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

KINGS OF KASHMÍRA. 243
is lost does not listen to the advice of his well-wishers,
but when he finds himself in difficulties he regrets that
he did not accept it.
When the Saidas had thought over the minister's
letters, they became anxious to return ; they collected
their party, and came in like swans. First, their chief
Meyā Hassana, accompanied by his trusty adviser
Naurujā, came to the king. After befitting mutual
eulogies, Mallika became favourably inclined towards
him, and bestowed on him his own estate Khoyāshrama.
The same Saida Hassana, who could not even enter the
country before, was now, for the destruction of the
Mallika, in a position to pass orders on others. Gradu-
ally the Saidas entered the country in great numbers,
and spread themselves over the kingdom ; and the
people of Kashmīra, those who were in the country
and those who lived in the out skirts, became alarmed.
And when the minister Ahmada saw the Saidas coming
in riding their horses, and moving like waves, and
beloved by the king, and when he perceived that the
king was influenced by them, on account of the
influence which the queen exercised over the king,
he and his sons repented. What man would not be
happy if the idea that comes to him after a deed is
done, came to him before it was accomplished ? He
could then confide in his friends and defeat his enemies.
At that time the Saidas intended to throw Tājibhaṭṭa
into prison in order that they might rob his wife,

244 KINGS OF KASHMÍRA.
Tājibhaṭṭa heard that these people were planning to
do him mischief, he became alarmed, and came to the
house of the Malleka. By this time the minister had
perceived the influence which the Saidas had acquired,
and had become alarmed. At this period the old
Phiryyaḍāmara died. He had performed well the duties
of the Pratīhāra and of other posts, and he alone, at
the time of his death, obtained the praise due to worthy
acts, such as can be obtained with difficulty in this world
or in the next. Urged by the Saidas, the king became
angry with Tājibhaṭṭa when he heard that he had taken
shelter with the minister, and he immediately sent Jaina,
Rājānaka, and other soldiers in order to arrest him.
He also ordered that Tājibhaṭṭa should be confined in
his own house, and his property confiscated. The
Mallika gave up Tājibhaṭṭa to the soldiers, and he was
kept under confinement. It was owing to some residue
of his virtue that he spent his days with his relatives,
and lived at ease on a small allowance which he received.
Though he was confined in his house, he lived with
his family like swans in the Mānasa lake. This was
on account of the virtue which he had acquired by
spending a large amount of money. He who, with
the view to acquire virtue, enjoys the pleasure of giving
gifts during the time of his prosperity, lives in comfort
like Tājibhaṭṭa even when he is bereft of that prosperity.
In this manner all the powerful men were nearly ruined
by Malleka Ahmada who could not bear the welfare of

KINGS OF KASHMÍRA. 245
others. Even Jyahangira the Mārgesha became afraid
of the Maliika, because the Saidas had been injured
by the murder of their sister's son. Now all the offices
of power had been given to men of the Mallika's party,
and the Pratīhāra and other worthy men had been
sacrificed for his selfish purposes. For these and other
faults the king became estranged from the Mallika, and
rarely gave him audience; and for the protection of
his own life he prudently avoided living in any one
place in his kingdom.
Accompanied by the Saidas, the king went to the
garden by the side of his palace, to enjoy the sport of
flowers, even as Indra goes to the garden of Kuvera.
After he had enjoyed the sport, he got into a boat,
and in the company of the Mārgesha and Nauruja, gave
himself up to drinking. They all became intoxicated,
and talked on various topics, and, like the members of
the family of Yadu, they hit one another with the arrows
of words. When the excitement became great, the king
left his turban in anger and went to the house of the
Mallika in order to rebuke him. Efforts were made to
propitiate him, but the king returned to his palace
angry, and grief for the indiscretion of his son (Nauruja)
touched the minister's heart. On another day the king,
whose heart was estranged from Ahmada, privately told
the minister's enemies of his unreasonable determination
not to protect any more the party of the minister. The
enemies of Ahmada took advantage of this opportunity,

