History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c45.49

v3.c45.49

There are historical examples of this practice supplied by Epigraphy. The Khairha plates of Yaśaḥkarṇadeva (dated Kalacuri *saṁvat* 823 i. e. 1073 A. D.) narrate that king Gāṅgeya obtained release along with his one hundred wives at the famous banyan tree of Prayāga (E. I. vol. XII. p. 205 at p. 211).²¹³⁵ King Dhaṅgadeva of the Chāṇḍella dynasty is said to have lived for more than 100 years and to have abandoned his body at Prayāga while contemplating on Rudra (E. I. vol. I. p. 140). The Cālukya king Someśvara after performing yoga rites drowned himself in the Tungabhadrā in 1068 A. D. (E. C. vol. II. Sk. 136). The Raghuvamśa VIII. 94 poetically describes how Aja in his old age when his health was shattered by disease resorted to fasting and drowned himself at the confluence of the holy rivers, the Ganges and the Śarayū, and immediately attained the position of a denizen of Heaven.