The Colas c33.33

c33.33

The career of one of the Caturānana Paṇḍitas⁷⁰ of the Tiruvoṟṟiyūr *maṭha* is rather fully described in an inscription of the time of Kannaradēva, and deserves to be noticed in some detail as affording an interesting and authentic instance of the kind of motives that sent people into a life of ascetic renunciation. Born of a family of local chieftains in Kērala, Valabha who resembled Guha and was possessed of many great qualities, mastered all the arts and sciences in his boyhood and, in the prime of life, bent on service to the world, he reached the Cōḷa country and came to be closely associated with king Rājāditya as his *sāmanta* and affectionate friend.⁷¹ As, owing to other pre-occupations he did not have the pleasure of fighting and dying along with his friend on the battle-field, he smarted that his life was not in keeping with his birth and connections, and became indifferent to the things of the world. Then he bathed in the Ganges, and turned ascetic at Tiruvoṟṟiyūr, obtaining his *vratas* from Nirañjana guru and becoming a Mahāvratin, Caturānana by name, and head of the local *maṭha*. The inscription which gives this account is dated in the twentieth year of 'Kannaradēva who took Kacci and Tañjai' about a.d. 960, when he had made himself master of the northern districts of the Cōḷa kingdom as a result of his invasion.