Page:The Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years Ago.djvu/95

Rh life for his sake. If slighting the strength of the mighty, any one is so senseless as to oppose my will, he, like the fool who stumbles on a sleeping tiger, cannot escape with his life. If I do not attack such men, and destroy them, as a huge elephant tramples under it feet a tender sprout of the bamboo, may I delight in the embraces of harlots with flowing hair, whom the good ever shun.”

He is said to have captured seven fortified towns in the Pandyan Kingdom. There is no other record of his having added any territory to his dominions He appears to have died after a short and troubled reign. The following stanza, in which the poet Muthukannan Chathan exorted him to be gracious to those who visit his court is interesting :—

“Mark those born in the noblest families, faultless as the lotus flower, with a hundred petals, who have ruled this earth. Few of them are famous in song or story. But many have dropped unhonoured like the dry leaves of the lotus. The great, whose deeds are the theme of poets’ songs, move on aerial chariots, we are told, in the other world. Oh! my sire, Ched-Chenni-Nalankilli! that everything decays and grows by turns: that everything dies and is born again, even the ignorant in this world may learn from the Moon, which visible, to all (waxeth and waneth by turns). Therefore be gracious to all who seek thy favour, whether they be strong or weak. May thy enemies be those ungracious wretches who never help others but live for themselves.”

On the death of Nalank-killi, Killi-Valavan succeeded to the Chola throne. His right to succession was however disputed by other princes of the Chola family. No less than nine of the prince revolted and sought to divide the kingdom. But Killi-Valavan’s cousin, Chenkudduva-Chera promptly came to his assistance, defeated the confederate princes at Nêrivâyil, and established Kalli-Valavan’s authority. Killi-Valavan then attacked Malayaman, the chief of Malâdu. This chief had evidently assisted the Chola princes who rebelled against the king, and the latter therefore resolved to crush his power. He defeated and slew Malayamân, and seized his sons, who were of tender age, and intended to throw them under the feet of elephants to be trampled