Hans T.

Bakker
The Skandapurāṇa and Bāṇa’s Harṣacarita
The composers of the Skandapurāṇa (SP) and Bāṇa, the author of the Harṣacarita
(HC), were actors in and witnesses to the same historical world that existed in
northern India from the end of the sixth to the middle of the seventh century.
The Skandapurāṇa refers to a Purāṇa text whose origin is datable to around
600 CE (not to be confused with a later text of this name that consists of a col-
lection of separate books or khaṇḍas).1 The Harṣacarita of Bāṇa is the cele-
brated historical novel that describes the life and deeds of King Harṣavardhana
(ca. 595–647 CE) up to the moment that he has firmly established his rule in
Kanauj (ca. 612 CE).
The time span from 550 to 650 CE is a pivotal era in the history of northern
India, since it marks the transition from the classical culture – usually called
the “Gupta period” after its main political dynasty – to the period that many
historians conceive of as “early medieval,” in which the cultural idioms, values,
and visual language developed in the classical period became consolidated. In
my Gonda lecture,2 I have argued that this historical break was expedited by
the Hunnic invasion of the subcontinent around 500 CE.
The reality lying beneath both of the texts at issue was sublimated into the
two works in two very different ways: on the one hand, this historical world is
elevated to the atemporal realm of the Śaiva mythological universe in the versi-
fied style of the Purāṇa, in which historical details are eschewed as far as possi-
ble, and, on the other hand, it is transmuted into a historical novel in the kāvya
prose style, in which historical reality is glorified and its timeless essence is ex-
pressed through symbolism and literary metaphor. Moreover, the focus of each

1 A critical edition of this text is being prepared in Groningen, Kyoto, and Leiden and has ad-
vanced halfway, to chapter 95 (SP IV). For a historical assessment of this text, see Hans
T. Bakker, The World of the Skandapurāṇa. Northern India in the Sixth and Seventh Centuries,
Groningen Oriental Studies, Supplement (Leiden: Brill, 2014).
2 Hans T. Bakker, Monuments of Hope, Gloom, and Glory, in the Age of the Hunnic Wars: 50
Years that Changed India (484–534), J. Gonda Lecture 24 (Amsterdam: Royal Netherlands
Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2017).

Notes: This article is number 13 in the multi-authored series Studies in the Skandapurāṇa. The
research for this contribution has been made possible thanks to financial support from the
European Research Council (ERC Project No. 609823). This paper has profited from the critical
comments of several people, among whom the editors of this volume. I am particularly grate-
ful to Prof. Yuko Yokochi (Kyoto) for her critical observations.

Open Access. © 2021 Hans T. Bakker, published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under
a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110674088-005
 The Skandapurāṇa and Bāṇa’s Harṣacarita 107

of the texts is intrinsically different: the Purāṇa aims at sanctifying geographi-

cal locations by associating them with the world of Śaiva mythology, thus giv-
ing them a transcendent quality; the kāvya aestheticizes the life and deeds of
its historical protagonist, and thus transcends the contingency and idiosyn-
crasy of the human condition.
The common ground of Bāṇa’s Harṣacarita and the Skandapurāṇa is found
in their nature: they are both idealized, comprehensive, literary imaginations,
products of the same mould, the cultural world of North India around 600 CE.
This, I will argue, may explain the occurrence of interface.
In this paper, I will investigate three instances of this postulated interface
by means of three research questions. 1) Why does Bāṇa devote the first chapter
of his biography of King Harṣa to his own, fabricated ancestry and the legendary
figure of Dadhīca in particular? 2) What is the significance of Bāṇa’s observation
at the beginning of the seventh ucchvāsa that Harṣa, when he is preparing him-
self for the ceremony in which he will be installed as commander in chief of the
army to fight Śaśāṅka, “offers worship to Nīlalohita with deep devotion”? 3) Why
does Bhairavācārya, the preceptor of Puṣyabhūti, founder of the Vardhana dy-
nasty, reside near the temple of a mother goddess (Mātṛ) in Thanesar?
We shall see that the three instances of interface are best explained if we as-
sume that Bāṇa began working on his history when the text of the Skandapurāṇa
was being concluded. The article intends to highlight features of this time over-
lap in order to improve our understanding of both works and their historical
context.

1 Bāṇa’s Ancestry
According to Bāṇa’s own account, the recitation of his chef d’œvre, the
Harṣacarita, had been prompted by the bard Sūcībāṇa with the following two
Āryā verses, which were sung in accompaniment to a Purāṇa recitation; they ar-
ticulate the interface between the two texts through double entendre of the pred-
icates. In the translation of both verses, the comparandum and the primary
meaning of its complements are indicated by small capitals.

Methinks that this PURĀṆA does not differ from the deeds of Harṣa (harṣacarita) after all!
Since it – also sung by a sage/SEER – is surpassing (the deeds of) king Pṛthu/BROAD
BEYOND BOUNDARIES, it also is captivating/SPREADING OVER THE WORLD, and it also is purify-
ing/BORN FROM THE WIND (pāvana).

This CHANT (of the Purāṇa) is like the rule of Harṣa (a realm of joy): it issues from A
POWERFUL THROAT/Śrīkaṇṭha/Śiva, it follows the ACCOMPANYING FLUTE/dynastic tradition, it
108 Hans T. Bakker

is WITHOUT DISHARMONY/undisputed, it ARTICULATES RHYTHMICALLY/expands widely/distinctly,

and it is loaded with adoration of BHARATA’S WAY/the Bhārata/Bharata’s exploits.3

This incident of poetic inspiration, according to Bāṇa, took place in the poet’s
home village, Prītikūṭa, situated on the Śoṇa River,4 where his ancestor Vatsa
had once grown up together with Sārasvata, son of Dadhīca and the goddess
Sarasvatī, who lived in exile there (Figure 1).
Pāvanam in verse 3b, “descending from Pavana,” i.e. the Wind, is, following
Śaṃkara’s commentary, usually taken to mean that the Purāṇa that was recited
and to which the verse refers is the Vāyupurāṇa, which was spoken by Vāyu
(“the Wind”).5
It is important to note, however, that precisely those chapters that deal with
the appearance of Sarasvatī in the world, the Sarasvatīmāhātmya in Skandapurāṇa
5 to 7 (SP I: 132–149), are also spoken by Vāyu, whereas the Vāyupurāṇa as
we have it does not contain the myth of Sarasvatī’s descent into the world.

