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.