Cultural Aspects (Introdcution)

Bāṇabhaṭṭa’s Harṣacarita is not only considered as one of the greatest of prose literatures in Sanskrit but it is more important as a source of history. The autobiographical account in the beginning of the Harṣacarita reveals that the writer was patronized by king Harṣavardhana (606-648 A.D).^[1] Therefore, he has seen king Harṣa’s royal life from very close vicinity and thus depicted king Harṣavardhana’s reign revealing lots of socio-cultural information of that contemporary society. In the mean time, he not only furnishes the picture of social life of 7^th century Indian, but depicts their festivals, various customs and Vedic rituals, their dresses, ornaments, their occupation etc., which were relevant at that time and many other cultural aspects of that society also. Therefore, the Harṣacarita is a storehouse of information of the social, cultural and religious life of the period of the 7^th century A.D.

The author was not only a close-observer of courts and kings, but even of the din and simple aspects of human life, so in the Harṣacarita we find the description of court and life in the cities,^[2] the village life^[3] and as well as life in a hermitage,^[4] which are given below-