The most powerful kings were expected to under- take a digvijaya, which was a conquering expedition in a clockwise direction over the whole of India. The idea of a Chakravarti, ‘wheel-king’, whose digvijaya was led by the march of a mysterious wheel of gold and gems through the air, is mentioned in one of the poems in the Purananuru. Another poem in the same collection mentions the companions of a king who committed suicide when the king died-an early anticipation of what later became a widespread insti- tution under such names as Companions of Honour (Abu Zayd), velaikkarar, garudas, sahavasis, and apattudavigal and so on.