Simhasana Dvatrimsika Read online

  Translated from the Sanskrit with an introduction by A.N.D. Haksar

  Simhāsana Dvātriṃśikā

  Thirty-two Tales of The Throne of Vikramaditya

  Contents

  About the Author

  Dedication

  Key to the Pronunciation of Sanskrit Words

  Introduction

  PART I

  I. Prologue

  II. King Bhartrihari and the Fruit of Immortality

  III. Vikrama wins the Kingdom

  IV. Vikrama and the Wicked Yogi

  V. Vikrama gains the Throne

  VI. Vikrama’s Death and the hiding of the Throne

  VII. The Discovery of the Throne

  VIII. The Minister’s Tale

  IX. The Minister’s Tale continued

  PART II

  The Thirty-two Tales of the Throne

  1. King Bhoja attempts to mount the Throne

  2. The Secret of the Sacrifice

  3. The Four Jewels

  Vishnu and the Weaver

  4. A Test of Gratitude

  5. A Dilemma of Duties

  6. Distress and Deceit

  7. The Decapitated Duo

  8. The Filling of the Lake

  9. A Courtesan Rescued

  10. The Gifting of the Magic Fruit

  11. An Ogre Reformed

  12. The Curse on the Callous Wife

  13. The Gift of Merit

  14. Fate or Endeavour

  The Dravida King

  15. A Friend Indeed

  16. A Springtime Gift

  17. Helping a Rival

  18. Vikrama visits the Sun

  19. The Visit to the Nether World

  20. An Example of Effort

  21. The Eight Magic Powers

  22. The Elixir of Kāmākshā

  23. The King’s Daily Schedule

  24. The Judgement of Śālivāhana

  25. The Halting of Saturn

  26. The Heavenly Cow

  27. The Gambler

  28. The King stops Human Sacrifice

  29. The Chiromancer

  30. The Magician’s Reward

  31. The Genie’s Tale

  The Balance of Virtue

  32. The Image of Poverty

  Epilogue

  Appendix

  The Birth of Vikramaditya

  Notes

  Follow Penguin

  Copyright

  PENGUIN BOOKS

  SIMHĀSANA DVĀTRIMŚIKĀ

  Aditya Narayan Dhairyasheel Haksar was born in Gwalior and educated at the Doon School and the universities of Allahabad and Oxford. He spent many years as a career diplomat, and went on to become India’s High Commissioner to Kenya and the Seychelles, and later the Ambassador to Portugal and Yugoslavia.

  He has translated various classics from the Sanskrit, including the plays of Bhasa (The Shattered Thigh and Other Plays), Daṇḍin’s Daśa Kumāra Charitam (Tales of the Ten Princes) and Nārāyaṇa’s Hitopadeśa, all published by Penguin.

  P.M.S.

  For

  Vikram and Annika

  with love

  Key to the Pronunciation of Sanskrit Words

  Vowels:

  The line on top of a vowel indicates that it is long.

  a (short) as the u in but

  ā (long) as the a in far

  i (short) as the i in sit

  ī (long) as the ee in sweet

  u (short) as the u in put

  ū as the oo in cool

  e is always a long vowel like the a in mate

  ai as the i in pile

  o as the ow in owl

  Consonants:

  k, b ans p are the same as in English

  kh is aspirated

  g as in goat

  gh is aspirated

  j as in jewel

  jh is aspirated

  ṭ and ḍ are hard when dotted below as in talk and dot

  ṭṭ is the aspirated sound

  ḍḍ is aspirated

  ṇ when dotted is a dental; the tongue has to curl back to touch the palate

  n as in king

  t undotted is a soft sound in thermal

  th is aspirated

  d undotted is a soft sound—there is no corresponding English sound, the Russian ‘da’ is the closest.

  dh is aspirated

  ph and bh are aspirated

  Apart from s as in song, and sh as in shore, Sanskrit has a third sibilant, ś which is similar to the second, e.g. Śiva. Ch is pronounced as in cello and chh as in chhota. Words and names in common usage have been spelt without diacriticals.

