Which one of the following books was authored by Harshavardhana?
- (a)Harshacharita
- (b)Kadambari
- (c)Ratnavali
- (d)Gitagovinda
Correct — C, Ratnavali. Harshavardhana was a playwright as well as a king, and three Sanskrit plays are credited to him — Ratnavali and Priyadarsika, both court comedies of the natika type, and Nagananda, a Buddhist play on the self-sacrifice of Jimutavahana. The other three titles all belong to other authors, two of them to Harsha's own court poet.
- (a)Harshacharita — Written about Harsha, not by him. The Harshacharita is Banabhatta's prose biography of his patron and the first of its kind in Sanskrit — which is precisely why the title tempts.
- (b)Kadambari — Also Banabhatta's, a Sanskrit prose romance left unfinished at his death and completed by his son. Same court, same reign, different pen.
- (d)Gitagovinda — Jayadeva's, and from a different age altogether — a twelfth-century lyric poem on Radha and Krishna composed in eastern India, some five hundred years after Harsha.
Harshavardhana ruled from Thanesar and then Kanauj in the first half of the seventh century, and his court is known through two literatures at once — the works he wrote and the works written about him. Banabhatta's Harshacharita and the travel account of the Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang supply the history; Ratnavali, Priyadarsika and Nagananda are the king's own compositions.
The examiner is separating patron from poet. Harshacharita carries Harsha's name in its title and is the strongest distractor for exactly that reason; Kadambari is by the same author and so shares its pull. Fix the pairing once — Bana wrote about Harsha, Harsha wrote plays — and the whole family of questions on this reign becomes routine.
- Harsha's three plays: Ratnavali, Priyadarsika and Nagananda.
- Banabhatta, his court poet, wrote the Harshacharita and the unfinished romance Kadambari.
- Xuanzang, the Chinese pilgrim, spent years in India during Harsha's reign and described his Prayag assembly.
- Gitagovinda is by Jayadeva, of the twelfth century, at the court of Lakshmanasena of Bengal.
The title with Harsha's name in it is the one he did not write.
- Reading 'Harshacharita' as something Harsha wrote because his name is in the title.
- Pairing Kadambari with the wrong author — it is Bana's, not Kalidasa's.
As an author-to-work pairing, as a match-the-lists block, or as 'which was NOT written by' — the same four names recycled.
Which of the following pairs are correctly matched? I. Mrichchhakatikam — Shudraka II. Buddhacharita — Vasuvandhu III. Mudrarakshasha — Vishakhadatta IV. Harshacharita — Banabhatta Select the correct answer using the codes given below:
- (a) I, II, III and IV
- (b) I, III and IV
- (c) I and IV
- (d) II and III
Answer(b) I, III and IV
The same pairing tested as a match-the-lists item. Its fourth pair, Harshacharita with Banabhatta, is exactly the fact that disposes of option (a) here.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Sanskrit prose romance Kadambari was written by
- (a)Harshavardhana
- (b)Banabhatta
- (c)Dandin
- (d)Subandhu
Answer(b) Banabhatta — he left it unfinished and his son completed it.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Nagananda, a Sanskrit play with a Buddhist theme, is attributed to
- (a)Bhasa
- (b)Shudraka
- (c)Harshavardhana
- (d)Vishakhadatta
Answer(c) Harshavardhana — one of his three plays, alongside Ratnavali and Priyadarsika.