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

304 KINGS OF KASHMÍRA.
through the actions of their servants, they felt themselves
happy; they were bent on doing mischief, and they acted
as they liked. Clever in holding their own party together
and in defeating the purposes of their enemies, they
were like debaters well versed in discussion. They
were exempted from the payment of the king's taxes,
and oppressed the country, even as the twelve suns
oppress the world with their excessive heat at the end
of a kalpa. By the plaintive barking of dogs, by the fire
of meteors, and by frequent earthquakes, the trembling
people understood that their calamities had again
returned.
The king being a boy, his officers oppressed the
people, even as diseases harass the body in the
feebleness of old age. A prosperous king is soon
ruined when his officers, his chief supporters, quarrel
among themselves through jealousy, even as the body
is destroyed by its disordered components. Men who
were sharp like thorns, and adept in seeking flaws in
others, became the favourites of the royal officers, even
as prickly vegetables are liked by young elephants.
Such intriguers moved among the officers, and by their
deceit created disunion among them every day, and
increased their enmity towards one another. They
fabricated out of their own imagination, words, which
were never uttered by any one, and such false words
of their servants were pleasing to the officers even like
poetry. Thus the pure minds of the ministers, which