3 Harṣacarita (hereafter HC) 3, vv. 3–4; the edition quoted is Kāśinātha Pāṇḍuraṅga Parab, ed.,
The Harṣacarita of Bāṇabhaṭṭa with the Commentary Saṃketa of Śaṃkarakavi, 7th ed., re-edited
by Nārāyaṇa Rāma Ācārya “Kāvyatīrtha” (Bombay: Nirnaya Sagara Press, 1946), 85. Cf. transla-
tion (hereafter “trans.”) in E. B. Cowell and F. W. Thomas, trans., The Harṣa-carita of Bāṇa (1897;
reprint, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1968), 73.

tad api munigītam atipṛthu, tad api jagadvyāpi pāvanaṃ tad api |
harṣacaritād abhinnaṃ, pratibhāti hi me purāṇam idam || 3.3 ||
vaṃśānugam avivādi sphuṭakaraṇaṃ bharatamārgabhajanaguru |
śrīkaṇṭhaviniryātaṃ gītam idaṃ harṣarājyam iva || 3.4 ||

4 HC 1, p. 19f. (trans., p. 14f.). The subject is Sarasvatī:

[. . .] apaśyac cāmbaratalasthitaiva hāram iva varuṇasya, amṛtanirjharam iva

candrācalasya, śaśimaṇiniṣyandam* iva vindhyasya, karpūradrumadravapravāham iva
daṇḍakāraṇyasya [. . .] svacchaśiśirasurasavāripūrṇaṃ bhagavataḥ pitāmahasyāpatyaṃ
hiraṇyavāha**nāmānaṃ mahānadam, yaṃ janāḥ śoṇa iti kathayanti |

Some MSS in Führer’s edition read *niṣpandam, and this edition accepts the variant **hiraṇyabāhu
as the name of the river; see A. A. Führer, ed., Śrīharṣacaritamahākāvyam: Bāṇabhaṭṭa’s Biography
of King Harshavardhana of Sthāṇvīśvara with Saṅkara’s Commentary Saṅketa, Bombay Sanskrit and
Prakrit Series 66 (Bombay: Government Central Press, 1909). We take this passage to mean that the
village lay at the foot of the Vindhya hills, i.e. somewhere in the vicinity of Akbarpur (N 24°31′, E
83°54′), where the Śoṇa River (“the ooze of the Vindhya’s moon gem”) enters into the Gangetic
Plain and loses its turbulence, not far from the Rohtasgarh hill fort, which lies about 2.5 km to the
west of Akbarpur.
5 MBh 3.189.14 mentions the “Purāṇa spoken by Vāyu” (vāyuproktam anusmṛtya purāṇam
ṛṣisaṃstutam), which deals with the past and future as comprised by the four Yugas.
 The Skandapurāṇa and Bāṇa’s Harṣacarita 109

Bhṛgu

Side of the Sarasvatī River Side of the Śoṇa River

Śāryāta

Sukanyā Cyavana

Sarasvatī Dadhīca [Bhrātṛ] Akṣamālā

Sārasvata Vatsa
(grows up together with
Vasta at the Śoṇa River)
Vātsy āyana-s

Kubera

Acyuta Ῑśāna Pāśupata Hara

Arthapati

Rājadevī Citrabāṇu [10 sons]

Bāṇa
(home village Prītikūṭa
at the Śoṇa River)

Figure 1: Bāṇa’s pedigree.

The recitation of the Purāṇa in Prītikūṭa, be it a chapter from the Vāyu or

from the Skanda, evokes the goddess of learning, Sarasvatī, or, in the world
of the Purāṇa, the Sarasvatī River.
The evocation of Sarasvatī by the reader Sudṛṣṭi when he chants the
“Purāṇa spoken by the Wind” is beautifully described by Bāṇa as follows:

By his chanting he enchanted the hearts of his audience with sweet intonations, (evoking)
as it were, the tinkling of the anklets of Sarasvatī as she presented herself in his mouth,
110 Hans T. Bakker

while it seemed as if, by the sparkling of his teeth, he whitewashed the ink-stained sylla-
bles and worshipped the book with showers of white flowers.6

This must have touched the right chord with the audience, not only because it con-
sisted of learned Brahmins who fostered their intimacy with Sarasvatī, but because
Bāṇa and his kinsmen, living alongside the Śoṇa River, through their imagined re-
lationship with the goddess Sarasvatī, had ties with the Sarasvatī side, the river,
and its banks, from which the goddess’s lover Dadhīca, their ancestor, hailed.
Bāṇa works out this intricate relationship in the first chapter of his book,
and it provides us with a significant instance of interface between the Harṣacarita
and the Skandapurāṇa.
In this first chapter, Bāṇa tells the story of his own descent from the sage
Bhṛgu through the latter’s son Cyavana, who is not only a forefather of his own
family tree, but also the father of Dadhīca, who, as legend has it, grew up with
his grandfather on the banks of the Sarasvatī River, but fell in love with the
goddess Sarasvatī when she was living in exile on the left bank of the River
Son.7 Dadhīca had arrived there in search of his father Cyavana, whose hermit-
age was across the Śoṇa River. The son of this (divine) couple, Sārasvata, be-
came the foster brother (frère de lait) of Vatsa, the other grandson of Cyavana,8
who in turn became the father of the Vātsyāyanas, from whom the author of
the Harṣacarita, by his own account, was descended.
As he embroidered on the story of Dadhīca’s mother Sukanyā, told in
Mahābhārata 3.121 to 125, Bāṇa and his audience may have been thinking of
the legend that attributed the foundation of King Harṣa’s native town Thanesar,
situated on the banks of the Sarasvatī in Kurukṣetra, to Sukanyā’s son Dadhīca.
This story is found in the Skandapurāṇa. It tells us about the origin of
Sthāneśvara in a Sthāneśvaramāhātmya (SP 31.48–115).

