150 ESSAY ON 



This Vicrama'ditya ascended the throne of Ma- 

 lava, in the year 441, reckoning from the first of 

 'Sa'liva'hana ; and 753 years after the expiation of 

 Cha'nacya, according to the -^^7?i-/)wr«/? a, answer- 

 ing equally to the year of Christ 441. In the Bha- 

 ^ishya-puraria, in which the years are omitted, Vi- 

 crama'ditya is placed in the same order of regular 

 succession : conformably also to the list of the em- 

 perors oi India, in the annexed table. Du Fresnoy, 

 in his Chronological tables*, says, that the first year 

 of his reign answered to the 441 of the Christian 

 era; and the authors of the Ancient Universal His- 

 tory place this event in the 442d : and surely no greater 

 degree of precision could be expected f . 



This VrcRAMA was the son of the man with the 

 countenance of an ass ; but his grand father was Ati- 

 Brahma', in the Ayin-Acberi, and whose father was 

 Brahma'. Now Yezdej'ird, called Isdigertes by 

 the Greeks, was the son of Bahram with the nick 

 name of Gur or the ass. His grand father was 

 another Yezdejird, called also Vakames or Baram, 

 with the title of Athim, and answering to Ati- 

 Birmah; and whose father was called Bahram, 

 the same with Brahma, Birmah, or Bahram, as 

 his name is spelt by Tieffenthaler, and in many 

 MSS. lists. The Greeks pronounced it Varames, 

 and even Baram, as it is written by Theophylact 

 SimocattaJ. Jayanta, the son of Brahma', in- 

 curred the displeasure of Indra, king of the elevated 

 grounds of Meru, or Turkestan ; and was doomed, 

 by him, to assume the shape of an ass, in the lower 

 regions. Bahram-Guh, or the ass, likewise incurred 

 the displeasure of the Khacan, or mortal king of 



* Du Fresnoy, Vol. 2<1. p. 408. 

 t Anc. Univ. History, Vol.i^th. p. 278, 

 I See Pliotii UiWiolheca. p. 87. 



