HISTORY 6

 10 WORRIES    

Nandhimitra was perhaps the best known and strongest of the ten giant warriors. He was the nephew of Mitta, a well known strong great general in King Dutugemunu’s army, and was named after him. It is said that he had the strength of ten elephants and that he was the most skilled mahout of the war elephants in King Dutugemunu's army. As a young child, Mitta's mother tied him to a millstone to stop him from wandering off, but his great strength enabled the young boy to drag the heavy stone behind him, thus earning the name Nandhimitra. Then his mother tied him to a larger mortar, but he was able to drag that one too and continue following his mother. Then his mother tied him to a large bamboo tree, but that he uprooted and again followed his mother. When King Kavantissa heard about this, he took him to train.

According to the Mahãvamsa (chapter 23, verse 16-44), Nimala was the seventh son of a village headman named Samgha, in the village of Khandakavitthika in the Kotthivala district. As a young man, Nimala was sent into the service of prince Dighabaya, King Kavavannatissa’s son from a lesser queen. Dighabaya, who was in charge of Kacchakatittha, sent Nimala on an errand to a Brahman named Kundali, who lived near the Cetiya mountain in the Dvaramandala village. Nimala marched the great distance of more than eighteen yojanas form Kacchakatittha to Dvaramandala, then from there to Anuradhapura to bathe in the Tissa tank, and back to his master the prince at Kacchakatittha, fetching the precious punnavaddhana garments gifted by the Brahmin, in just one day. Nimala was thus named Sura-nimala.