HISTORY OF CASHM1B. 4§ 



qlaims to the supreme sovereignty of India, having made with his victori- 

 ous armies the triumphant circuit of Hindustan. His first, scene of action 

 was in the Antervedl country, the diadem of which he placed upon his own 

 head. He then turned his arms against Yasoverma, at that, time sovereign 

 of Canouj, a prince distinguished for hjs literary accomplishments, and the 

 patronage extended by him to such eminent Poets, as Cavivacpati, Raja 

 Sri and Bhavabhutl* A peace was soon agreed upon between the mo- 

 narchs but as speedily violated : some informality iu the address of a dis- 

 patch from Yasoverma to Lalitaditva having excited the latter's resent- 

 ment, led to a renewal of hostilities, and the total subversion of the kin^ 

 dom of Canouj. 



Although thus occupied in foreign war, the prince appears to have devot- 

 ed some attention to the details of domestic administration, and to have made 

 a new arrangement of the great offices of his court : over the eighteen 

 branches of the government, he instituted five principal departments, the 

 Mahapratihardp'ira, or office of high chamberlain ; Mahdsandhwlgraha, that 

 of chief minister, or supreme administrator of peace and war; Mahaswasdld, 

 of the Royal stables, or of master of the horse ; Mahdbhdnddgdra, of the 

 high keeper of the treasury or arsenal, or perhaps both ; and the Mahdsd~ 

 dhanabhdga, an office of which the nature is not fully conveyed by the nomen- 

 clature, but which may perhaps be the supreme directorial or executive 

 administration. Sdhi and others were the officers invested with these higk 

 functions. 



*The two former of these are unknown. The third is celebrated as the author of the Malati 

 Mddhava, and the Uttara Rama charitra. He might have been at the court of Canouj, but he 

 was of a Berar or Viderbha family : he is usually considered as contemporary with Cdliddsa, 

 and in the Bhoja Prabandka is brought to Bhojas court. .His- own works however afford no 

 reason to suppose he was cotemporary with either CalidAsA, or Bhoja, and with respect to 

 the latter, furnish grounds for inferring the prior date of the Poet. The Raja Taringini is there- 

 fore probably correct in placing him about A. D. 705 or nearly two centuries before the pro- 

 bable period of Bhoja's reign. Yasoverm A himself is not known, unless he be the same with 

 J^irtiverma', an appellation of like import, aud a prince who is mentioned iu the opening, 

 of the Prabodha Chaudiudaya, 



