Parasitic plants

 

Parasitic plants

Some parasitic plants can be beneficial to the ecosystem they live in. The most well-known parasitic plant is the mistletoe, the plant that has been part of Christmas celebrations in western cultures for hundreds of years. A branch of mistletoe is hung at the top of a doorway or suspended from the ceiling. Couples who “happen” to cross each other’s paths under the mistletoe are permitted a kiss. For each kiss, a berry is plucked off the branch. When the berries run out, so do the kisses. You didn’t know mistletoe was a parasite? Most people don’t. The name “mistletoe” (originally “mistiltan”) most likely comes from the Anglo-Saxon words “mistel” meaning “dung,” and “tan” meaning “twig.” So that makes the real name for this plant “dung-on-a-twig.” The dung in question comes from birds. Birds eat the berries, and some of their dropping fall on tree branches. Mistletoe seeds happen to be very sticky, so they quickly adhere to the branch. When the seeds germinate, they can grow for a while in the bird dropping, as if it was dirt. As quickly as they can, though, the baby mistletoe plants start putting out special “roots” called haustoria (hoe-STORE-ee-ah). The haustoria somehow grow their way through the tree’s bark and get into the sapwood where the living xylem and phloem tubes are. They put their thin root-like tubes into the tree’s xylem and phloem, as if putting a drinking straw into someone else’s glass. The mistletoe slurps away, sucking water, minerals and sugars from the tree’s vascular system. Thus, the mistletoe is permanently attached to a tree, instead of growing in the ground. The mistletoe is what botanists called a hemiparasite (“hemi” meaning “halfway”). The leaves can still do photosynthesis, so it is not completely reliant on the host tree. At first, the tree hardly notices the mistletoe and isn’t especially bothered by it. If rainfall is adequate, there is enough water for both plants. However, as the mistletoe grows larger and larger, there is a greater possibility that the tree won’t be able to keep up with the increasing demands the mistletoe places on it. Some trees do eventually die from mistletoe invasion, and, in general, gardeners see mistletoe as a threat. They usually prune off any tree branches that show mistletoe infestation.

Platypus-The mammal that lays eggs

 

Strange mammals that lay eggs

1.      Platypus

Platypus has little-tiny eyes, a flat head and silky-smooth looking short hair. It belongs to the great class of mammals, the furry or hairy animals. These  strange mammals that do not give birth to young, but lay eggs! All animals (or almost all) begin life the same way, as an egg-cell formed by the union of cells from two parents. This egg-cell may develop in the mother's body, nourished and protected by her, as in most mammals, or it may be made up into a package with all the food material it will need to develop and pass out of the mother's body as an egg. In this case it is hatched by the heat of the sun or kept warm by the mother. Some members of egg-laying classes, many sharks and some snakes, retain their eggs inside the mother's body until the young hatch and are born.

Of all the mammals living in this world today, only those of one order, the Monotremata (found in Australia, Tasmania and New Guinea), lay eggs. When this fact of egg-laying mammals was first reported, it was not believed by the scientists. So many strange tales turned out to be false that it is best to accept stories only after careful study of the evidence.

 

In 1884, however, a scientist named Caldwell went to Australia from England, especially to gather full and reliable information about the duckbill and echidna, or spiny ant eater, two types that belong in this strange order. He discovered beyond shadow of doubt that both really do lay eggs and after the eggs have hatched, the mother feeds her babies with milk, as other mammal mothers do.

 

Platypus is a delicate animal and very hard to keep in captivity out of its natural surroundings. However, a number of duckbills have been kept alive and watched carefully by many people.

 

These animals lay eggs and after the eggs hatch, nourish the young with milk. They are of two distinct kinds: the velvet-coated duckbill, or platypus; and the spiny an eater or echidna.

