HISTORY OF CASHMIR, & 



•with all possible expedition ; they reached Holyasaca, a place on the fron- 

 tier, in six days, where, being now out of danger, they halted to perform the 

 funeral obsequies of the monarch : he was consumed on a stately pile : 

 three of his queens, a pandit, named Jaya Sin ha, and two of his servants, 



burning themselves with the body.* 



The son and successor -of the last king, Gopala Verm a, being yet an 

 infant, was placed under the tutelage of his mother Sugandha : she became 

 regent during his minority, and her ascendancy involved the country in a 

 series of intestine disorders, as she seems to have been a woman of a weak, 

 if not vicious character ; the minister and chief treasurer Pr abhac ara Dev a 

 was her favorite, and engrossed the whole power of the state. This man 

 made Camalaca, also named Sahi, Governor of Bkdndapur, but he proving 

 disobedient, it was taken from him, not without a conflict apparently, anjl 

 given to Toramana, the son of Lalita. 



The reign of Gopala was short; he was carried off by magical incanta- 

 tions, it is said, by the contrivance apparently of Prabhacara, who was 

 afraid of being called to account for the great deficiencies in the public trea- 

 sury, which were ascribable to his own peculations ; Rama Deva, the person 

 employed by him, afterwards confessed the fact, and as the minister disap- 

 pears from the history, we may suppose he paid the penalty of his crime. 

 Sugandha, in the midst of her faults, appearing to entertain no ambitious 

 views for herself, and to have cherished the memory of her son. 



A brother of Gopala succeeded him, but he expired after the short term 



* These accompaniments of Ms cremation find an analogy in many parts of the south of India, as 

 noticed by early travellers; they are not however directed by the Sastras, any more than the self-immo- 

 lation on account of sorrow or sickness, of which we have had several instances ; the latter indeed in 

 the present age is prohibited at any place except Prayaga. Several instances of suicide occur in the 

 Hindu books, as Bhishma in the Mahabh&rata, and the father and the mother of the young ascetic kill- 

 ed accidently by. Dasaratha, who mounted the funeral pile with their son, as told in the Raghuvansa, 

 see A. R. x. These cases however are referred to former periods. 



I 2 



A. D 



