1838.] Account of Tanj ore. 503 



ners to carry him. Choka Natha of Madura sent an embassy to demand 

 a wife of the family of Vjjaya Raghava, which was refused, in anger : 

 and the reason stated to be, that a Tanjore princess married to Tiru- 

 mala Savuri, from a simple preference given to her father's town, so 

 hurt the pride of Tirumala Nayak that he put her to death ; and the 

 Tanjore family then made a vow never in future to give a wife to the 

 Madura rulers. The messengers were contemptuously treated. A war 

 was the consequence. It interrupted Vijaya Raghava's visits to Sri- 

 rangham ; but he built a lofty hall in Tanjore ; and there, with his face 

 towards Sri-rangham, performed his daily ceremonies. The war pro- 

 ceeded to the disadvantage of Vijaya Raghava, because of certain 

 incantations, with pumpkins, performed by a brahman, at the request 

 of the Trichinopoly king. When the fort of Tanjore was assaulted, 

 Vijaya Raghava made preparations for the combustion of the fe- 

 males of his palace, lest they should fall into the possession of the adver- 

 sary. That combustion took place ; but not until the crowned queen 

 had sent off a nurse with a young child, four years of age. Vijaya 

 Raghava became reconciled to his son Manara ; and the latter fell 

 in a personal contest, hand to hand, with the commander of Choka 

 Natha's troops. The ruler Vijaya Raghava personally engaged in 

 the contest, and is stated to have requested that musketeer's might not 

 fire on him ; as, if he so died, he could not obtain beatitude. He was 

 killed (as he* preferred) by the sword. An apparition of himself fully 

 attended as usual, came to the gates of Sri-rangham, and demanded 

 entrance, which was conceded ; under an idea that he might have made 

 peace with the ruler of Trichinopoly . After the usual ceremonies had 

 taken place, nothing more was seen of him, and the circumstance being 

 reported to Choka Natha the king, he observed, that it was because 

 of his being a very great devotee of the god. He gave prompt orders 

 by post for the performance of all funeral ceremonies to the bodies of 

 the deceased; and then assumed the whole of the country. He con- 

 fided the charge of it to Alagiri, the child of the nurse, by whom he 

 himself had been reared, being his foster brother. Meantime the nurse 

 that had fled with the child of Vijaya Raghava remained at Nega- 

 patam ; the child passing as her own, till it was twelve years of age ; 

 when Vencana a Niyogi brahman, a Rayasam or secretary of Ra- 

 ghava, heard of the matter, and went thither to see the child. In the 

 course of twelve months he assembled about a hundred dependents of 

 the late Vijaya Raghava ; and, taking the nurse and child, proceed- 

 ed with these, and those dependents, to the Visapur padshah where 

 they met with a favorable reception, and a promise of aid ; being, how- 

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