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

KINGS OF KASHMÍRA. 235
the customs of the Hindus from their birth, killed
cows within the city. But when these wicked men had
eaten the flesh of the kine, the part of the city where
the animals had been slaughtered caught fire as if to
purify itself, and the vihāra there also was in flames.
Then the terrible south-west wind began to blow, and
became unbearable on account of the troubles that it
brought. When these calamities overtook the people
a paṇḍita's son meditated for some nights on the strange
and baneful wind and composed this shloka :— "Afflicted
by clouds that bear the tint of fire, by the sun that has
the hue of the moon, and by the powerful south-west
wind, whither O people ! will ye flee ?" In the year
55 a fire suddenly broke out at one end of the cow
market at Pravareshapura and extended its devastations
to the side of the Gulikāvāḍhikā. In a moment the
city was consumed, and looked like a burnt forest.
From the great masjeda the flaming barks of the
bhūrja tree, carried by the wind, came rushing, like mes-
sengers of calamities, to the place where the Brāhmaṇas
and the mendicants are fed. The Masjeda was a spaci-
ous building, extending on all sides, and was always
white-washed. It was like the embodiment of the fame
of king Shrī Shekandhara. It was within this building
that crowds of worshippers used to fall down and rise
at prayers, imitating the high waves of Sāṅgaravara. It
was here that the Yavanas chanted mantras and looked
graceful, like thousand lotuses with humming bees. It