Name of a celebrated Indian writer of apothegms. Very little is known of his life. A legend makes him the brother of King Vikramaditya, who lived in the first century before Christ, and relates that after a wild, licentious youth he betook himself in later years to an ascetic life. Professor Max Müller fixes the date of his death at A.D. 650. Cheerful descriptions of nature and charming pictures of love alternate in these apothegms, with wise remarks upon the relations of life, and profound thoughts upon the Deity and the immortality of the soul. Bhartrihari was the first Indian author known in Europe. Two hundred of his apothegms were translated in 1653 by Abraham Roger, published under the quaint title, Open Gates to Hidden Heathenism. Bohlen published an excellent and successful metrical translation in German (Hamburg) in 1835.
