Harsha
At this juncture the statesmen of Kanauj, on the advice of their leading noble Bani (Bhandi), seem to have offered the crown to Harsha, the brother of Rajyavardhana and of Rajyasri, who was destined to revive the imperial memories of the Gupta epoch and obtain recognition as the lord paramount of the whole of Northern India, even from his bitterest enemies. The event happened in A.D. 606, the starting-point of the Harsha era. Both Bana and Hiuen Tsang refer to Harsha’s reluctance to mount the throne. This is taken by some to be due to the fact that he was not the rightful heir to the throne of Kanauj, which may have formed part of the dominions of his sister’s Maukhari husband whose line was not yet extinct. But this view does not explain Harsha’s hesitation to succeed his elder brother. The true history of the period will only be made clear when further evidence is forthcoming. It is, however, certain that Harsha found himself at the head of the kingdom of his brother as well as that of his brother-in law. But he contented himself at first with the modest title of Rajaputra (Prince) Siladitya.
The dynasty to which Harsha belonged claimed descent from the illustrious Pushyabhuti, a devoted worshipper of Siva. It ruled at Thanesar and was raised to greatness by Prabhakaravardhana, father of Harsha, who was the son of a princess, possibly of “later Gupta” lineage. He took the title of Maharajadhiraja and played the part of “a lion to the Hun deer”. As already related he offered the hand of his daughter Rajyasri to Grahavarman Maukhari and thus formed an alliance between the two most powerful families of the Madhya-desa (upper Ganges valley) which resembled the solar and lunar races of antiquity. The vicissitudes through which the kingdom of Thanesar passed in the time of Rajyavardhana, his immediate successor, have been mentioned above. Harsha on coming to the throne had to face a sea of troubles. He had to rescue his sister, the Maukhari queen Rajyasri, the widow of Grahavarman, who had fled from the place of her confinement at Kanauj. He had to avenge the death of his elder brother and predecessor, and he had to consolidate his authority in the two kingdoms over which he was called upon to rule. One of his earliest acts was a treaty of alliance with Bhaskaravarman, the ambitious king of Kamarupa in modern Assam, who was in a position to attack his arch-enemy, the king of Gauda, in the rear. Another prince befriended by Harsha was Madhava Gupta belonging to the line of the “later Guptas” of Malwa and Magadha. The recovery of Rajyasri was effected within a short time by Harsha himself, who was accompanied by Madhava Gupta. Harsha is said to have waged incessant warfare until in six years be had fought the `Five Indies’. Sasanka of Gauda proved a formidable opponent and his power seems to have continued undiminished till AD 619. Harsha, however, succeeded in strengthening his position in the home territories, and in 612 assumed full regal titles. He increased his army, bringing the elephant corps up to 60,000 and the cavalry to 100,000.
During the period 618-627 Chinese chroniclers record serious disturbances in India, and Siladitya (Harsha) is represented as punishing the kings of the four parts of the country. What specific contests are meant is not made clear by the Chinese writers. But we learn from Chalukya records that sometime before 634 Harsha marched southwards as far as the Nerbudda, where his further progress was stopped by Pulakesin II of the Chalukya dynasty of Vatapi in the Deccan. A record of the Gurjara chiefs of Broach refers to the defeat by Harsha of a prince of Valabhi who was granted protection by Dadda II. At the time of Hiuen Tsang’s visit to Valabhi, c. 641, the reigning prince of Valabhi, Dhruvabhata, was attached to Harsha’s interest by a matrimonial alliance. Sasanka, king of Gauda, must have died sometime before 637 when Hiuen Tsang was at Nalanda in South Bihar. For a time Magadha passed under the rule of Purnavarman. In 641 Siladitya (Harsha) himself assumed the title of king of Magadha and exchanged embassies with China. According to tradition he had led an expedition to Northern Bengal. The final overthrow of the Gauda kingdom of Karnasuvarna seems to have been the work of his ally Bhaskaravarman whose Nidhanapur grant is issued from that city. The exact date of this event is not known. In 642 death probably removed Pulakesin II, the formidable southern rival of Harsha, and in the next year the northern emperor undertook an expedition to Ganjam. We have also references in literature to Harsha’s expedition to the Tushara saila or snowy mountains, whence he exacted tribute, to Kashmir from which he carried off a tooth relic, and to Sind whose ruler was deprived of his royal fortune. We do not know to which period of Harsha’s reign these events are to be assigned.
