Chapter 9 - Conclusion

Bāṇabhaṭṭa has occupied the top-most position in Sanskrit prose literature; also his Harṣacarita and Kādambarī get the foremost position among all the gadyakāvyas. The historians also accept the Harṣacarita as an important source of information for the social, cultural, political conditions of the 7^th century A.D. The writer was patronized by king Harṣa and composed his book Harṣacarita on the basis on the life of king Harṣa.

The character of the hero (Harṣa) has a great historical value in this kāvya. Bāṇabhaṭṭa, who flourished in the court of king Harṣa, supplies the abundant materials with a true picture of contemporary society, which historically are accepted as authentic. We take help from various books mainly from Harṣa’s history in the writings of foreign traveler Hiuen Tsang,^[1] who had come to India during the time of 629-644 A.D., and visited the whole India, who gives a full account of the emperor Harṣavardhana’s reign and many other inscriptional information from Corpus Inscription Indicarum, Select Inscriptions-bearing on Indian History and Civilization, Epigraphica Indica and other historical documents, which supports that the emperor Harṣavardhana, the hero of this gadyakāvya lived in 7^th century A. D. This gadyakāvya can easily be considered as a very good source of information regarding the socio-cultural aspect of the Indian society of the 7^th century A.D. i.e., when the writer Bāṇabhaṭṭa and the hero Harṣavardhana of his gadyakāvya flourished. The present thesis has attempted to deal with some of important aspects of this gadyakāvya.

Socio-culture study is vast area, and it is not possible to cover all the detail Socio-cultural aspects in limited scope of a thesis. Therefore, only certain important aspects of the society as well as culture are considered for the study. Accordingly, this thesis has been divided into 9 chapters.

In the chapter-1, we found the description kāvya and its divisions with their various definitions by the famous Rhetoricians, specialties of gadyakāvya and divisions of it. Here we saw that Viśvanāth Kavirāja gives the modern concept on kāvya. He divides kāvya into two types’ viz., dṛśya and śravya. In this context, we found the definition of kathā and ākhyāyikā, position of Harṣacarita among the gadyakāvyas in Sanskrit literature. Then, we try to give accurate information about the writer, his time and date, his works on the basis of authentic books. Here it is seen that date of Bāṇabhaṭṭa is very important for the chronology of Sanskrit writers and his date could easily be fix from the autobiographical accounts given by himself in his famous kāvya in Harṣacarita. Again, if we do not mention about the style of writing of Bāṇa, without mentioning it all his works will remain unfulfilled. The pāñcālī style i.e. compounds of five or six words, is prominently present in Bāṇa’s works. Sweetness (mādhurya) and tenderness (saukumārya) are the main features of this style. Then, we try to furnish brief note on the Harṣacarita and the Kādambarī. At last, we include motivation of the work and plan of the thesis in this chapter.

Caste system and varṇāśrama has greatly influenced the social structure. Chapter -2 deals with the caste system as reflected in the Harṣacarita. In the 7^th century A.D. there were mainly four castes or varṇas (caste) viz., brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya and śūdra were very closely associated with and the king was a protector of the varṇas.^[2] Besides the four castes, there were many sub-castes; such as-caṇḍāla, mleccha, śavara etc. which imply that there was inter-caste marriage that prevailed during that time. The author himself states that his most intimate associates were his cousins Candrasena and Mātṛsena were parāśava i.e., sons of his uncle from the wife of śūdra caste.^[3] According to the Manusaṃhitā-pārāśava means sprung from a brāhmaṇa and a śūdra female.^[4] It shows the people were associated with different castes without ruining any serious risk of losing caste or position.

In the Chapter-3, it is found that there was two types of education system; formal and informal education. Generally the boys got the formal education. The girl acquired the knowledge through informal education. In this gadyakāvya, it is seen that princes Harṣa and Rājyavardhana got the all types of knowledge, but there is no information on formal education given to princess Rājyaśrī. In the 7^th century, before going to the gurugṛha, the people performed the religious ceremonies (i.e., upanayanasaṃskāra). Where we find that the people gets knowledge on all types of subjects such as-Vedas, Vedāṅgas, Śikṣā, Kalpa, Nirukta, Vyākaraṇa, Astrology, Dhanurvidyā, saṅgīta-nātya-vādya, Āyurveda, Dharmaśāstra, Sāmudrikaśāstra etc. When we search about the seats of learning of the students, we find that there was no permanent seat for them. Some learner was found sitting on the rocks, some on bower, some under the shade of the trees, some even on the massive roots of huge trees to attain knowledge in the hermit of Divākaramitra’s.^[5] Again it is seen that the animals and birds were lived with man and taught them Vedic mantras etc in Bāṇa’s time. The birds like Parrots (śuka) and Mainas (sārikā) etc. were also trained by making them repeatedly hear the teacher’s reciting of the Vedic mantras. Students could take lessons from the trained birds, instead of the teachers, in leisure. Those birds also helped the ṛtvijas in giving leisure during the time of sacrifices (yāga).^[6] Giving knowledge to the birds not seen in the Upaniṣadic age.

Chapter-4 interprets the status of women. Although, women were accepted as a better-halves of a men and as a vital force for the overall development of the society, but it is seen generally they were dominated to some extent as compared to the present Indian society. In the Harṣacarita, we find that the women enjoyed a respectable position in the household; the wives got much care and attention from their husbands. It is seen through the ideal relationship between a husband and a wife e.g., between king Prabhākaravardhana and queen Yaśomatī. Daughters too were brought up with parental affection and were considered as equals with the sons. This is evidence from the version^[7] of king Prabhākaravardhana. Women were also engaged in various professions as men. But, satī system and purdā system were also found more or less.