6 HC 3, p. 85f. (trans., p. 72f.):

[. . .] kṣālayann iva maṣīmalināny akṣarāṇi dantakāntibhiḥ, arcayann iva sitakusumamukti-

bhir granthaṃ, mukhasaṃnihitasarasvatīnūpuraravair iva gamakair madhurair ākṣipan
manāṃsi śrotṝṇāṃ gītyā, pavamānaproktaṃ purāṇaṃ papāṭha |

7 In this way, Bāṇa gave his own twist to the epic myth told in MBh 9.50.5–24, in which
Sārasvata was born from the Sarasvatī River when Dadhīca lost his semen therein at the sight
of the nymph Alambusā.
8 I take the expression bhārgavavaṃśasaṃbhūtasya bhrātur brāhmaṇasya jāyām akṣamālām
(HC 1, p. 38.; trans., p. 29) to mean that Akṣamālā was the wife of a Brahmin of the Bhṛgu
family who himself was the brother (bhrātṛ), viz. of Dadhīca. According to BḍP 2.1.93–94,
Cyavana had two sons with Sukanyā: Āpravāna and Dadhīca.
 The Skandapurāṇa and Bāṇa’s Harṣacarita 111

The Śaiva sage Dadhīca, whose āśrama is said to be on the Sarasvatī River,9
had entered into a hot dispute with the Vaiṣṇava king Kṣupa about the superi-
ority of either the brahman or the kṣatra principle, which dispute turned into
a fight in which Dadhīca eventually defeated his Vaiṣṇava rival with Śiva’s
help. To commemorate this victory, Śiva allowed the site (sthāna) where the
fight between Dadhīca and Kṣupa took place to become known under the name
of “Sthāneśvara.”10 This is evidently the foundation myth of Sthāneśvara, i.e.
Thanesar.

This great, divine, and holy site was established by Dadhīca. It is called Sthāneśvara and
has become famous throughout the Three Worlds.11

This legend, though it remained untold in the Harṣacarita itself, must have
been known, we think, to Bāṇa, his audience, and King Harṣa, and it may actu-
ally have been the very reason why the author gave the fictional character of
Dadhīca such a prominent role in the first chapter of his history and why he
linked his own pedigree to him.
The evocation of Sarasvatī in the Purāṇa recitation thus served as a sort of
hub, a key passage in the middle of the composition, in which Bāṇa’s family
history (chapter 1) and its link with the goddess of learning evokes the eponymous

9 MBh 3.81.162–64 mentions a Dadhīcatīrtha where one attains the Sarasvatī state (sārasvatīṃ
gatim) and where the ascetic Aṅgiras Sārasvata lives; it is near the Kanyāśrama and the
Saṃnihitī, where Brahmā etc. assemble every month (MBh 3.81.165f.).
10 SP 31.105f.:

yasmāt sthitam idaṃ vairaṃ varadānāt tava prabho |

iha tasmāt tava sthānaṃ nāmnaitena bhavatv aja || 105 ||
deva uvāca |
sthāneśvaram iti khyātaṃ nāmnaitat sthānam uttamam |
bhavitṛ krośaparyantaṃ nānāpuṣpalatākulam || 106 ||

11 SPS 167.81:
dadhīcena mahad divyam puṇyam āyatanaṃ kṛtam |
sthāneśvaram iti khyātaṃ lokeṣu triṣu viśrutam || 81 ||
Compare the version in SPRA 167.4.10, 20:
tapaḥkṣetre kurukṣetre dharmakṣetre sanātane |
dadhīcena mahad divyaṃ puṇyam āyatanaṃ kṛtam |
dadhīcasyālayaḥ khyātaḥ sarvapāpaharaḥ paraḥ || 10 ||
[. . .]
dadhīcena yatas tatra kṛtam āyatanaṃ śubham |
sthāneśvaram iti khyātaṃ tena lokeṣu triṣv api || 20 ||
112 Hans T. Bakker

river on whose banks one of the poet’s own Bhārgava ancestors had founded the
native city of the hero of his Harṣacarita. Harṣa’s story is told in the subsequent
“exhalations” (ucchvāsas 3–8), beginning on the day following the Purāṇa recita-
tion in Sarasvatī’s place of exile, the banks of the Śoṇa River.

2 Harṣa’s Worship of Nīlalohita

Prince Harṣavardhana, as part of the ceremony that inaugurated him as com-
mander in chief, is said by Bāṇa to have performed, with utmost devotion, a
worship ritual for Lord Nīlalohita.12 This may come as a surprise, since the fig-
ure of Nīlalohita is not mentioned again in the Harṣacarita, nor does this deity
seem to play a prominent role in early Hinduism or Śaivism. We may derive the
significance of Nīlalohita in this specific context from the Skandapurāṇa.
In MBh 7.74, Nīlalohita is said to be a figure who emerges from Śiva’s
side – very strong, with tawny eyes, a brahmacārin, the embodiment of tapas –
who demonstrates the use of the Pāśupata weapon to Arjuna. In the following
Karṇaparvan, Nīlalohita is the manifestation of Śiva as the berserk warrior, de-
scribed as wearing only a skin, smoke-colored (dhūmra), wrapped in the flames
of his tejas, blazing like ten thousand suns, and inciting fear.13
The Skandapurāṇa takes up this fearsome nature of Nīlalohita. It tells us
that a deluded Brahmā wishes Śiva to be his son. Śiva says, “Because you want
your father to be your son, you shall have a son in my form (mūrti); my gaṇapa
Rudra shall incarnate and he will teach you a lesson” (SP 4.6–7). It is then de-
scribed how this Nīlalohita is born from Śiva’s tejas in Brahmā’s sacrificial fire.
In this way, the warrior figure of Nīlalohita is connected with the Vedic myth of
Rudra’s birth and Brahmā’s sacrificial altar.14
In the next chapter, it is told how Brahmā quarrels with Yajña and Veda
about his putative superiority, but when he goes so far as to claim that he is the
creator and leader of all Revelation, the time has come to teach him a lesson.
Brahmā falls from the sky and lands in a bower on the Himavat mountain. When
Brahmā is unable to discern who is doing this to him, since the perpetrator is

12 HC 7, p. 202. (trans., p. 197): viracayya paramayā bhaktyā bhagavato nīlalohitasyārcām.

13 MBh 8.24.87: sa nīlalohito dhūmraḥ kṛttivāsā bhayaṃkaraḥ | ādityāyutasaṃkāśas tejojvālāvṛto
jvalan ||
14 This theme is elaborated in Hans T. Bakker, “Pārvatī’s Svayaṃvara. Studies in the
Skandapurāṇa I,” Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Südasiens 40 (1996): 9f.
 The Skandapurāṇa and Bāṇa’s Harṣacarita 113

hidden in a sunlike disk in the sky, he sprouts an aggressive fifth head. This
head is chopped off by Śiva’s factotum Nīlalohita with the nail of his left thumb
(SP 5.43). It is Nīlalohita who then goes around with Brahmā’s skull (kapāla) as
his begging bowl (SP 5.64), referred to as Brahmā’s ‘mark’ (cihna).
Nīlalohita reaches the World of Brahmā. Brahmā asks Nīlalohita the following.