Much controversy has raged round the question of the extent of Harsha’s empire. It certainly embraced the old kingdoms of Thanesar (in the eastern Punjab) and Kanauj (in the Gangetic Doab) and the provinces of Ahichchhatra (Rohilkhand), Sravasti (Oudh) and Prayaga (Allahabad). Chinese evidence points to the inclusion of Magadha since 641 and also of Orissa. Udita of Jalandhar and Madhava Gupta, apparently of Eastern Malwa, seem to have been his vassals. The emperor’s army had overrun almost the whole of Northern India, from the snowy mountains of the north to the Nerbudda in the south, and from Ganjam in the east to Valabhi in the west. The king of Kamarupa beyond the Brahmaputra was his ally, and the real character of the alliance was well illustrated by an episode recorded by a Chinese writer which shows that the eastern potentate acknowledged the superiority of Harsha’s might and did not dare disobey his orders. Even the most powerful of Harsha’s enemies, viz. the Chalukyas of the Deccan, bear witness to his suzerainty over the whole of Uttaratpatha or Northern India. The pre-eminence of Harsha over other contemporary rulers of the North is also indicated by the “music. pace-drums” which he alone was entitled to use, other kings not being permitted to adopt the paraphernalia in question. It is not suggested that the whole of Northern India was actually controlled by imperial officials. Large tracts of this wide region were doubtless under powerful local rulers who owed only a nominal allegiance to the imperial throne. But even the rulers of distant Kashmir, Sind, Valabhi, and Kamarupa had a wholesome dread of the power of Harsha. The king of Kamarupa dared not detain a Chinese pilgrim at his capital against the will of his mighty “ally”, and the king of Kashmir was compelled to surrender a tooth relic to Harsha. The ruler of Sind, already humbled by Prabhakaravardhana, was, according to Bana, shorn of his royal fortune by Harsha. The ruler of Valabhi had once fled before the advancing arms of the Kanauj monarch, and later on accepted the hand of his daughter and attended the imperial court.
Kanauj, the imperial capital, had the Ganges on its west side. It is described by Hiuen Tsang as a very strongly defended city with lofty structures everywhere. There were beautiful gardens and tanks of clear water. Rarities from strange lands were collected here. The inhabitants were well off and there were families with great wealth. The people had a refined appearance and dressed in glossy silk attire. They were given to learning and the arts.
Harsha did not long survive the Ganjam campaign of AD 643. In his later days he received embassies from China and maintained close diplomatic relations with the Chinese court. At this period he came into contact with Hiuen Tsang, the, Chinese Master of the Law, who was visiting the sacred spots of Buddhism. It appears from the records of the Chinese pilgrim that the emperor of Kanauj showed a strong predilection for Buddhism, though he does not seem to have discarded altogether the Saivism of his earlier years. He caused the use of animal food to cease throughout his dominions and prohibited the taking of life. He erected rest-house and monasteries and practised charity on an extensive scale.
In 643 the Chinese pilgrim witnessed two grand assemblies, one in the city of Kanauj, the other the quinquennial assembly known as the Mahamokshaparishad, in the “arena of charitable offerings” at Prayaga (Allahabad). The Kanauj assembly was summoned to honour Hiuen Tsang and the Mahayana form of Buddhism which he preached. It was attended by twenty kings, besides thousands of Buddhist, Brahmanical and Jaina theologians and priests. Impressive spectacles were presented by a golden statue of the Buddha kept in a lofty tower and a gorgeous procession of elephants that escorted an image of the Sakya sage to the hall of assembly. The gathering at Prayaga included about 500,000 people who had been summoned from the distant comers of the “Five Indies” to receive gifts from the emperor. Harsha went to the spot accompanied by the Chinese Master of the Law and the kings of twenty countries. Images of the Buddha, Adityadeva (the Sun), and Isvaradeva (Siva) were installed on successive days and precious articles were distributed in charity on each occasion. When the accumulation of five years was exhausted, the emperor wore a second-hand garment and paid worship to the Buddhas of the ten regions.
Harsha died in AD 646 or 647. He was undoubtedly one of the greatest kings of ancient India. Called upon to rule over two distracted kingdoms in a period of turmoil he succeeded to a large extent in restoring respect for authority in vast tracts of Northern India and won praise as a just and benevolent ruler, punctilious in the discharge of his duties. It is not surprising that years of strenuous warfare did not allow him much time to establish on a firm foundation that ordered government which three generations of Gupta emperors had given to the “middle country”, the benefits of which were warmly appreciated by Fa Hien. It was, however, not due to any lack of vigour on his part. This indefatigable prince was anxious to bring justice to the doors of all. He made visits of inspection throughout his dominions and was prompt to reward the virtuous and punish the evil-doer. But he nursed a higher ambition. The grandson of a “Gupta” princess, Harsha attempted to revive the imperial memories of Samudra Gupta and sought to unite the north and south of India under one sceptre -in vain as the sequel proved. But the imperial splendour of Kanauj that he did so much to augment was hardly dimmed in succeeding ages, and rulers of the remotest comers of India counted it their proudest boast to have “captured Mahodaya-Sri”, i.e. conquered Kanauj. Harsha also showed a taste for literature and the arts of peace that reminds one of the versatile hero, Samudra Gupta. In his later days he sought to emulate, perhaps unconsciously, the great Asoka, and the Chinese pilgrim bears eloquent testimony to his pious foundations, his toleration, liberality and benevolence, all irrespective of caste and creed. One European writer calls him the Akbar of the Hindu period. A great general and a just administrator, he was even greater as a patron of religion and learning. He gathered round himself some of the finest intellects and holiest sages-men like Bana, Mayura, Divakara and Hiuen Tsang. In one respect he is more fortunate than Samudra Gupta, for we still possess some gems of literature that proceeded, according to tradition, from his pen.
