Jonaraja

"When the violence caused by the Rakshasa Dalcha ceased, the son found not his father, nor the father his son, nor did brothers meet their brothers. Kashmira became almost like a region before the creation, a vast field with few men, without food, and full of grass. Dalcha took away the strong men from the country, and Rinchana established his supremacy there ; when darkness covers the earth, unchaste women find it to their advantage."

"It was perhaps owing to the sins of the subjects that the king had a fondness for the Yavanas, even as a boy has a fondness for mud. Many Yavanas left other sovereigns and took shelter under this king who was renowned for charity, even as bees leave the flowers and settle on elephants. As the bright moon is among the stars, so was Mahammada of Mera country among these Yavanas; and although be was a boy, he became their chief by learning. The king waited on him daily, humble as a servant, and like a student he daily took his lessons from him. He placed Mahammada before him, and was attentive to him like a slave. As the wind destroys the trees, and the locusts the shali crop, so did the Yavanas destroy the usages of Kashmira. Attracted by the gifts and honors which the king bestowed, and by his kindness, the mlechchhas entered Kashmira, even as locusts enter a good field of corn..."

"The kingdom of Kashmira was polluted by the evil practices of the mlechchhas, and the Brahmanas, the mantras, and the gods relinquished their power. The gods who used to make the glory of their prowess manifest, even as fire-flies manifest their light, now hid their glory on account of the country’s sin. When the gods withdrew their glory, their images became mere stones, and the mantras, mere letters... Suhabhatta who disregarded the acts enjoined by the Vedas, and was instructed by the mlechchhas, instigated the king to break down the images of gods. The good fortune of the subjects left them, and so the king forgot his kingly duties and took a delight, day and night, in breaking images... He broke the images of Marttanda, Vishaya, Ishana, Chakrabhrit, and Tripureshvara; but what can be said of the evil that came on him by the breaking of the Shesha?... When Sureshvari, Varaha, and others were broken, the world trembled, as if through fear, but not so the mind of the wicked king. There was no city, no town, no village, no wood, where Suha the Turushka left the temples of gods unbroken. Of the images which once had existed, the name alone was left, and Suhabhatta then felt the satisfaction which one feels on recovering from illness. Suhabhatta with the leaders of the army tried to destroy the caste of the people ; it was like a boy eating the unwholesome food. The Brahmanas declared that they would die if they lost their caste, and Suhabhatta subjected them to a heavy fine because they held to their caste."

"The hawk kills other birds, the lion destroys other animals, the Vajra-jewel pierces other jewels, and the brilliant sun throws about the planets like flowers, and thus destruction seems ever to be caused in this world by one’s own people. Though the king Shrishikandhara was often instigated by Suha to persecute the twice-born, he, whose purpose was tempered by kindness, fixed with some difficulty, a limit to the advance of the great sea of the Yavanas. But Suha passed the limit by levying fines on the twice-born. As the night prevents people from seeing any thing but darkness, so this evil minded man forbade ceremonies and processions during the new moon. He became envious, and apprehended that the twice-born who had become fearless would keep up their caste by going over to foreign countries ; he therefore ordered all the guards on the roads not to allow passage to any one without a written passport. Then as the fisherman torments fish in an enclosed river, so this low born man tormented the twice-born in the country. The Brahmanas burnt themselves in the flaming fire through fear of committing sin, and through fear of him who was like the heat of the fire ; and thus they escaped. Struck by fear some Brahmanas killed themselves by means of poison, some by the rope, others by drowning themselves in water, others again by falling from a precipice, and others burnt themselves. The country was contaminated by hatred, and the king’s favourite (Suha) could not prevent one man in a thousand from committing suicide. ... Suha withheld the allowances of the twice born with a view to extinguish learning, and they, in expectation of a mouthful of food, went from house to house, putting out their tongues like dogs."

"It was out of his devotion to the religion of the Turushkas, not out of antipathy towards the twice-born, that he oppressed the Brahmanas; and hence his victims did not much complain. This was what Suhabhatta told them inorder to remove the impression which his actions created that he had antipathy towards the Brahmanas."

"The good country of Kashmira is adorned by the vedas with their six angas, and the vedantas, and the well arranged siddhantas, by logic and grammar, by the puranas, by the mantras, and by the six schools of philosophy ; by the followers of Shiva and of Vishnu, by the worshippers of the sun, by the Buddhists with their paintings and viharas and mathas ; by the vine, and the saffron, the grains, and the shali rice, and by fragrant flowers; by the puranas, and the shrutis and the tarkashastras; by the Brahmana worahippers of fire, and by the Brahmanas devoted to contemplation, austerities, prayers, and anxious for ablution and worship ; by kotis of nagas, by Hari and Hara ; and by the Gandharvvas and the Vidyadharas. Here the water is cool like the amrita of heaven."