O Devadeveśa, I wish that this mark (cihna) of mine be made by you in such a way that
this world be marked by this mark, O lord of the world.15

Lord Śiva fulfills Brahmā’s wish and begins by creating Sarasvatī in the bra-
hmasaras, that is in his mouth, when he pronounces “OṂ.” Sarasvatī creates
the Brahmasaras (“Lake of Brahmā”) in the Brahmaloka.16 Then she descends
to earth and Nīlalohita follows her (anuprāpya) in order to install the skull in
the foremost spot of this world.17 The skull installed at that spot is known as
Mahākapāla or “Great Skull” and, once installed, it becomes known as “Śiva’s
Pond” (śivataḍāga, SP 7.25 = Ākh 1.9.18). “To date,” our text concludes, “that
great lake (saras) Mahākapāla can still be seen there.”18
A hermeneutic problem arises from the fact that our text does not explicitly
say where this “there” (tatra), “the foremost spot in this world,” is situated.
From the text as we have it, we can derive that we are concerned with a great
lake (saras) called Mahākapāla, otherwise known as Śiva’s Pond (Śivataḍāga),

15 SP 7.4: icchāmi devadeveśa tvayā cihnam idaṃ kṛtam | yena cihnena loko ’yaṃ cihnitaḥ syāj
jagatpate || 4 ||
16 Cf. MBh 9.50.19.
17 SP 7.13: taṃ gṛhītvā mahādevaḥ kapālam amitaujasam | imaṃ lokam anuprāpya deśe
śreṣṭhe ’vatiṣṭhata || 13 || Cf. SkP Āvantyakhaṇḍa (Ākh) 1.9.2–3. For the parallels of this and the
following passage (SP 7.13–38) in Ākh 1.9.2–26, see Yuko Yokochi, “The Relation between the
Skandapurāṇa and the Āvantyakhaṇḍa,” in Origin and Growth of the Puranic Text Corpus with
Special Reference to the Skandapurāṇa, ed. Hans T. Bakker, Papers of the 12th World Sanskrit
Conference 3.2 (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2004), 98–102.
18 SP 7.24–25, 36:

kapālaṃ sthāpitaṃ yasmāt tasmin deśe pinākinā |

mahākapālaṃ tat tasmāt triṣu lokeṣu gadyate || 24 ||
sthāpitasya kapālasya yathoktam abhavat tadā |
khyātaṃ śivataḍāgaṃ tat sarvapāpapramocanam || 25 ||
[. . .]
tad adyāpi mahad divyaṃ saras tatra pradṛśyate |
mahākapālaṃ viprendrāḥ svargās tatrākṣayāḥ smṛtāḥ || 36 ||

Cf. Ākh 1.9.17–19.

114 Hans T. Bakker

somewhere in the neighbourhood of the Sarasvatī River – a pond that is con-

ceived of as the hallmark (cihna) of Brahmā and as the most holy spot on earth.
If we take these indications as our lead, we arrive at the land between the
Sarasvatī and Dṛṣadvatī rivers, which is defined by Manu as Brahmāvarta,19
whereas the Mahābhārata calls the same Kurukṣetra.20 The epic continues by
saying that the holy Kurukṣetra, also referred to as Samantapañcaka, is Brahmā’s
sacrificial altar, and within it are the “Lakes of Rāma” (Rāmahrada-s),21 which is
confirmed by the Saromāhātmya in the Vāmanapurāṇa. This Māhātmya iden-
tifies the Rāmahrada lake with the Brahmasaras.22 The names Rāmahrada and
Samantapañcaka refer to the myth of Rāma Jāmadagnya (Paraśurāma or
Bhārgava Rāma), who extinguished the kṣatriyas and filled five/seven lakes
with their blood.23 The same sacred complex is also referred to as Sānnihatya/
Sāṃnihita-saras, after the river Saṃnihitī, which the Saromāhātmya connects
with the decapitation of Brahmā.24
On the basis of the combined evidence, we can conclude that the Mahākapāla
or Śiva’s Pond of the Skandapurāṇa was regarded as the terrestrial counterpart of
the Brahmasaras in the Brahmaloka, created by Sarasvatī and springing from

19 MaS 2.17: sarasvatīdṛṣadvatyor devanadyor yad antaram | taṃ devanirmitaṃ deśaṃ

brahmāvartaṃ pracakṣate || Cf. SP 32.151 and annotation ad loc. (SP IIB, p. 54, note 162).
20 MBh 3.81.175: dakṣiṇena sarasvatyā uttareṇa dṛṣadvatīm | ye vasanti kurukṣetre te vasanti
triviṣṭape || Cf. VāmP Saromāhātmya 1.1.
21 MBh 3.81.177f.:

brahmavedī kurukṣetraṃ puṇyaṃ brahmarṣisevitam |

tad āvasanti ye rājan na te śocyāḥ kathaṃcana || 177 ||
tarantukārantukayor yad antaraṃ rāmahradānāṃ ca macakrukasya |
etat kurukṣetrasamantapañcakaṃ pitāmahasyottaravedir ucyate || 178 ||

