Vikramāditya
Vikramāditya is the great king of Ujjayanī in the Kali Yuga. The Pratisarga Parva of the Bhaviṣya Purāṇa says that he was born by the command of Bhagavān Śaṅkara (Śiva) to defeat the Śakas and to bring back Ārya-dharma. His reign is described as just and righteous, like the Dvāpara age. The second khaṇḍa of the Pratisarga Parva holds the Vikrama-Betāla stories, called the Vaitāla-Pañcaviṃśikā. In them the Betāla tells twenty-three stories on right and wrong and the king answers each one. His answers show his deep judgment, his sense of justice and his readiness to give himself.
Birth and divine command
In the Kali Yuga there was a time of decline. Śakas and other mleccha clans disturbed Ārya life. Bhagavān Śaṅkara then decided to restore dharma. The divine will that had once moved the order of the world entered the world as a special Śiva-dṛṣṭi (the grace of Śiva). This grace was born as a son of Gandharvasena and became known by the famous name Vikramāditya.
The Purāṇa says: “Three thousand years after the Kali Yuga began, a great Śiva-dṛṣṭi, driven by the command of Bhagavān Śaṅkara and born as the son of Gandharvasena, became famous on earth as Vikramāditya.” His task was clear: to defeat the Śakas, to uphold Ārya-dharma and to start an age of justice.
The reign of Vikramāditya
His rule spread over all of Bhārata. It reached from Kapila-sthāna (the holy place where the Gaṅgā meets the sea, in the east) to the river Sindhu in the west. It reached from Badarī-kṣetra in the north to Setu-bandha (Rāmeśvaram) in the south. The ṛṣis who passed on this account say that his reign brought back dharma, nyāya (justice) and plenty, like the Dvāpara Yuga. The assembly of Śaunaka heard this and was very glad.
The Purāṇa keeps the account that the second khaṇḍa of the Pratisarga Parva has twenty-three chapters of moral and philosophical stories, and that they come from the talks between Vikramāditya and the Betāla. The Betāla was a spirit that clung to a body hanging in the śmaśāna (cremation ground). These stories are known across Bhārata as the Vaitāla-Pañcaviṃśikā or the Vetāla-Pañcaviṃśati. Here they are traced to their Purāṇic source.
The Betāla stories
The Betāla was a kiṅkara (servant) of Rudra. He came to Vikramāditya and put to him a series of hard questions of right and wrong. Each story follows one pattern. The Betāla tells a story and asks a question that needs a judgment. Vikramāditya must answer. If he knows the answer and stays silent, his head will split. Each answer shows the king’s sharp moral sense.
Rūpasena and Vīravara, the first story
The first story takes place in Vardhamānapurī. The great king Rūpasena ruled there with his queen Vidvanmālā, a pativratā (a wife loyal to her husband). His commander (senāpati) Vīravara was wholly devoted to the king.
One midnight, in a fierce storm with terrible thunder and lightning, a sound rose from the śmaśāna. Vīravara went to see what it was. He found a woman weeping without comfort. She said she was Rājya-Lakṣmī, the devī of the fortune of the kingdom. She wept because death was coming for King Rūpasena on the last day of the month, and she would be left without a lord.
Vīravara asked how this could be stopped. Rājya-Lakṣmī said: “If you give your son as a bali (an offering) to Caṇḍikā-devī, the king will be given a long life.”
Vīravara agreed without delay. He went home and told his son, who agreed at once without any urging. Vīravara, his son and the rest of the family went to the temple of Caṇḍikā-devī. Vīravara praised the devī, said that he was giving his son for the king’s life, and cut off his son’s head. His daughter could not bear the sight of her brother’s lifeless head. Her heart stopped and she fell dead. Vīravara’s wife saw her son and daughter dead and could not bear the grief, and she died too. Vīravara, alone among the dead, was about to take his own life, when Rūpasena himself came forward.
The king had been watching all this from a hidden place. He could not bear that so many lives were being given for him. He ran into the shrine, bowed before Caṇḍikā and said: “I cannot live happily, knowing that such faithful servants gave their lives for me. What use is such a life?” He too was about to offer himself. Caṇḍikā was deeply moved and appeared before the king. He begged her: “Bring all of Vīravara’s family back to life, but do not let him know that I had any part in this.”
The devī said “Tathāstu” (so be it) and vanished. All four of Vīravara’s family rose alive. They were amazed at their return to life, said it was the grace of the devī, and went home. Later Rūpasena asked Vīravara about the disturbance of that night. Vīravara answered lightly: “It was only an unhappy spirit weeping. It was nothing of importance, my king.”
After telling this story, the Betāla put his question to Vikramāditya: “In this story, both acted like heroes. Whose gift of self was greater, Vīravara’s or the king’s?”
Vikramāditya answered: “At first sight, both seem equally worthy of praise in their devotion. But the king’s virtue is greater. Vīravara was the king’s servant. To serve and protect the king was his sacred duty (dharma). When he did his duty, however great, he received the puṇya (merit) of duty done. The king had no duty at all to do this. Nothing required him to give himself, and yet, moved by compassion, he was ready to give his life for those who had given theirs for him. A gift of self that goes beyond all duty is the highest.”
What came after
After Vikramāditya went to svarga (heaven), many kings followed him. His grandson Śālivāhana came to the throne in time and carried on the protection of dharma in a new age. The Purāṇa records that the Vikrama Saṃvat, the count of years from the reign of Vikramāditya, became the set calendar across Bhārata.
The ṛṣis of the Śaunaka assembly said that hearing the history of Vikramāditya destroys pāpa (sin) and awakens in the listener the spirit of guarding dharma.
Sources
- Bhaviṣya Mahā Purāṇa, Pratisarga Parva, Khaṇḍa 1, Chapter 7
- Bhaviṣya Mahā Purāṇa, Pratisarga Parva, Khaṇḍa 2, Introduction
- Bhaviṣya Mahā Purāṇa, Pratisarga Parva, Khaṇḍa 2, Chapters 1–23
- Bhaviṣya Mahā Purāṇa, Pratisarga Parva, Khaṇḍa 3