Vallavaryayan, who set out from Kudanthai, first headed towards the banks of the Arila River .

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Chapter 14 

The Riverside Crocodile

Those going from Kudanthai to Thanjavur in those days would go along the banks of the Arisala River or the upper banks of the Cauvery River, reach the Thiruvaiyar River, and from there turn south and go to Thanjavur. There were convenient crossings there to cross the Kudamurutti, Vettaru, Vennar, and Vadavaru rivers on the way.

Vallavaryayan, who set out from Kudanthai, first headed towards the banks of the Arila River. The sights he saw on the way amazed him even more than what he had heard about the Chola country. Doesn't any beautiful sight seem more beautiful when you see it for the first time? Green fields, ginger and turmeric fields, sugarcane and banana plantations, coconut and kamuku groves and ponds. Streams, ponds and canals kept coming and going. Lilies and daisies were blooming in the streams. Red and white lotuses, nilotic and red water lilies in the ponds presented a beautiful sight. White cranes flew in flocks. Red-legged storks stood on a single branch and performed penance. Water flowed through the gates in a gushing manner. The farmers, having applied good fertilizer and manure, ploughed the mud of the fields of Kannankara deeper and cultivated it, and the women planted the crops in the cultivated fields. They sang sweet Karapi songs while planting. They had set up sugarcane mills next to the sugarcane plantations, and they cut the mature blackberries that had been planted the previous year and put them in the sugarcane mills to squeeze the juice. The smell of sugarcane juice and the smell of jaggery brewing mixed together and bothered the nose.

In the middle of the coconut groves were huts and houses made of thatched straw. In the villages, the doorways were kept clean and polished, and the floors were made of glass. Paddy was spread out to dry at the doorways of some houses. The paddy hens came and pecked at them and then went back, shouting, "Crowd!" The girls guarding the paddy did not chase the hens away, but wondered, "How much paddy is the hen going to eat?" The children were playing with their hands and feet, while the smoke from the stoves was coming up through the roofs of the huts. The smell of steaming paddy, the smell of roasting millet, and the smell of roasting meat mixed with the smell of the stove.