रत्नावली नाटिका (सम्राट हर्षवर्धन - शास्त्रीय नाटिका रत्न सम्पूर्ण ४ अङ्क सान्वय सटीक)

xxvi RATNAVALI Again the question may arise that Harsha might have been indebted to Bhása the author of the thirteen famous plays of which two namely स्वप्नवासवदत्तम् and प्रतिज्ञायौगन्धरायणम् are written on the story of the king Udayana. But the subject-matter of these two plays of Bhása strictly conforms to the narration as given in the Kathásaritságara while S'ri Harsha takes the mere skeleton of the story and makes a marked improvement upon the original. This fact as well as the fact of the conformity of the subject-matter of his three plays to the narration given in the Kathásaritságara clearly proves that he was directly indebted for the subject-matter of his plays to the बृहत्कथा which was extant in his time and to which Bánabhatta, the court-poet of S'ri Harsha, declares himself to be indebted in the introductory stanzas of his Kádambari. Original and Shri Harsha's deviations.—In the Kathásaritságara the story of Udayana is divided into three stages. It the first stage which is not important to us is the miraculous incident of Udayana's birth, the rescue of a serpent-lord by him from a fowler and the presentation of a magical lute called Ghoshavati (referred to in स्वप्नवासवदत्तम्) to him by the serpent-lord, are related. The second stage relates the incident of the marriage of Vásavadattá, the daughter of Chanda Mahásena of Ujjayini with Udayana. Chanda Mahásena had a long-drawn enmity with the family of the Vatsa kings. Udayana hankered after the hand of the Vásavadattá but that could not be effected due to that hostile feeling. Mahásena was also desirous of having Udayana as his son-in-law. Now Mahásena taking the advantage of the weakness of Udayana viz., his extreme fondness for hunting, put an artificial wooden elephant with warriors inside its belly in the forest and Vatsarája going to shoot that elephant was captured by the hidden warriors and was taken to Mahásena who appointed Udayana a tutor to train Vásavadattá his daughter in lute-playing. Udayana remained there as a captive for a long time, after which Yaugandharáyana.