The Colas c24.5

c24.5

Another much longer *praśasti* of a high literary quality, also of little use for purposes of history, begins with the words *sīr mannu malarmagaḷ*.¹² The state of the country, the personal appearance and the character of its ruler, and the subject races paying tribute to him, are all described in this *praśasti*; but the description is so hyperbolic and conventional that we learn from it more of the ways of court-poets than of the subjects they handle. Two queens are mentioned, the senior, a Bāṇa princess who is said to have shared equal authority with the king and to have been consecrated with him,¹³ and the junior having the title Buvana-muḻuduḍaiyāḷ.