space of seven centuries can afford us not the least preciseness. >,
As to Bana himself, we shall see, he can safely be assigned to ;
the second half of the seventh century A. D. The quotation |
from the Harsha-charita probably shows that SubaGdhu was v
almost fresh in the memory of Bana, when he penned those ^
eulogistic lines; The author of the Raghava-Pandawya, ^
whose surname Kaviraja 'the prince of poets' alone has come \
down to us, speaks of Subandhu as Bana's predecessor. A^ain i*
when Subandhu writes: f^fm^R^f ^crRT%3TTR3%: f jj,
he in a fair way facilitates our research. Regarding the [|
Brihatkatha and the reality of its existence, we may adduce f
the respectable testimony of I^andin :
Srot \ f c3T*Tt I (Kavyadarsa i. 38.) From these data, the I
age of Subandhu can be safely estimated at about 1200 years. ||
' In his Vasavadatta, Subandhu7s sole aim was to illustrate l
certain powers of the sacred tongue* In his opinion, the choice of If
an intelligent plot was altogether a matter of secondary import. ^
The story of Vasavadatta had a sort of romantic popularity in that period. Subandhu famed for his mythological lore and imagery was not slow to choose the more tantalizing bait and he made this story a vehicle for the execution of his purpose.
Misdirected as was his ingenuity, in his own field his position was unique. The attempts of later writers to vie with him in the matter of paranomasia cannot be said to have been attended with success. All nature and all art is familiar to him but in the expression everything is squeezed to minister to his puerile ambition. There is not one mythological incident to which he has not alluded, not one word whose are signifi-e marriage of Parvati and Siva,-s in question either to Bairxa or