246 KINGS OF KASHMÍRA.
'and met together to do him injury, even as the diseases
meet in the body when they once find an entrance.
They advised the king to take away from the minister
the charge of bringing up Yosobhakhāna, and to give it
to some one else ; for what would the king do, they
asked, if the minister set up the prince as the king of
the country. The king agreed and soon after he gave
the charge of bringing up his child to Yonarājānaka,
and thus artfully took away the Khāna from the Mallika.
The minister remained in his house on the morning
of the day in which he made over the prince to the king,
and he said to his wife that he would be revenged on
his enemies. In the meantime the Mārgapati had been
sent for by the king, and, impelled by the idea of doing
some bold deed, he came from his estate to the city,
accompanied by his soldiers. When the Mallika heard
of the Mārgapati in the morning, he became angry and
went to the king attended by his soldiers, though warn-
ed by [the evil omen of] the cries of kites to his right.
He went on, spurring his horse, and the animal's face
was bathed with tears as if in sorrow for the impending
separation of his master from him. The Mārgesha was
ordered by the king to enter the court-yard with his
soldiers. The sun was then rising, and its beams were
reflected on the weapons. At this time the minister
also entered the yard of the palace, and there the two
met and challanged each other, and the capital trembled
in fear of these two chiefs. The king wondered that

the minister had entered the palace armed, he became
angry and caused Bhāñgila to support Jyaṃsara the
Mārgesha. Sent for by the terrified king, Bhāñgila
came, and after having barricaded the palace arrived
with the Saidas. The victorious Jyahāñgira had joined
Rājānaka, and released Tājibhaṭṭa from confinement ;
and he then marched into the yard of the palace. The
soldiers sent by Tājibhaṭṭa were eager for fight, and they
set the western gate of the palace on fire. The fire
consumed rows of houses up to the residence of Hassana
Rājānaka within a short time and reduced them to the
condition of a burnt forest. The news of the burning
of houses, beautiful as the residence of Indra, caused
sorrow even to those who were afar. Masses of smoke
rose with the flame, and the men in the palace became
like live fish in a frying pan on account of the heat.
When the affrighted king saw the fire burning in the
yard of the palace he was overcome with terror, and
his soldiers though eager for fight could not engage
themselves in it in the heated roads. When the
Mallika saw that on account of his son's haughtiness
his followers had deserted and that his son was left
alone, he did not know what to do. He wished that
his sons should not engage themselves in fight, for the
king's government might be crushed in that fight. He
had upheld the king for ten years. Why should his
government be crushed now, in this fight? He again
thought of his eldest son who remained indifferent to

248 KINGS OF KASHMÍRA.
the quarrel, and who might be overwhelmed with
misfortune if engaged in it. He remembered also his
son Nauruja who might receive injury in the affray.
He would rather that death should come to him than
that he should bear a bad name in his old age. Thus
he thought to himself and he told his sons not to engage
themselves in the contest but to remain there. He felt
disheartened and sought the shelter of the king who was
in the palace directing the movements of the guards.
The king thought of the previous services of the
minister and received him with affection ; so that those
who had sought to do harm to the minister found
that the king was on his side. They therefore found
no opportunity for commencing hostilities, and went
away to Bhuṭṭa country. At this time the honorable
Jyahāngira, always eager for victory, entered the king's
yard with shouts by the north gate of the palace ; and
the metropolis seemed to rejoice at his courage in the
echoes of the sound of his battle drum. Jyahāngira and
other worthy men were pleased to see the king, and
they were happy both in mind and in body at the
triumph achieved. Urged by these men, the king threw
the Malleka with his sons and several servants into
prison on the following morning.
Royal Fortune returned from the house of the minister
to her own residence [the king's palace] as if in fear of
incurring superfluous expenditure. The hoarded silver
and other metals which the enemies of the king had

KINGS OF KASHMÍRA. 249
obtained by oppressing the lower classes of the people
and the Kāyasthas now came to the possession of the
king. And the chief whose influence had been dreaded
by Jainarāja and Shrī Hājyashāha, and by whose wisdom
Hājyashāha's son had reigned for ten years without
fear, and Vahrāmakhāna and other obnoxious men had
been removed,—even that chief was now overcome by
the fear of his enemies! Fie to the prosperity of the
prosperous! Wealth is soiled by fear, it obstructs
progress in the path of virtue, it becomes a source
of oppression to the poor, and it is transient as snow.
All that wealth which his servants Pherabhaṭṭa and
others had brought him by oppressing the people,
now came to the possession of the king. The beautiful
horses brought from foreign countries, and the clothes
which had never been used, were given up to the king,
as if they had hitherto been left with the minister on
trust. That alone proved to be his own property
which he had given away or had used while celebrating
his birth days, which he was ambitious of celebrating
like the birth days of kings. O mortals oppressed
in mind ! You who have obtained great wealth from the
king, bestow true gifts and enjoy true enjoyments,
for this world is fleeting like the waves of the sea, and
wealth cannot always be had. Ye servants of the
king ! Do not boast of your power derived from wealth
and known to all, do not boast of the favour of the
king. Is there any permanency in the mirage, in the

