The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v1.c13.171

v1.c13.171

A.D.) he had not entirely given up his evil habits. Kalhaṇa indeed notices that girls born in distant lands were bought for him from the Turuṣkas, and "with these and the wives whom he had often taken away from others......he brought the number of the ladies in his seraglio to 72." But he preserved his strength by "the use of fish-broth and other aphrodisiacs."¹ He now threw away all discretion and even treated "some of his son's wives as if they were those of an enemy." His character 'sank to the level of animals,' and the severe strain of these habits soon told on his health. Conscious of approaching death, he brought as his successor his second son Utkarṣa from Lohara. Soon after he died in 1089 in his 49th year before the image of Mārtaṇḍa with the sound of music accompanying the coronation of the new king.²