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

330 KINGS OF KASHMÍRA.
and made him insensible ; and the Ḍāmara took away
the Mārgapati's gold coloured auspicious and indestructi-
ble necklace, as if it were the goddess of victory. The
Mārgapati lay there, neglected by his own men, but a
horse of noble breed, fleeing from the battle, saved him,
and his mind was comforted.
When all the ministers direct the helm at the same
time, and lean on the same side of the vessel of
state, Royal Fortune sinks like a boat though supported
on all sides by arms. When the foreign soldiers
mutinied at the beginning of the war, Katthavāḍa and
others led the Khāna out of the country in the same
manner in which he had come. Saiphaḍāmara,
skilful in battle, was then disheartened by the false
rumour that the Khāna had been captured in battle
by the king's soldiers, and he turned away from the
engagement. He went away by the Sūrapura road,
taking with him good horses and other things, but he
afterwards joined the Khāna. Then for the third time
the Khāna entered the country ; and after having
killed many men, he issued out of Maṇḍala and
arrived at Parṇotsa. The Mārgesha thought that the
time was frought with calamities, and that all were
inclined to rebel. He considered that the king was
but a young child, the ministers had become insubor-
dinate, his own men were unruly and were wishing to
go over to the side of the Khāna, the citizens bore no
affection to him, and there was no money in the palace ;

KINGS OF KASHMÍRA. 331
and he himself was an old man, without any life in
him and bereft of all strength. He was moreover
oppressed with the pain caused by his wounds, and he
spent two months in his own house. Let that man go
to the sea who desires to acquire valuable jewels and
pearls and corals, and can, at the same time, cast away
fear, and can overcome the frightful monsters of the
deep by his strength.
In the meantime the Khāna came down from the
Chaṭikāshāra hill, strengthened by the soldiers who
went from Kashmīra. He arrived into the interior of
the country, and the hills clad themselves, as in
gladness, in the white garment of snow that fell that
day. The Mārgesha was alarmed at this news, and
saw the villagers fleeing, he left Vāngila with his army
and came to fight. The Khāna then came to
Bahurūpa with a few followers, and joined by the
Ḍāmaras, arrived in the field of Dāmodaroḍḍāra. The
powerful Mārgapati accompanied by the king, came
like a gale from behind, and stationed his troops in the
neighbourhood of Sātadaivata. But Saiphaḍāmara,
who was there with his army preparing for battle, arose
like Vishṇu and routed the army of the Mārgapati at
the close of night. It is strange that by his three
expeditions, the Khāna, though weak in army, accom-
plished, through the help of fate, what was not
accomplished by Haidarashāha. What else need be
said? The Khāna, though he had a small force, killed,

332 KINGS OF KASHMÍRA.
routed, and destroyed the troops of Kashmīra, as a
lion destroys herds of elephants. The Mārgapati retired
within the city, fearing mischief from Saiphāḍāmara
as before, and perceiving that he had lost the regard of
others. The bridge was destroyed, as during the
previous civil war of the Saidas, and the citizens on
both banks of the river were harassed, as if they
belonged to two separate kingdoms. Pirvaja the Pratīhāra
and others came from Maḍavarājya, and they left the
side of the king and went over to that of the Khāna.
The Mārgapati found that his army was weakened
by mutual dissensions and was at a loss to know what
should be done ; and like the Saidas he spent two or
three nights in the temple of Skanda. At one time he
had made Meyā Mahammada head of all the army, and
had joined with Nosarājānaka and risen against his
master. What could he not have accomplished had
his body been as strong as his mind, and had he not
pursued only his own interest. But he sought his
own interest, and slighted his nephew the king, and
rose against him, and these acts became the cause of
his destruction. His army fled, he was humbled and
afraid, and he sought shelter with his benefactor
Jyallala Ṭhakkura who was living at Kharvvāshrama.
He was reduced to that state to which his opponents
had been reduced by his orders. Fie to the uncertainty
of prosperity derived from royal power ! As the king
Bahrāma had, under the influence of the seven planets,