250 KINGS OF KASHMÍRA.
color of the kusumbha flowers, in the love of harlots, or
in the favour of kings? While the man proud of his wealth
ponders on the speedy acquisition of the highest post and
the subjugation of his enemies, on the inexhaustableness
of his treasury and the obedience of his servants, his
adverse fate destroys all these, as if they were but a
dream! Jugabhaṭṭa saw Ahmada in the prison to tell
him to give up to the king, without delay, whatever
more he had of gold. Upon this the minister became
angry and said,—“the avaricious king has taken millions
from me and is he not yet satisfied? What shall I say?
I have ruined the men of my party for the preservation
of the kingdom. I abstained from fighting at the
time when my crisis came. I brought back and
favoured the Saidas who had once fled from the
country. But the king became ungrateful, and they too
have turned hostile to me. I consolidated the whole
kingdom, and if the king again wants to enjoy it let
him maintain peace. He will be glad at my death.
Let him for whom I have suffered the cares of the
state for ten years in this wretched world, rejoice at
my destruction.” Thus he spoke, and communicated
to the king whatever else he had to say. “Fie to me”
he said to himself “that I did not listen to the words
of that experienced man, Shrī Phiryaḍāmara.” He
blamed himself every day and said,—“If I be perfectly
innocent then let my evil doers, the Mārgesha, Tāji-
bhaṭṭa, and others reap the fruit of their work in a few

KINGS OF KASHMÍRA. 251
days." The people soon came to wonder at seeing the
result of all this which the minister had exclaimed in his
sorrow, while in the prison.
The Mallika Ahmada had administered wisely, and
when he was thus destroyed with his sons, wicked people
acquired influence with the king. The avaricious
Tājibhaṭṭa and others, and those among the Saidas
who held offices, oppressed the people, even as painful
diseases oppress the body. 'On the pretence of taking
"flowers of joy" and "Dīnnāra pieces," the Saida
officers began to acquire riches at the expense of the
subjects. Shrī Jyahāngira the Mārgesha, Nosarājānaka,
and others, looked graceful in their elegant conveyances
like trees with beautiful leaves in spring. Shrī Meyā
Hasana got the title of Mallā which had belonged to
the Mallika, and likewise obtained the Mallika's village
of Nāgrā na and his estates. He divided his new estates
among his sons and servants, and gave half of the
wealth and estates to Meyā Mahmada. The Saidas
became unruly after their triumph, they placed the king
under their control, and they sent messengers and
brought in the able Saida Nāsira. When he arrived at
Pāñchāladeva by the Sūrapura road he was attacked
with fever, and in that state he entered the capital.
He gave audience to all,—his grand-daughter, son-in-law,
wife's brother, kindred, and the ministers,—all the
people whom he would not live to see again ; for he
arrived almost in a dying state, as if only to see

252 KINGS OF KASHMÍRA.
them. He passed two days in fever and died in his
house. The imprisoned Mallika, alarmed at the
banishment of his son, was overpowered by grief, and
he fell ill and died. Though the chief minister died
in prison, the people gave vent to their sorrow in
cries and loud lamentations when they heard of his
death.
When great men who have done good deeds die,
insignificant men come forward to take their places,
even as lamps serve the purposes of men when the sun
which lighted the world has set. It was owing to
the good luck of their daughter [the queen] that the
Saidas obtained wealth and greatness ; but they regarded
the people of Kashmīra, scarcely even as grass. The
king, bent on furthering the interests of the Saidas,
acquiesced in orders, whatever they were, that were issued
by them for their own selfish ends. They were busy in
creating factions, the king was forbearing and women
came to have great influence ; it was apparent that some
revolution was at hand. Accepting bribes was considered
by the officers of the State as a virtue, oppressing the
subjects was regarded as wisdom, and addiction to
women was reckoned happiness. All opposition ceased,
Meyā Hasana was proud of being able to accomplish
whatever his heart desired, and he oppressed the whole
kingdom. Gradually he became more and more powerful,
and slowly he spread his influence over the king's
country ; and as Rāhu spreads his shadow, even so did

