Page:The Harsa-carita of Bana (1897).djvu/15

 the contending religions, Brahmanism and Buddhism, seemed to forget their rivalries in a common feeling of loyalty, just as Rajputs and Muhammadans served Akbar with equal devotion. The one great difference is that Akbar's reign is presented to us in broad daylight by such full contemporary narratives as those of Abu'l-Fazl and 'Abd-ul-Kadir Badauni, which give us a detailed account of every great event and biographical notices of all the leading personages of the time ; while we learn the events of Sri-harsa's reign only by the passing allusions of the Chinese visitor or the brief records of some inscription. Now here our romance comes in to supply a living and contemporary picture, wherein we can see something of the India of that time, just as we see in Arrian and Plutarch something of the India of Alexander's time ; but we long in vain for some chronicler who would have filled in the imperfect sketch with a thousand details now for ever lost.

Bana's style resembles the estilo culto of Spanish literature ; it abounds with double meanings in the words and veiled allusions in the sentences, so that the reader is apt to be bewildered by the dazzling coruscations which keep flashing across his path. Most of these puns and under-meanings refer to mythological stories, or well-known poetical superstitions like the parted ruddy-geese on the opposite banks of a river, or the cakora's red eyes at the sight of poison; but some of them undoubtedly refer also to the events of his time and can only be unriddled now by patient research and critical insight. Thus Hofrath Prof. Bühler has shewn that in p. 76 the words at first sight might seem to mean only " that the supreme Lord (Siva) took