages war with you. If one of you loses the battle, it is your royal race that loses. It is not possible that both of you can win. A war between you is ruinous to your ancient house. Alas! how cruel is this evil war which makes your enemies rejoice.”

It wa the custom in this period for each King and his generals to wear on the battle-field garlands of a particular kind of flower, to distinguish his party from that of his enemy. The Pandya wore the flowers of the Margosa, the Chera those of the Palmyra, and the Chola the flowers of the Ar. In the stanza translated above, the poet says, that it is not the Pandya or the Chera that fights with the Chola, but a prince of the Chola family, as both wore the garlands of the Ar.

Distracted by civil wars, the Chola Kingdom was not very prosperous during the reign of Nalankilli. He was wanting in some of the qualities necessary for a successful ruler. If he was good, he was also proud of the resources of his Kingdom and boastful as may be seen from the following stanza composed by himself :–

“If gently approaching my feet, one prays for a favor, I shall grant him even my ancient Kingdom, nay, I shall risk my