Banabhatta, its author, lived in the reign of Harshavardhana of
Thaneçar, the great king mentioned in many inscriptions, [2] who
extended his rule over the whole of Northern India, and from whose
reign (A.D. 606) dates the Harsha era, used in Nepal. Bana, as he
tells us, both in the 'Harsha-Carita' and in the introductory verses
of 'Kadambari,' was a Vatsyayana Brahman. His mother died while he
was yet young, and his father's tender care of him, recorded in the
'Harsha-Carita,' [3] was doubtless in his memory as he recorded the
unselfish love of Vaiçampayana's father in 'Kadambari' (p. 22). In
his youth he travelled much, and for a time 'came into reproach,'
by reason of his unsettled life; but the experience gained in foreign
lands turned his thoughts homewards, and he returned to his kin, and
lived a life of quiet study in their midst. From this he was summoned
to the court of King Harsha, who at first received him coldly, but
afterwards attached him to his service; and Bana in the 'Harsha-Carita'
relates his own life as a prelude to that of his master.
The other works attributed to him are the 'Candikaçataka,' [4] or
verses in honour of Candika; a drama, 'The Parvatiparinaya'; and
another, called 'Mukutataditaka,' the existence of which is inferred
from Gunavinayagani's commentary on the 'Nalacampu.' Professor
Peterson also mentions that a verse of Bana's ('Subhashitavali,'
1087) is quoted by Kshemendra in his 'Aucityavicaracarca,' with a
statement that it is part of a description of Kadambari's sorrow in
the absence of Candrapida, whence, he adds, 'it would seem that Bana
wrote the story of Kadambari in verse as well as in prose,' and he
gives some verses which may have come from such a work.
Bana himself died, leaving 'Kadambari' unfinished, and his son
Bhushanabhatta took it up in the midst of a speech in which Kadambari's
sorrows are told, and continued the speech without a break, save for
a few introductory verses in honour of his father, and in apology for
his having undertaken the task, 'as its unfinished state was a grief to
the good.' He continued the story on the same plan, and with careful,
and, indeed, exaggerated, imitation of his father's style.