50 HISTORY OF CASHMIR. 



that the fragments of the pillar of Garuda were visible in his time : the statue 

 of Sugata also remained to the period in which our author wrote. 



Lalitaditya is the subject of many marvellous stories, one of which re- 

 minds us of the exploit of Zopyrus : the minister of the king of Sicata 

 Sindhu, probably of Tatlu, presented himself in a wounded and deplorable 

 state before the king, upon one of his expeditions. Lalitaditya took him 

 into favor ; in return for which he offered to lead the army across the de- 

 sert, against his native country, and his offer being accepted, he directed 

 the king to provide water for a fortnight's march ; at the expiration of the 

 fortnight the army was still in the midst of the sands, and the men were 

 perishing with thirst, the guide acknowledging that he had been employed 

 by his sovereign to effect the destruction of the king and his host : the at- 

 tempt of the enemy was foiled, however, by the discovery of some springs, 

 and the king returned in safety to Cashmir, after punishing his treacherous 

 guide ; the springs then opened were said to exist in our author's time, and 

 to form a considerable stream running to the north called Kuntavdhini. 



Lalitaditya, although the substantial proofs of his devotion left no doubt 

 of his piety, was yet not free from faults: amongst other defects he was ad- 

 dicted to wine, and in one of his drunken fits he ordered the city Pravara- 

 pur founded by Pravara Sena to be burnt, that it might no longer emulate the 

 splendour of his own capital. His orders were carried rigidly into effect, to 

 his own deep regret when sobered — and as one proof of the sense he en- 

 tertained of the transaction, he immediately issued positive commands, for 

 his officers to disregard any mandates whatever, that he should promulgate, 

 whilst under the influence of wine.f 



We have an account, in this part of Lalitaditya's reign, of some tu- 



* The story is but imperfectly told here,butthe text is so corrupt, I should scarcely have ventured 

 to select even the above, had I not been countenanced by Narain Cut, who translates the story m 

 much the same way, altering the name of the country to Maruca (that is, a desart tract) on the ocean. 



■f So it was related of Trajan, who indu'.gedin a similar propensity. Vinolentiam prudentia molliverat, 

 caari vetans jussapost longiores epulas. — Aurelius Victor. 



