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

KINGS OF KASHMÍRA. 191.
after much urging that, with tears in its eyes, it came to
the yard of the palace. Hassana the treasurer, Mera-
kāka, and others, five or six in all, then seated themselves
on a valuable carpet, and were anxious to learn what
the work of the king was which had to be performed,
As ordered by the king, Jaṁsara and other servants
first won the confidence of the party by dissimulation,
and then killed them within the room in the palace.
The treasurer rose and exclaimed against the treachery,
but with one stroke of a hatchet he was deprived of his
life. Struck by the weapon, and on the point of death,
Merakāka blessed the king and then expired. Ahma-
damera, a man of merit, a lover of learning, and the
delight of the people, was murdered while engaged in
writing, and every one was grieved for him. While
alive these men had lived united, and when cut off by
the hatchet, their blood mingled. Just before their death
they had been seated on a colored blanket, and when
dead, they were seen on it as if in sleep. The death
by the hatchet which they met, all in a moment, inside
the palace, was such as is unattainable by others, and
it was a glory to them. Thus were they killed, and at
their last moment neither riches, nor wife, nor servants,
nor tombs were of use to them.
The fear of the king was more distressing than the
fear of death ; the people were chastised or imprisoned
for debts, and the friends of a debtor deserted him
through fear lest the debt might devolve on them.