Description
Lalitaditya of Kashmir, builder of the Martand sun temple, was called a universal monarch by the chronicler Kalhana. Kalhana also recorded his faults: a drunken order to burn Pravarapura, which his ministers quietly ignored, and the murder of his guest, the king of Gauda (Bengal), under the guarantee of the silver Vishnu Parihasakeshava. The dead king's servants came to Kashmir as pilgrims and ground a silver Vishnu to dust while soldiers cut them down. It was the wrong idol: they had destroyed Ramasvamin, whose base said Rama made it. Source: Kalhana, Rajatarangini 4.126 to 4.335 (Stein's translation).