360 THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY. [Decembeb 1873. ed together until the first watch of the night had passed away. At that time, according to previous arrangement, the councillor came, and when he knocked at the door the kotwdl asked the girl who it was, and was very much frightened to hear it was the king’s councillor, and asked where he could hide himself. She then smeared him all over with molasses, and poured water on him, and covered the whole of his body with cotton wool and fastened him in the window. After that the councillor came in and sat down and began to talk, and she gave him some milk and water, and so the second watch of the night passed. After that the king’s prime minister came and knocked at the door, and the councillor asked the girl who it was, and when she told him, he was exceedingly alarmed and asked where he could hide. She told him she had placed the kot wdl in the window and covered him with cotton wool, and made a fright¬ ful object of him ; and then she covered the coun¬ cillor with a mat and opened the door to the prime minister. He came into the house and sat down on the stool, and, as before, the girl talked with him, and so the third watch of the night passed away. Then the king himself came and knocked at the door, and the prime minister inquired who it was, and as soon as he heard he was very much fright¬ ened and asked where he could hide, as ho was in danger of his life : so the girl took him near the frightful-looking kotwdl and put him under a Bcrcen of bamboo, and then opened the door to the king. The king came in and talked to the girl, and meantime the councillor from beneath his mat, and the prime minister from behind his screen, seeing the hideous form of the kotwdl, be¬ came excessively frightened. Just at that moment the king happened to be looking round on every side of the house, and seeing the kotwdl he said,
- What is that fastened there P” the girl replied:
- Oh,there is a youngR&kshasa tied there.” As soon
as the kotwdl heard that, he leaped out, and the king seeing him thoaght, “ He will eat methe councillor thought, '* He will eat me the prime minister thought, “He will eat meso they all, one after the other, ran away to their own houses, and the kotwdl also went to his house. When the king reached his palace, he ordered his generals and army to go to the house of the garland-maker and destroy the young R&kshasa: so they went and surrounded the house, but when the girl heard of it she said, “ It is only a tame young R&kshasa, and perfectly harmlessso the generals and army went away again. After that the king fetched his son from the house of the garland-maker, and seeing that he was still mad he was very much disturbed at it, and asked him what was the matter, but he merely replied, “This is where it was; give it me.” As soon as he said “ Give it me,” the girl put the touchstone into his hands, and directly he received it he became well and anointed him¬ self with oil, and bathed and drank some shei'bat. After two days he was quite recovered, and the girl told him the whole story of the loss and recovery of the touchstone and sent him away with it to his own house : so he gave the touch¬ stone to his father, and his father gave it to the priest; and the prince put his first wife and the ko wdl to death, and took PrAnn&sini to his house with great splendour, and the king gave his king¬ dom to his son, and himself went to live as a hermit in the woods. After some time the five brothers of Pr&nn&sini came to the kingdom to search for their sister, and the king seized them, and, after having punished them well, made them promise not to live by robbery any longer, and gavo them some money and sent them away, and he himself governed his kingdom in peace for the rest of his life. INSCRIPTIONS IN THE PAGODAS OP TZEtUKURANGUDI, IN TINNEVELLI; AND OP SUCHtNDRAM, IN SOUTH TRAVANCORE. BY HIS HIGHNESS RAMA VARMA, FIRST PRINCE OF TRAVANCORE. The following is an inscription in the Tamil Grantha character on a large bell, about three feet in diameter at the base, which hangs in the centre of the eastern colonnade of the large Vaishnava Pagoda at Tirukurangudi:—
The above may be translated thus:—“ In the year Bhavati (644) of the Kolamba era, king Adityavarma, the ruler of V a n c h 1, bom in Visdkha,* who is a string of gems of virtues, and a master of all arts (kald), who adorns the Jayasinha dynasty, and who has at¬ tained the sovereignty ofChiravaya Manda- lam (kingdom), hung up the bell which adorns the gate of Murari (Vishnu) enshrined in the Srikuranga (Tirukurangudi) temple.”
- The 16th asterism in tho Hindu calendar.
