Harṣacarita – This is the biography of the Indian Emperor Harṣa. This work ranks as the first historical biography in Sanskrit and was written in an ornate style that brings into light various details on the life of people at that time. A detailed account regarding his ancestry and his early life are found in the first two ucchvāsas of Harṣacharita and the circumstances behind Harṣacarita is found in the third ucchvāsas.
Kādambarī – This is a romance fiction written in prose. Substantial part of this work was completed by Bāṇa. However, he did not survive to see through the completion and finally this novel was completed by his son Bhūṣaṇabhaṭṭa. This had a well laid out intricate plot involving the eventual union of hero Candrāpīḍa and the heroine Kādambarī.
This story is not completely original and it is believed that this plot is adapted from Bṛhatkathā written probably in 2nd century CE. This story is also found in Kathāsaritsāgara written in 11th century. Bṛhatkathā was written in now extinct Paisachi language and Kathāsaritsāgara is the Sanskrit adaptation of the original work.
Bāṇa’s poetic genius is at full display in Kādambarī. As Harṣacarita was historical, he was restricted to narrating the actual events that took place whereas in Kādambarī his creativity was at its highest and it is considered one of the abiding classics in Sanskrit.
Harṣacarita – This work starts off with the introductory twenty-one stanzas that is followed by his own story that gives an account of his family, his own birth and his early life. He connected himself to Goddess Sarasvatī in the following manner. Once in Bramhaloka, Sage Dūrvāsa made a mistake while reciting Vedas and on hearing it Goddess Sarasvatī laughed. On hearing the laugh, Sage Dūrvāsa felt insulted and immediately cursed her to go down into the world of mortals. Bramha however limited the duration of her curse up to the birth of her son. Sarasvatī during her time in earth gave birth to a son called Sārasvateya. With the blessings of his mother, knowledge began to manifest itself within Sārasvateya. He conveyed all his knowledge to his friend Vatsa and from Vatsa the great lineage of Bāṇa ensued. After a long time Kubera was born in Vatsayana family. Paśupati was born to him, followed by Arthapati to whom Bāṇa’s father Chitrabhānu was born.
After the introduction about himself, Bāṇa reveals about his meeting with King Harṣavardhana. The various qualities of Harṣavardhana like generosity, valor is revealed. This is followed by Bāṇa returning home with the huge amount of gold, money gifted by King Harṣa. His friends and relatives gave him a cordial welcome and requested him to tell the story of King Harṣa and thus Bāṇa started the story of Harṣa.
The story starts from Harṣa’s ancestor Puṣpabhūti who helped a Saivite sage Bhairavācārya in a hazardous task and on the same occasion saw a Goddess. Goddess blessed him and told him that he would be the progenitor of a mighty dynasty in which a great King will be born. Puṣpabhūti had a son called Prabhākaravardhana who in turn had 3 children, two sons and a daughter. Rājyavardhana and Harṣavardhana were the names of two sons and Rājyaśrī was the name of the daughter.
In the subsequent chapters the course of their lives is explained in detail. Rājyavardhana is killed because of treacherous plans laid out in a conspiracy and Harṣavardhana takes a vow to annihilate all his brother’s killers. At the same time his sister Rājyaśrī also became a widow as her husband Gṛhavarman is killed in a plot by his enemies. Rājyaśrī left to the forest with an intention to commit suicide but is stopped by a Buddhist Monk. Harṣavardhana also reaches the forest, consoles his sister and brings her back and the story abruptly ends here and the reason for this abrupt end is unknown.
Harṣacarita is very important as it deals with the story of a great King that described the events that actually happened. Though the events described are real, the presentation is distinctly marked with the immense power of poet’s imagination.
Kādambarī –
Kādambarī starts with the description of a strong, handsome king called Śūdraka who ruled over a prosperous Kingdom called Vidiśa. Though extremely good looking, he had no interest in women and was not married. One day, when he was sitting in his court, the door-keeper announced the arrival of a Candāla Kanyakā (damsel) and presents him with a wonderful parrot that can speak. Once the parrot was fed, it started telling a story and thus the story of Kādambarī began.
