Tome And Plume: Vikramaditya And His Samvat In The Eyes Of Storytellers, Historians
· Free Press Journal
Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The Judgement Seat of Vikramaditya, Sister Nivedita.
Long years before computers, mobile phones, and artificial intelligence saw the light of the day, when handwritten letters took days and months to reach their destinations, many people used to write at the beginning or at the end of letters Vikram Samvat. Many authors also used Vikram Samvat in the introduction to their works.
Visit tr-sport.bond for more information.
Now that we have entered the digital era, people rarely write Vikram Samvat in their letters and literary works.
Since the Vikram Era, or Vikram Samvat, has begun and we have entered the New Year of the Hindu almanac, it is time to talk about a few things about Chandragupta II, Vikramaditya.
In all parts across the globe, royal patronages have often had great influence over the destinies of men, and the latter have cherished the memory of the former in legends.
Similar is the case with many ancient and pre-medieval period kings of our country, like Udayana, Chandragupta Maurya, Chandragupta II Vikramaditya, and King Bhoja of the Paramar dynasty.
Historian D C Sircar, in Ancient Malwa and the Vikramaditya Tradition, wrote: “None, however, in the galaxy of rulers has surpassed the glamour of Raja Vikram or Vikramaditya in the Indian tradition and folklore.”
He is represented as the universal king of India with his headquarters in Avanti, or Ujjayani, or modern Ujjain; however, in a few early historical documents, he was called the lord of Pataliputra, the capital of Magadha, near modern Patna, Bihar.
There are many stories about his justice, wisdom, gallantry, love for the brave, mystic powers, and composing poems.
According to Sircar, in these stories, he has been represented as a worker of miracles, a champion of the weak and oppressed, an avenger of insults to women, an incarnation of courage, and a liberator of Indians from the hands of Mlecchas (foreigners).
He is so called because of the destruction the king inflicted upon the Sakas. There is an era, with its beginning in 58-57 BCE, that is still current in many parts of India. The popular name of the era is Samvat or Vikram-Samvat, and it is believed that the king started this era, so history as well as tradition places him in the first century BC.
Such was the popularity of the king that many rulers who came after Vikramaditya would emulate his deeds and assume the title "Vikramaditya." The king of Kalyana assumed the title of Chalukya-Vikramaditya VI (1076-1127 CE).
A 13th-century work, Simhasana Dwatrimsika (Thirty-two Tales of the Throne), consists of the stories of Vikramaditya, which are purported to have been narrated before the king Bhoja of the Paramar dynasty (1000-65 CE).
Two other medieval works, which incorporate the stories of Vikramaditya, are the Vikramacharita of Ananta and the Shalivahanakatha of Sivadasa, which narrate the rivalry between the two kings of ancient India, Vikramaditya and Shalivahana.
Their enmity was beyond politics and the expansion of their respective kingdoms. It existed even in literature and language: historians put Vikram on the side of Sanskrit and Shalivahana on that of Prakrit.
In the 20th century, Sister Nivedita, an American and a disciple of Swami Vivekananda, who took to Hinduism, wrote Cradle Tales of Hinduism in 1907. In the work, she included a story about the King Vikrama of Ujjain, The Judgement Seat of Vikramaditya.
At the outset, she wrote, “For many centuries in Indian history, there was no city so famous as the city of Ujjain. It was always renowned as the seat of learning. Here lived at one time the poet Kalidasa, one of the supreme poets of the world, fit to be named with Homer, Dante, and Shakespeare.”
According to Sister Nivedita, he was like King Arthur or like Alfred the Great. Many foreign authors, historians, and travellers, like Al-Biruni (973-1048 CE), a Chinese Buddhist scholar Xuanzang (602-664 CE), William Jones, Max Muller, to name a few, wrote about the King Vikramaditya, his wisdom, and good governance. Many are based on legends about which historians differ from storytellers, yet his name exists in the heart of every Indian.
Bhopal News: Body Found With Injury Marks, Murder Suspected