126 THE HISTORY OF KASHMIR

Martand; and the ruins of the city Parihasapura, near the present Shadipur, are an even fuller testimony to his greatness. These, therefore, we must regard as the most reliable indications we have of the degree of culture and civilisation to which Kashmir attained in its most palmy days twelve hundred years ago.

Lalitaditya’s rule was followed by a succession of short and weak reigns, but his grandson was almost as great a hero of popular legend as himself. He too, “full of ambition, collected an army and set out for the conquest of the world.” He reached the Ganges and defeated the King of Kanauj, but had to return to Kashmir to subdue a usurper to his throne. He encouragéd scholars and poets and founded cities. After him followed, first, “an indolent and profligate prince”; then a child in the hands of uncles, who as soon as he grew up destroyed him and put another child on the throne. He indeed maintained his position on the throne for 87 years, but only on account of the rivalries of the uncles, and as a mere puppet king, and was eventually deposed by the victorious faction to make place for yet another puppet king, who again was killed by a treacherous relative. So the