द्वितीय राजतरङ्गिणी (जोनराज - कल्हणोत्तर मध्यकालीन कश्मीर का प्रामाणिक इतिहास)

92 KINGS OF KASHMÍRA.
worked out after a time; but what the ordinary mind
cannot conceive is possible to genius alone. The good
king could not at first settle what to do, but he at last
devised means to convert the lake into land. He thought
of filling up that lake, by conveying stones in carts and
throwing them into it one above another, even as a sea is
filled up by peaks of mountains. The waggons, if built
of pine planks with iron clasps, would not, he thought,
break or wear off.
The eager king then returned and sought the help
of old men, and they came to him. As the Sudarshana
chakra encircles Dvārikā, even so was the peaceful
capital of this king encircled by these men. The
presiding god of his city * * * * the Mahāpadma lake.

• • • • He protected the people of the four castes as if
        they were his sons * * * * It was owing to the in-
        fluence of the Kaliyuga that the people of the country
        followed evil practices day by day and yet prospered.
• • • • Then as the fruit of their evil practices, and
        owing to adverse fortune, the lord of the Nāgas became
        angry, even as a good man does on receiving an offence.
        In a dream he said to a potter who had not left off his good
        usages, that he would drown the citizens who had adopted
        evil practices. When the potter told the people in the
        morning that the Nāga would drown them for their
        evil practices he was laughed at by all the citizens, as
        if he was an irrational beast. Then the Nāga agitated the
        lake by his hundred hoods, and the roar of the water