التاريخ اليميني 46.18

46.18

On the eighth of Shaʿbān he reached Qanauj, which Rājaypāl had abandoned on hearing of his advance—the abandonment of one who sees no disgrace in flight and counts no infamy in it as shame. The Sultan crossed the water called the Gang, whose worth and nobility the Hindus extol, and whose source they believe to be the spring of eternity in heaven. If one of them dies and is burned, they scatter [his ashes] with his bones in it, and think it a purification for his sins. Sometimes an ascetic comes to it from afar and drowns himself in it, believing that this will save him, whereas in this world it destroys him, and in the next it will roast him in fire and disgrace him, and then neither let him die nor live.