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

242 KINGS OF KASHMÍRA.
tually cause his ruin. When Shri Phirjaḍāmara came to
know the purpose for which the Saidas were being
brought back, he went to the house of the minister
Ahmada, and spoke these sensible words :—"Tājibhaṭṭa
is under your power, he conducts himself towards you
like your servant, you should therefore protect him, and
subdue his pride by means of good advice. Do not
bring back the Saidas, the Turuṣhkas Puṣhkara, Āshvāsa,
and others ; they are strong and are like thorns to the
country ; and they have once been expelled with diffi-
culty. You are bringing them back to destroy one
man, but when they come all will be destroyed. Should
the sacred fig tree be set on fire in order to kill a single
young bird ? Surely your ruin and that of your sons
and servants will follow. It is a misfortune that you
propose to bring the Saidas back. The Saidas have been
injured once, and you should rather throw a handful of
poison in your rice pot for your own destruction than
wish to bring them back. You think yourself wise and do
not consider my words as reasonable, but you will bring
them back to your mind when I am dead and you are
in difficulties." Mallika heard this and said that they
could do nothing so long as he was alive, that they had
once felt his power, and would now become his flatterers.
Ahmada thought himself wise, and so he slighted
Phirjaḍāmara. "Be it so," said the latter and went
away. After he had gone, the minister did not abandon
his project of bringing in the Saidas. He whose sense