HISTORY OF CASHMIK. 41. 



The divine nature of bis queen was the immediate cause of the king's pro- 

 tracted reign, as site conferred upon him the Pdtdla Siddha Mantra, by 

 which he was enabled to extend his life as long as he pleased. At last, how- 

 .ever, satiated with this world, he entered the cave of Namuchi, in the bed of 

 the Chandrabhdga river, through which he passed to Pdtdla, and acquired 

 a kingdom \%Wae infernal regions: his wife, regarded rather inconsistently 

 as a Sacti of Vishnu, went upon her husband's death to Swetadwipa. The 

 claims of the next monarch to the throne of Cashmir are not stated by our 

 original, and the enumeration of his genealogical progenitors warrants a sug- A b 



537 5(iff 



gestion that he might have not been the immediate successor of Ranadity a ; 

 lie was the son of Vicrameswara the son of Vicramacrania Viswa, and is 

 named himself Vicramddilya, a strange series of appellations, and a further 

 proof of some unaccountable blank in the Cashmirian records : Vicramadit- 

 ta reigned 42 years, and was succeeded by his younger brother Baladitya.* sra-^aa 



BIladitva was a prince of a warlike character, and erected hispillarsf of 

 victory on the shores of the eastern sea:;}; one result of his victorious excur- 

 sions was his compelling the subjugated monarehs to beautify Cashmir, and 



* Beckermadut. — Baladut. — Abulfazl. The Mohammedan writers agree with the text ex- 

 cept Bedia-ad-bin : he assigns a life of 165 years to this monarch, and a reign of no more 

 than 40 years : he places also the 30th year of his reign as contemporary with the first of the 

 ■Hij'ra, and describes his sending an embassador to Mohammed. 



■f Jayastambha, the '"Pillars of Sesric and the Trophies of the Greeks and Romans : that it 

 was the custom of'Hircdu princes to erect these pillars is established by concurrent testimonies, 

 and it is probable that it is to this practice we are to ascribe the origin of several solitary stone 

 columns still met with in India, as the Zafof Firoz-skak, the Cuttab minor, the pillar at Allaha- 

 bad, and those in Tirhut, and other places: in general however they were constructed, lik ethe 

 wooden trophies of the Greek*, of less durable materials, and as observed by Plutarch, " Time 

 has gradually effaced these memotials of national hostility." 



J I am especially afraid of my manuscript here: it is alone, in this section of the history, 

 and is very inaccurate. It is said that this prince conquered Bancala or Bengal, a very un- 

 common name, however, in Hindu books of any period, Ganr or Banga being the usual term,, 



F 



