Book 01 - Chapter 04: The Grandfather and the Granddaughter

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.

Previous

Next

Click here for the audiobook version
Parthban Kanavu: The Tamil version of the novel is in the public domain. Copyright for the translation is reserved by the translator..