261 sovereign to be regarded as the original of the mythical king of that name who figures so largely in Indian legends. The precise date of his accession is not re- corded, but it cannot be far removed from 375 A. D., and, pending the discovery of some coin or inscription to settle the matter, that date may be assumed as approximately correct. So far as appears, the succession to the throne was accomplished peacefully without contest, and the new emperor, who must have been a man of mature age at the time of his accession, found himself in a position to undertake the extension of the wide dominion be- queathed to him by his ever victorious father. He did not renew Samudragupta's southern adventures, but preferred to seek room for expansion toward the east, northwest, and southwest. Our knowledge of his cam- paign in Bengal is confined to the assertion made in the elegant poetical inscription on the celebrated Iron Pillar of Delhi that, " when warring in the Vanga coun- tries, he breasted and destroyed the enemies confederate against him; " and the language of the poet may refer to the suppression of a rebellion rather than to a war of aggression. The same document is the only authority for the fact that he crossed the " seven mouths of the Indus " and vanquished in battle a nation called Vah- lika, which has not been identified. But the great military achievement of Chandra- gupta Vikramaditya was his advance to the Arabian Sea through Malwa and Gujarat, and his subjugation of the peninsula of Surashtra, or Kathiawar, which had