Chapter-5 discusses the political condition under the reign of Harṣa and the contemporary society of 7^th century A.D. where we found that kingship acquired through hereditary and king accepted as the incarnation of all devatās. It is found in the Harṣacarita that the king Harṣa was the incarnation of all devatās and he had compared with many historic heroes such as-Bhīṣma, Droṇa, Karṇa etc. Under the reign of the king Harṣa, the citizens were very much satisfied with him. He is always possessed of good friends and counselors and he is the only king of his time who possesses sovereign power. Happiness and justice always stayed in his kingdom and he also appointed his feudatory kings to protect his citizen. King’s responsibilities and relations with the ministers through the characters of king Puṣpabhūti, forefather of Harṣa and king Prabhākaravardhana, the father of Harṣa etc. are discussed. Mention the different name of royal titles, which the kings took at that time. Give the information of stable source of collecting revenue of the society. Also discuss the importance of reward and punishment for administration of justice, which are closely associated with the human societies. Arms, army and warfare, weapons of wars, dresses and other amenities of soldiers are given with authentic information from various books besides the Harṣacarita. There were four divisions of army found in the 7^th century A.D. The author implied it through the word caturaṅga,^[8] viz., infantry (padāti), cavalry (aśvārohī), charitories (rathī), and elephantry (gajarathī).

Although, I study on the topic-‘Socio-Cultural Study of the Harṣacarita’, so we discuss the life and living style, economic condition of the people of then society in the chapter-6. Here, we seen that people lived in city, village and also in forest. The life of the city people was better than the villagers and foresters. Economically they were rich, which showed through their various professions. At that time, there were three competing religions viz., Brahmanism, Buddhism and Jainism flourished and seen that the king used to give equal support to all the religion. The people also tried to follow all the sacraments, and among the 10 saṃskāras, some are performed by them such as-nāmakaraṇa, upanayana, vivāha, antyeṣṭi etc. Then, we described their culture, art and architecture, food and drinks, use of machines and tools etc during that time.

Chapter-7 relates to the environmental aspects, which is considered as one of the burning issues now-a-days regarding survival of human civilization. Man plays a vital role in the natural environment system at that time and people had assigned religious and respectable status to innumerable animals and birds. It was found that the writer himself saluted an auspicious cow (naicikī) while starting his journey to meet Harṣa for the first time.^[9] Descriptions about environmental awareness among the people and impact of environment in their mind and body are found in many places in the Harṣa. These descriptions reveal that people were conscious about their well-beings. They were found to be health and hygiene conscious; they were well equipped to exploit various herbs as medicine and cosmetics. There were plenty of medicinal plants, whose descriptions are found in Harṣacarita is tabulated with their Sanskrit names, Botanical names, English names and Assamese names. In this chapter, we have given the systematic information on flora and fauna of Bāṇa’s time. It found that at that time the people planted various types of plants in their homegardens, from this description, it may be inferred that the people knew that the planting had got many positive aspects for our surrounding environment and it would help not only on individual, the society and ecosystem at large measure.

In the chapter-8, a novel attempt is made to figure out some of the similarities; such as-position of men and women, economic condition, religions, duties of the kings, Vedic practices, food and drinks, flora and fauna etc. and dissimilarities; such as-living standard of the people, position of son and daughter, customs and sacraments, festivals etc. between the two societies of the Harṣacarita and the Kādambarī. Apparently it seems that the descriptions of societies are the same in Harṣacarita and kādambarī. Although both the greatest gadyakāvyas are written by Bāṇa, it is worth-mentioning that the Kādambarī is a kathā,^[10] basically based on the author’s imagination and the Harṣacarita is a ākhyāyikā,^[11] - based on the real life of hero. Therefore obviously the theme, character, society etc show great differences between the two societies of Bāṇabhaṭṭa’s Kādambarī and the Harṣacarita.

From the above discussions, it is assumed that the Harṣacarita of Bāṇabhaṭṭa can easily be called a repository of information wherefrom we can find a vivid picture of king Harṣa’s contemporary society. It is hoped that this work will be of some use for further research.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Si-Yu-Ki, translated into Eng., Buddhist Record of the Western World, by S. Beal, London, 1884

[2]:

tatra ca sākṣātsahasrākṣa iva sarvavarṇadharaṃ dhanurdadhānaḥ…….rājā..babhūva, Harṣacarita,III.p.44

[3]:

Ibid, I. p.19

[4]:

śūdrāyāṃ brāhmaṇātjātaḥ, Manusaṃhitā,X.64

[5]:

atha teṣām taruṇāṃ madhye nānādeśiyaiḥ sthānasthāneṣu sthāṇunāśritaiḥ śilātaleṣūpaviṣtairlatābhavanānyadhyāvasadbhiraravyānīnikuñjareṣu nilīnairviṭapacchāyāṣu niṣaṇṇaiṣtarūmūlāni niṣevamānai……..āvedyamānam, Harṣacarita,VIII.p.128

[6]:

śukasārikāravyadhyayaṇadīyamānopādhyāyaviśrāntisukhāni, Ibid,I.p.21

[7]:

seyaṃ sarvābhibhāvinī śokāgnerdāhaśaktiryadapatyatve samāne’pi jātāyāṃ duhitari ….., Ibid,IV.p.68

[8]:

aṣṭāpadānāṃ caturaṅgakalpanā, Ibid, II.p.35

[9]:

pradakṣiṇīkṛtva…. naicikīṃ, Ibid.

[10]:

pravandhakalpanā kathā, Amarakoṣa, I.6.6

[11]:

ākhyāyikopalabdhārthā, Ibid, I.6.5