KINGS OF KASHMÍRA. 333
worn costly and various tinted robes and ornaments seven
times, and had then met death like an ordinary mortal,
even so it happened with the M rgapati. Fie to Fortune !
He arrived at the cavern of a saint, and forgot
his king and his former prosperity and his attendants.
His brother had taken away the king's wife, and for
that sin he became unable to escape, and got into a
boat with his wife. The soldiers of the Mārgapati
were humbled, they spent their days in the caves of
mountains, their complexion turned pale, and their
hearts were damped by the rain which fell to their
misfortune. Their powerful and unrelenting enemies
pursued them ; they were robbed of their clothes,
dragged, and forcibly thrown into prison, and confined
like beasts. The wicked enemies, the Khashas, shouted,
and plundered the country, and men and women left
all their property behind, and went about without
clothes in fear of them. The weak people were killed
on the road by the Khashas who remembered the injury
they had received from the Kashmírians. The disorder
which then prevailed in the kingdom was like that at
the end of a kalpa ; it was terrible. The condition in
the city was miserable ; the rich were robbed of every-
thing, the poor became rich, and the rich became
poor. The trees which had once been decked
with leaves and flowers and fruits, were now withered
in winter ; the rivers which had once flowed in waves
were now dried up ; and the kokilas which had sung

334 KINGS OF KASHMÍRA.
before now became mute. What does not come to
pass with the reverse of fortune? When the king's
party was destroyed, the beautiful women who were
dear to the king, lived only in name!
Thus the king Mahmadashāha sat on the throne
for two years and seven months, and he was dethroned
in the year 62, in the month of Āshvina. He was then
brought from Vīmshaprastha, and given up to the
enemies by Phiryapāla. The Ḍāmara chiefs who had
assembled in the yard of the palace and in the residence
of the king gave Mahmadashāha a few attendants and
a maintenance allowance, and kept him under their
protection. He had hitherto lived under difficulties ;
and as long as he was a king, he had never enjoyed
the ease which he now felt through the favour of
the king's ministers.
The city had been plundered during the slaughter
at the time of the civil war of the Saidas, but now, when
a new king assumed the royal power, the Khashas robbed
thrice as much, but they did not burn it down. Some
principal merchants were deprived of the millions they
had accumulated; they saved their lives, but lived by
covering their bodies with grass. The foreigners bribed
the ministers, and the ministers allowed them three days
to plunder the city. The foreigners plundered in the
same way as the Kashmīrians had plundered foreign
countries when they had marched against those coun-
tries. What does not time bring forth? The industrious

KINGS OF KASHMÍRA. 335
female bee extends the hive by working with her feet ;
but others come and raise a smoke, deprive her of the
hive, and enjoy its sweets. For six months the followers
of the Khāna enjoyed at ease what others had saved in
their houses with great care. None however plundered
the wealth which was hid in the grass and besmeared
with blood, mistaking it for the rags of a lying in room
left in a dirty place. Listen to the truth which we
tell you, O ye rich ! Make proper use, by gifts and
enjoyment, of the wealth which you have hoarded in
your houses depriving others of it. Otherwise, riches
are of no value during this period of revolution in the
kingdom. Some people scattered broken pots and
boxes round their houses, pretending that they had
been plundered, and thus deceived the Khashas.
Some citizens saved their wealth by emptying their
houses, and filling grave-yards beyond the water with
their goods. Holes were dug and heaps of riches
were thrown into them, and the earth every where
became vasundharā (holder of wealth) in reality as its
name implies. The people of Rājanavāṭika threw
missiles and stones with a view to obstruct the road
and did many rash acts. The revolution was to the
royal officers what the sound of drum is to the serpent ;
it was to the old and persecuted servants of the king
what the winter is to the lotuses ; it was to the king's
dominion what the thick smoke is to the hive ; and
it was to the new court of the king what the spring is

336 KINGS OF KASHMÍRA.
to the trees of the garden. It was owing to a
change in manners and customs, or to the unjust
acquisition of wealth, or to the oppression of
the good, or to the admixture among men of the
higher castes, or to the weakness of the boy king,
or to the enmity of the ministers, that this calamity
befell the people of the kingdom, even like the one in
the reign of king Sussala. Let Saipha Mallika, the chief
of the Ḍāmaras, the meritorious leader among the
ministers, the one without a rival, be victorious! He
had before, during the war of the Saidas, liberated in
battle those who had been captured; he attained
prosperity according to the ways approved by saints;
he conquered the enemies and destroyed them and
obtained fame; and he gave an extensive kingdom to
king Phatiha.
Here ends the fourth book named the acquisition
of the kingdom by Phatihashāha of Srī Jainarājatarangiṇī
composed by Paṇḍita Shrivara.
‘This is the end of Shrīvara’s Rājatarangiṇī.

