nd Harita also. See also Stenzler, Z. d D. M.
G. ix. 664.]

[Footnote 108: Professor Mueller rejects the theory of the Samvat era
and the Renaissance of Sanskrit literature in the first century.
Instead, he acknowledges the existence of a _S_aka era, bearing date
with the coronation of Kanishka, 78 A.D. Although this monarch was a
patron of the Buddhists, and the third collection of their sacred
books was made under his auspices, our author considers the period of
_S_aka or Yuen-chi domination from 24 B.C. till 178 A.D. as a literary
interregnum. He is not willing to suggest any date for the Mahabharata
or Ramaya_n_a, which appear to have been then extant. He exonerates
Indian epic poetry, however, from any imputation of Greek influence.
Not so with astronomy. Aryabha_t_a, the elder, who described the
motion of the earth very accurately, he considers to have had no
predecessors; and also cites other Indian authors who described the
twelve signs of the zodiac with Greek names or their equivalents, and
assigned each to a region in the body of the Creator, as we now see it
marked out in our almanacs. In this matter he is certainly plausible.

The period of the Renaissance and the reign and proper era of
Vikramaditya are set down at about 550 A.D. He follows Dr. Bhao Daji,
and is sustained by Mr. Fergusson, author of "Tree and Serpent
Worship," and other works on religious architecture. It was the period
of learned and literary men, as well as of active religious
controversy. "Believers in Buddha and believers in the Veda lived
together at this time," he remarks, "very much as Protestants and
Roman Catholics do at the present day--fighting when there is an
opportunity or necessity for it, but otherwise sharing the same air as
fellow-creatures." Among a crowd of others we may instance Dignaga, a
Buddhist, Kalidasa, a Siva worshipper, and Manatunga, a _G_aina, as
frequenting the royal court. Vasubandhu, to whom the revival of
Buddhist literature was largely due, was the son of a Brahman and a
student of the Nyaya philosophy; as, indeed, Hiouen-thsang, the
Chinese traveller, also studied logic under a Brahma_n_a teacher.

Vikramaditya oscillated between all parties. Having quarrelled with
the King of Ka_s_mira and Manorhita, the great Buddhist teacher at the
convent near Peshawer, he called an assembly of Sastrikas and
_S_ramanas, at which the latter were denounced. He also placed
Matrigupta (Kalidasa?) over that country. A