Vikramaditya

Vikramaditya means "the sun of valour" (vikrama means "valour" and aditya means "sun"). He is also known as Vikrama, Bikramjit and Vikramarka (arka also means "sun"). Some legends describe him as a liberator of India from mlechchha invaders; the invaders are identified as Shakas in most, and the king is known by the epithet Shakari (; "enemy of the Shakas"). == Early legends ==

Although Vikramaditya is mentioned in a few works dated to before the Gupta period (240–550 CE), portions (including Vikramaditya) may be later Gupta-era interpolations. The earliest work to mention Vikramaditya was probably Brihatkatha, an Indian epic written between the first century BCE and the third century CE in the unattested Paisaci language. Its existence (and its mention of Vikramaditya) is confirmed only by adaptations in surviving works dating to the sixth century and later and testimonials by contemporary poets. Since there is no surviving copy of Brihatkatha, it is unknown if it contained the Vikramaditya legends; its post-Gupta adaptations, such as the Katha-Sarit-Sagara, may contain interpolations. Gaha Sattasai (or Gatha-Saptasati), a collection of poems attributed to the Satavahana king Hāla (), mentions a king named Vikramaditya who gave away his wealth out of charity. However, many stanzas in this work are not common to its revisions and are apparent Gupta-period expansions. The verse about Vikramaditya is similar to a phrase—Anekago-shatasahasra-hiranya-kotipradasya—found in Gupta inscriptions about Samudragupta and Chandragupta II (for example, the Pune and Riddhapur copper-plate inscriptions of Chandragupta's daughter, Prabhavatigupta); this phrase may have been a later, Gupta-era insertion in the work attributed to Hāla., illustration by Beohar Rammanohar Sinha|leftThe earliest uncontested mentions of Vikramaditya appear in sixth-century works: the biography of Vasubandhu by Paramartha (499–569) and Vasavadatta by Subandhu. Paramaratha quotes a legend that mentions Ayodhya ("A-yu-ja") as the capital of King Vikramaditya ("Pi-ka-la-ma-a-chi-ta"). According to this legend, the king gave 300,000 gold coins to the Samkhya scholar Vindhyavasa for defeating Vasubandhu's Buddhist teacher (Buddhamitra) in a philosophical debate. Vasubandhu then wrote Paramartha Saptati, illustrating deficiencies in Samkhya philosophy. Vikramaditya, pleased with Vasubandhu's arguments, gave him 300,000 gold coins as well. Vasubandhu later taught Buddhism to Prince Baladitya and converted the queen to Buddhism after the king's death. According to Subandhu, Vikramaditya was a glorious memory of his time. In his Si-yu-ki, Xuanzang () identifies Vikramaditya as the king of Shravasti. According to his account, the king (despite his treasurer's objections) ordered that 500,000 gold coins be distributed to the poor and gave a man 100,000 gold coins to put him back on track during a wild boar hunt. Around the same time, a Buddhist monk named Manoratha paid a barber 100,000 gold coins for shaving his head. Vikramaditya, who prided himself on his generosity, was embarrassed and arranged a debate between Manoratha and 100 non-Buddhist scholars. After Manoratha defeated 99 of the scholars, the king and other non-Buddhists shouted him down and humiliated him at the beginning of the last debate. Before his death, Manoratha wrote to his disciple Vasubandhu about the futility of debating biased, ignorant people. Shortly after Vikramaditya's death, Vasubandhu asked his successor, Baladitya, to organise another debate to avenge his mentor's humiliation. In this debate, Vasubandhu defeated 100 non-Buddhist scholars. == 10th–12th-century legends ==

