Harshavardhana was the famous king of Kannauj and Thanesvara. He ruled in the first half of the seventh century A.D. The king is credited with writing three dramas: the Ratnavali, the Priyadarsika and the Nagananda. The subject matter of the first two dramas are almost the same with Udayana, the king of Vatsa being their hero. Bhasa is also credited with writing plays on stories connected with Udayana and his minister Yaugandharayana. In the drama Ratnavali, the master statesman Yaugandharayana plans the marriage of his master with the daughter of the king of Ceylon. The Ceylonese king agrees and sends his daughter to Vatsa. However the ship in which she was sailing got ship wrecked. She was saved by a merchant of Kausambi and then later handed over to Vasavadatta. The queen Vasavadatta seeing her beauty concealed her from her spouse`s gaze. On the other hand the Ceylonese princess falls in love with Vatsa when she saw him at the spring festival.

Then both the lovers are brought face to face. The drama further depicts the said plight of the both due to Vasavadatta`s attitude and Sagarika takes recourse to suicide but saved by timely arrival of the king and the Vidusaka. Thus the lovers are united but Sagarika and the Vidusaka are made captive by Vasavadatta. When the real identity of Sagarika is known, the harem was on fire. Vatsa rushes to the rescue of Sagarika and emerges with her in chains. The identity of Sagarika is disclosed by the Ceylonese minister who also managed to escape alive after the ship-wreck. Then the minister Yaugandharayana appears and admits that he had managed the whole plot and the fire was due to the magic of the magician. In the end Ratndvalt, the Ceylonese princess and king Vatsa are united.

The Priyadarsika revolves round Vatsa-Vasavadatta and affairs of the harem. It portrays the rivalry between Vatsa and the king of Kalinga for the daughter of king Dridhavarman. According to the drama the king`s daughter was carried away by the chamberlain and kept in the shelter of Vindhyaketu. Later he was attacked by Vatsa`s general Vijayasena and the girl, Priyadarsika was brought and sent to the harem as attendant on Vasavadatta with the name Aranyika. The king falls in love with Aranyika. There is a drama within the drama in which Aranyika plays as Vasavadatta while Manorama as Vatsa but the Vidusaka arranges to let the king take the part. However, Vasavadatta finds out the secret. Aranyika was put to prison and Dridhavarman was restored to throne. Aranyika on the other hand poisoned herself but she was cured by Vatsa`s magical arts. With time Aranyika`s real identity gets established. Finally Vasavadatta recognized her cousin and grants her hand to the king.

In both these dramas Harsa employed magic to play an effective role. While in Ratnavali Yaugandharayana plays an important role, in the Priyadarsika circumstances play an effective role.

The Nagananda of Harsa is quite different in theme than the other two of his dramas. In it the author has tried to dramatise a Buddhist legend, the self-sacrifice of Jimutavahana. The episode concerns with the Vidyadharas and Siddhas. Jimutavahana was a Vidyadhara prince. He has induced his father to resign his kingship and to give himself to a life of calm. He has made acquaintance with Matrivisnu, the prince of this Siddhas, who has a sister. She, in her dreams, learns that her future husband is Jimutavahana. Later while she reveals the fact to her friend it was over-heard by Jimutavahana. The Vidusaka arranges a meeting between the two and both learn their love for each other, but an ascetic arrives on the scene and takes her away. Matrivisnu offers her sister`s hand to Jimutavfihana, but he declines to accept as he is ignorant who she was. When his love, Malayavat, seeks to hang herself being desperate he saves her and realizes his mistake and the marriage is concluded. The drama, however, does not end here. Jimutavahana is shown here to sacrifice his life for the sake of serpent race from the hands of Garuda. He lays his life but Garuda realizes his mistake and Gauri appears on the scene to revive not only the prince but all the dead serpents. Naturally, the theme of the drama is actually the ending of the enmity between Garuda and the serpent race and to set an unique example of self-sacrifice for a noble cause.