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'Harsh' or 'Harshavardhana' (हर्षवर्धन) (590–647) was an Indian emperor who ruled Northern India for over forty years. He was the son of Prabhakar Vardhan and younger brother of Rajyavardhan, a king of Thanesar. At the height of his power his kingdom spanned the Punjab, Bengal, Orissa and the entire Indo-Gangetic plain north of the Narmada River.

After the downfall of the Gupta Empire in the middle of the sixth century C.E., North India reverted back to small republics and small monarchical states. Harsha united the small republics from Punjab to Central India, and they, at an assembly, crowned Harsha king in April 606 AD when he was merely 16 years old.^[1]

Contents

Harshavardhana's Ancestors

Vardhan Dynasty

Harsha's Ascension

Harsha's Wars

Patron of Buddhism and Literature

After Harsha

References

Harshavardhana's Ancestors

The origin of the Harsha's ancestors is obscure and little is known about them.^[2] According to Bana, they were descended from a certain Pushpabhuti who founded the kingdom of Sthaneshwar or modern Thanesar an ancient Hindu pilgrimage centre and one of the 51 Shaktipeeth's, now a small town in the vicinity of the newly created Kurukshetra in the state of Haryana near Delhi. The famous Chinese Buddhist pilgrim monk, Xuanzang, clearly states that Harsha was of the 吙舍 ''feishe'' or Vaishya caste but makes no comment about his family's origins.^[3][4]
According to Alexander Cunningham in 1871 Xuanzang must have mistaken "the ''Vaisa'' (which is the name of the mercantile class of the Hindus), for ''Bais'' Rajput^[5] As Thomas Watters has pointed out this is most unlikely as Xuanzang, "had ample opportunities for learning the antecedents of the royal family, and he must have had some ground for his assertion."^[6] Moreover, Xuanzang had an expert knowledge of Sanskrit and the caste system, which he discusses, including the Vaishya caste, in some detail in his book. He mentions that rulers traditionally belonged the Kshatriya caste and his specific mention that Harsha was a Vaishya was probably because this was an uncommon occurrence.^[7][8]

Vardhan Dynasty

After the downfall of the Gupta Empire in the middle of the sixth century CE, North India was split into several independent kingdoms. The Huns had established their supremacy over the Punjab and parts of central India. The northern and western regions of India passed into the hands of a dozen or more feudatory states.
Prabhakar Vardhan, the ruler of Sthanvisvara, who belonged to the Pushabhukti family, extended his control over neighbouring states. Prabhakar Vardhan was the first king of the Vardhan dynasty with his capital at Thanesar.
After Prabhakar Vardhan’s death in 606 CE, his eldest son, Rajya Vardhan, ascended the throne. Harsha Vardhana was Rajya Vardhan’s younger brother.

Harsha's Ascension

Rajya Vardhan’s and Harsha’s sister Rajyasri had been married to the Maukhari king, Grahavarman. This king, some years later, had been defeated and killed by king Deva Gupta of Malwa and after his death Rajyasri had been cast into prison by the victor. Harsha's brother, Rajya Vardhan, then the king at Thanesar, could not stand this affront on his family, marched against Deva Gupta and defeated him. But it happened just at this moment that Sasanka, king of Gauda in Eastern Bengal, entered Magadha as a friend of Rajya Vardhana, but in secret alliance with the Malwa king. Accordingly, Sasanka treacherously murdered Rajya Vardhan.
On hearing about the murder of his brother, Harsha resolved at once to march against the treacherous king of Gauda and killed Deva Gupta in a battle. Harsha Vardhan ascended the throne at the age of 16.

Harsha's Wars

Though quite a young man when he came to power, Harsha proved himself a great conqueror and an able administrator. After his accession, Harsha united the two kingdoms of Thanesar (Kurukshetra) and Kannauj and transferred his capital from Thanesar to Kannauj.
Harsha defeated Sasanka, the ruler of Bengal. He also brought the Eastern Panjab (present day Haryana), Bengal, Bihar and Orissa under his control. He conquered Dhruvasena of Gujarat and married his daughter to him. He also conquered Ganjam, a part of the modern Orissa State.
Harsha's ambition of extending his power to the Deccan and Southern India were stopped by Pulakesi II, the Chalukya king of Vatapi in Northern Karnataka. Pulakesin defeated the Harsha army on the Banks of the River Narmada in 620 AD. A truce was arrived at the River Narmada that marked the river as the southern boundary of Harshas kingdom.