The parrot starts the story with a place called Vindhyavaṭī where there was a big tree. This tree housed many parrots and this particular parrot’s parents also lived there. The mother parrot died at the time of birth and the father parrot took care of this young parrot. One day, a big army of hunters entered the forest and killed many animals and caused great destruction. Most of hunters left the forest after collecting their kill. However, there was an old hunter who caught nothing. He saw the big tree and also saw the parrots living in that tree and decided to kill them. Hunter climbed the tree and started killing the old and young parrots that could not fly by turning their necks. And he dropped all those that he killed to the ground. Then he came to hole where this young parrot was living with its old father. The young parrot was hiding in the wings of its father. The hunter caught the old parrot and turned its neck. How however did not notice the young one under its wings. Fortunately, the young parrot did not die as it fell on a heap of leaves. It moved away with its weak legs and hid itself below some leaves. The hunter climbed down from the tree, collected his loot of the parrots that he killed and left the forest.
The thirsty, hungry young parrot moved slowly with its weak legs to a lake in order to quench its thirst. There was an ashram near this lake where the great sage Jābali lived. Jābali’s son Hārita saw this young parrot while he came to the lake to take bath. Moved by the weak state of the parrot, Hārita took this young parrot to the Āśrama and gave food and water.
The next day, Sage Jābali saw this young parrot and smilingly said, svasyaiva avinayasya phalamanena bhujyate । (He is experiencing the fruit of his own mis-behavior). The śiṣya-s became curious at this remark and Sage Jābali begins to narrate the tale that fills the major portion of Kādambarī.
There was a King called Tārāpīḍa ruling Ujjain. His son’s name was Candrāpīḍa. The King had a minister called Śukanāsa, and his son was called Vaiśampāyana.
The story continues about the education of Candrāpīḍa and Vaiśampāyana, their return to Kingdom, their conquest of the neighboring Kingdoms and the meeting of Vidyādharā Princess Kādambarī.
Candrāpīḍa reached Kailāsa during the conquest and there he meets a young ascetic maiden Mahāśveta who introduced herself as a Gandharva Princess. She told him her story about her love for a young Brāhmaṇa Puṇḍarīka who died from the torments of a love as it was against his vow. She described to Candrāpīḍa how a divine being had carried his body to the sky, and bidden her not to die so that she is reunited with him. And she confessed to Chandrapeeda that her life of penance was solely for that purpose. She also talked about another Gandharva princess who also vowed not to marry while Mahāśveta was in sorrow. Mahāśveta requested the prince to come to help her in dissuading Kādambarī from the difficult vow and love sprang up between the prince and Kādambarī at first sight. However, sudden summons from his father took him to Ujjayinī without farewell to Kādambarī. Kādambarī felt very deserted and almost died.
In the meanwhile, the prince on hearing about the disappearance of his friend Vaiśampāyana near Kailāsa set out to find him only to hear that an ill invoked curse of Mahāśveta on Vaiśampāyana who had actually rashly approached her had slain him. On hearing this, Prince fell dead from grief and at that moment Kādambarī came to Mahāśveta’s hermitage and resolved to follow him to death. This resolve was broken by the promise of a voice from the sky that she and Mahāśveta would be reunited with their lovers. She stayed to tend the prince’s body.
However, Bāṇa himself died leaving Kādambarī unfinished and his son Bhūṣaṇabhaṭṭa took it up and continued the story on the same plan, with an extremely careful imitation of his father’s style. He finished the story by revealing that this parrot was actually Puṇḍarīka in its previous life who loved the beautiful princess Mahāśveta and Candrāpīḍa was actually God Chandra himself and in his third incarnation had become King Śūdraka who was actually listening to the story.
