762 



Lassen on the History traced 



[No. 104. 



on the Indus to Guzerat. By this power Malwa must accord- 

 ingly have been confined to narrow limits.* 



It would be rather imprudent to venture any conjecture on 

 the distribution of the countries on the Indus and Cabul among 



* Having given this explanation, I leave it to the judgment of tlie reader, 

 whether there be a reason in the account of the Periplus, of the empire of 

 the Indo-Scythians, to bring down, according to the view of M. K. O. Mueller, 

 by some centuries, the epoch of Vikramaditja. If he takes the Vikra- 

 maditja, now known to us by old Indian coins, for the real conqueror 

 of the Scythians, his choice is evidently very unfortunate, as this 

 king belongs to the dynasty of the Guptas in Kanoje, contemporaneous 

 with the Sassanians. If there be any correspondence in the accounts 

 on Vikramaditja, it is, that he reigned in Ujjajini. I have already 

 discovered a reference to the empire of Vikramaditja in the passage of 

 the Periplus on the Ozene, viz. that the ancient royal residence was 

 there (de Pentap p. 57), being at that time in a very declining state ; 

 and I have no reason whatever to change my view there set forth. It 

 is well known, that Vikramaditja afterwards became the hero of a great 

 number of fabulous tales ; he has become the Carolus Magnus of Indian 

 poetry, and is as far removed from firm historic ground as Carolus 

 Magnus would be if we had to take our information of him merely from 

 the chivalrous novels ; but for Vikramaditja, save poetry, no prose, on 

 chronicle, has been preserved to us. The early adoption of the epoch of 

 Vikramaditja by the ancient astronomers, might be here of far greater 

 importance than all those tales from which Wilford has endeavoured 

 to construe a history of Vikramaditja, and of the second founder of an 

 Indian epoch, lalivahana. To render complete this confusion, it must 

 be added, that the name was afterwards often adopted by Indian kings ; 

 one of them seems even to have waged war with the Scythians. The 

 annalist of Kashmir, who had, so to say, sufficiently respectable au- 

 thorities, is doubtful whom of two Vikramaditjas he must take for the 

 real Sakari (enemy of the Saces) Raj. Tar. II., 5. Ill, 125. He decides him- 

 self on the second, (not to put down the epoch, which is clear to him) but 

 because in order to follow the Cashmerian chronology for the Buddhist 

 part of his history, he is necessitated to carry back some centuries all 

 ancient dates, and even to admit afterwards a great gap in the series of 

 the kings. We must therefore accede, contrary to the view of the annalist, 

 to the opinion represented as the common one, in holding the first- 

 Vikramadijta as the founder of the epoch. It is now a curious fact, that 

 between him and the second, the reigns numbered together, fill out 286 

 years. The second reigning 236 a. d. would coincide with the end of 

 the Yuetchi empire and the commencement of the Sassanians, it is there- 

 fore probably founded on a historic date, if the second Vikramaditja is 

 likewise represented as fighting with the Saces. 



