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MISCELLANEOUS
house, the king got enraged and ordered that the womanâs house be demolished and a tank dug in the site. The woman was later excused on her agreeing to
dig the tank herself, and this tank came to be known as Āyikuḷam, after the name of
the dancing-girl. Napoleon III who appears to have been impressed by this tradition ordered that a tablet commemorating this incident be fixed in a water-fountain (jalamāḷigai) so as to keep her memory green. The site where the fountain exists
at present near the Dupleix statue at Pondicherry, probably represents the site
of the dancing-girl’s house. There is an indifferent Latin version of this record
engraved on another tablet in the same place, in which the English date A.D. 1862
is quoted.
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