HISTORY OF CASHMIR. 29 



of Sanscrit origin: besides which, (hat author is a little at variance with him- 

 self, as he had previously separated the two words, and told ns that they 

 were different portions of the Bember road, through both of which an army 

 might pass. The other anecdote has been supposed to account for the 

 title by which this prince was known of Tricotiha, the slayer of three mil- 

 lions: amongst the ruins of Narapur, destroyed as we have seen in the 

 reign of Nara by the Nc'tga Susrava*, some Khasa tribes had taken up their 

 abode : to drive them from the prohibited residence, a large stone fell into 

 the bed of the Chandracula river, and completely obstructed the current : the 

 prince was instructed in a dream that its removal could only be effected by 

 a female of unsullied virtue, and he accordingly commanded women of res- 

 pectable birth and station, to perform the task : their efforts were unavailing : 

 women of the first families and supposed irreproachable conduct, attempt- 

 ed in vain to remove the stone, and its removal was at last effected by a fe- 

 male of a low class, the wife of a potter: the king incensed by this divine 

 proof of the corrupt lives of the female part of his subjects, ordered them to 

 be put to death, together with their husbands, children, and brothers, as im- 

 plicated in their disgrace.* The blood shed by the commands of this sangui- 

 nary sovereign, was expiated by his death: suffering under a painful disease 

 and awakened to some sense of his past cruelty, he determined to put a vo- 

 luntary term to his existence and end his days upon the funeral pile. He found 

 it impossible, however, to meet with persons qualified to conduct the cere- 

 monies ofhis cremation, as his kingdom was crowded with the impure tribes 

 of Ddradas,-\ Bhoteas and Mlech'has. Revoking therefore his grants to the 

 Gdndhdra Brahmans, he invited those of Arijadcsa, on whom he bestowed a 

 thousand Agraharas in Vijai/eswara. The pile was constructed of military 

 weapons, and the king' having seated himself on the summit, the fire was 

 applied, and quickly put a period to his sufferings and his crimes. The du- 

 ration of his reign is said to have been 70 years. 



* The point of this story is the same as of that related of Pheron by Herodotus, ii. 

 111. and Ancient Universal History, i. 294. 



f A. It. yi. 417. Daward, the mountainous range north west of Cashmir, and the present 

 residence of the Durds, 



