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Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c10.s2.t19: Bana

Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c10.s2.t19

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English

Bana

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Bāṇabhaṭṭa (Bāṇa in short, 7ᵗʰ century CE), is an eminent Sanskrit writer in the history of Indian literature, his main works include biographical novel Harṣacarita and legendary novel Kādambarī.

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Life

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The representative works of Bāṇa include the biographical novel Harṣacarita and legendary novel Kādambarī. In the first three chapters of Harṣacarita, Bāṇa told the history and legend of Vātsyāyana and stories of his own life. Bāṇa’s ancestor once made friends with the son of Sarasvati and then acquired her knowledge and power. After a passage of time, Bāṇa was born in a Brahman family on the bank of the river Sone, in Kanyākubja. His mother died when he was very young and later when he was 14, his father passed away too. Although he inherited the legacy of his family and had a very good learning environment, he idled around all the day making friends of all sorts, which include linguists, philosophers, folk singers, storytellers, bards, doctors, goldsmiths, jewellers, calligraphers, painters, sculptors, drummers, singers, musicians, dancers, actors, magicians, hair washers, gamblers, monks, nuns and Saivism ascetics. He also visited some holy places, royal palaces and learning centres to enrich his experience and knowledge. Later, he experienced the luxury of the royal palace and realised the importance of wisdom, and decided to return to his hometown. Shortly after that, he

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[Figure: 'The Harshcharita of Bana (Bona de Jieri Wang Zhuan)', front cover of the Sanskrit- English edition]

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received a message from Kṛṣṇa, Siladitya’s half-brother inviting him to come and meet Siladitya. He hesitated about the invitation in the beginning, but soon he made up his mind and started off to the palace. Siladitya was extremely arrogant to him at the beginning. He called Bana a libertine and even told him to go away immediately. But Bāṇa successfully changed Siladitya’s opinions about him in one visit by telling stories about his family and showing his knowledge, capability and good moral characters and thus was invited again into the palace. Later, he returned to his hometown and created Harṣacarita at the request of his relatives and friends who were all eager to listen to the stories of Siladitya. Bāṇa’s later life still remains a secret to us today, and he died even before he could finish the novel Kādambarī which was eventually completed by his son Bhūṣaṇa.

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Apart from Harṣacarita and Kādambarī, there is a collection of prayer poems called as Chorales of Maha Cundi Goddess, which is commonly recognised as a book created by Bāṇa. A legend is closely associated with the book: Poet Mayura was Bāṇa’s father-in-law. One day, he went to see Bāṇa, and happened to see that he was comforting his angry wife. The sudden arrival of Mayura irritated Bāṇa’s wife who cursed Mayura to be tortured by leprosy. Hereafter, Mayura got the favour of the Sun God by creating Chorales of Sun God and fully recovered from his illness, and from then on, he became very famous as an excellent poet. Bāṇa was very jealous of Mayura’s success, so he cut off his hands and feet and created Chorales of Maha Cundi Goddess (Lord Shiva’s spouse). He then got the favour of Maha Cundi Goddess (Lord Shiva’s spouse), and regained his hands and feet.

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From the hints and clues that can be found in Harṣacarita and Kādambarī, it can be said that Bāṇa was a firm believer in Lord Shiva, and he also admired Brahma and Vishnu. He was a typical Brahman but also had respect for Buddhism and Buddha and regarded Buddha as the god of Hinduism. Bāṇa was an expert in classics, philosophers, the two great epics and various legends and myths, and was very familiar with folk stories and works created by ancient Sanskrit authors Bhāsa and Kalidasa. All in all, Bāṇa was a great author with an open mind, profound knowledge and rich experience.

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Personality

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Bāṇa’s evaluation on himself was: highbred, talented, and never pleasing or flattering wealthy and influential persons. Bāṇa claimed himself as a very typical Brahman and acquired the wisdom and knowledge of Sarasvatī, so he did not long for the luxury of palace.

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Kadambari (Jiadanpoli)

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The Sarasvatī legend has no historical value. Bāṇa’s superficial self-confidence and arrogance probably originated from his self-abasement-so he needed Sarasvatī to prove his talent and authority in literature and art in order to gain widespread recognition and acceptance of the royal family. On one hand, Bāṇa maintained an arrogant and virtuous attitude to show his indifference to royalty while on the other hand he was very proud and pleased that he won over the trust and wealth of Siladitya. The relationship between Bāṇa and royalty was just like Siladitya’s attitude to royalty-ashamed to admit but hankered after it incessantly. In the beginning of the Chapter two, Bāṇa described himself as a person who wanted to get water (longing for visiting Sīladitya), described Sīladitya as a deep well that you could not see its bottom, and likened the referee (Kṛṣṇa, Sīladitya's half-brother) as a water pot with a rope tied on it. This can be viewed as a humble metaphor which is mixed with author's arrogance.

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So based on his self-evaluation, our understanding about Bāṇa goes like this: He had a noble family background but which cannot be proven. Highly talented, he was eager to chase wealthy and influential persons, self-abased but longed to be accepted.

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Bāṇa's personality has so many contradictions. He looked very arrogant and confident but in his heart, there was always a kind of inferiority feeling; he proclaimed himself as a person despising royalty but in the meanwhile he kept a very close relationship with the royal palace and longed for the recognition of the emperor. Harṣacarita was his greatest product of blandishment. However, although he was living in the royal palace, he still paid special attention to the life of ordinary people; although he depended on the salary provided by emperor, he was reluctant to speak for the royalty; he showed great respect to Sīladitya on the surface but in effect relentlessly criticised his reign and actions. The word that could best summarise Bāṇa's personality as "contradiction".