Brihatkatha adaptations Kshemendra's Brihatkathamanjari and Somadeva's 11th-century Kathasaritsagara, both adaptations of Brihatkatha, contain a number of legends about Vikramaditya. Each legend has several fantasy stories within a story, illustrating his power. The first legend mentions Vikramaditya's rivalry with the king of Pratishthana. In this version, that king is named Narasimha (not Shalivahana) and Vikramaditya's capital is Pataliputra (not Ujjain). According to the legend, Vikramaditya was an adversary of Narasimha who invaded Dakshinapatha and besieged Pratishthana; he was defeated and forced to retreat. He then entered Pratishthana in disguise and won over a courtesan. Vikramaditya was her lover for some time before secretly returning to Pataliputra. Before his return, he left five golden statues which he had received from Kubera at the courtesan's house. If a limb of one of these miraculous statues was broken off and gifted to someone, the golden limb would grow back. Mourning the loss of her lover, the courtesan turned to charity; known for her gifts of gold, she soon surpassed Narasimha in fame. Vikramaditya later returned to the courtesan's house, where Narasimha met and befriended him. Vikramaditya married the courtesan and brought her to Pataliputra. Book 12 (Shashankavati) contains the vetala panchavimshati legends, popularly known as the Vetala Panchavimshati. It is a collection of 25 stories in which the king tries to capture and hold a vetala who tells a puzzling tale which ends with a question. In addition to Kathasaritsagara, the collection appears in three other Sanskrit recensions, a number of Indian vernacular versions and several English translations from Sanskrit and Hindi; it is the most popular of the Vikramaditya legends. There are minor variations among the recensions; see List of Vetala Tales. In Kshemendra, Somadeva and Śivadāsa's recensions, the king is named Trivikramasena; in Kathasaritsagara, his capital is located at Pratishthana. At the end of the story, the reader learns that he was formerly Vikramaditya. Later texts, such as the Sanskrit Vetala-Vikramaditya-Katha and the modern vernacular versions, identify the king as Vikramaditya of Ujjain. Book 18 (Vishamashila) contains another legend told by Naravahanadatta to an assembly of hermits in the ashram of a sage, Kashyapa. According to the legend, Indra and other devas told Shiva that the slain asuras were reborn as mlechchhas. Shiva then ordered his attendant, Malyavat, to be born in Ujjain as the prince of the Avanti kingdom and kill the mlechchhas. The deity appeared to the Avanti king Mahendraditya in a dream, telling him that a son would be born to his queen Saumyadarshana. He asked the king to name the child Vikramaditya, and told him that the prince would be known as "Vishamashila" because of his hostility to enemies. Malyavat was born as Vikramaditya; when the prince grew up, Mahendraditya retired to Varanasi. Vikramaditya began a campaign to conquer a number of kingdoms and subdued vetalas, rakshasas and other demons. His general, Vikramashakti, conquered the Dakshinapatha in the south; Madhyadesa in the central region; Surashtra in the west, and the country east of the Ganges; Vikramashakti also made the northern kingdom of Kashmira a tributary state of Vikramaditya. Virasena, the king of Sinhala, gave his daughter Madanalekha to Vikramaditya in marriage. The emperor also married three other women (Gunavati, Chandravati and Madanasundari) and Kalingasena, the princess of Kalinga. The Brihatkathamanjari contains similar legends, with some variations; Vikramaditya's general Vikramashakti defeated a number of mlechchhas, including Kambojas, Yavanas, Hunas, Barbaras, Tusharas and Persians. In Brihatkathamanjari and Kathasaritsagara, Malyavat is later born as Gunadhya (the author of Brihatkatha, on which these books are based). Rajatarangini Kalhana's 12th-century Rajatarangini mentions that Harsha Vikramaditya of Ujjayini defeated the Shakas. According to the chronicle Vikramaditya appointed his friend, the poet Matrigupta, ruler of Kashmir. After Vikramaditya's death, Matrigupta abdicated the throne in favour of Pravarasena. Śivadāsa's 12th– to 14th-century Śālivāhana Kātha (or Shalivahana-Charitra) similarly describes the rivalry between Vikramaditya and Shalivahana. Vikramodaya is a series of verse tales in which the emperor appears as a wise parrot; a similar series is found in the Jain text, Pārśvanāthacaritra. The 15th-century—or later—Pañcadaṇḍachattra Prabandha (The Story of Umbrellas With Five Sticks) contains "stories of magic and witchcraft, full of wonderful adventures, in which Vikramāditya plays the rôle of a powerful magician". Ganapati's 16th-century Gujarati work, Madhavanala-Kamakandala-Katha, also contains Vikramaditya stories. == Paramara legends ==