FOURTH SERIES.
I bow to the Great Being, Mahādeva, who assumes
the form of the movable and of the immovable, on
whose crown rests the moon, and whose purpose is
pure. Let that form, half of Hara and half of Gourī,
protect you. At the sight of this form, the king of
the serpents twined himself round the bracelet of Gourī,
out of excess of devotion. I bow to the sun-like
guru, the light of whose favour dispelled the thick
darkness of ignorance, even of Shuka,* and expand-
ed the lotus-like heart of Buddhyāshraya.†
A good poet should bow to the truthful words of per-
sons skilled in discussion and deliberation, to the shlokas
graced with good rhythm, thick with alliterations, and
beneficial, and conveying various meanings and full
of sweetness and thought. It is by the beauty of
such sentences that a king's fame is brightened on all
sides. When the energetic Shrī Jonarāja and the
learned Shrīvara saw the Rājatarangiṇī written by the
Brāhmaṇa, Shrī Kahlaṇa, they, in order to immortalise
themselves, composed two beautiful books of kings,
bringing the account down to the year 62. Then the
poet Shrī Prājyabhaṭṭa, adorned with every good
* The name of the author.
† The name of the author's father.

338 KINGS OF KASHMÍRA.
quality and fortunate in having bathed at the shrine
of BhagavatI on the Ganges, composed his Rājāvalipatākā
in the reign of king Phatiha, giving an account down
to the year 89. Then the poet did not write the ac-
counts of kings, owing to the tumults in the kingdom
and on account of the fear of the wicked and the avari-
cious, even as swans do not feed on the moss in the
Mānasa lake for fear of the fowlers. I, Shuka, son of
Buddhyāshraya, am giving an account of kings in this
book form that date. I heard of the admirable deeds
of fame of past kings who enjoyed great prosperity ;
and I write this book not because I felt a desire to
become a poet, but to lighten my mind of the mass of
accounts of by-gone kings of great prosperity about
which I had heard. What a difference there is between
the description of former poets and of my own, I who
am of little sense ! How can a fragment of brass be
taken for gold simply because of its colour ? My
account of kings is like a desert, but let good men
hear and understand my words, and favour me by
showering amṛita in that desert.
King Phatāha was like a sprout of the dynasty of
the great king Jainashāha, and he became the ruler
of the country of Kashmīra. The subjects were happy
in every way during the time that he ruled ; they were
given to pious acts, and were graced with the virtues
of kindness and simplicity. The king was not addicted
to evil habits regarding woman, dice, or wine ; and his

KINGS OF KASHMÍRA. 339
chief minister was Somarājānaka, born of the Lunar
dynasty. The other chief minister was the Mārgesha
Ebhrāhema. He was pious and intelligent, and was
bent on doing good deeds, and was born in the family
which had produced men who attained greatness from
the time of Saropala. The third minister was the Pratī-
hāra Hājyameya of great worth, but he died by the will
of the gods, and the king gave his son Malleka Jyañgira
his ancestral villages and estates, and the usual respects
due to him.
Surely the Brāhmaṇas at this time did not do the
duties of their castes, and Somachandra was the person
to induce them to disregard the performance of their
duties. Merasheṣha, the pupil of Shāhkāsima, was
born in the country of Irāka ; he knew all the sciences,
and became Somachandra's guru without giving him
religious instructions. According to Merasheṣha's ad-
vice, Somachandra arrested men belonging to temples,
confiscated lands of the Brāhmaṇas and gave them to
Merasheṣha's servants, and thus pleased him. Supha
and other followers of Merasheṣha cut down lofty
trees on the pretence that they were required for
burning incense, but really for the object of ob-
taining fuel. The gods then deserted their images,
for otherwise how could men plunder their temples ?
All men became alike through the influence of Kali,
be they of good or of evil habits, be they the learned or
the Bhuṭṭas, or the actors, or the wicked ! Now

