Until now, Sundara Chozhar had spoken as though he were telling the story of some third person, someone else entirely. But now, he began to recount it as an episode from his own life:

“My dearest daughter! Today, I am about to tell you something that a father would not ordinarily share with his daughter. I am about to reveal to you a secret I have never confided to anyone else. In this whole world, only my friend Aniruddhan knows of it; even he does not know it in its entirety. He does not know the turmoil raging in my heart at this moment. But to you, I shall tell everything. Someone in our family must know the truth. I cannot tell your mother. For some time now, I have felt that I must tell you, and you alone. Today, the opportunity has come. You will not mock my condition; you will try to heal the wound in my heart; you will help me fulfill my wish! With this faith, I speak to you…

“From that island, I boarded a ship and set sail, reaching Kodikkarai. I learned that my grandfather, Paranthaka Chakravarthi, was staying here in the Tanjore palace at that time, and so I came straight here.

“When I arrived in Tanjore, Paranthaka Chakravarthi was awaiting death. His heart was heavy with sorrow. The great empire he had built over forty years was now falling into disarray. Rajaditya, who should have succeeded him, had fallen in the battle of Takkolam. My father, Arinjaya, who had been grievously wounded in that same battlefield, was hovering between life and death. The armies of Kannara Devan had seized the Thondai region and were advancing further. In the south, the Pandyas were rising up again. In Lanka, the Chola forces had been defeated and had returned. In many battlefields, the bravest of Chola warriors had laid down their lives. All these tidings came together to pierce the heart of the aged Paranthaka Chakravarthi, plunging him into a sea of sorrow.

“In this state, when he saw me, his face brightened. From the days of my childhood, my grandfather had cherished a deep affection for me. He kept me with him in the palace for many years, never letting me go anywhere. It was only after much insistence that I obtained his leave to go to Eezha Nadu. When he learned that I was not among those who had returned from there, his… My grandfather’s heart was broken. Not knowing whether I was alive or dead, he kept sending groups of men, one after another, to search for me.

“At last, one such group found me. When I finally reached Thanjai, a small measure of peace returned to his wounded heart. In the twilight of his life, as the Chola Empire was descending into decline, a hope somehow took root in his mind that it would rise to greatness again through me. The astrologers had fostered that hope within him. As if to