THE story of Kadambari 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 Harshavardhana of Thaneçar, 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. Bana, as he tells us, both in the 'Harsha-Carita and in the introductory verses of 'Kadambari, 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, 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.
The other works attributed to him are the Candika- cataka," or verses in honour of Candika; a drama, The Parvatiparinaya'; and another, called Mukutataditaka,' the existence of which is inferred from Gunavinayagani's commentary on the 'Nalacampu.' Professor Peterson also mentions that a verse of Bana's (Subhashitavali, 1087) is quoted by Kshemendra in his 'Aucityavicaracarca,' with a statement that it is part of a description of Kadambari's sorrow in the absence of Candrapida, whence, he adds, 'it would seem that Bana wrote the story of Kadambari in verse as well as in prose,' and he gives some verses which may have come from such a work.
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.
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