Banabhatta
Banabhatta, who holds the highest rank among the prose writers in Sanskrit, lived in 7th century A.D. Son of Chitrabhanu and Rajdevi, he was born in a village called Pritikoota. His mother died when he was a child and at the age of 14 he lost his father. He was the 'Asthana Kavi' meaning 'Court Poet' of King Harshavardhana and amongst his works are 'Harsha Charita' a biography of Harsha and 'Kadambari', based on theMakarandika episode of Gunadhya's Brihatkatha.
The Harshacharita is a monumental historical romantic fiction in 'akhyayika' form written by Banabhatta in eight chapters. The story in the Harshacharita is not a full biography but covers the reign of Harsha upto the recovery of his lost elder sister Rajyashri, and the royal and military activities over a period of some years. Though some persons, happenings, events and places described here are verified by history, it must be remembered that Bana is not writing this fictional biography as a historian but as a poet or an epic bard, decorating his tale with fancy, fantasy, the marvel of romance and adventure, and with all the literary devices of a determined poet. The Harshacharita occupies an important place in Sanskrit literature because it furnishes historical and sociological details during his time.
The Kadambari is one of the best romantic fictions of seventh century by Banabhatta. An imaginative romantic story of love, technically in the 'katha' form, the novel transcends the bounds of mortal existence and moves through three lives till the deep and passionate love finally attains its desired fulfilment. In this marvellous texture, men and demigods, earth and regions beyond, the natural and the supernatural, are all happily blended together. Love, curses, transformation of gods into demigods and demigods into men and of men into animals and birds in successive births with the love affair continuing through such successive births, surprise and complex situations and various similar devices are introduced in the construction of the plot.
The story of the Kadambari is one of the most complicated found in any literature. The whole story becomes a unit only as narrated by a few characters, and the characters narrate their own tales. The story is so complicated that a later poet has written an epitome of the story of the Kadambari (Kadambari-kathasara) for the benefit of the ordinary reader who cannot disentangle the various parts of the narration and bring them together into a continuous narrative. This device of story within story, story continuing another story as complement and story introducing another story, is very common in Sanskrit literature. Here, the peculiarity is that the same story is put into the mouth of a few characters, part by part and all the parts become a single story.
Here is the complete story of Kadambari as narrated by Banabhatta:
The king of a race of demigods had a daughter named Kadambari and she had a companion named Mahasveta, the daughter of a celestial nymph. One day the latter met a youth named Pundarika along with a friend of his, near a lake named Acchoda; the young person fell in love with her. Pundarika was the son of Lakshmi the goddess of beauty and a sage named Svetaketu. The boy died of grief since it was too late to inform him of the reciprocation of the love. In a state of grief, he cursed the Moon who gave him so much of pain in his heart, that the latter would be born on the earth and suffer the pangs of love. The Moon on his part cursed him that he too would share the sufferings on the earth. Pundarika 's body was carried away by some heavenly being and there was a voice heard that Mahasveta should not end her life, since there would be a re-union.The Moon was born on the earth as Candrapida, son of Tarapida the king of Ujjayini, and Pundarika was born as the son of his minister Sukanasa, by name Vaisampayana. Pundarika had his companion named Kapinjala, and when Pundarika's body was being taken to the heavens, he pursued him and by chance he ran over a semi-divine being who cursed him that he would be born as a horse. The horse was Indrayudha, which was given to Candrapida as a present. One day Candrapida and Vaisampayana with an army set out on an expedition of conquest over the world. Candrapida rode on Indrayudha. It so happened that one day Candrapida saw a pair of demigods and decided to chase them riding his horse Indrayudha and was carried away by the animal far from his companions, and he reached that Acchoda lake where he met Mahasveta, waiting for the return of Pundarika. Mahasveta narrated her whole history to him and took him to the palace where he saw Kadambari. Soon he had a message from the father that he should return. He had by this time rejoined the army and he asked Vaisampayana to bring the army and hurried back; he was eager to pay a second visit to the palace of Kadambari, but could not do so until Vaisampayana had returned. But the news came that Vaisampayana went to the lake. There he met Mahasveta and fell in love with her; but she could not reciprocate the love as she was in love with Pundarika who would return, and she could not possibly know the identity of the two. He repeated his approaches to her like a parrot, and Mahasveta cursed him that he would become a parrot. Vaisampayana fell down dead and he became a parrot in the jungles. Candrapida went to the lake in search of Vaisampayana and heard about his fate and, unable to bear the calamity, he too ended his life.
