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Professor Weber thinks that Pulisa the Greek may be identical with Paulus Alexandrinus, the author of an astrological work, the Ejisagoge. Dr. Kern thinks this identification doubtful, although he has no doubt that Pulisa was a Greek. These are the five famous Siddhdntas, and Dr. Kern roughly dates them half way between Garga and Vara- hamihira,—ze., about 250 A. D. , We now pass on to some of the remaining names out of the 18 Siddhantas in our list. There is a Ndradi Sanhita now available which is quite different from the ancient Narada Siddh4nta. The opening lines of the Naradi Sanhité give the names of the 18 Siddhantas which we have given i in our list. R.C. D., A. LHI 14 210 BUDDHIST PERIOD. [BOOK IV. Kasyapa is another high authority in astronomy, often quoted by the astronomers of the Pauranik Period, and from these quotations Kasyapa’s work appears to have been of the same kind as Garga Sid- dhanta. Manu, the mythical.ancestor or personification of mankind, is quoted even in the Garga-Sanhita as an authority on astrology, and of course his name finds a place in the list of the 18 Siddhantas. It is doubtful however if such a work as Manu-Siddhanta ever existed ; when Varahamihira quotes Manu, he quotes the famous Institutes. : , Works in various other departments existed in the Buddhist Period, which are now lost to us. For in- stance, we learn with much interest that Nagnajit com- posed a work-on architecture, sculpture, painting, and kindred arts.\ ‘ - BOOK V. PAURANIK PERIOD. A.D. 500 TO A.D. 1194. CHAPTER I. VIKRAMADITYA THE GREAT AND HIS SUCCESSORS. WE have now come to the last Act of the Drama of Hindu History, and the curtain rises ona truly great spectacle. The victor of a great and patriotic war, the patron of reviving Hinduism, the centre of all that is best and most beautiful in modern Sanscrit literature,and the | subject of a hundred legends, Vikramaditya the Great is to Hindus what Charlemagne is to the French, what Al- fred is to the English, what Asoka is to Buddhists, and what Harun Ar’Rashid is to Mahommedans, To the learned as to the illiterate, to the poet as to the story- teller, to old men as to schoolboys, .his name is as familiar in India as the name of any prince or potentatt in any country, Tender recollections of Sakuntala and Ur. vast rise in the minds of Hindu scholars with the name of the prince in whose court KA4lidésa flourished. Hin- du astronomers cherish the memory of the patron’ of Varaéhamihira; and Hindu lexicographers honour - the- 212 PAURANIK PERIOD. [BOOK Vv. name of the potentate who honoured Amara Sinha, And -as if his true claims to glory were not enough, a hundred tales familiarize his name to the illiterate and the sim- ple. Villagers assemble to this day under the umbra- geous pepul tree to hear how the thirty-two speaking puppets, who bore aloft the throne of the great emperor, would not brook his successor, and departed, each tell- ing a story of Vikrama’s glory. And little boys in ‘every village school in India still learn with wondering admiration how the undaunted Vikrama struggled in the midst of darkness- and scenes of terror to obtain mastery over a mighty spirit, and how he suc- ceeded at last, by his indomitable bravery, his never wavering judgment, his never failing Selaposecssion and valour. When we turn however from literary recollections and ‘popular tales to history, we find the greatest confusion with regard to Vikrama’s age and even his very iden- tity! For a long time scholars held that Vikraméditya, the patron of K4lidasa, lived about 56 B. C.,as the Samvat Era would seem to indicate. This opinion has now been generally abandoned, and Dr. Fergusson suggested the theory already mentioned in the Introduction to this work, that Vikrama lived in the 6th century A. D., and that his Era founded in 544 A. D. was antedated” ‘by six centuries, soas to run from 56 B.C. Again, Mr. Fleet maintains, as has been stated in Chapter V of Book IV, that the Samvat Era was not created in CHAP, L.] VIKRAMADITYA AND HIS SUCCESSORS. 213 the 6th century A. D., but was an old existing Era of the Malavas, and that “the name of Vikrama or’ Vikramaditya came to be connected with the M4lava Era of B. C. 57 in consequence of some confused re- miniscence of a conquest of the Indo- Scythians by Chandragupta I or IE” of the Gupta line of eines who assumed the title of Vikramaditya.