THE HISTORY OF MANIKKA-VACAGAE. 95 



spread it before the god asking for direction, (^ivan smiled 

 sweetly upon him, and bade him return fearlessly and tell 

 the king that on the ll'th of the month of Avani* the horses 

 which he had been sent to purchase would arrive in Madura. 

 The god also arrayed him in resplendent garments, and 

 gave him a fitting chariot, together with a ruby (hence his 

 name) of inestimable value which he was to present to the 

 king. Accordingly, Manikka-Va^agar returned with the 

 messengers and stood before his former master, who sternly 

 required him to account for his conduct. To this he sub- 

 missively replied as the god had bidden him (though it 

 seems to us to be false !) that the horses had been procured, 

 and were waiting in Perun-Turrai ; but that he had not 

 brought them with him now because the Brahmans had 

 assured him that the 19th of Avani was the propitious day 

 for the transmission of these precious animals to Madura. 

 He also presented the ruby, which filled the king with 

 astonishment and delight, and made him satisfied with the 

 explanation, and caused him to regard the report of the 

 others as a piece of mere envious detraction. So the time 

 passed till there were only two days wanting to the date 

 fixed for the arrival of the horses. And now one of the 

 courtiers who had gained the ear of the king, represented 

 the whole matter in its true light, or rather, as it had appeared 

 to all who had accompanied Manikka-Va^agar : " Your 

 majesty," said he, " is deceived ; your prime minister on the 

 outskirts of the city of Perun-Turrai saw a (^aiva guru of 

 imposing appearance and apparent sanctity, whose disciple he 

 at once became, and to whom he made over the whole of the 

 treasure for the purposes of that sect " ! It would seem that 

 they themselves, though they had seen everything, had no 

 belief in the divinity of the guru ; and it is possible that they 

 themselves were Buddhists, who were rejoiced to have the 

 opportunity of bringing this accusation against the (^aiva 

 Saint. It must be remembered too that it is a fundamental 

 doctrine of the (^aiva system that every guru is in Qaiva eyes 

 an absolute incarnation of the god ; but to these courtiers he 

 was simply a sectarian mendicant. The king now ordered 

 Manilcka-Vaeagar to be thrown into prison till he should 

 restore the treasures he had misappropriated; and this 

 doubtless seems to us to have been but just ; yet the poet 



* The 19tli of Avani (Sept, 4) is a great annual festival-day in com- 

 mem -^ration of this. 



