Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c9.668

c9.668

In olden days the royal family of the Pāṇḍyas divided itself into two branches, one of them settling down at Velliyūr and the other at Madura. When the king of Madura one day went ahunting in the forest he met a handsome and very powerful and courageous Malayāli youth. The king immediately took a liking for him and appointed him as an officer in his army. The youth gradually rose up in military service to become the Commander-in-Chief. The other officers, who were jealous due to the rise of the youth—Ayyappan—began conspiring to drive him out. The queen became a weapon in the hands of the conspirators, and at their instance she pretended herself to be very ill and lay in a fainting fit. All the physicians acknowledged defeat in curing her. Then a physician, an agent of the conspirators, came forward and assured the king that he would cure the queen of her illness within one and a half hours if a leopard's milk was made available. The king told Ayyappan about it.