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

258 KINGS OF KASHMÍRA.
as she takes meat, is abiding with you for your ruin,
even as Tāḍakā did with Rāvaṇa. Let the Saidas remain
with you in the kingdom if you so wish it, but I will go
from here to the Turuṣhka chief of Karavīnda. There
was not one in my family who forgot his devotion to
his master, and became a rebel to the king. You are
my only shelter, and I shall remain loyal towards you as
if I were at your gate. Our conduct has always been
proper, and we are opposed to injustice, and if we
adopt evil ways no one will have confidence in us.
Who can be at ease in this world, even if he lives to
the end of kalpa, and acquires wealth, and destroys his
enemies ? If others be ruined, you should protect them,
but if you are ruined, who else is there to protect you ?"
When Meyā Hassana came to know of this letter, he soon
replied in the presence of the king, hissing like a serpent
in his anger. "Exiled from his place and deprived of
his livelihood, surely the Mārgapati will be withered
by our prowess, even like a lotus torn up and taken
from the water ; and his servants will not stay with him,
even as the birds stay not in the tank which is dried
up by the heat of summer and in which nothing is left
but mud. What can he do to us, remaining where he
is, and receiving the fealty only of the people of that
place ? My followers will be able to overcome him in
battle or drive him from thence. Let me go there in
person, or he will join with the Turuṣhkas." Then Saida
Hasana remembered the previous friendship which had