CRUELTY OF TRIMAL NAIG. 
55 
act of Trimal Naig’s reign. The two architects who 
designed the choultry appear incarcerated in a cell. 
This was actually done., in order that they might not 
erect an edifice elsewhere that should eclipse that 
raised at such a vast expense by the King of Madura. 
To prevent the possibility of this, he had them im- 
mured in a dungeon, the entrance of which was built 
up, and they were thus buried alive. 
In tracing the histories of tyrants, how generally 
do we find that death has been the reward where 
they have been faithfully served ! This act of unpro- 
voked and gratuitous cruelty will ever degrade Trimal 
Naig from ranking with the eminent men of times 
past, notwithstanding his ambitious prodigality and 
selfish munificence. He was an ostentatious but not 
a great Prince ; and the more splendid actions of his 
life descend to posterity sullied by that hue of moral 
infirmity which was reflected upon them from his per- 
sonal vices : so true is the beautiful aphorism of a 
writer* of his own nation — “ The lustre of a virtuous 
character cannot be defaced, nor can the vices of a 
vicious man ever become lucid. A jewel preserves its 
lustre though trodden in the dirt ; but a brass pot, 
though placed upon the head, is brass still.” 
The palace at Madura, which the present ruins 
show to have been once a noble structure, was one of 
the numerous edifices with which Trimal Naig adorn- 
ed his native city, and which suffered considerable in- 
jury during the numerous sieges maintained against 
this capital of a once flourishing empire, between the 
* Vishnoo-Shurma. 
