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JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [VOL. XIV. 



Karikala's own poet, Vennik Kuyattiyar,* commemorating 

 the same battle, sang : — 



descendant of that warrior who, sailing his warship on the broad 

 ocean, when becalmed, compelled the god of the winds to fill the sails ! 

 O, Karikala, lord of mighty elephants, victorious in battle! Is he, who, 

 when defeated at Vennil, fled to the North, at all your equal ? 



Seralatan came back to his kingdom and lived to fight 

 Karikala's son and successor, Perunat Killi ; f but this time 

 the battle was disastrous, for both the princes met their 

 death in the battle field. 



The poet Paranar bemoaned this event : — { 



Many an elephant, struck by arrows, has fallen, to fight no more ; 

 famous horses with their brave riders lie dead ; warriors who came 

 riding in great chariots have all fallen with their shields covering their 

 faces ; war-drums have ceased to sound, as no drummer is now alive. 

 Alas ! two kings pierced by arrows have lost their lives. Sunk in 

 sorrow are those who people their fair lands. 



After the death § of Seralatan, his widowed queen, Sonai, 

 was taken to the Ganges by her son Senkuttuvan,|| but 

 whether she returned with him to Vanji after this pilgrim- 

 age or spent her days on the banks of the Ganges, as is not 

 unusual with Hindu widows, it is not possible to say. 



Seralatan had two sons, Senkuttuvan, who succeeded him 

 on the throne of the Cheras, and Ilankoadikal, who renounced 

 the world, resided at Kunavayil — a town east of Vanji — and 

 wrote the celebrated poem Chilappatikaram. 



Senkuttuvan married Venmal, but whose daughter she 

 was I have not been able to ascertain. After be ascended 

 the throne he went, as already stated, with his mother on a 

 pilgrimage to the Ganges, of which journey nothing is 

 known. But he went again several years afterwards to 

 Northern India, this time on a tour of conquest, of which some 



* Puranaruiru, Odes 65, 66. 



t He is called Velpahradakkaip, Perunatkilli, and Peruviratkilli. 

 I Purananuru, Ode 63. 



§ Kalattalaiyar has also left a poem on Seralatan's death. 

 || Katcikkatai, Chilappatikaram. 



