“Akka! Do you remember when I nearly drowned in the Kaveri floods at the age of five? Do you recall how Mother Kaveri saved me, lifted me up, placed me in a boat, and then vanished?” asked Arulmozhi Varman.

“What sort of question is that, thambi! How could I ever forget? Isn’t that very incident the reason you are called ‘Ponniyin Selvan’?” replied Kundavai.

“I saw the very Mother Kaveri who saved me in Lanka, akka!… What is this, you are silent? Are you not surprised?”

“I am not surprised, thambi. But I am filled with curiosity. Tell me everything about her!”

“I cannot tell it all in a single day, in one sitting. Let me tell you only the most important part. It was not only from the Kaveri flood that she saved me; in Lanka, she has saved my life many times. But saving my life is not the greatest thing, akka! Many people, by chance, save the lives of others. But the love she has for me—no world in all these fourteen realms can equal it… In fact, even the love you have for me, I must place only next to hers!”

“You need not hesitate to say that. My love for you is not so lofty; it is tinged with self-interest. I speak the truth, thambi! The greatness of this Chola Empire is what matters most to me. My affection for you is because you are of use to that cause. If ever I thought you would become an obstacle to that aim, my love could even turn to hatred. But the love of that mute and deaf woman is not like that. For over twenty years, the love that overflowed in her heart for our father she has now poured entirely upon you. No, not even the fourteen worlds can equal that!”

“How do you know this, akka?”

“What are you referring to, thambi?”

“That she is our Periya Thaayar—our elder mother?” “From what Father said, and from what Vandiyathevan told me, I have tried to guess, my brother! Does she think of you as her own son? Or as the son of the concubine?”

“Such a distinction has never arisen in my mind; nor do I see even a trace of it in hers. Why do you speak as if there is such a difference?”

“Brother, our mother sits upon the throne where that mute woman ought to have been seated. Even knowing this, if she still shows you such affection, is that not something remarkable?”

“She must surely know that I was not born of her womb. Can the difference in age go unnoticed? She cannot speak; she cannot express what is in her heart. Whatever I could understand from the signs and drawings she made, I have understood. Let her love for me be as it is; but when I think of the love she must have had for our father, my heart melts at once. Akka! Was our father like me at my age?”

“No, brother, no! At your age, our father shone with a beauty that could defeat Manmatha himself. Our Chola clan is famed for its valor, but not for its beauty. Our grandfather, Arinjaya Devar, married Kalyani, who was born into the Vaidhumba royal line, famed for their incomparable beauty. When Arinjaya married Kalyani, she was a celestial enchantress, with skin like new gold and a face like the full moon. Even now, after all these years, you have seen for yourself how beautiful our grandmother Kalyani still is. Because of that, our father too was endowed with such beauty. He earned the title ‘Sundara Chozhar’—the Handsome Chola. We, on the other hand, are born of our mother. The lineage of Thirukovalur Malayaman despises beauty; they consider beauty an enemy to valor…”

“I do not know what connection there may be between beauty and valor. But I do know that there is no connection between beauty and love. Otherwise…”

“Otherwise, why does this girl Vanathi gaze at you from behind the pillar without blinking? And look there—why does Sendhan Amudhan in that boat stare at Poonguzhali, utterly entranced?”

The prince smiled and said, “Akka! You have wandered far from where we began! I was speaking of the affection my elder mother has for me. Let that be; in this world, it is rare indeed for one person to be the exact image of another—” “Is it possible, Akka?”

“Why wouldn’t it be possible? If they were twins, that would explain it. Or sometimes, a mother and daughter can look exactly alike at a certain age. Beyond that, in this vast creation of Brahma, it happens on rare occasions that two people who have no connection whatsoever resemble each other exactly.”

“Could what Vandiyathevan says be true—that the younger queen of Pazhuvoor and our Periyamma whom I saw in Lanka look exactly alike? I saw Nandini only when she was a little girl. After she became the younger queen of Pazhuvoor, I haven’t seen her properly. What do you think?”

“I have seen the queen of Pazhuvoor, but I have never seen our Periyamma. Still, what Vandiyathevan says must be true. I learned it from the history our father told me, Thambi!”

“Father himself told you? What did he say? When did he tell you?”

“A few days ago, Vanathi and I went to Thanjavur. At that time, he told us about an incident from his youth. He spoke of how he was once left alone on an island near Lanka, and of the affection shown to him by a mute woman on that island. He told us how the men sent by Paranthaka found him there and brought him back. On the day he was crowned prince, he saw her in the crowd standing at the palace gates. The next moment, she had vanished. He sent even the chief minister Aniruddha to search for her and bring her back. But Aniruddha returned and said that the woman had