Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c10.s2.t19.18

v2.c10.s2.t19.18

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.