The
Harshacharita (
IASTThe International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration is a popular transliteration scheme that allows a lossless romanization of Indic scripts.-Popularity:IAST is the most popular transliteration scheme for romanization of Sanskrit and Pali...
:,
SanskritSanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India. It is also declared as a classical language by the government of India....
: हर्षचरित), "The Deeds of ", is the
biographyA biography is a description or account of someone's life and the times, which is usually published in the form of a book or essay, or in some other form, such as a film. An autobiography is a biography of a person's life written or told by that same person...
of Indian Emperor
HarshaHarsha or Harshavardhana or "Harsha vardhan" was an Indian emperor who ruled Northern India for forty one years. He was the son of Prabhakar Vardhan and younger brother of Rajyavardhan, a king of Thanesar...
by
BanabhattaBāṇabhaṭṭa also known as Bāṇa was a Sanskrit scholar and poet of India. He was the Asthana Kavi in the court of King Harshavardhana, who reigned in the years c. 606-647 CE in north India...
, also known as
Bana, who was a
SanskritSanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India. It is also declared as a classical language by the government of India....
writer of 7th century in
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
. He was the 'Asthana Kavi', meaning 'Court Poet', of King Harsha. 'Harsha Charita' was the first composition of Bana and can be treated as the beginning of writing of historical poetic works in Sanskrit language. This is written in ornate poetic prose, in which Bana gives us a fragment of autobiography unparalleled in Sanskrit literature.
The
Harshacharita (
IASTThe International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration is a popular transliteration scheme that allows a lossless romanization of Indic scripts.-Popularity:IAST is the most popular transliteration scheme for romanization of Sanskrit and Pali...
:,
SanskritSanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India. It is also declared as a classical language by the government of India....
: हर्षचरित), "The Deeds of ", is the
biographyA biography is a description or account of someone's life and the times, which is usually published in the form of a book or essay, or in some other form, such as a film. An autobiography is a biography of a person's life written or told by that same person...
of Indian Emperor
HarshaHarsha or Harshavardhana or "Harsha vardhan" was an Indian emperor who ruled Northern India for forty one years. He was the son of Prabhakar Vardhan and younger brother of Rajyavardhan, a king of Thanesar...
by
BanabhattaBāṇabhaṭṭa also known as Bāṇa was a Sanskrit scholar and poet of India. He was the Asthana Kavi in the court of King Harshavardhana, who reigned in the years c. 606-647 CE in north India...
, also known as
Bana, who was a
SanskritSanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India. It is also declared as a classical language by the government of India....
writer of 7th century in
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
. He was the 'Asthana Kavi', meaning 'Court Poet', of King Harsha. 'Harsha Charita' was the first composition of Bana and can be treated as the beginning of writing of historical poetic works in Sanskrit language. This is written in ornate poetic prose, in which Bana gives us a fragment of autobiography unparalleled in Sanskrit literature. Not only do his elaborate descriptions show accurate and close observation, but throughout his work, the personality of the author breaks through.
Harsha Charita ranks as the first historical biography in Sanskrit although it is written in a florid and fanciful style. Bana's detailed and vivid descriptions of rural India's natural environment as well as the extraordinary industry of the Indian people exudes the vitality of life at that time. However, since he received the patronage of the Emperor Harsha, his descriptions of his patron are not an unbiased appraisal and presents the Emperor's actions in an overly favorable light.
Contents
The
Harṣacarita narrates the biography of the Emperor Harsha in eight
ucchvāsas (chapters). In the first two
ucchvāsas, Bana gives an account of his ancestry and his early life.
Commentaries
The only commentary available is the
Sanketa written by Shankara, a scholar from
KashmirKashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent...
. It seems that Ruyyaka wrote a commentary known as the
Harṣacaritavārtika, which has not yet been found.