KINGS OF KASHMÍRA. 253
he extend his authority over all. The Saidas then
intended to conquer the little and the great Bhuṭṭa
country, and ordered Shrī Jyahāngira and Nāsera to
march there. The Mārgapati Jyahāngira suggested
that if both of them marched together they would be
able to accomplish their work ; but the two Saidas did
not follow this suggestion. One of the leaders conquered
the country and returned with glory to the capital. The
other was struck with panic, his course was arrested,
and he saved himself by artifice. The Bhuṭṭas fell on
the rear of the army and destroyed the soldiers. I have
abstained from giving even a brief account of this
defeat, in consideration of the present unsuitable time.
The Kechilshyas, Baddhārāga and other servants of the
old king fell in that Bhuṭṭa war, even as insects fall
into the fire. The Saidas remembered the injury done
to them before by Nossarājanaka,* and took advantage
of this defeat, and prevented him from obtaining an
audience from the king. The Mārgapati apprehended
mischief from the Saidas, but he was clever in protecting
himself. He returned to the king's dominion but art-
fully avoided coming before the Saidas. Apprehending
mischief to himself, he avoided the Saidas, the oppressors
of the people, and he artfully appeared before the king.
Once when Jyahāngira found the king alone, he thus
said :—"These Saidas O king ! were once exiled but

• The same person as the Margapati Jyahangira, one of the
  leaders in the Bhutta war.
  21

254 KINGS OF KASHMÍRA.
have been brought back. You have yourself brought
this curse on this peaceful country. As the son of king
Shri Jaina’s son, you have a right to the kingdom ; but
as his daughter’s son, Meyā Mahammada has also a
similar claim on the country. The Saidas have further
been encouraged by the Turuṣhkas with hopes of sup-
port. Such are the Saidas, and they should always be
feared. They are ever eager for the kingdom as vultures
are for meat. It is not fit, O my master ! that you who
have many ends to accomplish should devote yourself
exclusively to one. Who praises the black bee which
is attached to one plant only ? All your work O
king ! will be accomplished if you avoid placing your-
self under the influence of your wife. Be not, therefore,
O master ! influenced by your spouse. I am going away
for the safety of your kingdom as well as of myself.
The country is ruined, and you ought to save yourself
somehow.” When the king heard this he said “so will
it be.” But when he went to his wife at night, he was
overcome by affection, and he told her all that had been
said to him. Whereupon the queen who had espoused
the cause of her father’s party, became enraged, and like
a fearful she-serpent, sought to injure the Mārgapati.
Where a woman, who despises men and supersedes
her husband, becomes the master, there the goddess of
Royal Fortune does not abide long in her anger. Rising
from the side of his beloved, the king became anxious
to favour her party, and placed the kingdom in their

KINGS OF KASHMÍRA. 255
power, as it once was under the power of Mallika
Ahmada.
The Mārgesha feared mischief from the Saidas on
account of the hostile queen, and he with his troops
went away by the Kārkoṭadraṅga road. He took away with
him all his relatives and property through Bhāṅgila,
and went by inaccessible roads, but did not lose his
patience. Jewels lie scattered in the great sea into
which the rivers flow, and the waters are agitated by
storm ; even so there are jewels in this great and pros-
perous kingdom in which the armies meet, and which
is agitated by the mutual quarrel of ministers. When
the enemies prosper day by day, and the sovereign
becomes infirm in a country, the few who are good
follow the only proper course that is left to them,—they
leave the country. For to remain quiet would be weak-
ness, to make liberal gifts would reduce wealth, to
create factions would be a wicked act, to go to battle
would cause death to men. The king repented the
destruction of the party of the minister, and the flight
of the Mārgapati and of others was to him like salt in
a wound. Though the king was attended by all the
Saidas, yet without the Mārgesha he felt like an ele-
phant left alone out of the herd. A few of those who
were born of the family of the Mārgesha, or of the family
of the Pratīhāra, or of the family of Ṭhakkura, or of
the treasurer, were still alive. They had been powerful
before on account of their family and of their successes ;

256 KINGS OF KASHMÍRA.

but they perished by reason of unwise counsel and
quarrel among themselves. When the Mārgapati had
left the country, the sky suddenly began to scatter snow,
and thereby left no doubt in the people’s mind that he
of all men was the most fortunate. On account of the
heavy fall of snow the inhabitants of the country became
withered like trees with broken branches. The soldiers
of the Mārgapati got into caverns covered with kusha
grass, as if they expected that a fall of snow would
enable them to lie hidden for a time. He was the
delighter of the hearts of all, and the king’s court became
desolate without him, even as the kumuda flower
withers in the absence of the moon.
The king remained indifferent to the doings of his
servants, his mind was influenced by his wife and the
Saidas, and his own acts became disorderly and repre-
hensible. Unable to enforce his orders in governing
his own country, he disliked ability in others, and liked
only to watch the looks of his beloved women. These
women were quick in inflicting punishments and bestow-
ing favours on men, and were eager in accepting bribes,
and they, not the ministers or the servants, became the
intimate friends of the king. The Turuṣhkas Puṣhkala
and Āshvāsa, who had given up even the observance
of decorum in the enjoyment of pleasures, now gained
their own end, not the end of their master. When
the people saw the kingdom of their sovereign under
the influence, of women they felt grieved, and re-

