History of Kanauj to the Moslem Conquest c10.s3.28

c10.s3.28

the "vilest of Gauḍas" with his fiery spirit. Thereupon the general Simhanāda exhorted Harṣa to punish the miscreant, and assume the burden of sovereignty, in these words: "Now that the king has assumed his godhead and Rājyavardhana has lost his life by the sting of the vile Gauḍa serpent, you are, in the cataclysm which has come to pass, the only śeṣa left to support the earth. Comfort your unprotected people. Like the autumn sun, set your forehead-burning footsteps upon the heads of kings."¹ Harṣa forthwith replied to the advice of the general: "My heart would force chowries upon even the sun's presumptuously bright hands. Enraged at the title of king, my foot itches to make footstools of even the kings of beasts."² And he registered his determination to wreak vengeance with the following vow: "By the dust of my honoured lord's feet I swear that, unless in a limited number of days I clear the earth of Gauḍas, and make it resound with fetters on the feet of all kings who are excited to insolence by the elasticity of their bows, then will I hurl my sinful self, like a moth, into an oil-fed flame."³