The Bhartrharinirveda of Harihara

The Bhartrharinirveda of Harihara is a play of which the royal poet is the hero. Harihara is a common name of Sanskrit writers, however only one is mentioned as a playwright, the author of the Prabhdvatiparinaya. Little is known about the author of this play. The date of the drama is uncertain, although it was written after the beginning of the fifteenth century. The position of the Bhartrharinirveda in Hindu drama is somewhat peculiar. The Bhartrharinirveda is in great a glorification of the Yoga philosophy, which teaches that the summum bonuzz is the discrimination and separation of soul from matter, thus leading through renunciation of the world to isolation of the ego. At this point, however, the Yoga system is united in this play, as in modern Indian philosophical thought generally, with the Vedanta, which seeks release from reincarnation and all its attendant evils by reabsorption into the All-Soul. In regard to its sectarian point of view, the drama is overwhelmingly Sivaite, although Visnu is mentioned occasionally.