Kumudavalli's Conditions

Years passed, and one day her father told Kumudavalli that she had come of age to marry, and asked what she wished. She then revealed the secret of her birth and told him that she was destined to marry Tirumangai Mannan, who would himself come to seek her hand.

In time, Tirumangai Mannan heard of Kumudavalli's beauty and resolved to meet her and marry her. He rode to Tirunāngūr with his soldiers on his horse, Āḍalmā, and sent word to the physician that Tirumangai Mannan had come to seek his daughter's hand.

Kumudavalli came before Tirumangai Mannan, and the two were drawn to each other. But she set a condition: she would marry him only if he dedicated his life to Emperumān and to the service of the devotees of Sriman Nārāyaṇa. He accepted. Setting aside the bearing of a king, he became a humble devotee of Sriman Nārāyaṇa, adorned himself with the Tirumaṇ before Tirunaraiyūr Nambi at Tirunaraiyūr, and returned to the physician's house.

Kumudavalli then made one more request. She had vowed to feed a hundred Bhāgavatas, devotees of Sriman Nārāyaṇa, to wash their feet, and to sprinkle that water upon her own head. If he would fulfil this too, she would gladly marry him. He agreed to this as well, consulted the priests, and fixed an auspicious day, and on that day they were married.

From then on, Tirumangai Mannan pledged to feed one thousand and eight Bhāgavatas every day. As the days went by, the cost of this service drained his treasury, and he could no longer pay the kappam, the tribute owed by a subordinate king to the emperor.

The Chola king, angered, sent soldiers to collect it, but Parakālan, having spent his wealth on the devotees of Sriman Nārāyaṇa, could not pay. At last the king sent a great army against him, but Parakālan, brave and well supported, could not be defeated. The king then reproached him: after all the honours bestowed upon him, this was how he repaid them. It grieved the king, and he would not let it happen again. If Parakālan failed to pay, he warned, he would face the consequences.