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The Followers of the Ever Growing One
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on the estuary of the Kāvēri, are leading a happy life together until the day when Kõvalan falls in love with Mātavi, a charming courtesan, and spends all his fortune in her company. However a slight feeling of mutual doubt steals over the one and the other and Kõvalan with terror realises the gravity of his fault. He returns to Kannaki who had borne all with patience and he decides to go to Madurai to earn his living. Kannaki insists on accompanying him. They depart at night, unobserved. All they possess is the pair of anklets belonging to Kannaki. In the course of their wearisome and perilous journey on foot they encounter Kavunti Atikal, a Jaina ascetic who accompanies them along the way. At Madurai Kõvalan offers one of the anklets to the court goldsmith who promises him a good price. But this same goldsmith, who has previously stolen, one of the queen's anklets, hastens to find the king and denounces to him Kövalan as being the guilty party. The king, seeking no further information, has Kõvalan executed. Kannaki, despite her unspeakable grief, repairs to the king with her second anklet and breaks it, proving thus the innocence of her husband, for this anklet contained precious stones, whereas that of the queen contained pearls. The Pāndya king is so profoundly moved by the enormity of his mistake that he dies of grief. Kaņnaki, desirous that justice may be fully done to Kõvalan, tears her left breast from her bosom and flings it over Madurai, cursing the city the while and praying that it be destroyed by Agni, the god of fire. This latter consents to act in accordance with this curse and consumes all except the just (those who follow the dharma), virtuous women, children and animals. At this point the goddess of the city and of the royal family, Maturāpati, appears to Kannaki in the midst of the flames and explains to her way Kõvalan, on account of a fault committed in a previous life, has been thus unjustly executed. She predicts, moreover, that after a short period Kõvalan will invite her to rejoin him in heaven. Thereafter the heroic Kaņnaki was proclaimed goddess of Chastity.
Let us now return to the moment in the story when Kavunti Aţika! appears and let us follow her through the various stages during which
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