The Paramara kings, who ruled Malwa (including Ujjain) from the ninth to the fourteenth century, associated themselves with Vikramaditya and other legendary kings to justify their imperial claims. Five primary recensions of the Sanskrit version, Simhasana-dvatrimsika, are dated to the 13th and 14th centuries. According to Sujan Rai's 1695 Khulasat-ut-Tawarikh, its author was Bhoja's wazir (prime minister) Pandit Braj. Vetala Panchavimshati and Simhasana Dvatrimsika are structurally opposite. In the Vetala tales, Vikramaditya is the central character of the frame story but is unconnected with the individual tales except for hearing them from the vetala. Although the frame story of the Throne Tales is set long after Vikramaditya's death, those tales describe his life and deeds. Bhavishya Purana Paramara-era legends associate the Paramara rulers with legendary kings, in order to enhance the Paramara imperial claims. The Bhavishya Purana, an ancient Hindu text which has been edited till as late as 19th century, connects Vikramaditya to the Paramaras. According to the text (3.1.6.45-7.4), the first Paramara king was Pramara (born from a fire pit at Mount Abu, thus an Agnivansha). Vikramaditya, Shalivahana and Bhoja are described as Pramara's descendants and members of the Paramara dynasty. At the beginning of the Kali Yuga, Vikramaditya came from Kailasa and convened an assembly of sages from the Naimisha Forest. Gorakhnath, Bhartrhari, Lomaharsana, Saunaka and other sages recited the Puranas and the Upapuranas. A hundred years after Vikramaditya's death, the Shakas invaded India again. Shalivahana, Vikramaditya's grandson, subjugated them and other invaders. Five hundred years after Shalivahana's death, Bhoja defeated later invaders. == Jain legends ==

Several works by Jain authors contain legends about Vikramaditya, including: Few references to Vikramaditya exist in Jain literature before the mid-12th century, although Ujjain appears frequently. After the Jain king Kumarapala (), Jain writers started to compare Kumarapala to Vikramaditya. By the end of the 13th century, legends featuring Vikramaditya as a Jain emperor began surfacing. A major theme in Jain tradition is that the Śvetāmbara Jain acharya Siddhasena Divakara converted Vikramaditya to Jainism. He is said to have told Vikramaditya that 1,199 years after him, there would be another great king like him (Kumarapala). Jain tradition originally had four Simhasana-related stories and four vetala-related puzzle stories. Later Jain authors adopted the 32 Simhasana Dvatrimsika and 25 Vetala Panchavimshati stories. The Jain author Hemachandra names Vikramaditya as one of four learned kings; the other three are Shalivahana, Bhoja and Munja. According to Alain Daniélou, the Vikramaditya in this legend refers to a Satavahana king. Other Jain texts contain variations of a legend about Vikramaditya's defeat at the hands of the king of Pratishthana, known as Satavahana or Shalivahana. This theme is found in Jina-Prabhasuri's Kalpa-Pradipa, Rajashekhara's Prabandha-Kosha and Salivahana-Charitra, a Marathi work. According to the legend, Satavahana was the child of the Nāga (serpent) chief Shesha and a Brahmin widow who lived in the home of a potter. His name, Satavahana, was derived from satani (give) and vahana (a means of transport) because he sculpted elephants, horses and other means of transport with clay and gave them to other children. Vikramaditya perceived omens that his killer had been born. He sent his vetala to find the child; the vetala traced Satavahana in Pratishthana, and Vikramaditya led an army there. With Nāga magic, Satavahana converted his clay figures of horses, elephants and soldiers into a real army. He defeated Vikramaditya (who fled to Ujjain), began his own era, and became a Jain. There are several variations of this legend: Vikramaditya is killed by Satavahana's arrow in battle; he marries Satavahana's daughter and they have a son (known as Vikramasena or Vikrama-charitra), or Satavahana is the son of Manorama, wife of a bodyguard of the king of Pratishthana. == Tamil legends ==

