The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c29.184

c29.184

But he did not long enjoy his ill-gotten gains. Before the year was out he died; and ‘at the time of his death there were thunder and hail and a thick darkness, and the earth shook and a mighty tempest raged. And the holy saints said in pity: "For having killed countless victims and overthrown the law of Buddha, he has now fallen into the lowest hell, where he shall pass endless ages of revolution"'. Thus the tyrant met the just reward of his evil deeds in another world, if not in this. The date of his death is not known exactly, but the event must have occurred in or about the year 542, just a century before Hiuen Tsang was on his travels. The rapidity of the growth of the legend concerning the portents attending the tyrant's death, though perhaps in a measure due to *odium theologicum*, emphasizes the depth of the impression made by his outlandish cruelty; which is further attested by the Kashmīr tale of the fiendish pleasure which he is believed to have taken in rolling elephants down a precipice.¹