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



Tamil Rdmdyana was published. It is therefore clear that 

 the reference in the poem is to the first Gaja Balm. 



We may therefore safely conclude that Chilappatikdram, 

 like Chintdmani, was written certainly more than eighteen 

 centuries ago. 



3. — The Subject-matter of the Poem. 



Let me now pass on to the subject treated in this poem. 



On the eastern coast of Southern India, where the Kaveri 

 meets the Indian Ocean, was situate Pukar, alias Kaverip- 

 pumpattinam, the " City of Flowers," beloved of King Kari- 

 kalan. In this city lived two merchant princes, Maha- 

 sattuvan and Manayakkan. 



It was arranged between these two that Kovalan, the son 

 of the former, should be married to Kannakai, the daughter 

 of the latter. The marriage was celebrated with the pomp 

 and ceremony befitting the wealth and rank of the parents ; 

 and the bridegroom of sixteen and the bride of twelve 

 lived together happily for some years in a house built for 

 them by Kovalan's mother.* Kovalan unfortunately fell 

 into the toils of a danseuse, Madavi by name, deserted his 

 home and wife, and spent some years with her, losing all his 

 immense fortune. Repenting eventually, he returned to 

 his lonely wife and proposed that they should travel to 

 Madura, the capital of the Pandiyas, and sell Kannakai's price- 

 less anklets, and with the proceeds thereof retrieve their lost 

 fortune by trade. The faithful wife, always obedient, agreed, 

 and after several adventures in the course of a journey of 

 many days they reached Madura. Leaving his wife in the 

 house of a shepherdess, Kovalan paced the streets of Madura 

 with the view of selling one of her anklets. He met a gold- 

 smith and showed him the anklet, and the goldsmith, who 

 was a thief of the first water, and who was already under 

 suspicion of having stolen an anklet belonging to the queen 



* Note here the custom of young married people quitting their parents' 

 houses soon after marriage and living by themselves — a custom which 

 among us Tamils has now fallen into disuse, 



