A History of Sanskrit Literature c21.s7.6.2

c21.s7.6.2

Harṣa accompanies him, but is attracted to go hunting, whence he is rudely recalled by learning of the grave illness of his father. He comes back to find the whole capital convulsed with anxiety, and in a series of brilliant pictures we are shown the illness of the fevered king whose anguish nothing can relieve, the certainty of a fatal issue, the suicide of Harṣa's mother whence her son vainly would have stayed her, the final passing away of the great king after an oration to his son whose sincerity can be felt under the embroidery of Bāṇa's imagination, his obsequies, and the deep mourning of the prince. From this stupor he is aroused by the return of Rājyavardhana, who is eager to throw on Harṣa the duties of sovereignty and to abandon himself to grief; Harṣa urges constancy and resolve, and at the moment of indecision the dread news is brought; the Mālava king has slain Grahavarman and imprisoned Rājyaçrī. Rājyavardhana determines to proceed at once to punish the miscreant, commanding Bhaṇḍi to follow with 10,000 horse, and declining Harṣa's aid, lest it be doing too much honour thus to accumulate forces against so worthless a prince. Harṣa remains at home in gloom, swiftly to be deepened by the report of Rājyavardhana's success over the Mālava king but of his treacherous murder by a Gauḍa king; Harṣa would wage immediate war, but Skandagupta gives sage advice, reinforced as usual by many a parallel from legend;