For these verses, see P. V. Kane, History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and
Civil Law in India), Government Oriental Series B6 (Poona, 1930–62), 4:683, note 1551.
22 VāmP Saromāhātmya 1.4–14: the Brahmasaras tīrtha (v. 4), considered to be the site of Brahmā’s
Altar, is known as Rāmahrada: ādyaiṣā brahmaṇo vedis tato rāmahradaḥ smṛtaḥ | (v. 13ab). This
tīrtha is known as Kurukṣetra: kuruṇā ca yataḥ kṛṣṭaṃ kurukṣetraṃ tataḥ smṛtam || 13 ||
23 This myth is also briefly told in SPBh 123.1–29; SPBh 123.21 mentions Samantapañcaka as
the place where this Bhārgava Rāma filled seven hradas with their blood. Cf. MBh 1.2.1–10,
where five hradas of blood are mentioned, referred to as Samanta-pañcaka. The identification
of the Rāmahrada and Brahmasaras may have been called forth by what both tanks were be-
lieved to have in common: they were filled with blood – the Rāmahrada with the blood of the
kṣatriyas, the Brahmasaras with that of Viṣṇu (see SP 6.4–6). The goriness apart, there are no
other connections between this myth and the Kapāla Cycle in the Skandapurāṇa.
24 VāmP Saromāhātmya 1.5, 28.5–7. It is located near the Sthāṇutīrtha on the Sarasvatī River
(VāmP Saromāhātmya 28.5–7); cf. op. cit. 1.12. Cf. Kane, History of Dharmaśāstra, 4:686.
 The Skandapurāṇa and Bāṇa’s Harṣacarita 115

Śiva’s mouth. The myth of Nīlalohita and Brahmā’s skull served as an etiology for
this big holy pond in Kurukṣetra, which is today known as Brahma Sarovar.25
In this way, the Skandapurāṇa gave a powerful Śaiva twist to the respectable
Sanskrit lore that existed regarding this ancient site, viz. the Rāmahrada formed by
the blood of the kṣatriyas killed by Rāma Jāmadagnya. That this twist is in confor-
mity with the religious situation by the end of the sixth century is evidenced by
the Harṣacarita, in which Bāṇa depicts Thanesar (Sthāṇvīśvara) under the leg-
endary king Puṣyabhūti as a country completely devoted to Maheśvara.26
In view of this significant evidence, it can no longer come as a surprise that
Harṣa is said to have worshipped Nīlalohita in preparation for his campaign
against Śaśāṅka, not only because this ectype of Śiva represents his warrior
side, evoked in the face of a dangerous threat, but also because the Śaiva tradi-
tion connected this figure in particular with Brahmā’s Altar in Kurukṣetra,
where he was born, and its central holy place, the Mahākapāla or Śiva’s Pond,
where he deposited Brahmā’s skull.

3 Bhairavācārya’s Residence at the Mātṛ Temple

The myth of Nīlalohita in Kurukṣetra brings us to a third instance of interface
between the Harṣacarita and the Skandapurāṇa. The latter text continues the
Mahākapāla myth by telling (SP 7.15–23) that the Gaṇas set up a great roar when
Nīlalohita installed the skull. This noise attracted the buffalo Hālāhala and his
fellow demons (asuras). The Gaṇādhyakṣa, in the present context Nīlalohita, or-
ders his Gaṇas to defend the skull; they kill Hālāhala.
A terra-cotta panel found in Ahicchatra (AC I) may illustrate this myth. It
shows Śiva Nīlalohita with the buffalo demon Hālāhala slung over his shoulder
(Figure 2).

25 For the present-day Brahma Sarovar, see Bakker, The World of the Skandapurāṇa, 169.
The Āvantyakhaṇḍa (Ākh 1.9.22), which borrows from the SP, seems to locate Mahākapāla in
the Mahākālavana in Ujjayinī (Yokochi, “The Relation between the Skandapurāṇa and the
Āvantyakhaṇḍa,” 84).
26 HC 3, p. 100 (trans. 84f.): gṛhe gṛhe bhagavān apūjyata khaṇḍaparaśuḥ | That by
khaṇḍaparaśuḥ (“the lord with the cleaving axe”) Śiva is meant follows from the preceding
lines, in which Puṣyabhūti’s devotion is said to have been directed exclusively to Bhava,
who sustains the universe, creates the beings, and cuts through the chain of worldly existen-
ces: [. . .] bhagavati, bhaktisulabhe, bhuvanabhṛti, bhūtabhāvane, bhavacchidi, bhave bhūyasī
bhaktir abhūt |.
116 Hans T. Bakker

Figure 2: Ahicchatra (AC I): Nīlalohita killing the buffalo demon Hālāhala. Photo courtesy of
Laxshmi Greaves.27

Next, Piśācīs are invited to feast on the remains of the buffalo, and Deva
(Nīlalohita) gives them a place to live there, naming them “Mothers of the
Skull,” Kapālamātṛ-s.28 The holy field where these events took place is prophesied

27 See also Laxshmi Rose Greaves, “Brick Foundations: North Indian Brick Temple Architecture
and Terracotta Art of the Fourth to Sixth Centuries CE” (PhD diss., Cardiff University, 2015),
436–39.
28 SP 7.23 (cf. Ākh 1.9.17):

bhakṣayanti sma mahiṣaṃ mitvā mitvā yatas tu tāḥ |

kapālamātaraḥ proktās tasmād devena dhīmatā || 23 ||

The Skandapurāṇa provides many connections between the Pāśupata movement and the cult
of goddesses or “Mothers.” This is a very old relationship, as follows from the grant of
Bhulunda, year 56 (374/5 CE), one of the Bagh inscriptions, in which it is said that the
Pāśupata ācārya Bhagavat Lokodadhi had founded a temple at the site of the Mother
Goddesses; see K. V. Ramesh and S. P. Tewari, A Copper-plate Hoard of the Gupta Period from
Bagh, Madhya Pradesh (New Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India, 1990), 22. The Bagh in-
scriptions also attest to a connection between the Piśāca cult and the Pāśupatas, who are said
to serve in the temple of Bappa Piśāca-deva (Ramesh and Tewari, A Copper-plate Hoard of the
Gupta Period, 10f., 13, 26).
 The Skandapurāṇa and Bāṇa’s Harṣacarita 117

to attract accomplished ascetics, that is, it will become a Siddhakṣetra; it

will also be known as “Cremation Ground” (Śmaśāna), a secret abode of the
Highest God (Devātideva).29
We now turn to the Harṣacarita, chapter 3. In order to entitle Puṣyabhūti to
reign over the land of Śrīkaṇṭha (Kurukṣetra), an accomplished Siddha, the
Mahāśaiva Bhairavācārya, performs a fire sacrifice in the cavity of a skull within
the Cremation Ground (Mahāśmaśāna). This Siddha, wrapped in a black, woolen
cloth,30 with a throng of Māheśvaras around him, is said to reside in a bilva plan-
tation north of an old Mātṛ temple.31
The correspondences with the Skandapurāṇa stand out: the Śmaśāna in
Kurukṣetra, the Mātṛ temple there, and the Śaiva teacher and his Kāpālika rit-
ual. We do not need to believe in the historicity of Bāṇa’s story to see that this
conspicuous agreement may point to a common historical background.
Recently, some evidence has come to light that may help us to under-
stand the historical setting. In 1996, Devendra Handa reported the discovery
of ancient remains at the northwestern corner of the Brahma Sarovar, the
supposed Mahākapāla tank (Figure 3).

