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

260 KINGS OF KASHMÍRA.
lotus in the month Pauṣha. The Saidas were fond of
hunting, and in the month of Māgha they took with
them the king in that state of mind, in order to
destroy animals in the kingdom. Wherever their op-
pressive army encamped at night, there the cries of
the oppressed people resounded on all sides ; and
wherever the king's army halted encircling some hill, the
people complained bitterly against the uprooting of the
vines.
The army, bent on destruction, attacked high and
pleasant hills with gentle water-falls, even as wicked men
attack the good. On the top of a hill there were some
deer whose bodies were covered with snow, they heard the
noise and came down in herds in alarm, and the Saidas
were glad to see them come with their tongues protru-
ded, and their faces smeared with blood. The animals
came to the king with their young ones as if to say "take
us who are strong but spare our young ones who are
weak." All the people of the place asked the king
repeatedly to cease hunting, urging that the gods would
be angry at the destruction of the deer of a hill inhabi-
ted by holy men ; but the king did not desist from
hunting, even as a lustful man does not desist from the
company of women. The muni named Vaishravaṇa
had his seat on this hill, he came to the king and
pleaded that the place was a pen for the deer and kine
of the hermitage, and begged that it might be spared.
The female deer were struck while crying and weltering