KINGS OF KASHMÍRA. 257
peated the following shloka :—"They perish who have
no leader, they too perish whose leader is an infant,
and they also perish whose leader is a woman, and
those who have many leaders perish likewise." The
king remained in bed day and night and mourned
for the Mārgapati and others for whom he was
grieved, but was unable to bring them back. The
Mārgesha had taken shelter in Lohara, he was oppressed
with anxiety for his master, and he took this opportunity
to send the following words of advice, by means of a
letter. "O king ! O jewel among men ! Your trea-
sury, which used to gratify the hopes of all, has been
removed by the Saidas, and they have brought in abject
poverty. Like a drop of quicksilver, the Saidas are by
nature heavy, restless, and adhere to one another ; they
do not wish for the company of others. You are, O
king ! like the green sandal tree the bestower of all
felicity, but you are surrounded by a hissing she-serpent.
What sensible man will not leave the kingdom, though
it be like a jewel, if there abide in it serpents of deadly
poison preventing the approach of others ? Royal For-
tune is like the flame that burns on the funeral ground,
frightful to the sight, and he who serves her must not
touch the flame, though he sees it burning. Meyā
Hassana's mind is under the influence of evil planets,
and like Rāvaṇa he keeps away from the right path,
though advised by his well wishers to follow it. The
woman named Merā, who accepts bribes as plentifully

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

KINGS OF KASHMÍRA. 259
existed between him and the Mārgapati and said,—
“Let his confiscated estates be returned to him, and
I will bring him back. During the disturbance created
by the ministers we swore friendship to each other, and
Fate will be adverse towards us if we now seek each
other’s harm.” Determined in his enmity towards the
Mārgapati, Meyā Hassana heard this said before the
king, and immediately bestowed the estate of Nausha-
hāra on his relative Ḍaulatayāna. He said that this
good servant Ḍaulatayāna, being stationed outside the
country, would do his duty well, and he directed that
one koṭi of money be given to him in order that he
might collect an army. He then sent on Edharājānaka
armed and accoutered, but soon caused him to come
back, although he had himself supplied him with money.
When Parashurāma and others, of the country of
the Madra, heard of all this, they apprehended danger
in Kashmīra, and asked the permission of the Saidas to
depart. But the Saidas said that they would allow
them to go after providing them with the provisions
for the road, they were told to stay a few days, and
their salary was promised to them. But when the
Saidas returned to their houses, they said to one an-
other that these Madra people were hostile like the
Turuṣhkas, and that they should not be allowed to
depart.
In the meantime the king felt anxious for several of
his servants; and the anxiety made his face like the

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

[Header] KINGS OF KASHMÍRA. 261

in blood, and were killed by the relentless Saidas; and
the ground was filled with fetuses from their womb.
The king was not satiated with killing some animals, he
denuded those hills of deer, and, tired in the evening, he
ordered the forest beaters to occupy the houses of the
villagers. Some of these men, terrible as the servants of
death, passed the night in houses where the owner's
daughter-in-law and daughter and wife were young and
beautiful, and as there were wine and meat and fish.
The Turuṣhkas were powerful, and strong in archers;
they seated themselves in the houses of Brāhmaṇas who
had devoted themselves to the performances of the six
duties; they ate from the vessels of the Brāhmaṇas the
cooked meat of fowls killed as if in sacrificial ceremonies;
and they gave themselves up to the pleasures of drinking.
The inhabitants of the place were robbed of their domestic
animals and rice and wine and other things; and some of
the avaricious servants of the Saidas killed the people in
their own houses. The impotent king heard the people
express their wish that he might not come there again,
and was grieved on account of the oppression of the
people. Hunting is an evil habit, and fie to kings who
do not possess the dignity of kings! Certainly, in the
present instance, it was killing men under the pretence
of killing beasts. If to tie down and kill hundreds of
deer, like beasts of sacrifice, be sport, what then is
butcher's work? The skill in taking aim from horse-
back on running animals is to be coveted, but what