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We have spoken before of Vikramaditya’s victory over the Sakas or Huns, and this defeat or expulsion of the foreign invaders had the happiest results, and secured peace to Northern India which had been harassed by centuries of,invasions, The arts of peace ,- flourished with the return of peace. The courts CHAP. 1.] VIKRAMADITYA AND HIS SUCCESSORS, 217 of kings as well as large towns became the centtes of luxury and wealth, industries and manufactures. Science raised her head and modern Hindu astronomy obtained a fresh start. Poetry and Drama lighted their. magic lamps and spread light and gladness on the! Hindu mind. Religion itself gathered strength and life, and Hinduism in its new and Pauranik form sought to win back the people from the ranks of Buddhism. — Buddhism had never assumed a hostile attitude towards the parent religion of India; and the fact that the two religions existed side by side for long centuries increased their toleration of each other. In every country Buddhists and orthodox Hindus lived side by side. Hindus went to Buddhist monasteries and uni- versities, and Buddhists learned from Brahman sages, The same kings favoured the followers of both systems of religion. The Gupta emperors were often worshippers: of Siva and Vishnu, but. loaded Buddhists and Buddhist monasteries with gifts, presents, and favours. One king was often a Buddhist and his son an ortho- dox Hindu; and often two brothers followed or. favoured the two religions without fighting. Every court had learned men belonging to both the religions, and Vikramaditya’s court was no exception to the rule, as We will speak of the great writers of Vikrama’s court when we come to treat of literature and science, but our account of Vikrama’s rule will not be complete > 218 PAURANIK PERIOD. [BOOK v. without some mention, however brief, of those writers here. _A verse naming the nine gems* of Vikrama’s Court is known to every Pandit in India, The verse is quoted in the Jyotirvidabharana, and as that astrological work is undoubtedly a modern work, falsely ascribed to K4lidasa, Dr. Hall considered the tradition about the hine. gems to be also modern. That is, however, not the case; for in an inscription of Buddha GayA dated Samvat 1015 or 948 A.D., we find the following pas- sage :-— Vikramaditya was certainly a king renowned in the world. So in his court were nine learned men known under the epithet of nava-ratndui.” The anti- quity ef the tradition is thus beyond question. Kalidasa is the central figure among these noted literary men. We read in the Rajatarangin? that, after the death of Toram4na, his son Pravarasena was unable to assert his. claims to the throne of Kashmir, and that Vikramaditya of Ujjayini, the recognized emperor of India, sent an eminent poet of his court, Matrigupta by name, torule in Kashmir. Matrigupta ruled till the death of his patron, when he retired as a Yati to Benares, and Pravarasena succeeded in Kashmir. Dr. Bhao Daji first started the bold theory that this Matrigupta is no other than the poet K4lidasa. He irgues that the names in the literary history of India * They are Dhanvantari, Kshapanaka, Amara Sinha, Sanku, Vetdla- yhatta,; Ghatakerpara, Kalidasa, Varahamihira and Vararuchi, CHAP, I.] VIKRAMADITYA AND HIS SUCCESSORS. 219 are generally. honorific appellations, and Kalidasa means the same as MA&trigupta, vz, the servant or the protected of the goddess mother K4lf. Dr. Bhao Daji further argues that Matrigupta must have been a renowned poet, and yet unless he be the same as KAlidasa, Hindus .know absolutely nothing | of that renowned poet. On the other hand, the author of Réjatarangini must have known the author of Sakun- tala, and although he mentions the names of other poets, and even of Bhavabhiti, yet he makes no men- tion of the author of Sakuntala unless his Matrigupta - is the poet. Lastly, king Pravarasena, who succeeded © Matrigupta in Kashmir, built a famous bridge of boats on the Vitasta, and there exists a poem in Prakrit on the bridge, and the commentary to the poem attributes” it to KAalidésa. We need not pursue this subject further, and can only say that, although Dr. Bhao Daiji has not proved his theory, he has made out a plaus+ ible case. We next come to the poet Bharavi, the author of the Kirdtarjuniya. He does not appear to have flourished in the court of Vikramaditya, but an inscription has been found dated 637 A. D., in which his name and that of Kalidasa are mentioned. If he was not a contem- porary of Kalidasa, he certainly lived in the sixth century A.D. _ . Amara Sinha, the writer of the best known dictionary | in Sanscrit, was one of the “nine gems,” and was a 220 PAURANIK PERIOD. [ROOK Vv. Buddhist. His work was translated into Chinese: in the sixth century, and he is said to have built the Buddhist temple at Buddha Gay4.