Now, Candrapida who died, was born as King Sudraka of Vidisha. One day a woman of the hunter community, supremely handsome, brought a parrot of wonderful abilities to him. That was Vaisampayana, son of the minister and companion of Candrapida. The parrot narrated the events in his life up to that time; they all went to the hermitage of a sage named Jabali, who on seeing the parrot knew all about its past birth, and on the request of the king, he narrated the whole story of Candrapida and Vaisampayana, in which was included the story of Mahasveta narrated to Candrapida by her. On the completion of the story narrated by Jabali, Sudraka fell down dead and there rose up Candrapida, who was living as King Sudraka. The parrot also fell dead, and Pundarika, whose body was preserved in Heaven also revived and came down to the lake. Candrapida married Kadambari and Pundarika married Mahasveta. All ended happily. Candrapida spent his time partly at Ujjayini, his own home, and partly at Hemakuta, the home of Kadambari and in the Moon in so far as he was an incarnation of the Moon.
After reading Kadambari one can say that Banabhatta was a redoubtable writer of a poem in prose. The descriptions in this narrative are varied and clear and resplendent. The theme is novel and attractive and the language that Banabhatta has adopted fits into the art with the long compounds and double meanings; the work is full of similes and other figures of speech. The device of story within story and of story relayed from the hands of one narrator to the hands of another character, produces an artistic involvedness and a good variety in the poem. When a long description starts, like the description of the hermitage of the sage Jabali or of the horse Indrayudha or of the lake Acchoda, there is a complete arrest of the movement in the story. The description is a single sentence extending to a few pages with only one predicate at the end, the description being effected by introducing a large number of epithets in syntactical relation with the main subject matter of description, with similes and other figures of speech and with the presentations of the various parts of the object of description; the descriptions are full of colour, decorated with a profusion of hyperbole. Various objects and situations are introduced in such descriptions as taken from mythology and from Nature and also from the different classes of lore like religion and philosophy and sciences; from the customs and manners and practices of the people and from various other sources.
Along with such descriptions, there are contexts where there is a presentation of strong emotions and where there is a narration of events. In such places there is a quick movement along with the flow of strong feelings. In such contexts, the language too changes, suiting to the context. The sentences become brief and crisp and the words used become short and simple. The compound words and the double meanings, being unsuitable for such contexts, are avoided. There are various contexts like these in the whole poem. The poem is not a string of artificial descriptions nor is it a bare narration of events. It is a happy combination of beautiful narration with proper decorations of descriptions, with various details bringing in colour and variety.
Banabhatta is a great scholar and there is no subject in the world that has not been touched upon in the poem. That is the traditional estimate of the greatness of Bana as a writer (banocchishtam jagatsarvam). But his erudition does not act as any stumbling block in the way of one's appreciation of the art. They all merge into his art.
Very characteristic of Bana's style are the dialogues inserted in the middle of the descriptions or a narrative in quite small sentences for the purpose of giving lively expression to some sentiment. So Kadambari sends the following love-message to her lover:
kim va sandishami : atipriyositi paunaruktyam, tavaham priyatmeti jadaprasnah, tvayigariyinanuraga iti veshyalapa, tvaya vina na jivamityanubhavavirodhah, paribhavati mamananga ityatmadoshopalambhah, manobhavenaham bhavate dattetyupasarpanopayah, baladdhriteti bandhakidharshtyam, avashyamagantavyamiti saubhagyagarvah, svayamagacchamiti stricapalam, ananyanuraktoyam parijana iti svabhaktinivedanalaghavam, pratyakhyanasankaya na sandishamityaprabuddhabodhanam, anapekshitanujivitaduhkhadaruna syamityatipranayita, jnasyasi maranena pritimityasambhavyam.
"What message can I send to you? 'You are very dear to me', will be tautological. 'I am yours', will be a silly proposition. 'I have deep affection for you', will be the talk of a prostitute. 'Without you I cannot live', will be a contradiction to actuality. 'I am overtaken by Cupid', this will be impertinent. 'I have been forcibly abducted', this will be impudence of a captive girl. 'You must come', this will be expressive of pride, on account of good luck. 'I come of my own accord', this will be fickleness of a woman. 'This slave is not devoted to anybody else', this will be my meanness to report my own devotion. 'I do not send message for fear of refusal', this will be bringing to sense a senseless person. 'I shall suffer terrible pains in case I lead an undesired life', this will be excessive familiarity. 'You will come to know of my love through (my) death', this will be an impossibility".