The Pandyan Kingdom from the Earliest Times to the Sixteenth Century c17.24

c17.24

Marco Polo gives some more information of interest about the king and his court. 'This King hath some five hundred wives. . . . The King hath many children'. 'And there are about the King a number of Barons in attendance upon him. These ride with him, and keep always near him, and have great authority in the kingdom; they are called the King's Trusty Lieges. And you must know that when the King dies, and they put him on the fire to burn him, these Lieges cast themselves into the fire round about his body, and suffer themselves to be burnt along with him. For they say they have been his comrades in this world, and that they ought also to keep him company in the other world.' These statements of Marco about the King's Trusty Lieges may, at first sight, appear incredible; but they furnish an excellent commentary on the epigraphical references to *Tennavan Āpattudavigal* (தென்னவன் ஆபத்துதவிகள்) and an institution mentioned in the records of successive Pāndya rulers of this period¹ becomes intelligible only in the light of the evidence furnished by the Venetian traveller.