Page:Cilappadikaram The Earliest Tamil Epic.pdf/5

has the valour of Achilles; several are the battles he has already won. He has conquered many chieftains and won the battles with the other two great kings of the Tamil country, the Chola and the Pandya, whose seals he is using in token thereof. He has established friendly relations with “ Nuttuvar Kannar” (the Sathakarnis) of the Central Provinces. He has also gone, as far as the Ganges and defied the might of the Northerners. Now, he again goes north and conquers the Aryan kings Visittira, Rudra, Bairava, Chitra, Singha, Sveta etc., and subjugates them. He captures Kanaka and Vijaya, sons of Balakumara (Canto XXVI), and after reaching his own capital, Vanchi, orders that the prisoners be taken to the other two Tamil kingdoms and exhibited before their sovereigns. A vain-glorious deed perhaps! The etiquette of war required that one should not pursue those that were fleeing, one should not capture those that were trying to escape. The Chola and Pandya kings, to whom the captives were shown, remarked that it was rather strange that Senkuttuvan should have made captives of persons fleeing for their lives after putting on the garb of ascetics. The fact was of course that most of those who fled had been spared and only a few who braved and gave battle were captured. The Pandya and the Chola, while apparently insinuating against the Chera king, were only indirectly praising his prowess which enabled him to bring mighty warriors as captives.

To the question whether Cilappadikaram is an oral or written epic, the answer is that it is largely written and only partially oral. A large number of verses in “Kānal vari”, for instance, were probably a part of oral composition already existing, which, sung to the accompaniment of the musical instrument “Yāl ”, was familiar to many. (Cf. Canto VII 1.20 et.seq.). The verses, however, in “Aychiyar kuravai” (XVII) and “Kunra Kuravai” (XXIV) etc. were obviously the poet’s own compositions nd not collections of separate lays already existing.