________________
DECEMBER, 1894.)
FOLKLORE IN SOUTHERN INDIA; No. 38.
387
character might after all be a tale, and that the ornaments might have been got by unfair means, occurred to him at once. But the original warmth of his true regard to his singular wife, which he had before he came to Vijayanagara, was gone. He promised to himself secretly that, on his return, he would sift the matter well before taking any harsh steps, and no sooner had this idea entered into his head than he also wanted to return to his country.
The Simhala prince, after intimating to his friend that he would be going down to the south in a few days, resolved within himself that his departure must be sudden, secret and rapid. All arrangements necessary for this were secretly made, and executed the very next day. The third morning after the letter was seen by the Pandiyan prince he saw the mansion opposite to his house vacant, and the inmates all gone. On asking the landlord, he was told of the abrupt departure of the inmates to their country on the previous night.
"What," thought the Pandiya. “Is friendship a mere name without any meaning attached to it, that my friend, the Simhala, should thus quit this place without one word as to the time of his leaving? Bat let me not accase him. I was advised by him only the other day not to be so hasty and foolish in believing the Vijayanagara minister's accusation against my wife."
Thus thought he, and made arrangements for going also to his country,
As soon as the princess Ambika in her male disguise left Banáras, she requested her confidential friends to hasten the journey as much as possible, and reached Madura in four months' time. As might be expected, she sent away to her father all the men and women who had formed her retinue a day's journey from her choultry, and taking only two chosen and trustworthy friends with her, she reached her poor habitation safely in the middle of the night. She met her confidential friend and Dêvi. Great were their rejoicings at this happy meeting, and Ambikå was delighted to find that the temple was almost approaching to completion. The other part of her promise, too, she expected to be fulfilled in a couple of months in the natural course of circumstances. No one ever doubted that the princess had not remained in the choultry, for the morning doles had been regularly received, and now Devi and the other servants were mightily pleased at all the steps Ambikå had taken for successfully retrieving her character. She requested them all to keep everything to themselves till her lord's return.
Six months after her return to Madura, her lord, the prince of the Pandiya country, returned to his palace from his pilgrimage to the north. The first news that he heard, when entering his dominions, was a scandal about his banished wife. Births and deaths cannot be kept secret for long time, and it became known throughout the palace first, then throughout the city, that the banished princess had given birth to a son. Then the whole Pandiyan realm came to know of it. This event took place just four months before the return of the prince, who, after leaving Banaras, travelled in haste for a few days to join the Sinhala prince, but, being unable to catch him up and obtain news of his movements, had taken his own time for his return journey.
The prince's return was welcome to all in the capital, except to himself, for though now and then he consoled himself with the thought that the character of a banished princess should not at all put him out of his usual peace of mind, the scandal, as it appeared to him, was in the mouth of every one, and made him hang his head. His father the old king gave the prince a very kind and hearty welcome, but at their first meeting, it so happened that Dêvi also was waiting to receive ber morning dole. All the anger which the prince was keeping to himself broke out at once at the sight of that maid-servant :
" Has your lady a baby with her P" asked the prince. "Yes, my lord," replied she.
“ Cannot the father of that child feed you all P” roared out the prince, his tone of speech having changed itself by anger to a high pitch.
Coolly the maid-servant replied: -"Your Highness, my lord, is its father, and, in keeping with your Highness's orders, I come daily to the palace gates."