29 SP 7.27–28:

ardhayojanavistīrṇaṃ kṣetram etat samantataḥ |

bhaviṣyati na saṃdehaḥ siddhakṣetraṃ mahātmanaḥ || 27 ||
śmeti hi procyate pāpaṃ kṣayaṃ śānaṃ vidur budhāḥ |
dhyānena niyamaiś caiva śmaśānaṃ tena saṃjñitam |
guhyaṃ devātidevasya paraṃ priyam anuttamam || 28 ||

This passage, i.e. SP 7.26–35, which is not in the Āvantyakhaṇḍa, might well be a later addition
to the S recension of the SP; it is found only in the RA manuscripts (SP I, p. 73, note 41; Yokochi
2004, 83). Instead of Mahākapāla, it speaks of, among others, a Kapālasthāna, which originally
may have referred to another tīrtha (Yokochi, “The Relation between the Skandapurāṇa and the
Āvantyakhaṇḍa,” 83, note 11). However, the very insertion of this passage in the Mahākapāla
story of the SP testifies to the fact that after the first composition of the Skandapurāṇa was com-
pleted, the site of Mahākapāla or Śivataḍāga became known as a cremation ground that at-
tracted Siddhas.
30 HC 3, pp. 102–5 (trans. 87, 263–65).
31 HC 3, p. 102 (trans. 87); the subject is King Puṣyabhūti:

gatvā ca kiṃcid antaraṃ tadīyam evābhimukham āpatantam anyatamaṃ śiṣyam adrākṣīt |

aprākṣīc ca – kva bhagavān āste iti | so ’kathayat – asya jīrṇamātṛgṛhasyottareṇa bilvavāṭikām
adhyāste iti | gatvā ca taṃ pradeśam avatatāra turagāt | praviveśa ca bilvavāṭikām |
118 Hans T. Bakker

The remains of [a] Stūpa may still be seen on an elevated ground between the Brahma
Sarovara and the Kurukshetra University. It is lying in a neglected and dilapidated state
now and seems to have been opened by someone as is indicated by a cleft in its solid
brick core. When and by whom, nobody knows.32

Figure 3: Map of historic locations in Thanesar. Courtesy Google Earth Pro.

At about the same time, Mohindar Singh explored the mound in more detail
and is reported to have “uncovered a massive baked-brick structure,” thought
to “belong to a stupa of the Vardhana period” (Figure 4).33 The website of the
Directorate of Archaeology & Museums, Government of Haryana provides some
additional information.

32 Devendra Handa, “Haryana Heritage: An Introduction to the Buddhist Remains in the

Region,” Journal of Haryana Studies 27–28 (1995–96): 17.
33 Reported in Manoj Kumar, “A Unique Gupta Period Terracotta Sealing from Thanesar,
Depicting the Female Counterpart of Hari-Hara,” in South Asian Archaeology and Art 2016. Vol.1,
eds. Laxshmi Rose Greaves and Adam Hardy (New Delhi: Dev Publishers, 2020), 283–287 (283).
 The Skandapurāṇa and Bāṇa’s Harṣacarita 119

The Ancient Budh Stupa is situated (29º 57′ 46′′ N, 76° 49′ 15′′ E) in the north-east area of
Kurukshetra University near Fine Arts Department. Brahmasarovar lies on the east side of
the stupa. The mound is spread over an area of approximately three acres and the height
of the mound is around 4 meters from the surrounding ground level. Five burnt bricks
structures were recovered during the archaeological course at mound. First three structures
belong to Kushana phase, one related to Gupta period, last structure has the four succes-
sive phases which belong to Vardhana period to later medieval period. A massive wall of a
big compound which was built during the Harsha period was constructed by reused bricks
of previous periods. The width of this wall is 3 m and was cleared up to 30 m.34

Figure 4: Brick structure at the northwestern corner of the Brahma Sarovar.35

However, this site, which stretches over ca. 3 acres (1.2 ha or ca. 110 × 110 m)
also yielded other, non-Buddhist antiquities, as the subsequent clearance work

34 Directorate of Archaeology & Museums, Government of Haryana, “Sites and Monuments,”

accessed December 14, 2018, http://archaeologyharyana.nic.in/sites-and-monuments.
35 Photo courtesy of Vinit Bhanwala (Heritage of Haryana), accessed December 14, 2018,
https://www.facebook.com/VinitBhanwala/photos/pcb.187539685412881/187539515412898/?
type=3&theater
120 Hans T. Bakker

by Manoj Kumar of Kurukshetra University in 2012 and 2013, under the direc-
tion of Ranvir Sashtri, has shown.36
A mound in the northwestern corner of the Brahma Sarovar yielded “a wealth
of antiquities, potteries and structural remains,” among which “a round terracotta
sealing with a diameter of 5 cm” (Figure 5).37

Figure 5: Seal found at the northwestern corner

of the Brahma Sarovar. Photo courtesy John
Guy.

