OR CUTTACK. 231 



and obliged to retire. Overwhelmed with shame and confusion, he now 

 threw himself at the feet of Sri Jeo, and earnestly supplicated his inter- 

 ference to avenge the insult offered to the deity himself in the person of his 

 faithful worshipper. The god promised assistance, says the author of 

 the poem, directed him to assemble another army, and assured him that 

 he would this time take the command of the expedition against Conj eve- 

 ram in person. When the Raja had arrived, during the progress of his 

 inarch, at the site of the village now called Manikpatam, he began to 

 grow anxious for some visible indication of the presence of the deity. In 

 the midst of his cogitations on the subject, a milkmaid or gvvalin named 

 Manika, came up and displayed a ring which she said had been entrusted 

 to her, to present to the monarch of Orissa, by two handsome Cavaliers, 

 mounted the one on a black, and the other on a white horse, who had just 

 passed on to the southward. She also related some particulars of a con- 

 versation* with them which satisfied the Raja that the promise of assistance 

 "would be fulfilled, and that these horsemen were no other than the bro- 

 thers Sri Jeo (Krishna) and Baldeo (Baladeva.) Full of joy and gratitude, 

 he directed the village to be in future called, after his fair informant, Ma- 

 nikpatana, and marched onwards to the Deccan secure of success. On 

 the other hand the chief of Conjeveram, alarmed at the second advance of 

 the Gajapati in great force, appealed for aid to his protecting deity Ganesh, 

 who candidly told him that he had little chance against Jagannath, but 

 would do his best. The siege was now opened and many obstinate and 

 bloody battles were fought under the walls of the fort. The gods Sri 

 Jeo and Ganesh, espousing warmly the cause of their respective votaries, 

 perform many miracles and mix personally in the engagements, much in 

 the style of the Homeric deities before the walls of Troy ; but the latter 

 is always worsted. In reality, after a long struggle, Conjeveram fell before 

 the armies of Orissa. The Raja escaped, but his beautiful daughter was 



* This interview is described at great length in the poem, and the amorous impassioned turn whiclr 

 the dialogue takes between Sri Jeo and the milkmaid, is esteemed one of its chief beauties. 



Jj 



