प्रियदर्शिका नाटिका (सम्राट हर्षवर्धन - चतुरङ्क शास्त्रीय नाटिका सान्वय सटीक)

XXVII above*. The story of Bandhumatī resembles that of Priya- darśikā, as the student can see from the passage from the कथासरित्सागर quoted above, the names उदयन, वत्सराज, वसन्तक, वासवदत्ता and साङ्कृत्यायनी, being common to both. Hence we con- clude that Harsha took for his basis the meagre story of Bandhumatī, perhaps written in greater detail in the बृहत्कथा, and worked it up into the present charming play. (3) TIME ANALYSIS OF THE PLAY. The action of the Priyadarśikā covers a period of a little over a year, from the autumn (शरद्) of one year to the autumn of another. For we are told in the Viṣkambhaka of the first Act by the chamberlain of Dṛḍhavarman, the king of the Anga country, that his master was already a captive of the king of Kalinga; and from the closing speech of the same chamberlain we learn that the season of the year is autumn; for he speaks of the uncommon severity of the autumnal heat and of the sun having passed from the zodiacal sign virgo to libra. From thiswe know that the month was A'svina, in which generally the sun is in libra. And we learn from the message sent by the Queen Aṅgāravatī to her daughter Vāsavadattā (see p. 46) some days after the events of the third act which happened on the full moon-day of Aśvina that it was more than a year since Dṛḍhavarman was taken a captive. So the action of the play spreads over a period of a year and a few days more. Act I. It is not possible exactly to fix the time of the action of the 1st Act. It begins in the forenoon of some day in the month of A'śvina some two hours before noon as the Act closes at mid-day (see Śl. 12). The King is introduced as holding conversation with his companion Vasantaka some day after his escape from prison and return

• There is also a third and a more faithful abridgement, which is also earlier, of the Bṛhatkathā, known as the Bṛhatkathāśloka- saṅgraha, by one, Buddhasvāmin. It is, however, incomplete, only 28 cantos being extant. In this also the events connected with the birth and early years of Udayana are narrated including his visits to the city of the Serpents and his acquisition there of the magic lute, Ghoṣavatī and of the art of taming elephants Col U. Ed. Introd. pp lxx, lxxi.