In a medieval Tamil legend Vikramaditya has 32 marks on his body, a characteristic of universal emperors. A Brahmin in need of Alchemic quicksilver tells him that it can be obtained if the emperor offers his head to the goddess Kamakshi of Kanchipuram. Although Vikramaditya agrees to sacrifice himself, the goddess fulfills his wish without the sacrifice. In another Tamil legend, Vikramaditya offers to perform a variant of the navakhandam rite (cutting the body in nine places) to please the gods. He offers to cut his body in eight places (for the eight Bhairavas), and offers his head to the goddess. In return, he convinces the goddess to end human sacrifice. == Ayodhya legend ==

According to a legend in Ayodhya, the city was re-discovered by Vikramaditya after it was lost for centuries. Vikramaditya began searching for Ayodhya and met Prayaga, the king of tirthas. Guided by Prayaga, Vikramaditya marked the place but then forgot where it was. A yogi told him that he should free a cow and calf; Ayodhya would be where milk began to flow from the cow's udder. Following this advice, Vikramaditya found the site of ancient Ayodhya. The Vikramaditya mentioned in Paramartha's fourth–fifth century CE biography of Vasubandhu is generally identified with a Gupta king, such as Skandagupta or Purugupta. Although the Gupta kings ruled from Pataliputra, Ayodhya was within their domain. However, scholars such as Ashvini Agrawal reject this account as inaccurate. == Navaratnas ==

In Jyotirvidabharana (22.10), a treatise attributed to Kalidasa, nine noted scholars (the Navaratnas) were at Vikramaditya's court: • Vidyasimha • Dhanavantari • Ghatakarapara • Kalidasa • Kshapanaka • Shanku • Varahamihira • Vararuchi • Vetala Bhatta However, many scholars consider Jyotirvidabharana a literary forgery written after Kalidasa's death. According to V. V. Mirashi, who dates the work to the 12th century, it could not have been composed by Kalidasa because it contains grammatical errors. There is no mention of such Navaratnas in earlier literature, and D. C. Sircar calls Jyotirvidabharana "absolutely worthless for historical purposes". There is no historical evidence indicating that the nine scholars were contemporary figures or proteges of the same king. Vararuchi is believed to have lived around the third or fourth century CE. Although Kalidasa's lifetime is debated, most historians place him around the fifth century; Varahamihira is known to have lived in the sixth century. Dhanavantari was the author of a medical glossary (a nighantu), but his lifetime is uncertain. Amarasimha cannot be dated with certainty either, but his lexicon uses works by Dhanavantari and Kalidasa; therefore, he cannot be dated to the first century BCE (Vikramaditya is said to have established an era in 57 BCE). Little is known about Shanku, Vetalabhatta, Kshapanaka and Ghatakarpara. Some Jain writers identify Siddhasena Divakara as Kshapanaka, but this is not accepted by historians. Kalidasa is the only figure whose association with Vikramaditya is mentioned in works earlier than Jyotirvidabharana. According to Rajasekhara's Kāvyamimāṃsa (10th century), Bhoja's Sringara Prakasa and Kshemendra's Auchitya-Vichara-Charcha (both 11th century), Vikramaditya sent Kalidasa as his ambassador to the Kuntala country (present-day Uttara Kannada). However, the historicity of these reports is doubtful. The same Jyothirvidabharana also mentions that Kalidasa, along with the other Navarathnas mentioned above, claimed to have worked in the court of Vikramaditya, the one who defeated the Roman Emperor Roma Sakadhipathya and dragged him in the streets of Ujjayini. == Early legends ==

