The Sanskrit Drama in its Origin, Development, Theory & Practice c13.s2: 2. The Authorship of the Dramas ascribed to Harṣa
The Sanskrit Drama in its Origin, Development, Theory & Practice c13.s2
- Language
- English
2. The Authorship of the Dramas ascribed to Harṣa
c13.s2.1
Three dramas, as well as some minor poetry, have come down to us under the name of Harṣa, unquestionably the king of Sthāṇvīçvara and Kanyakubja, who reigned from about A.D. 606 to 648, the patron of Bāṇa who celebrates him in the *Harṣacarita* and of the Chinese pilgrim Hiuan-Tsang who is our most valuable source of information on his reign. That the three plays are by one and the same hand is made certain in part by the common ascription in a verse in the prologue mentioning Harṣa as an accomplished poet, partly by the recurrence of two verses in the *Priyadarçikā* and the *Nāgānanda* and of one in the former play and the *Ratnāvalī*, and above all by the absolute similarity of style and tone in the three works, which renders any effort to dissociate them wholly impossible. The question of their actual authorship was raised in antiquity; for, while Mammaṭa in his *Kāvyaprakāśa*¹ merely refers to the gift of gold to Bāṇa—or Dhāvaka in some manuscripts—by Harṣa, the commentators explain this of the *Ratnāvalī*, which was passed off in Harṣa’s name. This is, however, not in any way borne out by early tradition; I-Tsing² clearly refers to the dramatization of the subject of the *Nāgānanda* by Harṣa and its performance, and in the *Kuṭṭanīmata*³ of Dāmodaragupta, who lived under Jayāpīḍa of Kashmir (A.D. 779-813), a performance of the *Ratnāvalī*, ascribed to a king, is mentioned. The ascription to Bāṇa has nothing even plausible in it, so disparate are the styles of the dramas and the *Harṣacarita*, and we have the option of believing that Harṣa wrote them himself with such aid as his Paṇḍits might give, or of accepting them as the work of some unknown dramatist, who allowed the king to claim the credit for them.
c13.s2.2
² M. Ettinghausen, *Harṣa Vardhana*, Louvain, 1905; S. P. Paṇḍit, *Gauḍavaho*, pp. cvii ff.; K. M. Panikkar, *Sri Harsha of Kanauj*, Bombay, 1922. It is impossible to connect the dramas with any definite incident of his reign such as the Prayāga festival celebrated by Hiuan-Tsang.
c13.s2.3
¹ i. 2. Cf. Soḍhala (A.D. 993) in *Kāvyamīmāṃsā* (GOS. i), p. xii.
c13.s2.4
² Trs. Takakusu, pp. 163 f.
c13.s2.5
³ vv. 856 ff.
Linked texts (7)
- Kāvyaprakāśa — Mammaṭa & Alaṭa, Sanskrit
- Kuṭṭanīmata — Dāmodaragupta, Sanskrit
- Kāvyamīmāṃsā — Rājaśekhara, Sanskrit
- Harṣacarita — Bāṇabhaṭṭa, Sanskrit
- Nāgānanda — Harṣavardhana, Sanskrit
- Ratnāvalī — Harṣavardhana, Sanskrit
- Priyadarśikā — Śrīharṣa, Sanskrit