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possessed with an evil spirit, muttering incoherently all the while. Alau'd-dìn was not a liitle annoyed at this strange conduct, and inquired the reason of it. Bhoja replied that it would be difficult for him ever to forget the missfortune that had overtaken him that day; for Mahimasahi having paíd a visit to Jagara, had carried it by assault and dragged his broţher Pitama, into captivity before Hammira. Well might people now, said Bhoja, point the finger of scorn at him, and say, Here is the man who has lost his all in the hope of getting more., Hopeless and forlorn, ho could not now trust himself to lie on the earth, as it all belonged now to Hammira; and he had therefore spread his garment, on which to roll in grief which had deprived him of the power of standing.
Already the fire of anger was kindled in the breast of 'Alā'u'd.-din at the tale of the defeat his brother had sustained, and Bhoja's speech added fuel to the fire. Throwing to the ground, in the vehemence of his feelings, the turban he had on, he said Hammira's folly was like that of one who thought he could tread upon the lion’s mane with inpunity, and vowed he would exterminate the whole race of the Chohans. Then at once he despatched letters to the kings of various countries, calling upon them to join him in a war against Hammira. The kings of AngA, Telanga, Magadha, Maisur, Kalinga, Banga, Bhot, Modapat, Panchâl, Bangal 1, Thamim, Bhilla, Nepal, Dahal, and some Himălayan chiefs, who also obeyed the summons, brought their respective quotas to swell the invading army. Amongst this miscellaneous host there were some who came on account of the love they bore to the goddess of war, while others were there who had been drawn into the ranks of the inwaders by the love of plunder. Others, again, only came to be spectators of the desperate fighting that was expected to
1. I spell those names as they are in the original.