And while the story is told, Śūdraka renounces his body and Candrāpīḍa whose body is preserved becomes alive again and he gets married to Kādambarī.
Bāṇa is indeed considered to be one of the greatest writers of Sanskrit literature. The usage of grammar is impeccable and there is a lot of figurative speech in his works. His style was very unique and peculiar with the use of long verses with short and crisp words that was intertwined with a prose that was both melodious as well as rhythmical.
Through centuries, Bāṇa has remained extremely influential in terms of his contribution to Sanskrit literature and has been considered as one of the greatest writers of Sanskrit prose. He introduced new forms of literature such as historical prose and autobiography and was very creative with the use of established techniques in Sanskrit writing. Few Western Scholars were of the opinion that Bāṇa’s prose is like that of a forest that is difficult to enter and even if inroads are made into the forest, unfamiliar words, long compounds, difficult constructions were encountered which was like encountering wild beasts. However well established and well-versed Indian Sanskrit scholars looked upon Bāṇa as the embodiment of goddess of learning. Bāṇa is supposed to have written some other works like Caṇḍīśataka – a poem of 100 verses on Goddess Caṇḍī and also a drama called Mukutataditaka from which the later poets have quoted one or more verses. However, these works are not available today.
In his introductory verses of Harṣacarita, Bāṇa after offering his salutation to Śiva and Pārvatī, pays his respect to Vedavyāsa in the following manner acknowledging his creation of Mahābhārata.
namassarvavide tasmai vyāsāya kavivetase ।
cakre puṇyaṃ sarasvatyāḥ yo varṣamiva bhāratam ॥
Salutations to that Omniscient Vedavyāsa, the creator among posts, who made the Mahābhārata sacred by the shower of his speech as the Bharatavarsha by the river Sarasvatī .
After this he proceeds and tells us about the poets of North being fond of puns, poets of West favoring sense, poets of South exhibiting poetical fancy and Gauda poets loving an ostentation of syllables. He then proceeds with his tributes of praise to the celebrated works and authors of Ākhyāyikā-s (this who have written prose romances), the Vāsavadattā, the mesmerizing prose composition of Haricandra. He praises Kālidāsa’s sweet sayings by comparing them with bunches of flowers wet with juice of honey in the following manner
nirgatāsu na vā kasya kālidāsasya sūktiṣu ।
prītirmadhurasārdrāsu mañjarīṣviva jāyate ॥
Bhāsa, the great dramatist is praised as below
sūtradhārakṛtārambhaiḥ nāṭakaiḥ bahubhūmikaiḥ ।
supatākaiḥ yaśo lebhe bhāso devakulairiva ॥
By his dramas with introductions made by the stage-manager, consisting of numerous characters and episodical incidents, Bhāsa attained the fame as he would have in constructing temples, erected by architects with numerous levels and adorned with banners.
Thus, by mentioning some of his great predecessors by name, he has given extremely valuable information to the historians of Sanskrit literature.