The seal has a two-line inscription (the first line an uneven śloka pāda) that reads:

[1] || śrīḥ pīḍārttahitā devī

[2] kaṃhāru
“The illustrious goddess Kaṃhāru, who is salutary to those who are afflicted by pain.”38

36 Kumar, “A Unique Gupta Period Terracotta Sealing,” p. 283. I am indebted to John Guy,
who presented me with a draft of Manoj Kumar’s article and provided a photograph of the
seal. See also John Guy, “In Search of Blessings: Ex-Votos in Medieval Greater South Asia,” in
Agents of Faith. Votive Objects in Time and Place, ed. Ittai Weinryb (New York: Bard Graduate
Center Gallery, 2018), 191–223.
37 Kumar, “A Unique Gupta Period Terracotta Sealing.” The precise topographical relation-
ship between this findspot and the stūpa site is not clear.
38 The akṣara ḍā is written in continuation of/above the right vertical arm of the pī (for a sim-
ilar type of ḍā, see the entry for “Sumandala Plates of Dharmaraja (569)” at Harry Falk and
Oliver Hellwig, Indoskript 2.0 (website), accessed December 14, 2018, http://www.indoskript.
org/manuscripts/details/140). I am grateful to Yuko Yokochi for her help in deciphering this
legend. Manoj Kumar reads “pa[dama] Sri Rajni hita devika puru” (“A Unique Gupta Period
Terracotta Sealing,” p. 284).
 The Skandapurāṇa and Bāṇa’s Harṣacarita 121

The Prakrit Kaṃhāru or Kaṇhālu corresponds to Sanskrit Kṛṣṇā, the Black

Goddess.39
The iconography of the seal poses a bigger problem. The two-armed goddess
holds up a bilva fruit in her right hand, while her left hand holds a chain, either
of eight rudrākṣa beads or – more likely, in view of their size – skulls (Figure 6).

Figure 6: Upper field of the seal found at the northwestern corner of the Brahma Sarovar.

The upper part of the figure stands in front of a tree, probably the bilva or bael
tree, which surrounds her head as a sort of halo, whereas the lower part of her
body seems enclosed by another structure, which in my view most likely

39 OIA kṛṣṇa = MIA kaṇha; see Oskar von Hinüber, Das ältere Mittelindisch im Überblick,
2nd ed., Sitzungsberichte (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften. Philosophisch-
Historische Klasse) 467 (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften,
2001), §153. For the MIA suffix āla/ālu in the sense of -vat/-mat, see Frank van den Bossche,
A Reference Manual of Middle Prākrit Grammar. The Prākrits of the Dramas and the Jain Texts
(Gent: Vakgroep Talen en Culturen van Zuid- en Oost-Azië, 1999), §136. The exchange of ra/
ru and la/lu is illustrated by the OIA taddhita suffix ra/la; see William Dwight Whitney,
Sanskrit Grammar: Including Both the Classical Language and the Older Dialects of the Veda
and Brāhmaṇa, 5th ed. (1924; reprint, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1962), §§1226–27.
122 Hans T. Bakker

represents a water surface, the bottom perimeter of which is abutted by a row

of vertical strokes. It could point to the nearby Mahākapāla tank.
To the right of the Goddess stands a large triśūla; to the left are two objects
that are difficult to identify. The upper object consists of three concentric
circles. The outer circle is formed by ten interrupted strokes or knobs; the inner
one encloses four crosslike spokes. Manoj Kumar proposes to identify these two
objects as cakra and śaṅkha, which is problematic in view of the details of their
design and the overall Śaiva iconographic program.40
The upper object, in my view, has little in common with a conventional
cakra. It may be observed that there is a similarity between the chain in the left
hand of the goddess and this object: not only do the eight knobs of the chain
correspond in form to the ten strokes of the object, but in the centre of the chain,
we see vague contours of something that appears to be similar to the inner ring of
the object. The object may represent a structure of some kind. Considering the
possible skull-like nature of the knobs/strokes, I wonder whether we are here
concerned with a symbolic representation, either of the cremation ground as a
kālacakra of some sort, or of the temple of the Black Goddess herself – arguably
the old “Mātṛ temple” of the Harṣacarita.
The lower object, if it is a conch or śaṅkha, may represent the instrument
blown by warriors in the battlefield, foreboding death; it is appropriate to a war-
rior goddess.
Given the ominous atmosphere that surrounds the site of the goddess –
referred to in the Skandapurāṇa as a place assigned by Śiva to the “Mothers of
the Skull,” in the Harṣacarita as an “old Mātṛ temple” in a bilva plantation, the
residence of a tantric teacher dressed in black, who conducts a Kāpālika ritual in
the Mahāśmaśāna – this sinister sphere seems likewise to underlie the icono-
graphic program of the seal found at the Brahma Sarovar. Both Sanskrit texts as-
similate, according to their own, distinct literary modes, the historic reality of the
Black Goddess of Sthāneśvara, Kaṃhāru, who may have had her shrine near the
site where the seal was found, that is to the northwest of the Mahākapāla tank,
ca. 1,300 m south of the ancient Vardhana capital, which is marked today by the
Harṣa kā Ṭīlā (Figure 3).41

40 I cannot subscribe to John Guy’s assessment of the image (Guy, “In Search of Blessings,”
207): “In all probability then she is, as her title suggests, a local goddess with Vaiṣṇava alle-
giances, though the presence of Śaiva as well as Vaiṣṇava iconography points to the fluid
state of sectarian boundaries in this period.”
41 The tradition of this Black Goddess may live on in the extremely popular (modern) Mā
Bhadrakālī Pīṭh Mandir, situated east of the Harṣa kā Ṭīlā.
 The Skandapurāṇa and Bāṇa’s Harṣacarita 123

As both our texts suggest, in the sixth and seventh centuries, the Mahākapāla
tank in Kurukṣetra, adjacent to the capital Sthāneśvara, was a meeting place for
accomplished Śaiva ascetics and Pāśupata and Kāpālika Siddhas, who hung
around in the cremation ground, the nearby bilva plantation, and the local tem-
ples, among which that of the Black Goddess and, possibly, that of Nīlalohita, who
was, after all, believed to have been born there on Brahmā’s Altar.42
Unlike its Buddhist affiliation, the Śaiva affiliation with the place lived on,
as evinced by the Akbar Nāma. Abū’l-Faẓl reports that Emperor Akbar wit-
nessed, on the banks of the Brahma Sarovar in 1567 CE, a fight between two
rivaling Śaiva orders (akhāṛās), the Purīs and the Kur (= Giris?).43
This ends our third specimen of interface between the Harṣacarita and the
Skandapurāṇa. It is time to wrap up and to come to some conclusion.

