Page:The Harsa-carita of Bana (1897).djvu/17

 of court and village life abound with masterly touches which hold up the mirror to the time. Not even the Pali Jatakas introduce us more directly into the very heart of the period or give us a more life-like picture. The court, the camp, the quiet villages, which then, as now, contained the great mass of the population, and the still more quiet monasteries and retreats, whether of Brahmans or Buddhists, are all painted with singular power; and his narrative illustrates and supplements the Chinese traveller's journal at every turn.

The first chapter gives the mythological history of Bana's family, the Brahmanical Vatsyayanas, until we come to his own birth and education, and his spending some years in travel partly for pleasure and partly to acquire learning. At length he returns to his home Pritikuta on the Sone, where after a while he receives (ch. 2) a summons from King Harsa's half-brother, that he should repair to the court and renew an intimacy which had been interrupted by some former acts of indiscretion. He obeys the request and repairs to the royal camp near the Ajiravati river (on which Cravasti stood, though it is not alluded to). The King at first receives him coldly, but Bana soon makes his way and becomes a favourite. After a while (ch. 3) he revisits his home at the beginning of autumn, and at the request of his cousins proceeds to relate the history of the King's reign. This narrative fills the remainder of the book (pp. 79—260), and is left unfinished at the end of the eighth chapter.

Prabhakara-vardhana 1, the king of Thanesar, had, by his queen Yagovati, two sons Rajyavardhana 2 and Harsa, and a daughter Rajyagri, who was married to Grahavarman 3 , the

1 Prabhakaravardhana is described as " a most devout worshipper of the Sun " in the Sonpat Inscription. 2 Rajyavardhana is described in the Madhuban inscription as "a most devout worshipper of Sugata." 3 The genealogy would seem to be Grahavarman, Avantivarman (infr. p. 122), Susthitavarman, Qarvavarman, Iganavarman, Igvara- variaan, Adityavarman, Harivarman ; cf. the inscriptions Nos. 42, 46,