Compiled by London Swaminathan
Article No.1468; Dated 8th December 2014.
Rajatarangini Wonders – Part 2
Who is who?
Kalhana was the author of Rajatarangini. Here is his report on the cruel king Mihirakula who rolled 100 elephants down the hill and enjoyed their death.
Mihirakula was the king who ruled North India from 515 CE to 530 CE. He was a son of Toramana. We know that his rule extended from Afghanisatan to Madhya Pradesh. But Kalhana says that he killed 30 million people and he attacked Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu. He was a king from the race of White Hunas. He decimated Buddhism in Afghanistan, but supported Saivism in Kashmir. Earlier he was defeated by Malawa King Yasovarman or Baladitya, the last Gupta king. Then he conquered Kashmir and Afghanisatan. Kalhana’s report about his expedition to Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu is not corroborated by secondary sources.
In the first part of Rajatarangini under the title “Nehru on Rajatarangini”, I have explained the comments of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, on the twelfth century work Rajatarangini (River of Kings) of Kalhana .
Here in the second part, Kalhana’s narration about the cruellest king of India, Mihirakula, is given in (first Taranga, sloka 289 onwards) his own words:-
“Then when the land was overthrown by the Mleccha hordes, his son Mihirakula of violent deeds, who was comparable to the God of destruction, became king.
To the south belongs to God of Death(Yama); the northern direction eager through rivalry to vanquish it, found an excuse and in him brought forth another god of death.
His approach was known by the sight of vultures, crows and the like, eager to feed on those being massacred by his encircling army, to the population fleeing before him.
Day and night surrounded by thousands of slaughtered human beings, this “Royal Vetala” lived even in his pleasure places.
Pity for children, clemency towards women, or respect for the aged, this enemy of humanity’s terrible appearance had none while he massacred.
(My comments: Hindu tradition is to announce that all the invalids, women, Brahmins, children should move to safer places before the war. The two warring sides will chose a place outside the town. But after defeat they set fire to the towns and palaces of the king).
Attack on Sri Lanka
“He, on one occasion, having noticed that the queen was wearing a blouse of stuff made in Ceylon, which had foot-marks on the breast worked in gold, was inflamed with rage.
“In Ceylon, cloth is manufactured bearing the mark of king’s foot” – thus he was told by the chamberlain who had been questioned whereupon he gave orders to march.
Having obtained the union with the stream of liquid rut from the temples of the elephants of his army, the southern ocean secured the delight of on embrace with the Yamuna.
(Ocean is blue and Yamuna is black; play on colours)
“Together with the king of Ceylon he, by an impetuous attack, rooted out his rage originating in the sight of footmarks on his beloved.
From a distance on sighting his various forces from the palaces of Lanka the Titans (Rakshasas), apprehending a repetition of the activities of Rama, trembled.
Having installed there another king he, with all his fierce puissance, carried away cloth known as Yamusadeva, marked with the figure of the sun.
(My commenyts: Sri Lanka was ruled by Mugalan until 512 CE and then Kumaradasa came to power)
“Turning back, he dispersed the kings of Cola, Karnata, and Lata just by his very smell the tusker in rut scatters the elephants.
(In Tamil Nadu certain areas were under Pallava King Kumara Vishnu around that time. May be the coastal areas were under Choza Rule.)
After his departure, the cities with the shattered battlements, which were their girdles, complained of the rape to the ruling princes who had returned.
(My comments: Cities were compared to women in Kalidasa’s works, Sangam Literature and the Bible. Here the cities are described as women by Kalhana)
Hundred Elephants were pushed down from the Hill
When he reached the gate of Kashmir, on hearing the distressful trumpeting of a tusker who had fallen down a precipice, his hair stood on the end with delight.
In his excitement to hear this, the perverse minded man, who was in raptures, had a hundred mighty elephants forcibly hurled down.
The various wicked acts of this king have not been narrated. The touch of the sinful is pollution for the limbs, so would it be for speech to describe them; hence his other inhumanities have not been mentioned.
Who can understand the acts of men of amazing activities and vulgar minds, since even he took to piety for the purpose of acquiring merits?
For in Srinagari the foul minded man founded the temple of Mihireswara and in Holada a big city named Mihirapura.
Attack on Brahmin’s Greed
The Brahmans of Gandhara accepted from him gifts of Agraharas; they no doubt, too, were of similar character as his own and were the meanest Brahmins.
The advent of clouds with the gathering darkness gladdens the peacock whereas the wild goose is happy with the clear skies of autumn; for the attraction of the donor and the donee towards each other there has to be a very close similarity of tastes.
(Kalhana himself was a Brahmin from Kashmir. But he attacked Brahmin community whenever he found them doing wrong things)
For seventy years having enjoyed the earth, this “Bhairava on earth” when his body was afflicted with several diseases entered the flames.
“Here is the slayer of three crores liberated who even towards himself been pitiless” — thus had a voice, at the time when he relinquished the body, announced from the firmament.
Thus those who say this, in their view he alone is the liberal donor who had broken through cruelty by Agraharas and such other works.
When overrun by the impious Dards, Bhauttas and Mlecchas this country had lost religion, he had promulgated the observance of religious conduct by settling the people from the land of Aryas; having determined on a terrible penance he had made the burning of his own body an act of atonement; for this very reason he had given one thousand Agraharas in gift to the Brahmins born in the Gandhara country at Vijayeswara, then eventually an iron platform studded with razors, swords and knives, red hot with fire, he had boldly given up his own body – thus others state, on account of this unadulterated popular tradition, that the cruelty of that lion like man is irreproachable. When upon the burning of the city by the wrath of the Naga the Khasas had become dominant, there occurred for their destruction the incidents narrated above – so say others.
(Khasas are hill tribes)
Engineering Work
While he was diverting the river Chandrakulya, a rock in midstream which was impossible to remove, caused obstruction. Then to the king who had practised penance, the gods spoke in a dream; a mighty Yaksa who is a Brahmachari resides here in the rock; were a chaste woman to toch the roack the Yaksa would not be able to obstruct. The following day he caused to be done wht he was told in the dream.
After numerous ladies of high family had endeavoured in vain, on being eventually touched by a potter woman named Candraavati the mighty boulder moved.
For this sin the wrathful king had thereupon slaughtered, together with their husbands, brothers and sons, three crores of women of high families.
(Here Kalhana repeats what other stories he heard from the public)
This legend is true according to some; nevertheless the slaughter of living beings on large scale for a cause is a felony”.
–From Rajatarangini, Chapter 1/Taranga 1
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