Their style is throughout so highly ornamented and hyperbolical, that it sometimes obscures the facts and still more frequently leaves us in doubt about the importance of the events narrated. Thus Bilbna assures us boldly in the case of every expedition undertaken by the Chalukyas against the Cholas, that the latter were utterly extinguished, though shortly afterwards he has to confess that fresh movements of the hereditary foe forced the Chalukya prince to repeat his experiments in the art of annihilation. Another grave defect which arises from the poetical treatment of historical subjects, is that the intervals between the events narrated are rarely given with exactness. In this respect Bána never makes exact statements, but always uses phrases such as 'after some days, after many days.' Bilhana follows the same practice with very few exceptions.
The same carelessness, which is shown about time, prevails also with regard to the description of the minor personages mentioned. Bilhana gives the names of the kings with whom Vikrama came into hostile or friendly contact in a few cases only and Bána is often guilty of the same neglect. Finally the characters suffer as much as the events. The hero or heroes are painted all white and their enemies all black. Ahavamalla and Vikrama have no more individuality than Rama, Dushyanta or Pururavas. They are simply perfection and their enemies are entirely contemptible and wicked. But in spite of all these faults, and though the Charitas are neither historical compositions after the manner of the Greeks and Romans, nor even chronicles like those of our writers of the middle ages and of the Arabs and Persians, still they have a high value for a country like India, where the works of foreign travellers, inscriptions and
willing to spare his readers the hackneyed descriptions of the four seasons and the inventory of the charms of Vikrama's bride Chandaladevt.
1 See e. g. Vikram. I. 102 and 103.
