A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c12.25

c12.25

Pāri, the lifelong friend and patron of Kapilar, was another vēl chieftain also noted for heroism and generosity. His principality lay in the Pāndya country round the hillock known as Koḍungunram or Pirānmalai. The fame of Pāri’s liberality was echoed in a later age in the Śaiva saint Sundaramūrti’s lament: ‘There is no one ready to give, even if an illiberal patron is exalted in song to the level of Pāri.’ Pāri’s country is said to have comprised three hundred villages round the fortified hill at the centre. The fertility of the land, the strength of the fortress on the hill, and the ruler’s liberality are praised in many charming poems, not only by Kapilar. Kapilar stood by Pāri through thick and thin when his hillock was closely invested by the three crowned kings of the Tamil land. Kapilar’s intelligence went far to aid Pāri’s heroism in prolonging the resistance; for instance, several other poets say that Kapilar trained a large number of birds (parrots according to one) to fly out from Pāri’s beleaguered fortress into the open country behind the enemy's lines and bring in corn to feed the city and the army for several months! But the inevitable end came, and in a short poem Pāri's two daughters thus bewailed the occurrence: 'In those days we enjoyed the moonlight happily with father, and our enemies could not take our hill. Now, this day, in this bright moonlight, kings with victorious war-drums have captured the hill, and we have lost our father.' The reference to the victorious drum is ironical as Pāri was not killed in open fight but by treachery.