Jinamanjari 2001 09 No 24

Author(s): Jinamanjari
Publisher: Canada Bramhi Jain Society Publication

Page 28

Vikramāditya and Jain Texts
There are literary works and Pattāvalis: Kathā-SaritaSāgara, Brhat Kathāmañjari, Prabhāvaka Caritam, GāthāSapta sāhi, Vetālpanñcavimsati, Simhāsana Battisi, Satrunjaya Māhātmya, Vikrama Carita are some of the important works that refer to king Vikrama.
The Kālaka story told above and the evidence of Periplus confirming the presence of Sakas in Sindh suggest their presence in Saurāsțra, Gujrat and Ujjain in or around about 60 B.C.E., and the Vikrama era has been founded to commemorate the expulsion of Sakas from Ujjain. The reference to Vikrama and founding of an era is mentioned in Hala's Gāthasaptasati, Vetālapañcavimšati, Kathā-SaritaSāgara, Simhāsanabhattisi and Brahatkathāmañjari. These Jaina sources, which bear a definite historical background, make a clear reference to Vkramāditya of Ujjain who fought and defeated the Sakas.
According to Cunningham' the Vikrama era is reckoned from the vernal equinox of the year 57 B.C. E. The Šatruñjaya Mahātmya professes to have been written 477 years after Vikrama (A-D. 4 20). From the way in which King Šilāditya of Vallabhi is spoken of as "honoring the advice of Siddhasena Sūri as the words of Jina," it appears that Vikramāditya was a Jaina, which would account for- the use of his era in Jain writings, but not in early Brahminical inscriptions.
Franklin Edgerton's findings on Vikrama Carita is eloquent. Weber and Hertel regard that the original Vikramacarita was Jainistic, and is similar to Merutunga's Jain work, Prabandhacintamani (Wishing Stone of Narratives). In the Vikrama Carita we are told that Vikrama -- Vardhamana samvatsara-parivartana akarot - "in his pious exaltation after listening to the instruction of Jaina teacher Siddhasena Diwākara, freed the whole earth from debt, and (in doing so), effected a change (literally, a turning point) in the era of Vardhmāna (Mahāvira).” According to Edgerton, this is a secondary intrusion into Vikrama Carita by the Svetāmbara ascetic author. Other sources of Jainistic tradition corroborate this statement and almost uniformly place the date of this statement and the charge is reckoned with 470 years after Vira nirvāņa. Jacobi, however, is the authority for the
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