Ponniyin Selvan
Chapter 1 -- Aadi Festival
We welcome our readers to get into the boat of
imagination and go sailing down the flood of sourceless,
endless time. Let us travel a century for every second and
quickly reach the times of a thousand years before the
present.
In the southern end of Thirumunaipadi, which lies in
between the Thondai Kingdom and the Chozla Kingdom,
about two leagues far to the west of Thillai Chittrambalam,
(Chidambaram Town) there spreads an ocean-like
reservoir. It is known as Veera Narayana Lake. It is about
a league and a half long north to south and about half a
league wide east to west. Time has twisted its name: for
these days the reservoir is known as Veeraanatthu Lake. In the windy months of Aadi-Aavani (August), when new
floods fill the reservoir to almost overflow, anyone who
looks at the Veera Narayana lake will surely recall with
pride and astonishment the splendid deeds of our ancestors
in Tamil Nadu. Did those ancients do things merely for the
welfare of themselves and the people of their own times?
... They fulfilled tasks that would benefit thousands of
future generations in their sacred motherland.
On the 18th day of the month of Aadi, in the early hours of
the evening, a young warrior, mounted on a horse, was
riding down the banks of this ocean-like Veera Narayana
Lake. He belonged to the Vaanar clan which is famous in
the history of the gallant Tamils.
Vallavarayan Vandiya Devan was his name. Having
travelled a long distance and being worn and weary, his
horse was walking along rather slowly. The young cavalier
did not seem concerned about this. The sprawling reservoir
had so enchanted his heart!
It was common for rivers of the Chozla Kingdom to run
with flood waters touching both banks during the Aadi
month festival of Padhinettam Perukku. The lakes fed by
these rivers would also be filled to capacity, with waves
jostling and colliding upon their embankments. Waters
from the river called North Cauvery by the devout, but
commonly known as Kollidam, rushed into the Veera
Narayana Lake, through the Vadavaru stream and made it
a turbulent sea.
Seventy four floodgates on the lake distributed the bounty
via aqueducts to distant tracts of the country side. With
these irrigation waters from the lake, activities such as
ploughing, sowing and seed transplanting were being
carried out as far as the eye could see.
Here and there, the song of farmers who were ploughing
and women who were transplanting created a pleasant and
joyous music. Listening to all this, Vandiya Devan was riding quite slowly, without prodding his tired horse. As
soon as he had climbed the embankment, he had started
counting the floodgates with the intention of finding out if
popular claims, which declared the lake to have seventyfour floodgates, were true! After having come about one
and a half leagues along the bank, he had counted seventy
gates.
Aha! How huge is this lake? How wide and how long? Can
we not say that the tanks built by the great Pallava
monarchs in the Thondai Kingdom are mere ponds and
pools compared with this immense reservoir? Did not
Prince Raja-aditya son of King Paranthaka who conquered
Madurai, think of building this great tank to conserve the
waters of the North Cauvery which were going wastefully
into the sea? And did he not execute his thinking into
action? How great a genius he must have been! Who can
we compare to his brave nobility! During the battle at
Takkolam, did he not, riding an elephant go to the
forefront and single handed, enter combat? And in the
course of that confrontation did he not receive enemy
spears on his chest and give up his very life? And because
of it did he not get the title Deva who reposed atop the
elephant as he departed for the heavens meant for the
brave? These kings of the Chozla Dynasty are remarkable!
They were just as just as they were brave! And as in justice
they excelled in the veneration of their Gods. Vallavarayan Vandiya Devan's shoulders swelled with
pride when he thought of his good fortune in having
received the friendship of a Chozla prince of such a
dynasty. Just like the waves that dashed against the banks
of the lake because of the swift western breeze, his heart
too bubbled with gratification and pride. Thinking all such
thoughts Vandiya Devan reached the southern end of
Veera Narayana Lake.