  Introduction

  Vikramaditya is a famous figure in Indian folklore. He is represented as a great and good king whose reign was a golden age of righteousness, peace and prosperity. This image has persisted in popular memory for at least a thousand years.

  The aura of virtue, might and splendour surrounding the persona of Vikramaditya was such that many Indian rulers assumed this name as a title. Boys today continue to be named Vikram, Vikrama, or Bikramjit, if not given the full appellation which means, literally, ‘the sun of valour’. An era bearing the king’s name, which was already current in India when the Central Asian scholar Alberuni visited the country1 at the turn of the millennium, remains in use to this day. And Ujjain, a town in the state of Madhya Pradesh identified with Vikramaditya’s fabled capital Ujjayini, still has several sites associated with him, apart from being the seat of a new Vikram University.

  Myths and traditions often contain kernels of actual history, and many scholars consider that behind the legends of Vikramaditya there must be a historical figure who ruled at Ujjayini and founded an era. Some historians tried to identify him with the Gupta emperor Chandragupta II, who had the title Vikramaditya, and whose reign was one of the high watermarks of ancient Indian culture; but this monarch lived some four hundred years after the commencement of the Vikrama Era in 58-57 BC. Another academic opinion holds it possible that later rulers who assumed the same name, such as Chandragupta II, may have been confused with the original Vikramaditya in the popular legends that have grown around this figure.2 In any event, the force of these perennial stories is such that the ancient king appears, along with great historical rulers such as Aśoka and Akbar, in the illuminated panels prepared3 for the original calligraphed document of the Constitution of modern India. His depiction there has been reproduced on the cover of the present volume.

  ✣

  The numerous stories about Vikramaditya form a considerable literature in Sanskrit, from which some of them passed into other Indian languages. In turn at least one was rendered into Sanskrit from Mahārashtri Prākrit. The Sanskrit works still extant date mostly from the medieval period. They include: the Mādhavānala Kathā of Ānanda, about the adventures of two lovers eventually united with each other through the king’s chivalrous efforts; the Vikramodaya, in which he appears in the guise of a wise parrot; the Panchadanḍa Chhatra Prabandha, containing tales of magic and witchcraft; and the Vìra Charitra of Ananta, which begins with Vikramaditya’s final war, and continues with his successors.4 An interesting work is the Jaina story Kālakāchārya Kathānaka,5 which tells incidentally of the king’s conquest of Ujjayini and founding of a new era. But the two most popular works are the Vetāla Panchavimśatikā or the Twenty-five Tales of the Vampire, and the Simhāsana Dvātriṃśikā or the Thirty-two Tales of the Throne. The former has been translated into English many times, beginning with the rendition by Sir Richard Burton of Arabian Nights fame in the nineteenthcentury.6 The latter, presented here, has received comparatively less attention.

  The Vetāla tales are essentially stories ending in riddles, told to King Vikramaditya to test his wisdom. The Simhāsana t
ales, on the other hand, are stories about the king himself. They describe his merits and exploits, his birth, accession, rule and death. They are, moreover, intended to edify as well as to entertain. The king is depicted as a paragon of virtue, and his deeds as models of noble and heroic, magnanimous and courageous conduct.

  The Simhāsana Dvātriṃśikā has a colourful setting of adventures and miracles. At its centre is the royal throne or simhāsana of Vikramaditya, supported by dvātriṃśat or thirty-two statues of celestial nymphs. The first six frame stories narrate the circumstances of Vikramaditya’s accession after the abdication of his half-brother; his receiving the magic throne from the king of the gods; and his last battle and death, after which the throne was hidden as there was no one worthy of occupying it. The later frame stories describe the subsequent discovery of the throne by King Bhoja of Dhārā and his attempts to ascend it, which occasion the thirty-two tales of the throne.

  Each time Bhoja starts to mount the throne, one of the thirty-two statuettes comes to life and interrupts him with a tale of the deeds of Vikramaditya, illustrative of the latter’s virtues, especially his heroism and generosity. Each tale ends with the admonition that Bhoja may sit on the throne if he can match the merits of the earlier king. After thus restraining him thirty-two times, the nymphs explain in the epilogue how they came to be transfixed to the throne as the result of a curse from which they are now released. Bhoja then installs the throne in a shrine as an object of reverence.

