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 DESTRUCTION OF A HINDU FANE 151 to penetrate, and he therefore returned to Kandur, where he searched for more elephants. Here he heard that in Brahmastpuri there was a golden idol, round which many elephants were stabled. The Malik started on a night expedition against this place and in the morning seized no less than 250 ele- phants. He then determined to raze the magnificent temple to the ground. The beauty of this shrine was such that you might say that it was the Paradise of Shaddad, which those hellites had found after it was lost, or that it was the golden Lanka of Rama. The roof was covered with rubies and emeralds, and, in short, it was a holy place of the Hindus. Nevertheless Malik Kafur dug it up absolutely from its foundations, and the heads of the Brahmans and the idolaters danced from their necks and fell to the ground at their feet, and blood flowed in torrents. These stone idols, called Ling Mahadeo, had long been established at that place, but up to this time the kick of the horse of Islam had not attempted to break them, and now the Mussulmans destroyed all these images, and Deo Narain fell down, and the other gods, who had fixed their seats there, jumped so high that the idols themselves would have fled had they had any legs to stand on. Much gold and valuable jewels fell into the hands of the Mussulmans, who returned to the royal tent, after executing their holy project, on the thirteenth of Zu-1-ka'da, 710 A. H. (April, 1311 A.D.). After five days, the royal tent was moved from