第105章

Of the things done by King Crisnarao after he was raised to the throne.

As soon as Crisnarao was raised to be King and was obeyed throughout all his kingdom,--Salvatine being his minister,who had been the same for his brother Busbalrao,[514]--he without delay sent his nephew,son of Busbalrao his brother,together with his own three brothers,to a fortress called Chaodegary;the nephew remained there till he died.And after the King had done this for his own safety he stayed in the city of Bisnaga for a year and a half without going outside of it,learning the affairs of the kingdom and looking at the testaments of past kings.Amongst these he found one of king Narsymga,whose minister his father Narsenayque had been,in which that King desired that his sons,or whoever should inherit this kingdom of Narsymga which he had gained by force of arms,should capture three fortresses that at his death remained in revolt against him,the which he had not himself taken because time failed him;one of them was called Rracholl,[515]and another Medegulla.[516]

Crisnarao,seeing this testament and seeing how badly the kings his predecessors had acted in what had been enjoined on them,determined at once to prepare armies and to go against these places;and one of these fortresses was called Odigair,and it belonged to the King of Orya.And,determining to go first against this,he collected (an army of)thirty-four thousand foot and eight hundred elephants,and arrived with this force at the city of Digary,[517]in which there were ten thousand foot soldiers and four hundred horse;for the fortress had no necessity for more by reason of its great strength,because it could not be taken except by being starved out.

And the King laid siege to it for a year and a half,in which time he made many paths across rocky hills,breaking up many great boulders in order to make a road for his soldiers to approach the towers of the fortress.The place at this time was so strong that they could not approach it except by one way which was so narrow that men could only pass along it one at a time;and in this place he made a broad road,and many others also,so that he could come close to the fortress.

And he took it by force of arms,and in it captured an aunt[518]of the King of Orya,who was taken captive and carried off with all the courtesy that he could show her,having her liberty;and he took her along with himself.

And after this was done he called Salvatinya and bade him see how well he had performed that which king Narsymga had by his testament enjoined on him,and yet he said he was not content with such a trivial victory,for[519]he desired to go forward a hundred leagues into the kingdom of Orya;and he ordered him to make ready provisions and pay fully the salaries of the forces.