 

When the first stuffed specimens of the duckbill, or platypus, were brought to Europe they were thought to be frauds, like the "mermaids,"

Velvety fur like a mole: short, flattened tail like that of a beaver, all four feet webbed; a bill like a duck and no teeth – no wonder people found the duckbill hard to believe!

 

And when the collectors reported that the Australian men said this astonishing creature laid eggs like a lizard or turtle, that was going too far!

The scientific names the duck bill was given indicate how people felt-it was first called Platypus, or duck-like flat-foot," and then Ornithorhynchus paradoxus, which means puzzling bird-snout." And a curious puzzle he is.

 

Duckbills feed on snails, crayfish, earth-worms, water-living insects and insect larvae. Most of this food they capture by probing about in the mud at the bottom of the ponds in which they live. To assist in keeping the food caught under water, there are large cheek pouches, in which the prey may be stored. Duckbills can remain under water for six or seven minutes at a time.

Duckbills are found only in southern and eastern Australia and in Tasmania, where they live in the small rivers, streams and ponds. They cannot build dams as the beaver does, so they have to choose water that never goes dry. Even in places where they are common, duckbills are not often seen, for they come out of their burrows only rarely during the daylight hours. They are shy animals, especially the old males.

The duckbill is a thick, heavy-bodied mammal; the males reach more than twenty inches in length and may weigh nearly four pounds, while the females are several inches shorter and a pound lighter in weight. In color platypuses are deep, rich brown above, grayish or white below. The limbs are short. Unlike those of most mammals, the upper arm and thigh project  at right angles to the body, parallel to the ground, like the limbs of a reptile. The feet have broad webs which aid in swimming. The webs of the forefeet are especially large, extending far beyond the claws. Duck bills, at home in the water, swim very well indeed, but walk on land clumsily. Males have a long, sharp, horny spur on the heel; this spur is hollow and connects with poison glands in the leg. The duck like bill is covered with blackish, naked skin and, although the young platypus has several teeth, these are lost before the animal becomes adult. In their place are developed horny plates or ridges on the jaws and across the palate.  The eyes are small and bright, while the external ear is only a hole. No ear-shell, such as mammalian ears usually have, is developed in duck bills. If one is alarmed it makes a warning "splash-plunge" in the water and all other duckbills hearing the noise sink below the surface and swim to their burrows or to some distance from the threatened danger.

 

The home burrows are quite ambitious projects. A long tunnel is dug into the bank of a pond or stream from below the water level, sloping gently upward. This tunnel may extend for as much as fifty feet. It ends in a rounded chamber. Sometimes several tunnels are dug to other chambers,

and the entrance to one of the tunnels is usually on the bank above the water, hidden among bushes or by grass.

The duckbill is an expert digger, even though the webs on the forefeet project beyond the claws. There is a beautiful adaptation here, for the web folds back like a small umbrella into the palm, leaving the sharp claws exposed and ready for the work of digging.

The home of the platypus is a burrow dug far into the bank of a stream, from under the water. There is a very long, upward sloping tunnel, which leads to the "living-room." Here is a bed of moist leaves and the water plants, in which the mother lays her eggs. While the young are in this nest, their mother blocks the entrance with a ball of leaves and earth, so no other animal can enter. Even the father platypus does not enter the home during this period. When the babies are a little older, the ball is broken up and pushed aside, to leave the entrance clear. The duckbills, as they are also called, are very shy, and swim away, or to their burrows, at any warning of danger.

Fig. The burrow of Platypus

 

Despite their large quantity, little is known about the life cycle of the platypus in the wild, and few of them have been kept successfully in captivity. The sexes avoid each other except to mate, and they do not mate until they are at least four years old. Males often fight during the breeding season, inflicting wounds on each other with their sharp ankle spurs. Courtship and mating take place in the water from late winter through spring. Mating is a laborious affair; in one recorded session the male was seen tightly grasping the tail of the female with his bill as she led him on an exhaustive chase.