* Such is the darkness which still hangs over the origin of the Samvat Era, and we leave it to subsequent scholars to dispel this gloom and finally settle the con- troversy about the origin of this Era. We leave the question untouched. We are concerned here with Vikramaditya and, his age, and not with the origin of the Samvat Era, In the Satrunjaya Mahatmya+ it is stated that Vik- ramaditya ascended the throne in 466 of the Saka Era } or 544 A. D. Ballala Misra, the author or compiler of Bhojapravandha, calls the patron of Kalid4sa not Vikra- maditya but Bhoja, and Bhoja is held to have ascended : the throne in 483 A. D. or 367 A. Di: The difference in the name of the king need not puzzle us, as Bhoja is - the ancient name of Malwa, and the king of that coun- try might either be called Bhoja Raja or veya neither being his proper name. * Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, Nol. WE, p. 37, note 2 t Wilford Asiatic Researches IX, p 156 3 3 quoted by Dr, Kern Brihat Sanhitd. - + Prinsep’s Useful Tables, Ed, Thomas, p. 250: } 24 PAURANIK PERIOD. [BOOK v- Houen Tsang, who came to India in the seventh century, places the reign of Siladitya I about 580 A. D., and places VikramAditya immediately before Siladitya. The historian Kalhana who lived in the twelfth century places Vikramaditya (see anie, p. 55,) thirty reigns after Kanishka, who reigned from 78 A. D.,, and six reigns before. Durlabhavardhana, who reigned (see Chapter IV of this Book) from 598 A. D.; and this conclusively fixes the reign of Vikramaditya in the sixth or possibly in the fifth century after Christ. Turning to literary and scientific annals, we know that a tradition, which we will shew hereafter to be at least a thousand years old, speaks of nine great writers as the xzve gems of Vikrama’s court. Amara, Vardha- imihira, Vararuchi, and KA&liddsa are the best known among them. Amara is supposed to have built the temple at Buddha Gay4, which General Cunningham has shewn to have been built between 4oo and 600 A.D. Varahamihira was probably born in 505 A. D., and is shewn by Dr. Bhau Daji to have died in 587 A. D. Vararuchi could not have composed his Prakrita gram- mar much before the fifth or sixth century, as the Pra- krita was scarcely a literary language before that period. And Ké4liddsa’s writings shew that he must have lived in the fifth or sixth century when Pauranik Hinduism flourished, when temples and images were revered, and ‘when the Hindu Trinity was worshipped ; the poet could not have lived in the first century B. C. when Pauranik ’ CHAP. L] VIKRAMADITVA AND HIS SUCCESSORS. 215 Hinduism was duichowa qiien temples and. images were despised, and when the Hindu Trinity had not yet been conceived. KAliddsa’s successors, Bharavi, Dandin, Bana- bhatta, Subandhu, Bhar‘rihari, Bhavabhdti,—who have so much in common in ‘thought and in language with Kaliddsa,—all belong ta the sixth to eighth century after Christ. One of them, Subandhu, speaks of Vikra- maditya as departed not very long ago.* Is it possible for any scholar who has read the writings of these au- thors to place a period ef sax centuries between them and Kalidasa? Not to prolong this disctssion, we. will only add that Vikramaditya is distinguished in traditions andinlegends for his victory over foreign invaders, and for his patron-! age of learning; and we kiow that it was in the fifth and sixth centuries A. D, that great Hindu kings. en- couraged poetry and learning, and repeatedly beat back the Huns who were pouring into India, Alberuni, who lived in India in the eleventh century, tells us that Vikramaditya marched against. the Saka king, “ put. him to flight, and killed him in the region of * Attention was first drawn to this passage in the Vasavadatté by Pun- dit Isvara Chandra VidySségara. It may be thus translated: ‘ Now that Vikramaditya has disappeared save in his fame, -the excellence of political sentiments has disappeared, new writers are flourishing, and each attacks every one else in this ‘earth,—even like a lake ‘where Sarasa . birds disappear, where Vaka birds do not sport, and where the Kanka bird does not stride about, when the sun is set,”- 216 PAURANIK PERIOD. [BOOK Vv. Korur, between Multan and the castle of Loni.” This ‘is about all that we know historically of Vikrama’s great victory over the foreign invaders ! We know something more than this of some other Hindu kings of the sixth end fifth centuries A. D. Yasodharman fought and beat back the Huns (see ante, p. 70). Skandagupta also repelled the Huns on an earlier date (see pp. 68 & 70). Chandragupta II as- sumed the title of Vikramiditya (see p. 66) And his father Samudragupta, the master of all India, was a patron of learning and received the title of Kaviraja from his court. poets (see p. 64 & 203). Is it possible that the memory of the deeds of some of these kings is -woyen in the legends which have gathered round the brighter name of Vikramacitya of Ujjayini. It.is idle to speculate. We must fof the present be content with what little we know; and that little knowledge enables us to place Vikramaditya in the sixth (or posstbly in the fifth) century A, D. No scholar will again seek for the hero of our literary traditions in the annals of the first century B. C., 2. , between the times of Asoka and Kanishka. .