________________
AUGUST, 1924 ]
VASUBANDHU OR SUBANDHU
179
Vasavadattá-Natyadhara. His patrons, Chandragupta and Bindusara, also appear to have been present during the representation of the drama. This throws a flood of light into a region of the history of Sanskrit literature, which has remained quite dark up to the present. The epoch of which it formed part, seems to have been not a dull one, and the scholar is led to infer that there ought to have existed quite a large number of dramas in Sanskrit. Most unfortu. nately we do not possess any other example.
The study of Indian literature and epigraphy so far has not revealed any achievements of this Bindusara. But the rooords of the Greek Ambassadors who visited the courts of ancient Indian kings, and the ancient Indian works translated and preserved in the Tibetan language, have some information about him. They represent him as a great conqueror. and historians think that the Mauryan Empiro may have been extended to South India during his time. In the Greek references his name is given as Amitrochates, which is a corruption of Amitraghatin, a title that appears to have been assumed by Bindusara. The word means the destroyer of enemies ', and seems to refer to his widespread conquests. The Sanskrit extracts and the whole of the previous discussion show Bindusara in a new light as a great patron of letters. The extract from Vamana seems to refer to Subandhu as a minister of Bindusara and suggests that he was a very clever ininister (kritadhi). He ought to have been a fitting successor to Chanakya, i.e., Kautilya, the famous minister of Bindusara's father Chandragupta, and the real founder of the Mauryan Empire. Kautilya was the author of the great ancient work on Polity, the Arthasdetra. Like him, his successor Subandhu, the minister of Bindusara, was the author of the dramatic work Vasavadald Natyadhard. He must also have become famous as a minister, as is evidenced by the epithet kritadhe, referring to him, and Vamana's note on the same. Abhinavagu ptâpada, the famous Sanskrit Rhetorician and authority on poetics calls him a great poet (mahakavi). Dandin's reference to him in the beginning of his Avantisundarikatha throws further light on his life. He is said to have come out (fastirea:) from the bondage (AT ) of Bindusara, having bound his (Bindusara's) heart by the story of Vatsaraja. It is a pity that the new information about Subandhu is too scanty compared to the importance of the subject. Rakshasa, the minister of Bindusara's father Chandragupta, is said to have been first imprisoned by Chandragupta and Chanakya and then released to take up the office of a minister. Can it be that Subandhu also, like Rakshasa, was suffering imprisonment, for having taken part in some political revolution, when he was released by the sovereign after writing the Vasava dattåndgyadhárd ?
Again, the famous poet Bana, the author of Kadambari, who lived in the court of the Emperor of Kanauj, Sri Harsha, refers to a number of previous authors in the beginning of his Harshacharita, Arnong these there is a reference to a work called Vasavadatta. This is in the eleventh verse and follows the reference to the Mahabharata and precedes the references to the poets Bhattara-Harichandra, Satavahana, Pra varasêna, Bhisa, Kalidasa and the author of the Brihatkatha (Gunadhya). The verse runs thus :
" That na araqepali
a quyami naat diatach " ii 11 11 The gist of the verse is "The pride of poets vanished before Vása vadatta, as the pride of the Pandavas when the weapon ( ) given by Indra came to the possession of Karna.” Scholars thought that this verse referred to the romance Vdeavadatta and its author. But the position of the verse in the series, coming as it does immediately after the verse referring to Vyasa and before the verses referring to Satavahana, Pravarasena, BhAsa, KAlidasa and Gunadhya, preclude such a conclusion. Again Vasavadatta has not, as a work, such merit as to deserve so high a praise. Scholars will remember that it was the study of the Vasavadatta of this later Subandhu, with "bis taste for the pleasures of sensual life,