340 KINGS OF KASHMÍRA.
Abdālaka and the other sons of the Mārgesha were unable
to bear the honour and the fame which the son of Soma-
chandra attained, and the sight of the gifts which he
gave away. They intrigued against him and alienated
Hosarājāna from the Pratīhāra, slighted their father
who was related by marriage to Somachandra, and
broke down the bridge of Shrī Jainalābhadena which
had towered high as if it were the accumulation of
the virtue of that king. This bridge for crossing the
river was named Jainakadala ; it had stood over the
Vitastā for a long time adorning it, and a vast amount
of Rājāna Somachandra's riches was spent upon it.
It was now burnt at night, together with the houses
at Mallekapura near Vallādhya maṭha, in order to
overpower the enemies. The town and the kadala
presented the appearance of a forest that was burnt ;
and the wicked men in their plunder did not spare
even people's bathing suits. The heat of the fire lasted
for a short time, and so did Somachandra's life. He col-
lected his army and stayed at Jāladramgaḍa. Only one
per cent of the Brāhmaṇa inhabitants had Brāhmaṇa
spirit in them ; and one such Brāhmaṇa chastised the
Rājāna even as one chastises an enemy. Rājāna Soma-
chandra gave up his person as an offering to the fire of
the king's wrath and to the flame of the burning town.
The king gave him a passport to go out of the country
within a few days, and he was on the way destroyed
by the curses of the Brāhmaṇas, even as the moon is

KINGS OF KASHMÍRA. 341

devoured by Rāhu. Malekāla and others, Soma-
chandra's sons, fled in fear from the strife, and the
minister Mārgesha Ebhrāhima performed the last rites
of Somachandra, by the orders of the king, and thus
pleased his own men as well as his enemies. The
illustrious Mārgesha gave the extensive estate of
Siddhādesha to his eldest son Maleka Piruja, and to
Abdālaka he gave the authority over the arsenal, and
he divided the other estates and gave them to his other
sons Malleka Luhara and others. This intriguing
Mārgesha also gave estates to Hosa Rājāna, Jyaṅgera
the Pratīhāra, and to the Ḍāmaras who dwelt outside
the kingdom.
When the minister Somachandra died and his power
became extinct, the indomitable Shirgabhatrīs and the
Vyadāyīs became free from all restraint and began to
prowl about. Man holds half of a rope in order to cross
a river, but adverse fate breaks his rope. It was to
destroy Somachandra that these Ḍāmaras, who had
been living outside the country, were brought in by
the king's orders; and they now rose against the
Mārgesha. The Ḍāmaras, the Pratīhāra and others broke
the bridge of boats and caused the Mārgesha to flee,
and thus drove him out to a foreign country. The
Ḍāmaras named Utsa Malleka, Daulatya, and others
obtained posts in the palace, even like the black-
bees in the forest. Then the Ḍāmara chiefs held
control over all the business in the court, and

the strong became weak and the weak became strong.
The good behaviour of the Shiṅgas did not appear
grateful to the Ḍāmara chiefs, even as the light of
the earth to owls who are fond of darkness; and the
Ḍāmaras threw Ālemera and others, who were the
cause of these troubles, into prison at night out of fear
of them. But in a few days Jyahāṅgera the Pratīhāra,
Hossa Rājānaka, rose against the Ḍāmaras owing to
insults that were offered to them.
Now a person named Gadāyamera struck Gājakhāna
and Mallekadatta, all of a sudden, with a dagger in
their chest, as they were seated in an assembly. When
UtsaMalleka heard of this, he departed from the
presence of the king, and fought with the enemies for
a long time. He was called in by the king and was
honored. Loud lamentation however rose within the
capital on account of the murder of the two persons,
and the citizens wept and blamed the king. The power-
ful warrior Hossa Malleka the Ḍāmara was in Sūryya-
bhoga, heard of the death of his kindreds, but did not
lose his coolness. This great warrior who was irresis-
tible in battle, fell fighting with his enemies and
joined the women of heaven. Then the skilful, the
illustrious Khāna Ebhrāhima, born of the family of
Shāhābhadena, and a relative of Jyahāṅgira the Pratī-
hāra, divided the estates of the kingdom within
five or six days, and distributed them in the pre-
sence of the king among Hosa Rājānaka and others

KINGS OF KASHMÍRA. 343
accordingly as they deserved. He was afraid of
Utsa Mallika, who remained with the king, and he led
him to an inaccessible house of the Khashas and there
confined him. For a month the Ḍāmaras enjoyed
wealth as great as that of the city of the Gandhara-
vas, and then, like low people, they fled from the
country out of fear of the Mārgesha. The account of
the act of enmity against Utsa Malleka reached his
brother Rāvatyadevaka, and he marched out and
surrounded the house of the Khashas. The Khashas
were alarmed, and they released Utsa Mallika from
Gaṅgā maṭha, and the two brothers felt great delight
in helping each other. They however felt anxious
on the approach of the Mārgesha, and oppressed with
the sense of danger, they took shelter of the king,
even as those who are oppressed with the powerful
rays of the sun take shelter of the strong kalpa tree.
Thus were the Rājāna Ḍāmaras destroyed in the
year 89, between the bright fortnight of the month of
Āṣhāḍha and the month of Āshvina.
In autumn, the Mārgesha crossed the frontier and
returned from the outer country. He divided the
estates in Kashmīra and gave something to all. To
his sons he gave the posts of authority in the king-
dom, and for a short time he lived in his native
country like a hermit free from fear. Now in the
year 90, Utsa Malleka and Rājāna Shṛiṅgāra caused
the house of Abdāla Mera to be completely burnt