Bāṇa’s style is known as Pāñcālavṛtti, in which long compounds and also short sentences appear. In Kādambarī, his starting sentence describing king Śūdraka is a testament to the greatness of his style. The sentence is like this - āsīdaśeṣanarapatiśirassamabhyarcitaśāsanaḥ pākaśāsana ivāparaḥ caturudadhimālāmekhalāyā bhuvo bhartā pratāpānurāgāvanatasamastasāmantacakraḥ cakravartilakṣaṇopetaḥ cakradhara iva karakamalopalakṣamāṇaśaṅkhacakralāñchanaḥ hara iva jitamanmathaḥ guha ivāpratihataśaktiḥ kamalayoniriva vimānīkṛtarājahaṃsamaṇḍalaḥ jaladhiriva lakṣmīprasūtiḥ gaṅgāpravāha iva bhagīrathapathapravṛttaḥ raviriva pratidivasopajāyamānodayaḥ meduriva sakalopajīvyamānapādacchāyaḥ diggaja iva anavaratapravṛttadāna ārdrīkṛtakaraḥ kartā mahāścaryāṇāṃ ārtātkratūnām, ādarśassarvaśāstrāṇām, utpattiḥ kalānām, kulabhavanaṃ guṇānām, āgamaḥ kāvyāmṛtarasānām, udayaśailo mitramaṇḍalasya, utpātaketuḥ ahitajanasya, pravartayitā goṣṭhībandhānām, āśrayo rasikānām, pratyādeśo dhanuṣmatām, dhaureyassāhasikānām, agraṇīrvidagdhānām, vainateya iva vinatānandajananaḥ, vaiṇya iva cāpakoṭisamutsāritārātikulo rājā śūdrako nāma ।
This is one sentence and the descriptions with so many words that have more than one meaning have been used here to describe the King Śūdraka. The musical rhythm that accompanies the words can be seen in this sentence. He repeats the word Cakra four times, pratāpānurāgāvanatasamastasāmantacakraḥ cakravartilakṣaṇopetaḥ cakradhara iva karakamalopalakṣamāśaṅkhacakralāñchanaḥ, and each time it has a different meaning and it is only possible for those having an enriched knowledge of Sanskrit language to understand the various meanings and similes that he has created. And this is the specific reason given for impossibility in translating Bāṇa’s works. To give examples,
hara iva jitamanmathaḥ This can be translated into English as one who had defeated or who had conquered Manmatha like Śiva. But the beauty of original language is that the word Manmatha has two meanings, one meaning is the passion in a person and the other meaning also means that Manmatha is the God of passion. But Hara who is also Lord Śiva burnt down the God of Love, that is Manmatha. However, in the case of the King, he was in complete control over the passion of his mind. jitamanmathaḥ - This can be construed in two ways and it is not possible to be brought in any translation.
guha ivāpratihataśaktiḥ Guha, the son of Śiva is also called Kumārasvāmī. He had a weapon called Śakti also known as Apratihataśakti and it was unconquerable. When King Śūdraka is compared to Kumārasvāmī, the meaning that Bāṇa is inferring is his Śakti i.e strength, his energy, his ability, was not possible to be defeated by anybody and hence was unconqurable. This is the beauty of Bāṇa’s intellect which is not possible to be brought out with any translation.
vainateya iva vinatānandajananaḥ – vinata-ānanda-jananaḥ - The meaning is King Śūdraka was producing happiness to all the people that bowed before him. Vainateya also means the great bird Garuḍa. Garuḍa’s another name is Vainateya meaning Vinatā’s son. And by saying विनतानन्दजननः Bāṇa says that the King is producing so much happiness just as Garuḍa who produced so much happiness in his mother Vinatā. This cannot be translated in any other language and this technique is called Śleṣa in Sanskrit and Bāṇa was a master in using Śleṣa.
Therefore, it is clear that every adjective used, every comparison that is done is on the basis of the different meanings of the Sanskrit words and what is possible is only explanation and not translation. And such a creation is possible only in the hands of the great poet called Bāṇa, not by others and therefore, Bāṇa’s style is inimitable.
On the contrary, in dealing with real life situations that requires a realistic approach, for example in convincing another person he does not use this kind of style but sticks to a poetic sensibility aligned to the situation. To give an example, when Kapiñjala advices Puṇḍarīka, after Puṇḍarīka falls
in love with Mahāśveta and says,
sakhe puṇḍarīka, naitadanurūpaṃ bhavataḥ kṣudrajanakṣuṇṇaḥ eṣa mārgaḥ, dhairyadhanā hi sādhavaḥ, kiṃ yaḥ kaścitprākṛta iva viklavībhavantam ātmānaṃ na ruṇatsi?
He uses a very simple style without using any Śleṣa and without using any difficult fancy words that he normally uses while describing the sunrise or the forest, or the army of hunters.