The judgement-seat of Vikramaditya

[Guest guest]

The judgement-seat of Vikramaditya

 

FOR many centuries in Indian history there had been no city so famous

as the city of Ujjain. It was always renowned as the seat of

learning. Here lived at one time the poet Kalidasa, one of the

supreme poets of the world, fit to be named with Homer, Dante and

Shakespeare. And here worked and visited, only a hundred and fifty

years ago, an Indian king, who was also a great and learned

astronomer, the greatest of his day, Raja Jai Singh of Jaipur. So one

can see what a great love all, who care for India, must feel for the

ancient city of Ujjain.

 

But deep in the hearts of the Indian people, one name is held even

dearer than those I have mentioned—the name of Vikramaditya, who

became King of Malwa, it is said, in the year 57 before Christ. How

many, many years ago must that be? But, so clearly is he remembered,

that to this day when a Hindu wants to write a letter, after putting

something religious at the top—`The Name of the Lord,' or `Call on

the Lord,' or something of the sort—and after writing his address, as

we all do in beginning of a letter, when he states the date, he would

not say, `of the year of the Lord 1900,' for instance, meaning 1,900

years after Christ, as we might, but he would say `of the year 1957

of The Era of Vikramaditya'. So we can judge for ourselves whether

that name is ever likely to be forgotten in India.

 

Now who was this Vikramaditya, and why was he so loved? The whole of

that secret, after so long a time, we can scarcely hope to recover.

He was like our King Arthur, or like Alfred the Great—so strong and

true and gentle, that the men of his own day almost worshipped him,

and those of all after his times were obliged to give him the first

place, though they had never looked in his face, nor appealed to his

great and tender heart—simply because they could see that never had a

king been loved like this king. But one thing we do know about

Vikramaditya. It is told of him that he was the greatest judge in

history.

 

Never was he deceived. Never did he punish the wrong man. The guilty

trembled when they came before him, for they knew that his eyes would

look straight into their guilt. And those who had difficult questions

to ask, and wanted to know the truth, were thankful to be allowed to

come, for they knew that their king would never rest till he

understood the matter, and that then he would give an answer that

would convince all.

 

And so, after his time, in India, when any judge pronounced a

sentence with great skill, it would be said of him, "Ah, he must have

sat in the judgement-seat of Vikramaditya!" And this was the habit of

speech of the whole country. Yet, in Ujjain itself, the poor people

forgot that the heaped-up ruins a few miles away had been his palace,

and only the rich and learned, and the wise men who lived in the

king´s courts, remembered it.

 

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[Guest Chandra Ballabh Nautiyal]

The judgement-seat of Vikramaditya was written by Sister Nivedita lived at Calcutta please give your comment from Calcutta library  

 

Chandra Ballabh Nautiyal