A History of Sanskrit Literature c14.s2.9

c14.s2.9

We can hardly say that we are carried further into the region of history by the *Harṣacarita* of Bāṇa, for, beyond a very few facts about his immediate predecessors, we are given merely a confused glimpse of a very small part of the deeds of Harṣa of Thānesar, and the work may best be treated as a romance, which it is in all essentials. As a nearer approach to history may be ranked the *Gaüḍavaha*³ of Vākpatirāja, which was written to celebrate the defeat of a Gauḍa prince by the poet's patron, Yaçovarman of Kanauj, who himself, however, was overthrown and killed not much later (*c.* 740) by Lalitāditya of Kashmir. Possibly this fact explains the curious condition of the poem, which contains as little history as possible, but expatiates instead in the wonted Kāvya manner in descriptions of scenery and the seasons, and of the amusements of kings, and does not scruple to relate myths. It may be that the poet, after his patron's death, left unfinished the poem which thus is merely a torso. The alternative is to suppose that we have in it as it stands a series of excerpts dealing with those topics which Paṇḍits liked, omitting tedious historical details. No certainty is possible; it may be that the poem is all that Vākpati ever intended to write. It is in Māhārāṣṭrī Prākrit, and, though it does not aim at plays on words and double meanings, it affects far too long compounds in the Gauḍa manner, nor does it normally reach any high standard of merit, though it contains some vivid pictures of village life—Māhārāṣṭrī poetry has always clung close to the soil—and the description of a southern temple of Kālī where human sacrifices are offered has the grim horror which attracts Indian taste. Uncertainty attends its date; it is characteristic of the poem that we do not even hear the name of the Gauḍa king; if written after Yaçovarman's fall it may be placed about A. D. 750.