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

[Header] KINGS OF KASHMÍRA. 219

a bed. He had been bounteous before, and used to
say, 'give it to others', now he raised the same voice
with difficulty, and said 'give something to me.' His
authority was gone, his servants were killed, he had
lately been defeated and bound in chains, and was
suffering agony on account of his eyes being put out.
The blind son of a king meditated on all this, and he
could not call to mind any one who had suffered like
him even in a tale. The bee sees the lotus, bright with
its cup, and seeks to feast on it as he roams at pleasure,
but the moon thwarts him, the night approaches, and
the bee is enclosed in the lotus and dies. The palace
which had been built by him for his enjoyment, now
became his prison ! Who can foresee what may befall
him ? Thus he suffered agonies for three years, his body
became a skeleton, and he died. . He who treats his ene-
mies with bitterness, and takes no account of time and
place, perishes in spite of his strength and wealth.
The cruel Abhimanyu, the Pratīhāra, was puffed up with
vanity for having performed some acts of prowess and
could not bear the powerful faction of the ministers.
He was inflated with a spirit of independence, and his
harsh words preceding from pride were like needles in the
eye of the ministerial party. The Pratīhāra went on
devising plans to get rid of the minister Mallika Ahmada,
and the Mallika also secretly entertained hostile feelings
against the Pratīhāra but found no opportunity to bring
him under his power. At last, on one occasion when