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A. CHAKRAVARTI :
took effect and the city was burnt to ashes'. Having learnt from the Goddess of Madurai that all this was but the inevitable result of her past karma and being consoled by the fact that she would meet her husband as a dēva in a fortnight, Kaņņaki left Madurai and went westwards towards Malainādu. Ascending the hill called Tiruccengunram she waited under the shade of a vēngai tree for fourteen days when she met her husband Kõvalan in the form of a dēva who took her in a vimāna to svarga, while being adored by the dēvas themselves. Thus ends the second chapter called Madurai-kkāņdam.
Next is the third part of the work called Vañjikkāndam relating to the Cēra capital Vañji. The members of the hill tribe, who witnessed this great scene of Kaņņaki being carried by her husband in the divine chariot, celebrated this event in their hamlet, in the form of kuravaiküttu, evidently a form of inspired folkdance. Then these hunters wanted to narrate this wonder to their king Senguțţuvan and they marched towards the capital, each carrying a present to the the king. There they met the Cēra king Serguttuvan who was with his queen and his younger brother in the midst of his four-fold army. When the king heard this narration as to how Kõvalan was killed in Madurai, how the city was consumed by fire by the curse of Kaņņaki and how the Pāņdyan king lost his
1. Ibid., Cantos 21-22: Vañjina-mālai, 'The great wrath' and Alarpadu-kādai, “The conflagaration'.
2. Ibid., Canto 23 : Katsaurai-kādai, 'The Explanation'.
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