There he could view the panorama of the Vadavaru stream
separating from the North Cauvery and falling into the
lake. For a short distance inside the embankment, the lake
shore was silted forming a sandy beach. A number of
casuarina trees and wood-apple trees had been planted on
the beach so that rising flood waters would not destroy the
embankment. Nanal reeds had grown thickly along the
water's edge. From a distance, the scenic view of the
rushing waters from the tree lined North River merging
into the lake in the south-west, seemed like a colorful,
newly created painting. Vandiya Devan saw a few other
things that increased the pleasing joyousness of this
enchanting scene. Was it not the day of the Aadi Festival?
Crowds of people from nearby villages, dragging their
carts covered with canopies of sandal-colored, supple
coconut-leaves, were coming there. Men, women, children
and even several elderly folks all wearing new clothes and
vividly dressed in various ways had come. Bunches of
fragrant flowers, such as the hearts of country cactus,
chrysanthemum, jasmine, gardenia, champaka and
iruvatchi decorated the braids of women. Several had come with families bringing stewed rice and
fancy picnic foods. Some stood by the water's edge and ate
their picnic rice-dishes from platters of plantain-flower
petals. Others, more brave, had ventured further into the
water to cross over to the bank of the Vadavaru. Some
children threw the platters from which they had eaten into
the floodgates and clapped their hands with laughter to see
the petals float through the gates to be rushed onto the
canals. Some mischievous young men plucked the flowers
off the heads of their loved ones and threw them into the
water, merely to see them being cast upon the shore.
Vallavarayan Vandiya Devan stood there watching all this
for a while. He listened with an eager ear when some of
the girls with pleasant voices sang. They sang traditional
boat-songs and flood-songs as well as folk songs like
Kummi and Sindhu.
Come, oh ye young maidens,
Look at the North river bubbling by!
Come watch, oh ye friends,
Look at the White river rushing by!
Come, oh come all ye girls,
To look at the Cauvery tumbling by!
Such flood-songs pleasingly flooded the ears of Vandiya
Devan. Others sang ballads about the bravery and fame of
Chozla kings. Some girls sang of Vijayala Chozla who had
fought in thirty-two battles and had worn his ninety-six
body wounds like ornaments. Others sang acclaiming the
bravery of his son, Aditya Chozla, and how he constructed
sixty-four Shiva temples all along the Cauvery - from
where it rose till it mingled into the sea. One girl sang the
fame of King Aditya's son, Paranthaka Chozla, who had
not only conquered the Pandiya, Pallava and Chera kings
but had also sent an army to Lanka to hoist his victory flag.
When each girl sang, several people stood around her
listening with rapt attention. They applauded with loud
shouts of "Ah, ah" and expressed their happiness!
An elderly woman noticed Vandiya Devan who was sittingon his horse and listening to all this. "Thambi! You seem
to have come from a long distance; you are tired! Come
down from your horse to eat this stewed rice," she said.
Immediately several young girls noticed our youthful
traveller. They whispered amongst themselves about his
appearance and laughed merrily. Vandiya Devan was
overcome by a certain mortification on one side and
delight on the other. For a moment he considered
dismounting and eating the food offered by the old
woman. If he did so, the young maids would surely gather
around to tease and laugh.
So what? Is it easy to behold so many beautiful maidens in
one place? Even their laughter and teasing would be
heavenly music. In Vandiya Devan's eyes all those girls on
the lake shore appeared like the heavenly nymphs Ramba At the same time he noticed something towards the southwest along the flow of River Vadavaru and hesitated.
About seven or eight large boats with white, spreading
sails filled with the breeze were coming swiftly like white
swans floating with wide-spread wings.
All the people engaged in various merriments turned to
avidly look in the direction from which the boats were
coming. One of the boats came forward more swiftly and
reached the lake shore where the embankment turned west.
Several well-built footmen carrying sharp & shiny spears
were in that boat. Some of them jumped on to the lake
shore and started shoving the people with shouts of "Go!
Move!" Before being pushed around too much, the people
picked up their containers and belongings and quickly
started climbing upon the bank. Vandiya Devan could not
understand any of this. Who were these men? Who were
coming in the sailboats behind them? Where were they
coming from? Perhaps they belonged to the royal
household?