344 KINGS OF KASHMÍRA.
down, with a view to subdue him. When the Mār-
gesha heard that his son's house had been burnt
and his son captured, he went from Bhāṅgila to
Hinduvāṭa by the Kṣhuyya road. Now when the
Mārgesea had fled, his fierce enemies took Malleka
Abdālaka to the inaccessible house of Ladda the
Khasha. Utsa Malleka and Rājāna Shṛiṅgāra came
to the king, and at Varāhamūla intended to divide
the country of Kashmīra into parts. By the orders of
the king, they brought the men who owned lands in
Siddhā country, who knew how to divide land and
understood the work, and writers, and Kāyasthas
named Budha, Kashmīsha, Saṁkhyesha, and Jugaka,
and by their help divided the whole country into three
divisions. One division was given in writing to Phatā-
haśhāha,* another to Malleka Utsa, and the third to
Rājāna Shṛiṅgāra. The country was now divided
among these three great men, even as it had once been
divided among Huṣhka, Juṣhka, and Kaniṣhka. Then
the Rājarājāna Ḍāmaras came into the city, but they
did not lay aside the deep enmity of their heart,—the
enmity such as exists between a mongoose and a
serpent.
The king gave Utsa Malleka the post of the chief
minister, and to Rājāna Shṛiṅgāra he gave the extensive
estate of Siddhā. When Utsa Malleka, the arbiter of

• The reigning king.

KINGS OF KASHMÍRA. 345
all affairs, took his seat in court, people saw the
meeting of a jackal and a sheep of which they had only
heard before. When the one whose fleece is shorn,
the one who howls, met, the king gave his orders under
a closed cover in order to see how the meeting would
terminate. Then came Ebrāhema Mārgesha, the chief
among the ministers, well dressed, but full of ani-
mosity, and accompanied by Masoda Shāhi. His
army arrived at Varāhamūla, and the king's forces, with
Utsa Malleka at their head, entered Svayyapura, with
the intention to fight. When king Phatāhashāha saw
the two armies stationed one on each bank of the
river, he thus said to Utsa Malleka, the chief minister ;
"This Mārgesha, O! minister, has robbed us of our
Royal Fortune, which is to us even like a wife that
is married, because he thinks us to be cowards."
When Utsa Malleka heard this, he said to the king ;—
"O king, what mischief is not this Mārgesha doing,
finding me friendless and alone? But O! chief
among men, it is but seldom that a man sees a chintā-
maṇi jewel or a flower that grows in heaven, but
one never sees a man to prosper who is consumed
by the prowess of a king. Arise O! king, and fight ;
fortune is under the influence of fate." When the king's
soldiers heard these words they marched out for battle.
The Mārgesha marched along the road with his army
and came to Bhavatuṅga, while Utsa Malleka with his
forces entered Koshanatsa. There the two armies

346 KINGS OF KASHMÍRA.
stayed, but soldiers came out from the main bodies
which were stationed on both banks of the river, as-
cended a hill, posted theinselves between the two
parties, and discharged showers of arrows against each
other. There Shirya son of the Mārgesha fought
with the enemies, and sacrificed his life, as if thereby he
gave a great offering to Padmanāga. When Shirya
Mārgapati fell, the victor Utsa Malleka relaxed his
exertion out of friendship for the deceased. The
great warriors and soldiers of the Mārgesha observed
this relaxation and came up by the Sarvvāshrama
road, and pursued the powerful Utsa Malleka who
was retreating. When Phatāhashāha heard this news
from Svayyapura, he took Rājāna Shṛingāra with him
and went from Sūrapura to Hinduvāṭa. Utsa Malleka
was hemmed in by the pursuing soldiers of the Mār-
gesha at the skrit of the village of Nyovā, even like
a lion hemmed in at the mouth of a cavern.
King Phatāha fled, after having ruled the country
for nine years ; and Mahmadashāha, who was supported
by the Mārgesha, then got possession of the kingdom.
In order to please the Mārgesha he made the
powerful Seha Eskandara his heir-apparent, though this
person had once attempted to murder the king. The
Mārgapati again placed his enemies in prison, and
once more graced his sons with kingly fortune. Utsa
Malleka lay in prison, secure in the idea that the
Mārgesha would not kill him, having bestowed his

