Indian Antiquary Vol 07

Author(s): Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 35

JANUARY, 1878.]
ARCHÆOLOGICAL NOTES.
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king to get and send it us. Your king does not keep a proper look-out. He is just and charitable, so we did him no harm, but having penetrated so far we might have slain him and thrown him out of doors. Tell him, therefore, in future to maintain a good guard." So the ambassador wrote, and the king in great amazement went to the door of the private apart- ments, read what was written on it, and calling the shopkeeper gave him ten pagodas, and taking from him the ring sent it forthwith to the Trichinkpalli king. From that time forward he had the palace and fort gates very carefully watched.
Again it is told of Ranga Krishna that when a great vassal Paligår, who lived some twenty miles from his capital, had been slow in sending, as a sort of tribute-heriot, an incomparably fine elephant which the king desired to have, the latter mounted a swift white horse and rode out fast toward the PAligar's castle, ordering some troops to follow as fast as they might. Arrived at the castle, he rode in, thrusting aside the men who disputed his entrance, tied his horse to a pillar, and, sitting down on the high seat under the porch, bade the warders go and tell their master that the king was come. The chieftain was then bathing, but, hastily arraying himself, hastened with a golden dish of jewels and laid them submissive before the king's feet.
The Raja then demanded the wonderful elephant that had no fellow. The overawed Påligâr answered, “For such a trifle it needed not the king to have come hither. The elephant is my lord's, but now he is in a furious state, and none dare approach him; when the fit is past I will send him." "Do not think," replied the Raja, "that we cannot rule an elephant; let it be brought." "But," the PAligâr urged, "the elephant is exceedingly furious; if he sees a white horse he will rush at it and none can stay him. Now my lord is mounted on a white horse." The Råja, however, heeded not the caution, but commanded the elephant to be brought, and its chain cast off whilst he mounted his horse. This was done with no small danger and difficulty, and the men when the chain was loosened ran aside. So soon as the elephant saw the white horse he rushed at it foriously; but the king, eluding the attack, wheeled and galloped about with most skilful horsemanship, sometimes facing the elephant
and sometimes flying, and so drawing on the infuriated animal, till by degrees he at last brought him all the distance to Trichinâ palli and within the walls, where the elephant was mastered by stratagem and bound with strong chains-an exhibition of skill and daring well calculated to impress the people. "Long he ruled," says the chronicle, "with great courage and high justice, and much beloved was he by all folk."
We will conclude with a tale of the downfall of a royal family that shows more high resolve, courage, and devotion than Western people commonly associate with Hindus. About A.D. 1680 an octogenarian king, Achyuta Vija ya Raghava Naikar, ruled in Tanjor. He had a daughter endowed with extraordinary beauty and ability, the rumour of which reaching the neighbouring king of Trichinapalli he demanded her in marriage, but in a more brusque and peremptory way than the old king her father could stomach. So he refused in no gentle terms. Enraged at this, the Trichinapalli ruler assembled all his forces, and commanded his general to march to Tanjor, invest and storm the fort, and subdue the entire country. The Tanjor troops came out to meet them, but were defeated and driven back, and the fort invested and stormed, and the invading troops surrounded the palace of the old king. The Trichinkpalli general, being a high-minded man, now sent to offer terms, and engaged to retire with his troops if the king would ask for peace. The messengers found the ancient monarch engaged in prayer to his favourite god, Narayaņa. He disdained to speak or to interrupt his devotions, but merely made a gesture signifying, “Though all be, lost, I will neither sue for peace nor yield my daughter." So the messengers returned and reported to the general, who then advanced his troops up to the gates of the palace. Meanwhile the aged king had finished his devotions, and ordering his daughter, crowned wives, and attendants to assemble in a hall, surrounded them with great vessels filled with powder, laid a train and commanded them to fire it on a given signal. Then he arrayed himself for his last fight, and is described as young-looking for his years, with extremely overhanging eyebrows held up by gold wires, costly robes studded with gems wrapped round him, and in each hand a long brightly burnished gauntlet sword. Most of his people had fled.