4 Conclusion
It transpires from the three instances we have explored that the Skandapurāṇa
and the Harṣacarita show substantial interface, since both emanate from the
same historic reality. This, however, does not imply that there is intertextuality
between the two texts, such as there is between the Skandapurāṇa and the
Mahābhārata or Vāyupurāṇa, for instance. Given the fact that the two texts be-
long to very different genres of Sanskrit literature, this was not to be expected
from the outset. Consequently, the question of whether the composers of both
texts may have known each other’s work should be addressed. Since we may
assume that composers at this level will have been acquainted with the major
Sanskrit works of their times, this amounts to a question of chronology.
“When one day” (atha kadācid) – the opening words of the third ucchvāsa –
Bāṇa returned from Harṣa’s makeshift court at the Ajiravatī River (the Gandhak)
to his native village Prītikūṭa on the River Son, where he was solicited to recite a
part of what was to become his Harṣacarita, it seems that the poet’s favour with
the king was common knowledge and his literary enterprise was known to his
cousins. Irrespective of whether this recitation actually took place or not, the

42 A seal (no. 8) found in the excavations at the Harṣa kā Ṭīlā, currently in the site museum,
reads “śrībhairava.”
43 Abū’l-Faẓl, The Akbar Nāma. History of the Reign of Akbar Including an Account of His
Predecessors, trans. H. Beveridge (repr., Delhi: Rare Books, 1973), 2:423. Cf. David N. Lorenzen,
“Warrior Ascetics in Indian History,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 98, no. 1 (1978):
61–75, 68f.; William R. Pinch, Warrior Ascetics and Indian Empires (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2006), 28ff.; Clark, The Daśanāmī-Saṃnyāsīs, 62.
124 Hans T. Bakker

overall structure of the composition, which includes the recitation scene itself,
suggests that the work was completed after Bāṇa’s return to his village in around
612 CE, when Harṣa had firmly established his rule.44
From these admittedly inconclusive indications, we may deduce, tentatively,
that the Harṣacarita cannot have been finished much before the end of the second
decade of the seventh century. That is, its composition may have begun around
the time that the work on the Skandapurāṇa was being concluded.45 Bāṇa thus
may have known some or all of the Purāṇa text and it cannot be ruled out that
the Skandapurāṇa resounds in the two Āryā verses with which we began our
essay. The Sarasvatī Māhātmya in particular, comprising chapters 5 to 7 of the
Skandapurāṇa, sung by Vāyu, the god of the wind, would be appropriate to
the occasion – or, in the words of Sūcībāṇa:

Methinks that this Purāṇa does not differ from the Deeds of Harṣa after all!

Bibliography
Abbreviations

Ākh – Śrīkṛṣṇadāsa, Kṣemarāja, ed. Śrī-Skandamahāpurāṇa. Vol. 5. Āvantyakhaṇḍa. Bombay:

Venkateśvara Press, 1910.
BḍP – Shastri, Jagdish Lal, ed. Śrī-Vyāsa-maharṣiproktaṃ Brahmāṇḍapurāṇam. 1912. Reprint,
Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1973.
HC – Parab, Kāśinātha Pāṇḍuraṅga, ed. The Harṣacarita of Bāṇabhaṭṭa with the Commentary
Saṃketa of Śaṃkarakavi, 7th ed. Re-edited by Nārāyaṇa Rāma Ācārya “Kāvyatīrtha.”
Bombay: Nirnaya Sagara Press, 1946.
MBh – Sukthankar, V. S., S. K. Belvalkar, and P. L. Vaidya, eds. The Mahābhārata for the First
Time Critically Edited. 19 vols. Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 1927–59.
MaS – Shastri, Jagdish Lal, ed. Manusmṛti with the Sanskrit Commentary Manvantara-Muktāvalī
of Kullūka Bhaṭṭa. With an introduction by S. C. Banerji. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1983.
SP I – Adriaensen, Rob, Hans T. Bakker, and Harunaga Isaacson, eds. The
Skandapurāṇa. Vol. I, Adhyāyas 1–25. Groningen Oriental Studies, Supplement.
Groningen: Egbert Forsten, 1998.

44 Bakker, The World of the Skandapurāṇa, 92ff.

45 See also Martine Kropman, “The Consecration of Kumāra: The Role of Thanesar and King
Harṣa in the Composition of the Skandapurāṇa,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 29, no. 1
(2018): 1–31, who makes a case for the close connection of the origin of the Skandapurāṇa and
Harṣavardhana’s accession to the throne.
 The Skandapurāṇa and Bāṇa’s Harṣacarita 125

SP IIA – Bakker, Hans T., and Harunaga Isaacson, eds. The Skandapurāṇa. Vol. IIA, Adhyāyas
26–31.14: The Vārāṇasī Cycle. Groningen Oriental Studies, Supplement. Groningen:
Egbert Forsten, 2004.
SP IIB – Bakker, Hans T., Peter C. Bisschop, and Yuko Yokochi, eds. The
Skandapurāṇa. Vol. IIB, Adhyāyas 31–52: The Vāhana and Naraka Cycles. In cooperation
with Nina Mirnig and Judit Törzsök. Groningen Oriental Studies, Supplement. Leiden:
Brill, 2014.
SP III – Yokochi, Yuko, ed. The Skandapurāṇa. Vol. III, Adhyāyas 34.1–61, 53–69: The
Vindhyavāsinī Cycle. Groningen Oriental Studies, Supplement. Groningen: Forsten;
Leiden: Brill, 2013.
SP IV – Bisschop, Peter C. and Yuko Yokochi, eds. The Skandapurāṇa. Vol. IV, Adhyāyas
70–95: Start of the Skanda and Andhaka Cycles. In cooperation with Diwakar Acharya and
Judit Törzsök. Groningen Oriental Studies, Supplement. Leiden: Brill, 2018.
SPS 167 / SPRA 167 – For the edition of Skandapurāṇa adhyāya 167, see Bisschop 2006.
SPBh – Bhaṭṭarāī, Kṛṣṇaprasāda, ed. Skandapurāṇasya Ambikākhaṇḍaḥ.
Mahendraratnagranthamālā 2. Kathmandu: Mahendrasaṃskrṭaviśvavidyālayaḥ, 1988.
SkP – Śrīkṛṣṇadāsa, Kṣemarāja, ed. Śrī-Skāndamahāpurāṇam. 7 vols. Bombay: Venkateśvara
Press, 1910.
VāmP – Gupta, Anand Swarup, ed. The Vāmana Purāṇa. Varanasi: All India Kashiraj Trust,
1967.
VāP – Apte, H. N., ed. Mahāmuniśrīmad-Vyāsa-praṇītaṃ Vāyupurāṇam. Ananda Ashrama
Sanskrit Series 49. 1905. Reprint, Poona: Ānandāśrama, 1983.

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