Duckbill eggs are about the size of sparrow eggs and have thin, flexible shells, like the skin on the inside of a hen’s egg, but tougher. The nest material is kept damp, which makes certain that the eggs will be kept moist, for otherwise they might easily dry up. Pregnancy is at least two weeks (possibly up to a month), and incubation of the eggs takes perhaps another 6 to 10 days. The eggs hatch after being incubated for a week to ten days. The young ones are very small at first, naked and with a short, fleshy beak. Baby duckbills do not for the first few days; then they begin e nourished by the mother's milk. There are no nipples, but the babies suck milk from the special mammary hairs and remain protected in the burrow, suckling for three to four months before becoming independent. Hatchlings, whose weight often increases by a factor of 20 during their first 14 weeks of life, possess vestigial teeth that are shed shortly after the young platypus leaves the burrow to feed on its own. Males take no part in rearing the young. Females construct specially built nursery burrows, where they usually lay two small leathery eggs.  The female incubates the eggs by curling around them with her tail touching her bill.

 

The story of Prithivi

The "Vishnu Purāna"9 gives the following account of her birth. There was a king named Venā, notorious for his wickedness and general neglect of religious duties. When the Rishis of that age could not bear with his wickedness and immorality any longer, they slew him. Now there was no king. But now a worse evil happened; chaos and lawlessness prevailed. The people felt that a bad king was better than none at all. Upon this they rubbed the thigh of Venā, and then there came out a black dwarf, resembling a negro in appearance.

Immediately after his birth the dwarf asked, "What am I to do?" He is told, "Nisīda" (sit down), and from this his descendants are called "Nisidis" up to this day. The corpse was now pure, as all sin had left it in the body of this black dwarf. The right arm was then rubbed, and from it there came a beautiful shining prince, who was named Prithu, and reigned in the place of his father. Now during his reign there was a terrible famine. As the Earth would not yield her fruits, great danger occurred. Prithu said, "I will slay the Earth, and make her yield her fruits." Terrified at this threat, the Earth assumed the form of a cow, and was pursued by Prithu, even to the heaven of Brahma. At length, weary with the chase, she turned to him and said, "Know you not the sin of killing a female, that you thus try to slay me?"

The king replied that "when the happiness of many is secured by the destruction of one evil being, the slaughter of that being is an act of goodness." "But," said the Earth, "if, in order to promote the welfare of your subjects, you put an end to me, whence, best of monarchs, will thy people derive their support?" Overcome at length, the Earth declared that all vegetable products were old, and destroyed by her, but that at the king's command she would restore them "as developed from her milk." "Do you, therefore, for the benefit of mankind, give me that calf by which I may be able to secrete milk. Make also all places level, so that I may cause my milk, the seed of all vegetation, to flow everywhere around."

Prithu acted upon this advice. "Before his time there was no cultivation, no pasture, no agriculture, no highways for merchants; all these things (or all civilization) originated in the reign of Prithu. Where the ground was made level, the king induced his subjects to take up their abode. . . . He therefore having made Swayambhuva Manu the calf, milked the Earth, and received the milk into his own hand, for the benefit of mankind. Thence proceeded all kinds of corn and vegetables upon which people now subsist.

By granting life to the Earth, Prithu was as her father, and she thence derived the patronymic nickname Prithivi."

Ref:

·       Muir, O. S. T., v. 18, v. 23.

·       "Vishnu Purāna," (9)

 

 

A beggar mocks Alexander the Great

 

A beggar mocks Alexander the Great

 Diogenes of Sinope (c. 404—323 B.C.E.) was a beggar who lived on a riverbank in Greece. He had a beautiful begging bowl, and he wore only a loincloth. He begged at the temple gates and ate whatever food he got. One day, having finished his food he was walking towards the river. From somewhere a dog came running and tried to attack him. The beggar ran into the river for safety. He swam a bit and came onto the bank. The beggar in a mood of ecstasy rolled around joyfully. He just looked at this and thought “Oh my god, my life is worse than that of a dog.” He was already ecstatic, but he was saying his life was worse than that of a dog, because many times, he had felt like just jumping into the river, but was worried about getting his loincloth wet and about what could happen if he left the beautiful begging bowl there. On that day, he threw away his begging bowl and loincloth and lived totally naked.

