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Study of Civakocintamani
(It was like the happiness of the red-faced monkeys who were the relatives of the monkey who found on the ground the ornaments of Citai, the wife of brave Irāman, when she was abducted by the strong-handed arakkan (rākşasa)].
in the above lines, the happiness of the relatives of the ferunan (the bard), who received presents from the Cola king Ceruppaliyerinta-Ilancēcel ni, is compared to that of the relatives of the monkey who found the ornaments which were dropped by Sita when she was taken by Rāvana.
Allusions of this kind to Sanskrit itibāsa stories and to the puranic stories began to proliferate in works like the Paripāțal and the Kalittokai which belong to the later Cankaw period.
As we have already seen, the post-Cankam period was marked by the everincreasing popularity of Sanskrit works in Tamil land. There are references to Sanskrit stories in the Cilappatikāram, the first Tamil epic, though such references are con. paratively fewer than in the Cc. For example :
pillai nakulam perum piritāka elliya manaiyől ninaintu pin cella vata ticaip peyarum mā maraiyalan kațavatancu nin kaitt ūn valkkai vatamoli vūcakam ceyta nıli ēļu kațānari mäntar kai ni kotukkena .. .. .. .. .. .. 1
(A brāhmaṇa, who abandoned his wife because she caused the death of a mongoose (which they were bringing up), started going north. When the wife he had spurned followed him, he said that it was not proper for him to eat food from her hands. He gave her a note containing a Sanskrit verse and asked her to hand it over to people who led a virtuous life.)
This stanza is narrated by the character Māļalan to Kõvalan, in order to praise the noble qualities of Kovalan. The husband of the brahmin lady who had killed the mongoose left her and started going north. Before he left he handed over a note containing a Sanskrit phrase (vatamoli vācakam) and asked her to give that to people who could understand it. She also went round with the note in her hand and met Kovalan. He consoled her and took the note from her. He gave gifts (dana), the merits of which would destroy her sins. He fetched her husband back and gave them enough wealth to maintain them for the rest of their lives. Matalan narrates this incident to praise Kovalan. In this narration the phrase "vatamoli vācakam '8 refers 1 Cilappatikaram, Ațajkkalakkatai, lines 54-59. 2 Here, going north means going to have a holy bath in the Ganges. 3 In the Pancatantra written by Vişnusarma, there is no mention of the brahmin proceeding towards
the north and his wife following him. We do not know whether this sequence is found in any other version of the story. We have also checked this story in the Pañcatantra, a Collection of Ancient Hindu tates in the recension, called Pañcākhyānaka, and dated A.D. 1199 of the Jaina Monk, Purnabhadra critically edited in the original Sanskrit by Johannes Hertel, Harvard Oriental series, Vol. 11, 1903. In this book we cannot find this particular incident narrated,
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