Which of the following plays was NOT written by Harshavardhana?

Correct — A. Vikramorvasiyam is Kalidasa's play, not Harsha's.

Harshavardhana is credited with three Sanskrit plays: Nagananda, Ratnavali and Priyadarshika. The three other choices name exactly those, which leaves option (a) standing outside the set.

Kalidasa wrote Vikramorvasiyam, on King Pururavas and the apsara Urvashi, alongside Malavikagnimitram and Abhijnanashakuntalam.

Why the others are wrong

• (b)
  Nagananda — Nagananda is Harsha's own play, a Buddhist-flavoured drama in which the Vidyadhara prince Jimutavahana gives up his body to save the serpents from Garuda.
• (c)
  Ratnavali — Ratnavali is Harsha's court comedy about King Udayana of Vatsa and Sagarika, who turns out to be the princess Ratnavali. Harsha wrote it, so it cannot be the exception.
• (d)
  Priyadarshika — Priyadarshika is the third play credited to Harsha, another natika built on Udayana's romance, so it belongs with the two above rather than with the answer.

Ancient-history questions here often test authorship: which ruler or court poet wrote what.

Harshavardhana, who ruled from Thanesar and then Kanauj in the seventh century, is unusual because he was both patron and author. His court held Banabhatta, whose Harshacharita is the biography historians read him through, and his reign is also described by the Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang.

Kalidasa is placed in the Gupta age, centuries earlier, in a different court tradition altogether.

Key facts

• Harshavardhana is credited with three Sanskrit plays — Nagananda, Ratnavali and Priyadarshika.
• Vikramorvasiyam, Malavikagnimitram and Abhijnanashakuntalam are the three plays of Kalidasa.
• Banabhatta, a poet in Harsha's court, wrote the Harshacharita, an account of the king.
• The Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang travelled in India during Harsha's reign and left a record of it.

Common traps

• Nagananda's Buddhist theme tempts candidates to hand it to a Buddhist author instead of to Harsha.
• Ratnavali and Priyadarshika are both natikas about King Udayana, so they are easy to confuse with each other and with Bhasa's Udayana plays.
• Vikramorvasiyam sounds like a royal title, which makes it feel like the king's own work.

No directly related past PYQ was found.