Diogenes was captured by pirates and sold into slavery, eventually settling in Corinth.

Diogenes is reported to have “lit a lamp in broad daylight and said, as he went about, ‘I am searching for a human being’.

When Plato is asked what sort of man Diogenes is, he responds, “A Socrates gone mad”

He had a reputation for sleeping and eating wherever he chose in a highly non-traditional fashion and took to toughening himself against nature. He declared himself a cosmopolitan and a citizen of the world rather than claiming allegiance to just one place. There are many tales about his dogging Antisthenes' footsteps and becoming his "faithful hound".

Diogenes made a good point of poverty. He begged for a living and often slept in a large ceramic jar in the marketplace.

Once in Athens, Diogenes famously took a tub, for a home. In Lives of Eminent Philosophers, it is reported that Diogenes “had written to someone to try and procure a cottage for him. When this man was a long time about it, he took for his residence the tub in the Metroön, as he himself explains in his letters”. Apparently, Diogenes discovered that he had no need for conventional shelter or any other “delicacies” from having watched a mouse. The lesson the mouse teaches is that he can adapt himself to any circumstance. This adaptability is the origin of Diogenes’ legendary training.

Diogenes became notorious for his philosophical acts, such as carrying a lamp during the day, claiming to be looking for a man (often rendered in English as "looking for an honest man"). He criticized Plato, disputed his interpretation of Socrates, and sabotaged his lectures, sometimes distracting listeners by bringing food and eating during the discussions.

Another important episode in Diogenes’ life centers around his enslavement in Corinth after having been captured by pirates. When asked what he could do, he replied “Govern men,” which is precisely what he did once bought by Xeniades. The Xeniades’ learned to follow his ascetic example. One story tells of Diogenes’ release after having become a cherished member of the household, another claims Xeniades freed him immediately, and yet another maintains that he grew old and died at Xeniades’ house in Corinth. Whichever version may be true, the purpose is the same: Diogenes the slave is freer than his master.

Diogenes was also noted for having mocked Alexander the Great, both in public and to his face when he visited Corinth in 336 BC.

Now, one day Diogenes the beggar was lying down on the riverbank in an overjoyed state. It so happened that Alexander the Great passed that way.

Alexander who was riding his big horse, in his emperor’s clothes looked down at the beggar Diogenes who had his eyes closed and was rolling in the sand in great ecstasy. Alexander raised his voice and almost screamed at him, “You wretched animal. You do not have a piece of cloth on your body. You are like an animal. What is it that you are so ecstatic about?”

Diogenes looked up at him and asked him a question that nobody would have ever dared to ask an emperor. He asked, “Would you like to be like me?”

This struck Alexander so deeply and he said, “Yes, what should I do?”

Diogenes said, “Get off that ridiculous horse, take off those emperor’s clothes and throw them into the river. This riverbank is big enough for both of us. I am not conquering the whole thing. You can also lie down and be ecstatic. Who is stopping you?”

Alexander said, “Yes, I would love to be like you, but I do not have the courage to do what you are doing.”

Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.) a historical, glamorous famous Macedonian ruler and conqueror has always been shown great by the history books for his courage. Yet Alexander admitted that he did not have the courage to do what Diogenes was doing. So, Alexander replied, “I will join you in the next life.” He postponed it to his next life and in his next life. Who knows about the next time?

Because of this incident, a certain dispassion and coolness dawned on him. He lost the passion for battle towards the end of his life, but he still fought out of habit. Once he lost the passion, he lost his energy and he died. Just before his death, he gave a very strange instruction to his people. Alexander said, “When they make a coffin for me, there must be two holes on either side so that my two arms are outside the coffin, just to show all of you that even Alexander the Great goes empty handed.” Alexander died at the age of 32 years.