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"Bāṇa always seemed energetic, real and brave when he touched the truth of life", commented by Shanka Geyou. In his works, he described the Heavenly Goddess as sacred and inaccessible, the holiness of royalty seemed ridiculous and absurd, and his descriptions of princes, beggars, soldiers and hermits were all vivid and natural. He was expertly skilled at camouflage with numerous subtle metaphors and words or phrases with double meanings and owned a surprisingly excellent ability to reveal though weakly but genuinely the unpleasant truth among a large bunch of complimentary remarks and those are what current historians need to pay attention to when referring to his works as evidence". If a reader fails to see through those camouflages to figure out the truth, it will be his own fault. The art of disguise found in Bāṇa's works can be viewed as tool which he used to tell the truth.

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Bāṇa, though he tried his best to disguise was still unable to hide his great disapproval of Sīladitya. In front of Sīladitya, Bāṇa's pride was depressed by self-abasement, so flattery became inevitable. He understood people's misery and suffering, and this aroused a sense of mission in his heart as a literati. And it was probably because of these reasons that Bāṇa began to hate Sīladitya and seized every single opportunity to criticise Sīladitya and his reign in an extreme and relentless way. Bāṇa's compliment and praise to Sīladitya meant nothing. So each time some specific contents were involved, Bāṇa would make good use of his sharp writing technique to strike home, unexpectedly and fiercely. Though the description might have nothing to do with the truth, Bāṇa successfully wrote the truth about Sīladitya and his reign in his book. Sīladitya usurped the throne and was made about being king with strong military power. He was also cruel and relentless to his people. During the time he stayed with Sīladitya, Bana might not have received noble status, but his excellent literary attainments had allowed him to reach and stay on the top of the Sanskrit literature world. Bāṇa and Sīladitya established reputations for each other.

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Creation

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Harṣacarita has eight chapters in total, and before the main content, there are 21 prologues mainly praising Lord Shiva and the literary works of writers before his time. The first chapter on Vastyayana Family starts from a legend about his ancestor and Sarasvatī and tells the stories of his family. The second chapter, *First Visit to Sīladitya* presents a vivid description about how he received Kṛṣṇa's letter and met Sīladitya. The third chapter, *Ancestors of Sīladitya* sets Puṣpabhūti as main character telling the story that Puṣpabhūti who bravely fought against basilisk and the predictions of the Heavenly Goddess. The fourth chapter, *The Birth of King* describes the birth of Rājyavarddhana, Harṣavardhana and Rājyaśrī. The first part centres around the birth of Harṣavardhana, while the following part gives detailed description for the wedding of Rājyaśrī. In the fifth chapter, Death of Emperor Prabhākaravarddhana, Emperor Prabhākaravarddhana was seriously ill and how Empress Yaśomatī burns herself to death. The sixth chapter, *Harṣavardhana's Pledge* includes the stories of Emperor Grahavarman's death and Rājyavarddhana's disappearance. The seventh chapter *Receiving the Gift of Baldachin* writes about how Harṣavardhana inherited throne and conquered the whole world. The eighth chapter has no title and can be viewed as the end of the book telling the stories that Harṣavardhana saved Rājyaśrīand returned to military camp.

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Harṣacarita is not only a historical record but is a literary biography. Bāṇa made good use of India epic poetry and classic narrative poems in Sanskrit. He copied the myths and legends to establish a literary style with over-elaboration as its characteristics by a combination of partial tones, words or phrases with double meaning, metaphor, exaggeration and symbolic means, lengthy compound words and adjectives. Under the circumstance that there is a serious lack of historical works about the ancient India, Harṣacarita has a very high historical value. The basic historical facts about Sīladitya that it offers have been proved by *Records of the* *Western Regions of the Great Tang* and some other inscriptions. The book *Records of the Western Regions of the Great Tang* mainly introduces the late period of Siladitya's reign, while *Harṣacarita* tells us stories about the Siladitya's early life. Both books can be said as complementary to each other.

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Kādambarī

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*Kādambarī* is a novel full of romance and magical imagination. It tells the story of two lovers based on reincarnation, with fantastic plots, twists and turns.

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In the beginning of the novel, there are 20 prologues praising gods and teachers, and also explaining explicitly the author's literary views. The main body of the novel is not divided into different chapters but makes good use of the narrative structure that one story is implied in another. Kādambarī has complicated and puzzling plots and finely sculptured literary form with a massive use of lengthy compound words as well as the combination of partial tones, words or phrases with double meaning, metaphor, exaggeration and symbolic means, and lengthy compound words and adjectives. It is a huge literary masterpiece that is difficult to understand.

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The story goes like this: Mahashveta and Pundarika fell into love. Pundarika dies of lovesickness, and curses the moon who killed him. However, moon also lays a curse upon him, saying that both Pundarika and his lover would encounter the same misery and unhappiness. The moon was reincarnated into Chandrapeeda and fell into love with Kādambarī. After Chandrapeeda was dead, he was reincarnated into emperor Shudraka. Pundarika is reincarnated into Vaishampayana, but then was cursed by Mahashveta and became a parrot. The whole story was just told by the parrot to Emperor Shudraka. Mahashveta and Kādambarī were both waiting for their lovers to come back to life. At last, the gods held a worship ceremony and removed the curse, and Chandrapeeda and Kādambarī, Pundarika and Mahashveta were finally married and led a very happy life.

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Kādambarī draws materials from Bṛhatkathā by Guṇadhya. The author not only fully absorbs the essence of folk literature but makes good use of his imagination and writing techniques of classic Sanskrit narrative poems to a maximum extent, thus presenting us an unprecedented masterpiece of ancient India Sanskrit literature full of complicated and twisting plots, thrilling stories and vivid characters and environment description.

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(*Zhang Yuan*)

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