Banabhatta
Sham Misri
Banabhatta was a Sanskrit prose writer and poet in 7th-century in India.
In the court of King Harshavardhana, he was the Asthana Kavi. His parents were
Chitra Bhanu father and Raja Devi, the mother. Banabhatta was born in a
Bhojakas family of Vatsyayana gotra. He was born in the village of Pritikuta on
the banks of the Hiranyavahu (now Chhapra, Bihar). His mother died when he was
small. He was raised by his father. His father died when he was 14. For some
years, he traveled adventurously with a colorful group of friends, visiting
various courts and universities. His group of friends included his two
half-brothers by a lower-caste woman, a snake-doctor, a goldsmith, a gambler,
and a musician. After loitering a lot, he returned home and married. One day,
he received a letter from Krishna, cousin of King Harsha. He met King Harsha,
who was camping near the town of Manitara. After the first meeting, Banabhatta
became the favorite of King Harsha. Banabhatta wrote one of the most popular
and most initial novels, known as Kadambari. It is a biographical work of
Harsha and Kadambari.
The story of Kadam Bari is interesting for several reasons. It
is a standard example of. classical prose; it has enjoyed a long
popularity as a romance; and it is one of the comparatively few Sanskrit works
which can be assigned to a certain date, and so it can serve as a
landmark in the history of Indian literature and Indian thought. Banabhatta,
its author, lived in the reign of Harsha- Vardhana of Thrineyar, the great king
mentioned in many inscriptions,- who extended his rule over the whole of
Northern India, and from whose reign (a. d. 606) dates the Harsha era, used in
Nepal.
Banabhatta, as he tells us, both in the Harsha-Carita and in the introductory verses of Kadam Bari
,' was a Vatsyayana Brahman. His mother died while he was yet young, and his
father's tender care of him, recorded in the Harsha-Carita,' was doubtless in
his memory as he recorded the unselfish love of Vaicampayana's father in ‘
Kadambari.
In his youth he travelled much, and for a time ' came into
reproach (criticism),' by reason of his unsettled life ; but the experience
gained in foreign lands turned his thoughts homewards, and he returned to his
kin, and lived a life of quiet study in their midst. From this he was summoned'
to the court of King Harsha, who at first received him coldly, but afterwards
attached him to his service; and Bana in the Harsha-Carita ' relates his own
life as a prelude to that of his master.
Bana himself died, leaving * Kadambari ' unfinished, and his son
Bhushanabhatta took it up in the midst of a speech in which Kadambari's sorrows
are told, and continued the speech without a break, save for a few introductory
verses in honour of his father, and in apology for his having undertaken the task, as its unfinished state was a grief to the.
good.' He continued the story on the same plan, and with careful, and, indeed,
exaggerated, imitation of his father's style.
The story of Kadambari'
is a very complex one, dealing as it does with the lives of two heroes, each of
whom is reborn twice on earth.
A learned parrot,
named Vaicampayana, was brought by a Candala maiden to King (Cudraka, and told
him how it was carried from its birthplace in the Vindhya Forest to the
hermitage of the sage Jabali, from whom it learnt the story of its former life.
Jabali's story was as follows :
Tarapida, King of Ujjayini, won by penance a son, Chandrapeeda,
who was brought up with Vaicampayana, son of his minister, Kukanasa. In due
time Chandrapeeda was anointed as Crown Prince, and started on an expedition of
world-conquest.
At the end of it he reached Kailasa, and, while resting there,
was led one day in a vain chase of a pair of kinnaras to the shores of the
Acchoda Lake. There he beheld a young ascetic maiden, Mahacaveta, who told him
how she, being a Gandharva princess, had seen and loved a young Brahman Pundarika; how he, returning her feeling, had died from
the torments of a love at variance with his vow ; how a divine being had
carried his body to the sky, and bidden her not to die, for she should be
reunited with him ; and how she awaited that time in a life of penance. But her
friend Kadambari, another Gandharva princess, had vowed not to marry while
Mahacveta was in sorrow, and Mahacveta invited the prince to come to help her
in dissuading Kadambari from the rash vow. Love sprang up between the prince
and Kadambari at first sight ; but a sudden summons from his father took him to
Ujjayini without farewell, while Kadambari, thinking herself deserted,
almost died of grief.
Meanwhile news came that his friend Vaicampayana, whom he had
left in command of the army, had been strangely affected by the sight of the
Acchoda Lake, and refused to leave it. The prince set out to find him, but in
vain; and proceeding to the hermitage of Mahacveta, he found her in despair,
because, in invoking on a young Brahman, who had rashly approached her, a curse
to the effect that he should become a parrot, she learnt that she had slain
Vaicampayana. At her words the prince fell dead from grief, and at that
moment Kadambari came to the hermitage.
Her resolve to follow him in death was broken by the promise of
a voice from the sky that she and Mahacveta should both be reunited with their
lovers, and she stayed to tend the prince's body, from which a divine radiance
proceeded; while King Tarapida gave up his kingdom, and lived as a hermit near
his son.
Such was Jabali’s tale ; and the parrot went on to say how,
hearing it, the memory of its former love for Mahacveta was reawakened, and,
though bidden to stay in the hermitage, it flew away, only to be caught and
taken to the Candala princess. It was now brought by her to King Cudraka, but
knew no more. The Candala maiden thereupon declared to (Cudraka that she was
the goddess Lakshmi, mother of Pundarika or Vaicampriyana, and announced that
the curse for him and Cudraka was now over. Then Cudraka suddenly remembered
his love for Kadambari, and wasted away in longing for her, while a sudden
touch of Kadambari restored to life the Moon concealed in the body of
Chandrapeeda, the form that he still kept, because in it he had won her love.
Now the Moon, as Chandrapeeda and Cudraka, and Pundarika, in the human and
parrot shape of Vaicampayana, having both fulfilled the curse of an
unsuccessful love in two births on earth, were at last set free, and, receiving
respectively the hands of Kadambari and Mahacveta, lived happily ever after-
wards.
Banabhatta was the Court Poet of King Harshavardhana. The principal works of Banabhatta include:
Novels like Harshacharita, Kadambari, Candikasataka, and
Parvatiparinaya. It is said that he died before he could finish Harshacharita
and his son, Bhushanabhatta, finished his work. Harshacharita, is a
biography of Harsha.
Kadambari is one of the first novels. Banabhatta died before finishing the novel and his son Bhushanabhatta
completed that novel. Banabhatta gets praised as “Banochhistam Jagatsarvam”
meaning – Bana has described everything during this world and zip is left.. His Writing Style- After examining his major works, it is clear
that his grammar was excellent. He uses a lot of figures of speech in his work.
His prose was usually harmonious and rhythmical. His unique style was to use
longer verses, comprising of short and crisp words. The sharpness in his
writing style and his controlled use of the figure of speech has inspired many
writers after his time.
References:
Harsha-Carita ' by Professor Cowell and Mr. Thomas
Kadambari ' (Bombay Sanskrit Series, 1H89) deals fully with Bana's
place in literature.
Miss C. M. Duff, the MS. of her 'Chronology of India.'
For Bana's early life, V. * Harsha-Carita,' Mr. F. W. Thomas.
Peterson, • Kadaiuban,; and * The SubhaBbUnvaU,*edited by Peterson
(Bombay Sanskrit Series, 1886).
