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FA HIEN'S "MIDDLE KINGDOM"
Vikramah, Simha-Vikramah, Ajita-Vikramah, Vikramanka and Vikramaditya actually occur on Chandra Gupta's
coins. 1
We have no detailed contemporary notice of Ujjayini (also called Visala, Padmavati, Bhogavati, Hiranyavati)2 in the days of Chandra Gupta. But Fa-hien who visited Mid India during the period A.D. 405 to 411, has left an interesting account of Paṭaliputra. The pilgrim refers to the royal palace of Asoka and the halls in the midst of the city, "which exist now as of old," and were according to him "all made by spirits which Aśoka employed, and which piled up the stones, reared the walls and gates, and executed the elegant carving and inlaid sculpture-work, in a way which no human hands of this world could accomplish." "The inhabitants are rich and prosperous, and vie with one another in the practice of benevolence and righteousness. Every year on the eighth day of the second month they celebrate a procession of images... The Heads of the Vaisya families
Paramartha, the biographer of Vasubandhu, refers to Ayodhya as the capital of a Vikramaditya while Hiuen Tsang represents Śrāvasti as the seat of the famous king (EHI, 3rd Ed., pp. 332-33). Subandhu refers to the fame of Vikramaditya, but not to his capital city, "like a lake Vikramaditya hath left the earth, save indeed in fame" (Keith, Hist. Sans. Lit., p. 312). Cf. Hala, v. 64.
1 Name, title or epithet.
Śri Vikrama
Vikramaditya
Rūpakṛiti
...
Simha-Vikrama, Narendra Chandra, Narendra Simha, Simha Chandra
}
557
Ajita-Vikrama
Paramabhāgavata
Paramabhāgavata Vikramaditya
Vikramanka
Vikramaditya, Maharaja, Chandra
Type of coin. Archer type (gold).
Chhattra (Parasol) type (gold). Couch type (gold).
Lion-Slayer (gold)
Horseman type (gold).
Silver coins of the Guruda type.
Copper coins (Garuda, Chhattra and Vase type).
2 Meghaduta (1, 31) and Katha-sarit-sagara, Tawney's translation. Vol. II, p. 275. For an account of Ujjayini in the seventh century A.D., see Beal, H. Tsang, II, p. 270; and Ridding, Kadambari, pp. 210 ff.
