[3] Ratnāvalī subtitled (rajaparikatha) is also the title of a 3rd-century CE Buddhist philosophical work by Nagarjuna, a discourse addressed to an Indian king (possibly a Satavahana monarch).
He is happily married to Vasavadatta, princess of a neighboring kingdom, and the story of their courtship and wedding is the subject of an earlier work, Svapnavasavadattam, written by Bhāsa.
Yaugandharayana now wishes the king to marry Ratnavali, princess of the distant island kingdom of Simhala (presumably Sri Lanka).
While the envoys from Kaushambi are still in Simhala with the proposal, the news reaches them that Queen Vasavadatta is dead, having perished in a fire which engulfed a hunting camp at Lavanaka.
The necessary preparations are made, and Princess Ratnavali embarks on a ship to make the voyage to Kaushambi and her new life as queen of that kingdom.
She however does not reveal her identity as princess of Simhala to the people who rescue her, because she is fearful of being held for political ransom, that her father or fiancée will be made to give up territories to secure her release.
Therefore, when they reach their native land (which is Kaushambi, by a coincidence), they place the nameless maiden in the custody of minister Yaugandharayana.
He gives the rescued girl a new name, "Sagarika," ("Ocean-lady"), takes her to the queen and asks her to keep the homeless waif as a maid.
After a while, the Udayana and his jester enter the grove and hear the bird Sarika reproduce the ladies' conversation.
By this time, the two maidens return and overhear the conversation of the king and his jester, and see that Udayana is interested in Sagarika.
Susangatha's plan is destroyed by the angry Vasavadatta and she leaves the grove without accepting Udayana's words of appeasement.
In conclusion, it can be said that it is not unlikely that Harsha took the frame-work of the Udayana story from either the Bauddha literature or some early version of the Brihatkatha and dramatized it in his own way.
Although the story is not entirely invented, it must be admitted that the treatment of it at Harsha's hands is quite original and that the play on the whole is a very charming one.
The play has been adapted to film in Indian cinema as Ratnavali in 1922 by Jyotish Bannerjee and C. Legrand, in 1924 by Manilal Joshi, and in 1945 by Surendra Desai.