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introduction
CLXXIII anything about his nightly vigilence, and that people were consequently surprised to find that Jayasimha knew everything about them. So they thought that he was a superhuman being - a Vidyadhara (v. 3). This was probably the popular belief about Jayasimha even in his own times. In those days such beliefs were common and easily formed. Hemachandra tells us that Jayasimha would even accost the Sakinis and Yoginīs – super-natural female embodiments of spirits and take them to task if they troubled his people. Once when on such a nocturnal round, he met the Yoginī Kāli of Avanti who threatened Jayasimha with her displeasure if he did not offer worship to her and make friends with Yaşovarman - king of Avanti, that is, Mālava. The king asked her to do her worst and protect her devotee Yaşovarman whom he was going to catch alive in battle. He told her if he did not succeed in that he would then offer her worship.
The king seizing his sword gathered his army and started immediately (v. 20). With lightning speed he appeared on the shores of the Siprā. A seige was laid round Ujjayinī and instructions were given by Jayasimha to raze the ramparts to the ground.
In the evening, the operations were suspended and Jayasimha went out to see the beauty of the surroundings of Ujjayinī. There he finds the Yoginīs Kāli and others—the guardian-spirits of Ujjayini - talking and conspiring to kill him. In the fight that follows he spares Kāli and her friends because they were women. 'Being the son of a good mother, + he
+ Sammätsatvena. The commentator explains as : 'because
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