104 
C. J. Rodgers —The Square Silver Coins of 
[No. 2, 
ing which he called Lanka. This Yer Nag is a large pond, and the 
erection of a heavy building in it was accomplished much in the same 
way as the masonry in wells is supported on wooden foundations. The 
name given to this building was Lanka, but the purpose was Muham¬ 
madan. The building was a mosque. But Muhammadan poets and 
Hindu jogis were received by the king. His wise men solved all kinds of 
difficult questions at once. • 
One day a woman in the city got angry with her maid-servant. 
She wished even to kill her, but she could not accomplish it. So she 
killed her own child and went unto the king in the morning and said 
the maid had done it. The matter was laid before the wise men who 
could make nothing out of it at first. But afterwards they called 
the maid and asked whether she had done the deed or not. She protest¬ 
ed her innocence and was told to show her confidence in her own cause 
by appearing naked before the assembly. This she refused to do saying 
she was not going to add to the evil of being accused the additional one 
of exposure and shame. She was then dismissed and her accuser was 
called. She was asked whether her accusation were true. She replied, 
“ If it be not, kill me.” The assembly replied, “ No, but if you are 
guiltless, strip yourself naked before us.” She was proceeding to do this 
when the king stopped her with, “ The crime is yours.” The guiltless 
maid was set free and the guilty woman punished. 
The king did not execute persons for theft (he was three hundred 
years ahead of England) he put them in fetters and made them work at 
making bricks, &e. He also forbad hunting. During Ramzan he never 
ate flesh. When his liberality was known, musicians of note flocked 
to his court. Kashmir became another country with their presence. 
One scholar of Abdul Qadir of Khorasan was an excellent performer on 
the lute. Another Mulla Jamil was both poet and singer. His name is 
a proverb in Kashmir for excellence in poetry. Jab, a celebrated maker 
of fireworks was also patronized by the Sultan. Ho made gunpowder 
in Kashmir and was well up in other sciences. Dancers too found a 
patron in Zain-ul- ’Abidin. Acrobats made Kashmir their home* None 
went away unrewarded. Dasum a Kashmiri poet wrote an account of 
the events of the Sultan’s reign in a book called “ Zain Harab .” Budi 
But, a man who had committed to memory the whole of the Shah Nama 
(a prodigious task) wrote a book on music which he repeated before the 
Sultan. Zain ul ’Abidin himself knew Persian, Hindi and Tibetan. 
According to his commands books were translated out of Arabic into 
Hindi, and Hindi books into Persian, &c. He ordered the Mahabharata 
to be translated. By his orders the history of Kashmir, the Rajah 
Taringini was compiled. He also caused the history of Kashmir to be 
written in Persian. 
