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98
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[APRIL, 1894.
were waved before his face. Then the barber came up to King Dharma and shaved his face, and then shaved him from head to foot.
"What is the remedy for the sin of touching a barber ?" asked the servants.
King Dharma replied:-"It is necessary to rub the body with oil and to wash it in water. I have constructed a tank for the purpose."
He made his servants bring a large pan and a thousand pots of cold water were poured into the pan. Then he made them warm the water with twelve bundles of fire-wood, and pour the thousand pots of warm water over his head, and afterwards a thousand pots of cold water.
"Whence are the silken cloths to be brought to wipe the water from your head ?" asked the servants.
"A black silken cloth manufactured at Kavar, a white silken one made at Bolûr, a silken cloth called sopu kambati, a silken cloth made at Irawadura, a silken cloth of which one piece would stretch to three hundred gávudas,11 a silken one which can be soaked with a tear, and a silken cloth which can be hidden between the nail and the finger, are required," said the king.
All the silken cloths were brought and the king dried his head with them. Then he ordered his servants to dress him. Cloths kept in seven boxes were brought to him, and also jewels kept in seven boxes, and scents kept in bottles. King Dharma sat on a European chair and made his servants decorate him :-an ornament round his neck; a golden belt about his waist; pearl ear-rings in his ears; a ring with a pearl in it as bright as the sun, and a ring with a seal on his fingers; a second necklace round his neck; and a large golden ring on his arm. Thus was he adorned with jewels from head to foot.
Then King Dharma said that he wanted to descend to the Tulu country and see the Tulu people, and he asked his servants :-"Which is the way down the ghats?"
He started to go down, but on his way he was opposed by Somanatha at Bangadi and by (the god) Chikkaraya at Shirari.
It happened that a dealer in cattle, a Settigare, with a herd of four thousand oxen was descending from the forest of Gandapendara. King Dharma mounted an ox named Channamangala Chaluvaraya, belonging to the Thettegara. This he did by magic and the herd descended by the way of the temple at Subramanya.
The god Subraya saw this and asked his attendants: "Who are the people coming down here, where there are no déwas, nor gods, nor nagas, nor Bramhâ (Bhútas) superior to myself?"
He made his servants build a fort of shields round his temple, and place crossed swords upon it. King Dharma broke them into pieces, came up to Subrâya's temple, and entered it. He circumambulated the god thrice, witnessed for five days a feast of the god, and then he mounted his ox and passed by the river Kumara and the Matsyatirtha. He passed by Inglika Fort and the Kêpadi Ghat and arrived at Ittal,12 where he saw the god Pañchalinga.
That day the herd of four thousand oxen halted in a paddy field called Bakimara in Ittal, but next morning King Dharma and the herd left the place, and passed on by a place called Bassavaguḍi. He then passed by the temples at Kadambi and Saletara, and it was getting dark when he reached a banyan tree at the village Mudungara. Here he remained that night, and started early in the morning with the herd, and stopped near a well, called, after him, Dharma's Well.
The news became known to the Poyyedar of Kunnandur.
I have heard that in the reign of Akkaji Mamuji, our ancestors had elephants and horses; and now I shall be glad to possess an ox," said the Poyyedir.
11 One gavuda = 12 miles.
12 [Or Witṭal. ED.]
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