Ig38.] 



Hep or t on the Mackende Manuscripti 



29i 



General Remark. — A brief note has been attached to the abstract of 

 the sections down to No, 6- Thenceforward there was found to be loose 

 sheets of thin, and inferior, country paper ; much injured, at the edges, 

 by insects, and transposed in point of order. Not wishing to let the 

 matter entirely perish, it has been re-copied ; but not without breaks in 

 the sense, where words were eaten away at the edges. Of this latter 

 portion of the book, section 8 alone is of any value ; and that, from its 

 minute particularity in the later period of the Mahratta rule at Tanjore, 

 ought to be translated, as affording historical materials. A MS. book, 

 before adverted to (No. 23 in this report), is more full in anterior de- 

 tails, wherein this one is brief ; and less particular in later matters, 

 wherein this is minute. They also take different sides of the question, 

 which cost Lord Pigot his liberty, government, and life. 



According to the section titles in English (at the beginning of the 

 book) there ought to be a paper on the five tribes of artificers, called from 

 a distance, and located in the Trichinopoly district ; but this document is 

 not now to be found in the book ; and as the sheets are loose, it may 

 liave been lost, at some period subsequent to the first binding. 



Manuscript book, No. 7. — Countemarks 51, 97, 104. 



Section 1. Ter-conda-vcisacam, a narrative of the car-incident. 



This is a brief prose version of the circumstance, otherwise variously 

 recorded, of the son of a Chola king running over a calf Vv^ith the wheels 

 of his car or chariot, in the streets of Tiruvarur ; the appeal of the cow its 

 mother, by ringing the justice alarum bell ; the distress of the J^oung 

 man's father ; the means resorted to, in order to obviate the consequences, 

 of the crime ; and the happy termination of the v/hole by Siva^s accept- 

 ing the offerings, staying the father's hand when about to kill himself, 

 and restoring the young man to life : who on the principle of like for 

 like (or lex talmiis) had been killed by running the wheels of a car over 

 him. The subject forms the matter of a popular drama; and vdsa- 

 cam'' indicates a prose version from the drama. The narrative has al- 

 ready been given in my second report. (Telugu MS. book No. 33, sec- 

 tion I). There are also palm-leaf copies of the present document in the 

 collection. 



Remark. — It is written on country paper, as yet in good preservation 

 The ink is rather pale ; but the writing will continue legible for some 



