IS^S *:ssAY ox 



> The year S044 of the CaU-yuga is looked iipofi by 

 many as the year of Vicrama'rca's deatli : hence 

 in the Deccan, they liave reckiced his supposecl reign 

 to 944 ; hut b}^ others it is looked upon as the first 

 of his rei^n, which then must have ended in the 

 lOOOth year, answering to the first of the Christian 

 era. Hence Vicram a is said, in the Tadkerdt-Assalatiii, 

 as cited by Bernoullf, to have lived 1100 years^ 

 before he re-appeared and reigned at DUli. 



This Vicram a'rca, called also Vicrama-s'ena 

 and VicRAMA-siNH, is supposed to be the most an- 

 cient; yet his brother Bhartrihari (also named 

 'SucA'DiTYAor Sucara'ja), besides a treatise consist- 

 *ing of 300 moral sentences, and simply called Bhar- 

 trI'iiari, after him, wrote likewise a collection en- 

 titled Sucasaptati, or the 70 tales of the Parrot. 

 Mention is there made of a more ancient king, Vi- 

 crAxMa-s'ena, to whom, and his daughter-in-law Pra- 

 bh'ati', the Parrot relates these amusing slories. 

 Every VFcrama has either a parrot, a demon, or 

 statue to entertain him. Another peculiarity of 

 every one of them is, that upon the least disappoint- 

 ment, or fit of ill-humour, he is ready to cut off his 

 own head, and throw it at the feet of the goddess 

 Ca'lI, who interposes and grants his boon. Jlence 

 it is said, that the first time he cut off his own head, 

 Ca'li granted him only one hundred years ; when 

 cutting it off again, he obtained to live for 100 years 

 more : and every time, his familiar, the Vetdla, re- 

 placed it upon his shoulders. This he did ten differ- 

 ent times, when the Vetala, or the devil, informed 

 him that this could be done ten times only, and no 

 more, as in the case of Ra'van'a, as every body knows. 



We read, that there was a king of Putal'iinitra- 

 ].mra, called Vicrama-tunga, who was like a lion, 

 ■sinha: hence he is called Vicrama-sinha through 

 the whole legend. lie happened to be in the holy city 