  Though full of miraculous happenings, the stories also describe various human predicaments. A king is cuckolded (II)7; another must punish his own son (tale 31); a young man loses his friends along with his wealth (tale 12); the hero must choose between protecting his reputation and helping his rival (tale 24). There is a recurring pattern of Vikramaditya obtaining some priceless gift as a result of his extraordinary heroism, and then giving it away in a supreme gesture of generosity or compassion. A sequence of changing backgrounds provides rich variety to this constant theme. The scenes of individual stories shift from a coronation ceremony (tale 1) to a pleasure park in springtime (tale 6); from a great temple (tale 8) to a courtesan’s house (tale 9); and from occult rituals (tale 17) to the royal routine (tale 23). For additional colour there are battles with ogres (tale 12), human sacrifices (tale 28), divine dancers (V., tale 19), a magic show (tale 30), and the hero’s visits to other worlds (tale 18, 19). Two stories (IV, tale 31) interestingly recapitulate the plot of the Vetāla Panchavimśatikā. One story (Appendix) appended to a few manuscripts of the text describes Vikramaditya’s supernatural birth.

  Narrative energy and diversity is heightened by the geographical sweep of the stories. Action normally begins and ends in the royal capital Ujjayini, also called Avanti. But it ranges from Kanchi (tale 9) in the south to Kashmir (tale 8) in the north, and from Gujarat (Appendix) in the west to Assam (tale 22) in the east. In between there is mention of the regions of Andhra, Karnataka and Mālava; cities like Dhārā and Pratishṭhāna; and centres of pilgrimage like Kedāra and Vārāṇasī, Prayāga and Gayā. These references also provide a dual framework of geographical awareness and of cultural identity at the time when the stories were composed.

  ✣

  The credit for preparing the presently definitive critical edition of the Simhāsanā Dvātriṃśikā in its different recensions goes to the American Sanskritist Franklin Edgerton, whose labours also included literal translations of these recensions, their comparative analysis, and the compilation of a critical apparatus. This pioneering work8, completed in 1917 and published nine years later by Harvard University, has remained the standard reference point for any further study of the subject, including that presented here.

  In the course of his investigations Edgerton found the work titled variously in different manuscripts. The titles referred to the king, the throne, the divine statues, the number thirty-two, or a combination of these features. Some of the titles were: Simhāsana Dvātriṃśikā or Dvātriṃśatikā; Dvātriṃśat Puttalikā Ākhyāna (Thirty-two Statue Stories); Vikrāmaditya Simhāsana Dvātriṃśikā (Thirty-two Tales of the Throne of Vikramaditya) ; and Vikramaditya or Vikrama Charita (Deeds or Adventures of Vikrama). Edgerton chose the last of these arbitrarily as the title of his own work, as it was the shortest and the simplest. Later scholars9 have considered the first-mentioned title as more appropriate. It also reflects the folk roots of the stories, whose Hindi and Newari versions from north India and Nepal are known respectively as the Singhasan Bateesi and the Batisa Putrika Katha. This title has as such been used here also.

  Edgerton dubbed his editions of the four major recensions of the Simhāsana Dvātrṃśika the Southern (SR), the Metrical (MR), the Brief (BR), and the Jainistic (JR) recensions. He also examined another recension from Bengal, but considered it an adaptation of JR, to which it was very similar. The texts of SR and MR have been found almost entirely in southern India, while those of BR and the more common JR originate in the north. None of them is held in some scholarly opinion to be the ur-text of the work,10 though SR is thought to come closest to it.11

  The main thread of the narrative is the same in all the recensions, though verbally they are distinct. As compared to SR, the order of the stories is often changed in JR, and occasionally in MR and BR. Some of the incidental stories are omitted in BR, and some different stories appear only in JR. While MR is composed entirely in verse, the other three are in prose interspersed with gnomic and descriptive stanzas. BR, as the name implies, is a somewhat summarized and abbreviated version; JR contains recapitulatory stanzas at the beginning or end of each story; and SR is the lengthiest of all recensions. An important distinction is that JR projects Jaina religious and ethical beliefs, while the other three recensions manifest orthodox Hindu perspectives in their references to deities and religious observances. Edgerton’s analysis of the texts claimed that ‘JR too was derived from the orthodox archetype of SR, MR and BR’,12 and its didactic and sententious emphasis in particular was enhanced under the growing socio-cultural influence of Jainism.13