Vallavarayan Vandiya Devan approached an elderly man
leaning upon his cane by the bank. "Sir, whose men are
these? And whose boats are those coming behind like a
school of swans? Why are these footmen chasing away the
people? And why are the people hurrying away?" came his
questions, one upon the other.
"Thambi! Do you not know? There is a flag flying in the
middle of those sailboats. See what is embossed on it!"
said the elder.
"Seems like a palm tree."
"It is a palm tree! Don't you know that the palmtree-flag
belongs to the Lord of Pazluvoor?"
"Is it the great warrior, Lord Pazluvoor, who is coming?"
asked Vandiya Devan in a startled voice.
"It must be so. Who else could raise the palmtree-flag and
come?" said the elderly man.
Vandiya Devan's eyes opened wide with immeasurable
surprise as he looked towards the boats. Vallavarayan
Vandiya Devan had heard much about Lord Pazluvoor.
But, who would not have heard about them? The names of
the brothers - The Elder Lord Pazluvoor and The Younger
Lord Pazluvoor -- were renowned from Lanka in the south
to the Kalinga Kingdom in the north. Pazluvoor, situated
on the northern banks of the Cauvery near the city of
Uraiyoor was their capital. Even from the times of
Vijayala Chozla, the Pazluvoor Family had won heroic
fame. They had a lot of give and take with the royal family
of the Chozlas. Because of this and also because of their
nobility, bravery and fame the Pazluvoor clan had all the
distinguishing characters of a royal family. They also had
the right to carry their own pennant.
and Menaka!The elder of the present Lords of Pazluvoor had fought in
twenty-four campaigns. During his times he had won
acclaim as having no equal in war in the Chozla Kingdom.
Since he had now crossed the age of fifty, he no longer
entered the battlefield directly. Nevertheless, he now held
several eminent positions in the government of the
Chozlas. In the Chozla Empire, he was the head of finance;
head of food supply. He had the authority to levy taxes
according to political needs. He had the right to call upon
any princeling, nobleman or squire and order them thus:
"This year you shall pay this much tribute" and the powers
to implement such orders. Therefore, next to Emperor
Sundara Chozla he was the most powerful man in the
Chozla Kingdom.
Vandiya Devan's heart brimmed with an eagerness to meet
this powerful, illustrious and noble Lord of Pazluvoor. At
the same time he recalled the words uttered in privacy by
Prince Aditya Karikala, at the new Golden Palace in
Kanchi City.
"Vandiya Deva, I know you to be a brave man. At the
same time I trust you to be intelligent and give you this
immense responsibility. Of the two letters I have given
you, deliver one to my father the Emperor and the other to
my sister the Younger Pirati. (Pirati is the term used to
refer to princesses of the ruling house.) I hear all sorts of
rumors about even the senior officials of the kingdom in
Tanjore. Therefore, the contents of my letters should not
become known to anyone. Even the most eminent persons
should not realize that you are carrying letters from me. Do
not get into quarrels with anyone on the way. You should
not merely avoid conflicts of your seeking; but also not be
involved in disputes thrust upon you. I very well know
about your courage. You have proved it several times.
Therefore, there shall be no loss of valor in escaping from
duels forced upon you. Most important, you should be
particularly careful about the Lords of Pazluvoor and also
my Young Uncle Madurandaka. I do not wish them to
know even who you are! They should definitely not know
why you are going!"
The Crown Prince of the Chozla Empire and the
Commander-in-Chief of the Northern Armies, Prince
Aditya Karikala had told him all this. The Prince had
repeatedly advised Vandiya Devan about how he should
behave. Since he recalled all this, Vandiya Devan
suppressed his desire to meet Lord Pazluvoor. He whipped
his horse to move on quickly. In spite of the prodding, his
tired horse merely plodded ahead. Having decided to spend
the night at the Kadamboor fortress of the noble
Sambuvaraya, he resolved to procure a better horse before
resuming his journey the next morning.