The audiobook version is posted
here.
Ponnan and Valli arrived
at a house in the Metalworkers’ (Kammala) street. The front door was
closed.
Valli called out
“Grandpa!”. The door opened after a while. The old man, who opened the door
greeted the visitors, “Valli, welcome home! Come on in, grandson-in-law!”. And then
called out, “Old woman, see who is here!”
An old lady emerged,
asking “who is here?”. Her face broke into a toothless grin when she saw Ponnan
and Valli. She hugged Valli with the inquiry “How have you both been?”.
Ponnan said, “Grandpa, I
have safely got your granddaughter to you. I’m going out for a while.”
“But you have just
arrived, where are you going already?”
“I’m going to see the
king.”
The old man said, “But
the king is not in the palace. Come here, I will show you.” He led them to the
open courtyard. Everyone looked in the direction he pointed to. They could see
the lamps lit in the Ganesh temple on the Chirappalli hill. Some people
were climbing down with torches. After a steady climb down, the torches stopped
and stayed stationary.
“Why have they stopped?
What are they looking at?”, asked Valli.
The old man said, “Emperor Mahendra’s statue is there. It seems that the king is showing the prince the
statue.”
“They are on their way
down grandpa. Let me head to the palace now. I want to see the king tonight”,
said Ponnan, and walked out. The old man accompanied him to the door, and
talked in a whisper, “Ponna, you need to give a confidential message to the
king. Ask him to be careful with Marappa Bhupathi. Tell him this in a private
setting.”
“What about Marappa
Bhupathi?”
“I will tell you later.
Just make sure you tell him this”.
The grandmother went
into the kitchen to start the dinner for the visitors. Valli and her
grandfather sat down in the courtyard.
“Grandpa, what are
these?” Valli pointed and exclaimed. She was pointing to a stack of swords and
spears, which was near the steel furnace.
“These are weapons, of
course. You are not too used to being around these. In olden days…”.
“But what are these
for?”
“What sort of question
is this? The swords are for cutting the enemies down; and the spear is for
pulling out their intestines!”.
“What a horrible
thought! Gives me the shivers”, said Valli.
“Give it a few more
years, and the men of this country will talk like you as well. They will start
asking what swords and spears are for. Valli, did you know what this place
looked like in my grandfather’s days? They were making weapons on a continuous
basis. In every town, the Metalworkers’ street was the busiest. Kings and
princes used to frequent the iron-smiths. All that changed in my father’s time. Iron-smiths started relying on making knives, sickles and wheel axles for a
living. I hadn't even seen swords for a long time. My arms don’t have the
strength that they used to. How I wish this war had come twenty years ago…”
“Not you too! I was
hoping you would talk some sense into my husband. He wants to go to war.”
“Ponnan is not going to
war. His hands are for holding oars. Besides he is too fond of his woman to go
to war.”
“Don’t say that. He
wants to go to war. The king forbade it, and asked him to teach the prince to
swim."
“If only your father and
uncles were alive! I would have given them a sword and a spear each and urged
them to go to war. Should the Gods have taken all of them on the same day?” The
old man sighed.
Valli remembered that
horrible day. The whole family, with the exception of her grandparents was on their way
to attend a wedding across the river. High winds caused the boat to capsize.
Ponnan was on the shore. He jumped in and tried to save the occupants of the
boat. By God’s grace he could save Valli, but she was the only one he could
save.
The old man continued,
“You are the only one to keep the family tree alive. If you’d had a baby, I
would have pushed Ponnan to go to war.”
“What is the war for,
grandpa?”
“It’s for our honor
my child. Can the tiger flag fly lower than the flag with the ox? The war
is to wipe out that ignominy”.
“Whose flag has the ox
symbol”?
“You should know that.
It is the symbol of the Pallavas!”
“You mean that lion
symbol? The messengers were carrying flags with the lion symbol”
“Yes, they changed their
symbol for ox to lion. The ox does not become a lion if it beats the pig.”
“This is all very
confusing to me, grandpa. Can you explain?”
“Let me start from the
beginning”, said the old man. “This happened around the time you were born.
Emperor Mahendra was ruling in Kanchi then. His bravery was widely talked
about. He visited Uraiyur once. His statue on the Chirappalli hill was erected
to commemorate that visit. During that time, the Pulikesi, the Chalukya king marched
south with a large army. It was an ocean of warriors. Emperor Mahendra did not
dare face that army. He retreated into the Kanchi fort. Pulikesi laid siege, lost patience after a while, and started marching further south. He
reached the other side of the Kollidam river. Uraiyur went through the wringer
during that period. Our king, Parthiba Chozha had just ascended the throne at that
time. He was preparing to fight the Chalukyas.
Pulikesi received word
on some crisis back home. He never crossed the Kollidam river. He turned back.
The demon-king and his forces committed countless atrocities at that time. They
pillaged, plundered, and set fire to the villages on their way back.
The reputation of
Emperor Mahendra suffered serious damage as a result. He did not live long
after that episode. Emperor Narasimha Varma succeeded him. He wanted revenge. He wanted to restore the
Pallava reputation. He trained a large army and marched north, defeated
Pulikesi, killed him and burnt the city of Vatapi to the ground. He
changed his symbol from the ox to the lion after that victory. He returned just
a month ago. In all this…”
Valli was listening with
rapt interest, but interrupted with a question at this point. “Why do we have to
fight such an emperor, grandpa?”
“Silly girl! It is …”
They heard hoof-beats. A
horse seemed to stop in front of their house.
Someone called out,
“Veerabadra Achari!”.
“That crook Marappa
Bhupathi is here. He should not see you. Go into the kitchen. I will call you
after I get rid of him!”, said the old man.