  Nothing is known about the author of the original Simhāsana Dvātriṃśikā, and very little about the compilers or redactors of individual recensions. Some manuscripts of JR indicate in identical stanzas that it was rendered from an earlier Mahārāshtri Prākrit version into Sanskrit by Kshemānkara Muni, seperately identified as a Śvetāmbara Jaina teacher who also authored another work called Shaṭpurusha Charita. Some other JR manuscripts attribute authorship to Siddhasena Divākara or Ramachandra Suri. No other recension contains any of these names. One manuscript of SR names the author as Kālidāsa, one of the MR mentions Nandiśvara, and the name Vararuci is found in some Bengal recensions. It is evident that none of these names can by themselves solve the question of original authorship; most probably they refer only to the scribes or the redactors of the manuscripts concerned.14

  The evidence is better for dating the work. All the stories are narrated to King Bhoja of Dhārā who is a historical figure. Also known from other sources as a scholar and a patron of learning, he reigned from about 1018 to 1055 AD. It was earlier thought15 that the Simhāsana Dvātriṃśikā was perhaps composed in Bhoja’s honour during his rule. However the various recensions were found to contain references to or quotations from later Sanskrit works such as the Chaturvarga Chintāmaṇi of Hemādri, the Rati Rahasya of Kokkoka, the Sarva Darsana Samgraha of Madhava, and the Prabandha Chintāmaṇi of Merutunga. These date the Simhāsanā Dvātriṃśikā’s composition to the end of the thirteenth or the beginning of the fourteenth century AD.16 The legend of Vikramaditya is of course a thousand years older, the title having been used as early as the fourth century. It is also possible that the throne stories had been current well before they were first textually compiled.

  ✣

  As with many other works of Kathā or story literature, the Simhāsana Dvātriṃśikā also incorporates didactic and descriptive verses from various sources. Apart from those mentioned in the preceding pa
ragraph, these sources include the two great epics; various purāṇas like the Garuḍa and the Skanda; famous Kāvya works like Kālidāsa’s Śakuntalā, Kumāra Sambhava and Mālavikāgnimitra, and Māgha’s Śiśupālavadha; and verse anthologies like those of Amaru and Bhartrihari. The commonest sources for its quotations, specially in SR, are the verse collections on policy and conduct named after Chāṇakya and, to a lesser extent, verses from the Panchatantra and the Hitopadeśa. Its own contents, in turn, have provided quotations in later works like the Mādhavānala Kathā and the Kathā Ratnākara.17

  Such literary activity sheds an interesting light on the use and status of Sanskrit at the time. By the thirteenth century Sanskrit had already been supplanted by Persian as the official language in many north Indian kingdoms, and the use of regional languages was also on the increase with the spread of the bhakti movement. Recent histories of the period note that this did not result in the discontinuance of writing in Sanskrit;18 but its usage was confined to court and priestly circles in kingdoms still outside Turkish and Afghan rule. However, works like the Simhāsana Dvātriṃśikā indicate not only the persistent impact of earlier literature, but also the existence of a wider audience for this type of Sanskrit composition which, with its tales of magic and fantasy in simple language, presupposes a more popular appeal. Another reason for this particular work’s popularity was doubtless its evocation of an earlier golden age at a time of turmoil and foreign invasions which had penetrated as far as southern India by the beginning of the fourteenth century. Tale 25 is a good example.

  The didactic emphasis in the Simhāsana stories, and their repeated and sometimes exaggerated depictions of moral behaviour, has led to some modern criticism that they are tedious and unattractive. Edgerton complained of ‘a certain monotony and flatness’ in some of them, and the European Indologist Ludwik Sternbach expressed the view that the collection ‘unjustly enjoys a good reputation, a reputation greater than its literary worth justifies’.19