Vandiyathevan had spent all his life thus far in the arid lands north of the Palar river. He did not know how to swim in the river’s floodwaters. Once, when he was serving as a border guard on the northern bank of the Pennai, he descended into the river to bathe. He was caught in a great whirlpool. That treacherous, perilous vortex spun him round and round, tormenting him. At the same time, it pulled him downward. Soon, all of Vandiyathevan’s strength was drained by the swirling waters. “Now there is no escape; I must drown and die in this whirlpool!” he thought in despair. At that very moment, by some divine intervention, he was cast out of the river’s grasp. The floodwaters carried him to the shore and saved him!

That night, when Vandiyathevan lay down to sleep again, he felt the same sensation as when he had struggled in the river’s whirlpool. It seemed to him that he had fallen, against his will, into the swirling eddies of a great royal conspiracy. Would he be able to escape from this whirlpool of intrigue as he had from the river’s vortex? Would the gods save him once more?

The things he had learned that night from the midnight gathering in the Kadambur palace had left him utterly bewildered. Only a few years had passed since the external troubles that plagued the vast Chola Empire had been quelled. The young prince Aditya Karikalan was a mighty hero, an expert in the arts of war; in statecraft, a Chanakya. By using his intelligence and the full might of the Chola armies, he had utterly destroyed the power of the twin-kingdom Krishna ruler in the Thondai region. The external threat was, for the most part, eliminated. In this situation, internal strife and conspiracy had begun to rear their heads. What would be the outcome of this internal danger, more perilous than any external foe?

Were not the renowned warriors, ministers, leaders, and officers of the Chola land themselves involved in this dreadful undertaking? What kind of men were the Pazhuvettaraiyars and his brother? What was their power? Their influence? And the others who had gathered here today—how much fame, prestige, and valor did they possess? Was this the first such gathering? How many more times would the Pazhuvettaraiyar, carrying Madurantaka in a closed palanquin, orchestrate such schemes? Where could he have taken them? Ah! How advantageous it has been for him, in this treacherous endeavor, to have married a young woman in his old age!

Until now, Vandiyathevan had never harbored the slightest doubt in his mind that Prince Aditya Karikalan was the rightful heir to the Chola throne. Not even in his dreams had he imagined that a rival might arise. He had heard of Madurantakan, the son of Kandaradithar. He knew that, like his father, the son too was a wealthy devotee of Shiva. But he had never heard that Madurantakan had any claim to the kingdom, nor that he