H HISTORY OF CASHMIH. 



to frustrate the decrees of fate, and to carry with him into a future state the 

 spirit of his obnoxious minister ; accordingly, on the same night on which the 

 monarch's body was burnt, the executioners put Sandhimati to death upon 

 a stake.* Jayendra reigned 37 years. 



When Isana, the Guru of Sandhimati, heard of his death, he repaired to the 

 place of execution, to recover the body, and secure for it funeral rites. 

 On taking the body from the stake, and fastening the feet and head together, 

 in order to remove the corpse more commodiously, he was struck by an 

 inscription on the forehead, which his knowledge enabled him to decypher; 

 it was to this effect, "a life of poverty, ten years' imprisonment, death on 

 a stake, and accession to a throne ;" predictions of which three had come to 

 pass, and the fourth was yettobefulnlled. For the accoinplishmentol the splen- 

 did part of our hero's fate, the Brahman performed those rites which com- 

 pel the attendance of the ministers of Siva, the Yoginis ; who accordingly 

 appeared, and restored animation to the lifeless body of Sandhimati, whom 

 they endowed with singular beauty and supernatural powers, and hailed as 

 future king by the title of Arya Raja.| The news of this miraculous restora- 

 tion spread through the kingdom, and all classes of people, impelled by re- 

 sistless destiny, hastened to salute him as king: they led him in triumph to 

 the capital, and he commenced his pious reign. 



Whoever might have been the person, thus made the subject of mira- 

 culous tradition, it appears from our author's account, supported by him 

 by reference to local corroboration, that he was an active promoter of the 

 worship of Siva as the Liiiga, with the usual accompaniments of the Trident 

 and the Bull. Many temples of this description, continued at a long subse- 

 quent period, to be ascribed to this reign, and particularly one called Sa- 



" Sandhimati being elevated by the savage executioners on the fftda was killed." He was 

 perhaps impaled. Major Wilford however considers the instrument to be across. — See A. R.x. 

 But the punishment of impaling has always prevailed in the east: accounts of it in Ceylon, 

 Java, the Burman Empire, &c. are numerous and authentic. 



| Ariraj. — AbuIJazl. 



