Indian Antiquary Vol 46

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 131

JUNE, 1917)
THE HISTORY OF THE NAIK KINGDOM OF MADURA
119
THE HISTORY OF THE NAIK KINGDOM OF MADURA.
BY V. RANGACHARI, M.A., L.T., MADRAS.
(Continued from p. 105.) But Rarga Krishna was not merely a man of enterprise who would ride into an enemy's country to seek information or obtain amusement; he was a ruler of great sympathy and solicitude for the welfare of his subjects. He delighted to roam incognito in his reallı, to mix with the humble and lowly, to talk to them, to understand their feelings and to appreciate their merits. If he could subdue an elephant which none else could he could also visit humble places and see humble men, and learn things for himself, leurn where virtue or misery had its abode, where injustice prevailed and where disloyalty throve. No occupation was, in his eyes, too low for the investigation of truth. True he was not without defects. He shared the weakness of his dynasty in his love of pomp, his fondness for show, and in his permitting his lieutenants to spend state money on processions and celebrations, but this was a single blot in his brilliant and beautiful character. His easy accessibility, his desire to learn things in person, his sympathy with the people, and at the same time, his weakness for showy pageantry, are evident from his Tinnevelly adventure. Hearing from some men of Tinnevelly that the son of their viceroy, Tiruvêngala Nathaiya,25 wasted every night 500 pagodas of Sirkar money in costly processions of * more than royal state," he set out, as was always the case with him, alone on his horse towards Tinnevelly to ascertain the fact. The Telugu chronicle, from which the account of this episode is taken, narrates in detail an interview which the king had with a humble, low-caste woman who was carrying a rude and frugal fare for her son, a labourer working in the distant fields. The exhausted monarch condescended to take butter-milk from the woman and noted her name for future favours. Resuming his journey, he reached one of those splendid reception-booths, which had been constructed all along the road for his sake. The warders, however, hardly saw in the solitary horseman their sovereign. In their eyes royalty was always surrounded by magnificence. To think of a king without his host of attendants and flatterers, his paraphernalia and splendour, was to them an impossible feat. Simplicity was a virtue which their rude and unsophisticated mind could with difficulty associate with royalty. They had not the imagination for such a conception, for their experience had always been to the contrary. It is not surprising, therefore, that when the solitary horseman boldly entered the pavilion and tied up his horse, and sat there, he received a mandate from the warders to leave the place at once. Their monarch was coming, and the pavilion was not an inn in which every wayfarer could lay him down and rest. Raiga Kțishņa, whose passion for such interesting situations kept them in ignorance of his personality, proposed that, after resting a little, he would proceed. He was about to be subjected to further indignity, when the army reached the place and, on seeing him, prostrated themselves and performed homage. The warders at once found out the position of their antagonist and the seriousness of their mistake, and expected a summary sentence of death; but the nobility of Ranga Křishņa dispelled their fears, extolled their sense of duty, and rewarded their merit with the hereditary enjoyment of certain lands! On reaching Tinnevelly, the chronicle continues, the king commanded the viceroy's son to organize a procession as usual, assuring him that it was his curiosity, not the desire to
> Even now near Tinnevelly, about 2 or 3 miles off, is a village named Tiruvêngada Nathapuram, which was probably the residence of the viceroy.