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		"I am a servitor of the servitors of Kazhal Singkar,
		The Kaatava king and lord who fosters
		The whole world bounded by the sea."
		
					- The Tiru-th-Tonda-th-Tokai.

1. 	He hailed from the hoary Pallava dynasty famed
	In this world; he reckoned not aught save the roseate
	And redemptive and flower-feet of the Lord in whose
	Matted hair the Ganga flows, and who, of yore,
	Smote the triple hostile cities; the king was endowed
	With an immense army that flaunted a victorious flag;
	He was called Kokkazhal Singkar -- the emperor.		(4096)

2. 	Kazhal Singkar, the scion of the Kaatava dynasty,
	By the grace of the Lord who wields the auric mountain
	As his bow, waged a war, destroyed his foes,
	Captured the northern realms and fostered
	His country establishing it in the way of dharma;
	Thus he flourished fostering piety.			(4097)

3. 	He made a holy pilgrimage to all the shrines of Lord Hara
	On this earth, did his worship poised unswervingly
	In love and devotion and performed true and fitting
	Service; he came to Tiruvaaroor in the south, verily a city
	Of Siva, and moved into the temple to adore the Lord, the Snapper
	And Redeemer of the cycle of transmigration.		(4098)

4. 	When the king of the great army that marches on
	To the beat of drums, with his fivefold officials,
	Was adoring the Lord of the Ant-Hill in the shrine
	Of the Merciful One, his peerless wife of soft hair
	Decked with fragrant flowers, his queen-consort,
	The lofty one among his wives, came to the temple.	(4099)



5. 	The queen who in her mien was very like a peafowl,
	Came round the temple, beheld each one of its glories,
	Moved on and came near the mantapam where soft flowers
	Were woven into wreaths; there she picked up a fresh flower
	That had just then fallen, and inhaled its fragrance.	(4100)

6. 	As she was so inhaling, the holy servitor Serutthunai
	Thought thus: “Ha, she has inhaled a flower
	Taking it from the mantapam (where garlands
	Are being woven).” He ran in all haste, secured a weapon
	Pulled the nose of the Lakshmi-like one who smelt
	The honey-laden flower, and cut it away.		(4101)

7. 	As blood gushed forth from her nose thus cut away,
	With her flower-decked koontal cascading down,
	She, the queen-consort, trembling like a peafowl
	Endowed with a tokai, fell down wilted, on the ground,
	And lamented aloud; the king who was adoring the great
	And perfect effulgence at the splendorous
	And golden Ant-Hill, came thither.			(4102)

8. 	The king that came thither, beholding his wilting
	And sorrowing and lamenting queen who was like
	Unto a fallen flowery twig severed from the fragrant
	And verdurous and blooming Karpaka, questioned thus:
	“Who on this planet of earth
	Durst do this cruel deed undauntedly?”			(4103)

9.	When he questioned thus, Serutthunaiyaar,
	The servitor, came near him and narrated to him
	The events as they took place; then the king
	Addressing him said: “For this, the punishment
	Meted out ought to be condign.”				(4104)

10. 	This said, he unleashed his sword from its scabbard
	With which his waist was girt, and saying:
	“It is but proper that the hand which first
	Touched the fragrant flower and picked it up
	Should be first chopped,” cut of with bangles and all,
	The roseate hand of his queen-consort
	Of fragrant locks, his own beloved wife.		(4105)

11. 	When he thus cut off with his sword the roseate hand
	Of his peerless queen, the loud resounding
	Of “Hara, Hara!” by the servitors, rose over the earth
	And merging with the uproar of the celestials
	Throughout the heavens, increased in volume;
	There was then and there a shower
	Of divinely fragrant Karpaka flowers.			(4106)

12. 	The king that performed this rare deed of service, ruled
	For many years, poised in privileged servitorship,
	And by the glorious and aeviternal grace
	Of the Lord unknown to Vishnu and Brahma,
	Reached the umbrage of His roseate
	And redemptive feet, and thus gained
	The great grace which is ever-during bliss.		(4107)

13. 	Hailing and adoring the ankleted feet of Singkar
	Who, even as the world witnessed it, severed away
	The roseate hand of his great and beloved queen,
	We proceed to narrate the servitorship of the devotee
	Blessed with true grace, and hailed
	As Idangkazhiyaar-- the gloriously great devotee.	(4108)

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NOTES

Verse No.

	The passage pertaining to this king and occurring in the Tirutthonda-th-Thokai 
	makes it clear that this king was a contemporary of St. Sundarar.

   3.	Verily a city of Siva.  Sivapuri.

   5.	The queen: Some opine that she was a Samana.  The foot-note appended to 
	this verse by Sivakkavimani C.K. Subramania Mudaliyaar is as follows: “Her 
	name is Cangka.  She was a great beauty.  She was like unto a mother to the 
	subjects.  She looked as though that she was the king’s fortune in human 
	form.  She was the daughter of Amokavarsha Nrupatungka.  As she was the 
	queen-consort, she too visited the shrines of Siva.

		“As she was a Samana she did not choose to adore Siva.  She was 
	drawn by the beauty of the shrine and she moved on sipping its beauty.  The 
	king married her for political reasons.  Such are the dicta of historians.”

   6.	St. Sekkizhaar says that this queen was Lakshmi-like.

   7.	tokai: It means fan-tail.

   9.	A Naayanaar prompted by Grace, on occasions, does things which are apparently 
	violent.  Having committed an act of violence, he does not steal away from the 
	place of occurrence.  He is always ready to confront the consequences.  Cf. The 
	Puranam of Yeri Paathar.

  10.	The king feels that the punishment meted out was not condign.  So too felt 
	Pukazh-ch-Chozha Naayanaar.

  11.	The act of the king was a purifying act.  It was sin-removing operation.

  12.	The king: It was this king who built the famous temple in Kaanchipuram.  Siva bade 
	him (in a dream) to postpone the day of its consecration as He was to enter the 
	mental shrine of St. Poosalaar that day.  Lovers of sculpture hail the shrine of 
	this king as a poem in sand-stone.


			Here ends the Puranam of Kazhal Singka Naayanaar.

Sincere thanks to Sri. T N Ramachandran of thanjavur, for permitting his English rendering of the holy text periyapurANam be published here.