After sitting for a while as if possessed by a feverish delirium, Madurantakan suddenly sprang to his feet and, turning to Aniruddhar, exclaimed, “Prime Minister! All this is your doing! I knew it even then! You have a special fondness for the children of Sundara Chola, especially for Arulmozhivarman. It is your desire that he should be crowned king. For that purpose, you have spun such lies and deceptions to my mother, poisoning her noble heart! Oh, Brahmarayar, so full of affection! What harm have I ever done to you? Why do you seek to betray me thus? Must I, for the sake of your ambitions, leave my mother childless? Has such a dreadful, sinful plot ever been conceived in this world? You, a Brahmin born in the lineage of Vishnu’s devotees—was it for this you were born? No, no! The fault is not yours. It is the handiwork of the young princess Kundavai and Arulmozhivarman—they have somehow ensnared you and made you commit this crime!” he cried.

Aniruddhar replied in a calm, measured voice, “Prince, if I bore such hatred towards you, would I have brought you here, rescuing you from where you lay under a tree in the pouring rain? And do not speak ill of Arulmozhivarman. Do you know what that valiant conqueror of Lanka is doing at this very moment? He is going among the soldiers and people surrounding the Tanjore fort, speaking kind words, pacifying them, and bringing them to calm. He is striving to persuade them that it would not be right for him to ascend the throne while you, his uncle, are still alive, and that neither the warriors nor the people should demand such a thing. He is working to change their minds and set things right.”

“If that is so—if that is so, then the news you just told me is unknown to Arulmozhi, is it not?”

“Arulmozhi does not know; nor does anyone else!”

“Then why should it ever be revealed? Aniruddhar! If you alone agree to keep your mouth shut… The Emperor gave you a grant of ten velis of land in a village, did he not? I shall give you the whole of Pandya Nadu as a gift….”

“Sir! There is no need to grant me the Pandya kingdom just to keep my mouth shut; your mother’s command alone is enough. Tell her so!”

Madurantakan looked at the mother who had raised him, his gaze filled with sorrow. “Child! Madurantaka! What Aniruddhar says is true. He has known my secret for twenty years. On that day, he said, ‘Maharani! This is your secret. Unless you yourself reveal it to someone, no one else will ever know. It will never escape my lips—this I swear!’ He has kept that promise to this day. He swore loyalty to the Chola dynasty. He has not told even Emperor Sundara Chola. If I had agreed for you to ascend the Chola throne, he too would have remained silent…”

“Yes, Mother! I would have remained silent. But I would never have served as Prime Minister while harboring a lie in my heart. I would have gone to serve Lord Sriranganatha instead!” said Aniruddhar.

“But there will be no need for that. Madurantakan will not ascend the throne. He will fulfill my wish. He himself will refuse the kingdom! My son, agree—say ‘yes’!” said the elder princess, Periya Piratti Sembiyan Madevi.

“Mother! Then, are you the only obstacle to my ascending the throne? Now I am convinced that I am not your own son. For over twenty years, you raised me with the love reserved for a son born of your own womb. Why do you now betray me? What wrong have I done to you?”

“Child! You have done me no wrong. It is I who have wronged you. All these years I raised you as my own son, and now I say, ‘You are not my son!’ Do you think I do not know how deeply this wounds your heart? As long as I lived, I would never have revealed this. But I must fulfill the promise I made to my husband. I must not betray the Chola dynasty into which I entered. I must not place upon the Chola throne one who was not born into the Chola line. I must not become a party to such a deed. Do you think my heart does not ache over this? When I said just now, ‘You are not my son,’ my heart broke within me. Until the last moment, I hesitated to speak; my mind was in utter turmoil. To understand what my duty was, what was right, I went to Nambiyandar Nambi. That great soul…” He explained the subtlety of dharma in detail. “All the people in this world are children of Mahadeva. As a foremost devotee of Shiva, you would never make a distinction between ‘your own child’ and a ‘foster child.’ You would give all your personal possessions to the son you have raised. But the matter of the kingdom is different. To prevent another’s rightful claim through our own falsehood is a sin. To knowingly place someone not born of the Chola lineage upon the Chola throne is a betrayal of the clan. True dharma is to reveal the truth to both your son and the Emperor,” he advised me. I listened and returned.

“Kumara! Do you think I can feel joy in saying, ‘You are not my own son’? Would I ever be able to say this with pride only when I speak to the Emperor?”

At that moment, Madurantakan suddenly rose and fell at the feet of Sembiyan Madevi, crying, “Mother! I do not want the kingdom, nor the throne. If you ask me to stay here, I will stay; if you ask me to go into exile, I will go. But please, do not say that I am not your son, that I was not born of your sacred womb! Do not say it to