Malava king Rajbali Pandey, Kailash Chand Jain and others believe that Vikramaditya was an Ujjaini based Malava king. The Shakas advanced from Sindh to Malwa around the first century BCE, and were defeated by Vikramaditya. The Krita era, which later came to be known as Vikrama Samvat, marked this victory. Chandragupta II later adopted the title of Vikramaditya after defeating the Shakas. Proponents of this theory say that Vikramaditya is mentioned in works dating to before the Gupta era, including Brihathkatha and Gatha Saptashati. Vikramaditya cannot be based on Chandragupta II, since the Gupta capital was at Pataliputra (not Ujjain). According to Raj Pruthi, legends surrounding this first-century king gradually became intertwined with those of later kings called "Vikramaditya" (including Chandragupta II). In most of the legends Vikramaditya had his capital at Ujjain, although some mention him as king of Pataliputra (the Gupta capital). According to D. C. Sircar, Chandragupta II may have defeated the Shaka invaders of Ujjain and made his son, Govindagupta, a viceroy there. Ujjain may have become a second Gupta capital, and legends about him (as Vikramaditya) may have developed. however, D. C. Sircar sees this as further proof that Vikramaditya was based on Chandragupta II. Skandagupta The Vikramaditya of Ayodhya legend is identified as Skandagupta () by a number of scholars. == Legacy ==

Several Vikramaditya stories appear in the Amar Chitra Katha comic-book series. Indian films on king Vikramaditya include G. V. Sane's Vikram Satvapariksha (1921), Nanubhai B. Desai's Vikram Charitra (1924), Harshadrai Sakerlal Mehta's Vikram Charitra (1933), Vikram Shashikala (1949), Vijay Bhatt's Vikramaditya (1945), Kemparaj Urs' Raja Vikrama (1950), Dhirubhai Desai's Raja Vikram (1957), Chandrasekhara Rao Jampana's Bhatti Vikramarka (1960), T. R. Raghunath's Vikramaadhithan (1962), Chakravarty Vikramaditya (1964), S. N. Tripathi's Maharaja Vikram (1965), G. Suryam's Vikramarka Vijayam (1971), Shantilal Soni's Vikram Vetal (1986), Krishna's Simhasanam and Singhasan (1986), Ravi Raja Pinisetty's Raja Vikramarka (1990), Rajiv Chilakalapudi's Vikram Betal (2004). Vikram Aur Betaal, which appeared on Doordarshan in the 1980s, was based on Vetala Panchavimshati. Kahaniya Vikram aur Betaal Ki, a remake of the Doordarshan television show, aired on Colors TV in 2009. An adaptation of Singhasan Battisi was aired on Doordarshan during the late 1980s. In 2014, another adaptation was aired on Sony Pal. Currently a series Vikram Betaal Ki Rahasya Gatha is running on &TV where popular actor Aham Sharma is playing the role of Vikramaditya. The Indian Navy aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya was named in honour of Vikramaditya. On 22 December 2016, a commemorative postage stamp honouring Samrat Vikramadittya was released by India Post. Historical-fiction author Shatrujeet Nath retells the emperor's story in his Vikramaditya Veergatha series. Association with Vikrama Samvat After the ninth century, a calendar era beginning in 57 BCE (now called the Vikrama Samvat) began to be associated with Vikramaditya; some legends also associate the Shaka era (beginning in 78 CE) with him. When Persian scholar Al-Biruni (973–1048) visited India, he learned that the Indians used five eras: Sri Harsha, Vikramaditya (57 BCE), Shaka (78 CE), Vallabha and Gupta. The Vikramaditya era was used in southern and western India. Al-Biruni learned the following legend about the Shaka era: Since there was a difference of over 130 years between the Vikramaditya era and the Shaka era, Al-Biruni concluded that their founders were two kings with the same name. The Vikramaditya era named after the first, and the Shaka era was associated with the defeat of the Shaka ruler by the second Vikramaditya. Scholars such as D. C. Sircar and D. R. Bhandarkar believe that the name of the era changed to Vikrama Samvat during the reign of Chandragupta II, who had adopted the title of "Vikramaditya" (see below). Alternative theories also exist, and Rudolf Hoernlé believed that it was Yashodharman who renamed the era Vikrama Samvat. The earliest mention of the Shaka era as the Shalivahana era occurs in the 13th century, and may have been an attempt to remove the era's foreign association. == References ==