Digital Object Identifier
The legends of brave and chivalrous kings dominate medieval literature. However, only a few could achieve the timeless appeal and popularity of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. Similarly, in the Indian tradition, the legendary King Vikramāditya (Vikram) is hailed as the epitome of an ideal emperor. Franklin Edgerton, in his introduction to the Harvard Oriental Series of Vikram’s Adventures or Thirty-Two Tales of the Throne, describes Vikram as one of the most prominent semi-historical or quasi-historical heroes of medieval India. He further observes that, "the stories all deal with the wonderful character and deeds of Vikrama, who is intended to serve as a kind of Hindu King Arthur, a model for real kings to follow." The comparison between Vikramāditya and Arthur suggests a shared archetype of the righteous and heroic monarch across cultures. In this paper, the author analyses the similarities between the Arthurian legends and the Vikram-Vetāl folktales.
Ragini Mishra. “A Tale of Two Kings: Arthur and Vikramāditya.” The Criterion: An International Journal in English, vol. 17, no. 2, Apr. 2026, pp. 1031–1041. DOI, https://doi.org/10.66376/criterion.v17.n2.65.
Open Access · CC BY 4.0 · Crossref DOI ·
the-criterion.com