Bhartrihari is the name of a celebrated Indian writer of apothegms, of whom but little is known. A legendary story makes him the brother of King Vikramâditya, who lived about the middle of the 1st century B.C., and relates of him, that after a wild licentious youth, he betook himself in later years to the ascetic life of a hermit. His name has been given to a collection of 300 apothegms, arranged in three centuries or groups of a hundred (cataka), but it is likely that these were the work of various authors, but ascribed, according to the Indian custom, to a well-known name. Cheerful descriptions from 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. Bohlen published an excellent critical edition (2 vols. Berlin, 1833-50), as well as a successful metrical translation into German (Hamburg,
1835). Bhartrihari has a special interest as the first Indian author known in Europe, 200 of his apothegms having been translated by the missionary, Abraham Roger, in a learned work published at Nuremberg in 1653, under the quaint title, Offene Thür zum verborgenen Heidentum.