KINGS OF KASHMÍRA. 347
daughter on him, and he being thus related to the Mār-
gesha by marriage. But the son of the Mārgesha was
hostile to him, and the powerful Utsa Malleka, whose feet
were tied with an iron chain, was fouly murdered by the
son within five or six days. Like Utsa Malleka,
Bhaṭṭārjuna had fought in the field with the armed
enemies; he was now imprisoned, and was the last of
the rebels. A deep gloom, like that when the moon is
devoured by the powerful Rāhu, spreads even over
the face of the sun when men are engaged in mutual
hostility. The people loudly lamented for Utsa Malleka
as if he were their father. Wicked men walked about
at night and began to infest the country, piercing the
dense darkness with their eyes. In that year the villagers
were doubly unfortunate, the ministers who heard their
petitions were both deaf and dumb !
Mahammada reigned for nine months and nine days.
Once he went out of the capital, when Phatihashāha,
on receiving encouragement, came in. The king
bestowed the post of the minister on the Pratīhāra
Jyahāṅgīra, and he gave the great estate of the Siddhā
country to Rājāna Shṛiṅgāra. He had become king
by his own efforts, and he gave Kācha Chakra the
authority over the arsenal of his own will. Kācha-
Chakra was strong, and his prowess was like the rays
of the sun. Surely Kācha Malleka was an incarnation
of Indra and of Vishṇu, since throughout his life he
was graced with kingly fortune. The heroic Kañchana

348 KINGS OF KASHMÍRA.
was born of Hosana Chakra who was the cause of the
battle in Kramarājya, even as Rāma was born of
Dasharatha.
The king's mind was turned to virtuous deeds owing
to return of virtue in the people, or perhaps because
the king knew that he was to remain in the kingdom
for a short time only. He kept his actions under control
as if he were a servant. He prohibited the execution
of the inscriptions on copper plates. He ordered the
bones of the Hindus who had been dead to be collected
and taken to the Ganges, so that the outrages of the
mlechchhas on them might be prevented. The people
had deposited the bones in the Ganges and were
returning when they were suddenly overtaken by storm
and rain on the way, and they perished to the number of
ten thousand. But I think that the river Ganges was
oppressed with hunger, and as it was after a long time
that she had devoured bones, she surely devoured the
the men also who had carried the bones. Those who
had recourse to their legs escaped with but little of their
life left in them ; they reached home, but perished
through the influence of fate.
In the autumn of the year 91 the Mārgapati again
came from Vāngila accompanied by Mahmadashāhi.
Phatāhashāha with his army stationed himself at the
village of Vāngila, and his troops marched out to fight
with the powerful enemy. The virtuous son of the
Mārgesha was the leader of the army, and while fighting

KINGS OF KASHMÍRA. 349
hotly with the enemy in the field, he joined the company
of the women of heaven, (died). There exists in this
world only one part of virtue, out of four, in the Kali
yuga, but the son of the Mārgesha had made that virtue
four legged in the shape of the great towers of the masoda.
Surely Kārkoṭanāga had devoured the Mārgapati in anger
so that the Nāga might go from and return to Karkoṭa
hill every year without any obstruction. The plans of
Abdāla Malleka, Luhara, and other sons of the Mārgapati
were discovered by the king, and they fled to different
countries. As by chance the hand comes across a hole
in a cloth, and that which was torn but half a cubit before
is enlarged, even so misfortunes come upon sinful people.
An epidemic which was as it were the wife of Death
broke out on all sides, and it caused sickness, tumults,
and destruction of men. The number of the dead could
not be counted either in villages or in the capital. Men
could hardly get a piece of torn cloth at their last moment.
Friends did not weep for friends, what of sorrowing
for others ? Anxious for themselves, some managed to
save their lives, for as yet they were destined to live.
Now when the epidemic disappeared from the country,
through the influence of fate, men heard the news of
Mahmadashāha's arrival into Kashmīra. Mahmadashāha
set out from Noushāhāra accompanied by Luhara,
and obtained a large force from Eskandara, lord
of Gaja. He wished to take possession of Kash-
mīra, and he came bringing with him the sons of the
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