* In astronomy Aryabhatta was the first writer of the Pauranik Period. He.was born, as he tells us, in 476 A.D. He did not belong to Vikram4ditya’s court; he was born in Pataliputra, and made his mark early in the sixth century, before Vikramaditya became renowned. Vardhamihira, who followed Aryabhatta, was one of the “nine gems.” He was a native of Avanti, and died - in 587 A.D. His successor Brahmagupta was born at the very close of the sixth century in 598 A.D., and wrote his work when he was thirty years of age in 628 A.D. Brahmagupta’s father was Jishnu, and may have been the very Jishnu mentioned as one of the contemporaries of Kalidasa. Of the remaining “gems” of Vikrama’s court, Dhanvantari was a famous physician and is mentioned by Dandin in his Dasa Kumara Charita. Vetalabhatta was the author of Nitipradipa, and Vararuchi was a well known grammarian. Ghatakarpara, Sanku and Kshapanaka are little known; and posterity has not “held them in the same honour in which they were held in the royal court of Vikrama. * See discussions on the subject in Dr, Rajendralala Mitra’s Buddha Gaya. . - + Dr. Bhao Daji on theage of Aryabhatta. _ CHAP. L] VIKRAMADITYA AND HIS SUCCESSORS. 221. We will only mention two more names which KAliddsa himself has mentioned. Dr. Bhao’ Daji first pointed out that Mallindtha, in commenting on the 14th verse of the Meghaduta, stated that Dignaga and Nichula were contemporaries of Kalidasa, the former being his adversary, and the latter his friend. This Dign4ga was a pupil of. Asanga, and. Asanga’s brother Vasubandhu was a pupil of Manoratha, whd, as we have seen in a previous chapter, was humiliated in Vikrama’s court in a controversy with the Hindu party.. Under the successor of Vikramaditya, Vasabandhu won in argu- ment and restored the credit of the Buddhist party.* One more work which in some form or other has be- come known to all the civilized nations of the world deserves mention in connexion with the age of Vikra- maditya. The fables of Panchatantra (known as Pilpay) were translated into Persian in the réign of Naushar- wan 53I—579 A.D. The fables were probably long current in India, and were. collected by the author of Panchatantra, who was probably a native of the Deccan, about the time when Vikrama was ruling in Ujjayint. In the same way the stories of the Brihat Katha long prevalent in India were recast in Kashmir in the twelfth century in the shape of the Kath4sarit Sagara: We are now able to form some idea of the great literary activity which marked Vikramaditya’s age, a i a a * See the whule question ably discussed in Max Miiller’s Judia, &c, p. 302, &c, ; 222 PAURANIK PERIOD. [RooK Vv. and has shed an undying lustre round his name. We are able after a lapse of over thirteen centurics to form some conception of the upheaval of the Hindu mind and the rise of literary genius which marked the revival of Hinduism. We can imagine how after a prostration of centuries, after harassing wars and invasions, the na- tional mind suddenly rose to vigour, to greatness, to glory. The nation‘ wanted a leader, and VikramA€ditya, the conqueror of the foreigners, the master of all Northern India, the enlightened patron of genius and learning, be it Buddhist or be it Hindu, stood forth as the leader. The times called for a great man, and the great man appeared. And the nation gathered round their great king, and achieved results in literature and science, such ag were. seldom achieved before. ‘Thus if we try to read history carefully and aright, if we brush aside fables and silly exaggerations and un- founded pretentions to antiquity, we can understand each period of Indian History philosophically, and trace each result to. its true cause. We trace the greatness of Vik- - ramaditya himself to the circumstances by which he was surrounded ; we understand the matchless flights of Kaliddsa’s fancy in the light of the general exhilaration of the Hindu spirit in his time ; we appreciate the labours of Varahamihira and Amara Sinha, incited as they were by a spirit of emulation in avery learned court ; and we understand the healthy rivalry between Hindus and “Buddhists at a time when difference of opinion had _ CHAP. 1] VIKRAMADITYA AND HIS SUCCESSORS. 223 not degenerated into intolerance and persecution,. Bud- dhism was decaying and Hinduism was reviving, and naturally enough the reviving religion shewed the great- est signs of vigor, of learning, of genius. Vikram4ditya the Great was succeeded by Stladitya Pratapasila about 550 A.D. We know from Houen Tsang that he was inclined towards Buddhism, and in his court, Vasubandhu, the pupil of Manoratha, was honored, and won a great victory in controversy over the Hindu party. Vasubandhu was the son of a Brah- man, and was the brother of the famous Asanga. He studied in Kashmir, returned to Magadha, became.