A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c12.19

c12.19

The other son of Ādan was Śenguṭṭuvan, ‘the Righteous Kuṭṭuva’ (c. 180), celebrated in song by Paraṇar, one of the most famous and longest-lived of the poets of the Śangam age. Śenguṭṭuvan’s life and achievements have been embellished by legends of a later time of which there are no traces in the two strictly contemporary poems, both by Paraṇar—the decad on the king in the ‘Ten Tens’, and a song in the Puranāṉūṟu. The only martial achievement they celebrate is a victorious war against the chieftain of Mōhūr. Paraṇar also says that Śenguṭṭuvan exerted himself greatly on the sea, but gives no details. He was given a title for driving back the sea, and this is taken to mean that he destroyed the efficiency of the sea as a protection to his enemies who relied on it. If this is correct he must have maintained a fleet. For the rest, we only learn that he was a skilled rider on horse and elephant, wore a garland of seven crowns as adhirāja, and was adept in besieging fortresses, besides being a great warrior and a liberal patron of the arts.