References

1.      Diogenes Laertius. Lives of Eminent Philosophers Vol. I-II. Trans. R.D. Hicks. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1979.

2.     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diogenes

3.     Sadhguru:

 

DATES (The bread of desert)

 

DATES (The bread of desert)

The dates tree is known as the tree of life. It is one of the favorite dry fruits, which has many benefits.

Date palms grow in a warm climate and are usually found near streams or springs. The date palm is grown primarily for its fruit, an important food in the Middle East. Dates grow in large clusters.

Dates may be an ideal midday snack. When dried they are chewy and sweet.

In Arab countries, dates are used to ward off many diseases. The benefits of eating dates can be seen in health as well as keeping hair and skin healthy.

Apart from preventing dandruff and scalp acne, date oil is also widely used for its moisturising benefits. The Omega-6 and Omega-9 fatty acids contained in the oil helps control water loss so the hair's moisture is kept intact and the cuticles sealed. Dates contain fibre as well which can aid weight loss. Dates are an excellent gut cleansers. Consuming dates (two to three per day) can result in stronger hair in a short span of time. “Being rich in iron, dates improve blood circulation to the scalp which helps in faster hair growth.

They are a great source of protein for vegetarians and regular gym goers. Dates maintain energy throughout the day, especially during hectic days, fasting days or just before a workout. They can be consumed any time—breakfast, lunch or as an evening snack—and are a powerhouse of nutrients. Dates are an excellent source of Vitamin C vitamin D, and minerals. Dates can boost the immunity of the body.

Dates contain high levels of unsaturated fatty acids, which control inflammation linked to obesity and weight-related diseases. Being a good source of iron and calcium, they help maintain blood and bone health too.

Scientists say that consuming dates are useful in treating skin allergies .

Dates are the fruit of the date palm, a tree that has grown in the warmer parts of South west Asia and North Africa since prehistoric days. The date palm has a straight, un branched trunk crowned with feathery leaves up to 20 feet (6 meters) long. The tree may reach a height of 60 to 80 feet (18 to 24 meters). The fruit comes out in large clusters on stalks between the leaves. A cluster may contain more than 1,000 dates and weigh 22 pounds (10 kilograms).

The date is a berry with a single hard seed. Most dates are oblong in shape and are usually more than 1 inch (2.5 centimetres) long. When dates become ripe, they turn golden to reddish brown. A few kinds of dates are nearly black. Many dates are picked as soon as they are ripe and spread on mats to dry. The dried fruit contains some moisture, but more than half of the date is sugar.

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Can an Experiment Fail?

Sham Misri

Thomas Alva Edison was an inventor who revolutionised the way of life of humanity with his more than a thousand patents. Edison was a genius of his time who improved the bulb and who gave rise to automatic telegraphy and put the phone into operation and also gave us the opportunity to listen to the music through a phonograph. The man was a legend equal to the one that circulates about his birth and his Mexican origin. The story about the Mexican origin of Edison tells that he was born in  Zacatecas on February 18, 1848, and not in Milan, Ohio on February 11,1847 as claimed.

Thomas Edison believed that no experiment could be a complete failure. When he was developing the incandescent light, he searched for a substance that could serve as a filament for the light bulb. Edison tested thousands of different substances before he found one that he could use in a practical, long lasting light bulb. While Edison was still hunting unsuccessfully for a good filament, he was asked whether he considered the experiments to be failures. He answered that they were not failures because, as a result of the experiments, he knew thousands of substances that could not serve as the filament of an incandescent bulb.

Edison was right. You can learn something from every experiment, including those that seem to "fail."

Banabhatta- A great Sanskrit prose writer and poet in 7th-century in India

 

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).