vicramaditVa and salivahana. 145 

 who was to appear when 3300 years, save 10, of the 

 Cali-ijuga \vcre elapsed in the city of Charchita. 



The first Vicrama'ditya is mentioned in the Cu- 

 marica-chaiida*^ in which it is declared, that after 

 3020 years of the Cali-yuga had elapsed, then would 

 Vicrama'rca appear. He reigned fourteen years, 

 and of course died in the year 3034, when the era 

 of YuDHisHTiR ended, and his own began. In the 

 list of the kings who were to appear in the Cali-yuga, 

 to be found in the Bhagavata, Brahmarida^ VdyUy 

 and Vishiiu-puran'as, there are two kings, the seven- 

 teenth and eighteenth in regular succession from 

 Chaxdragupta, who reigned seven years each. The 

 first is called Vicrama, and the other Mitra ; and 

 they are supposed to have been originally meant for 

 Vicramamitra ; who, according to some, reigned 

 fourteen years : and in these lists, the father, or pre- 

 decessor of VrcRAMA, is called Ghosh a-Ra'ja, or 

 the king of thickets, which is another name for 

 Gaxdharupa, or Gadha-ra'ja in the west. This 

 looks like an interpolation ; and the more so, as it 

 will appear hereafter, that Ghosha-Ra'ja died in 

 the year 440 of our era. 



This is the Vicrama'ditya, after whom the pre- 

 sent Samvat is supposed to be denominated; and it 

 is the general opinion, that the first year of it is the 

 next to that in which he died. Yet the Pandits, 

 who assisted Abul-fazil, declared that it was the 

 first of his reign : it is also the opinion of many re- 

 spectable Pandits, particularly in the western parts 

 of India. This is more cont'ormable to a passage 

 in the Cumdrica-clianda f , in which it is declared, 

 that after 3100 years of the Cali-yuga were elapsed, 

 then would 'Saca, or 'Sa'liva'hana, appear. By 



* Paragraph. 4;id, f Paragraph. 42d, 



Vol. IX. ' L 