Patron of Buddhism and Literature

Harsha's father, Prabhākara was, apparently a sun-worshipper, his brother followed Hinayana Buddhism while, according to Bana, Harsha was a Shaivite. Harsha himself was a tolerant ruler and supported all faiths - Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism. Early in his life he seems to have been a follower of Sun Worship, but later becoming a patron of Shaivism and Buddhism.^[9]
His sister Rajyashri's conversion to Buddhism presumably had a positive effect on his support to the religion. His syncretic approch to religion is evident in his celebrated play Nagananda. The play's theme is based on the Jataka tale of the Bodhisattva Jimutavahana, but Harasha introduces the goddess Gauri, Shiva's consort, as the saviour of Jimutavahana, a feature not found in the Jataka.
According to the Chinese Pilgrim Xuanzang, who visited his kingdom in 636 CE, Harsha built numerous stupas in the name of Buddha. Xuanzang entered a a grand competition organized by Harsha and won the theological debate. Harsha also became a patron of art and literature. He made numerous endowments to the University at Nalanda. Two seals of Harsha have been found in Nalanda in the course of the excavations. All these favours and donations of the great emperor were crowned by the construction of a lofty wall enclosing all the buildings of the university to defend the institution from any other possible attack. In 643 he held a Buddhist convocation at Kanauj which was reputedly attended by 20 kings and thousands of pilgrims.^[10]
In 641, following Xuanzang's visit, Harsha sent a mission to China which established the first diplomatic relations between China and India. The Chinese responded by sending an embassy consisting of Li Yibiao and Wang Xuanze who probably travelled through Tibet and whose journey is commemorated in inscriptions at Rajagrha - modern Rajgir, and Bodhgaya.
Wang Xuanze made a second journey in 648 but he was badly treated by Harsha's successor and his mission plundered. This elicited a response from Tibetan and Nepalese troops who, together, soundly defeated the Indians. ^[11][12]
Harsha was a noted author on his own merit. He wrote three Sanskrit plays – ''Nagananda'', ''Ratnavali'' and ''Priyadarsika''.
His reign is comparatively well documented, thanks to his court poet Bana and Xuanzang. Bana composed an account of Harsha's rise to power in Harsha Charitha, the first historical poetic work in Sanskrit language. Xuanzang wrote a full description of his travels in India.^[13]

After Harsha

Harsha died in the year 647 AD. He ruled over India for 41 years. After Harsha's death, apparently without any heirs, his empire died with him. The kingdom disintegrated rapidly into small states. The succeeding period is very obscure and badly documented, but it marks the culmination of a process that had begun with the invasion of the Huns in the last years of the Gupta Empire.
Neither Bana's nor Huan Tsang's account gives any details of this period. A few tantalising glimpses are offered in some ancient Chinese and Tibetan Books. The one in the Tibetan book ''The White Annals''The White Annals "> Deb-Ther-Dkar-Po, The White Annals, Tibetan Freedom Press, Darjeeling, 1964 tells that Harsh had sent an envoy to the Chinese Emperor, who in turn sent a Chinese one with a convoy of thirty horsemen. When they reached India they found that Harsha was dead and his minister Arjuna had usurped the throne. Arjuna is said to have been persecuting the Buddhists and attacked the envoy who had to flee to Tibet. The Tibetan king decided to avenge the insult to the Chinese emperor and sent the envoy back with an army that finally managed to defeat and take Arjuna and his family as prisoners, and sent them back as prisoners to the Chinese emperor. Historians have not yet managed to unravel what the facts were from these meagre accounts.

References

1. RN Kundra & SS Bawa, History of Ancient and Meddieval India
2. Mahajan, V. D.'' Ancient India''. 8th Edition. 1978, Chand & Company, New Delhi, p. 498.
3. Watters, Thomas. ''On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India''. Two volumes. 1904-1905, Royal Asiatic Society, London. One volume reprint: Munshiram Manoharlal, Delhi, 1973, pp. 343-345.
4. ''Grand dictionnaire Ricci de la langue chinoise''. 7 volumes. Instituts Ricci (Paris – Taipei). Desclée de Brouwer. 2001. Vol. II, p. 578.
5. Cunningham, Alexander. ''The Ancient Geography of India: The Buddhist Period, Including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang''. 1871, Thübner and Co. Reprint by Elbiron Classics. 2003., p. 377.
6. Watters, Thomas. ''On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India''. Two volumes. 1904-1905, Royal Asiatic Society, London. One volume reprint: Munshiram Manoharlal, Delhi, 1973, pp. 344-345.
7. Watters, Thomas. ''On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India''. Two volumes. 1904-1905, Royal Asiatic Society, London. One volume reprint: Munshiram Manoharlal, Delhi, 1973, p. 168.
8. Li, Rongxi. ''The Great Tang Dynasty Record of the Western Regions''. Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, 1996, pp. 58-59.
9. Drekmeier, Charles. 1962. ''Kingship and Community in Early India''. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California. ISBN 0-8047-0114-8, p. 187
10. Watters, Thomas. ''On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India''. Two volumes. 1904-1905, Royal Asiatic Society, London. One volume reprint: Munshiram Manoharlal, Delhi, 1973, pp. 343-344.
11. Stein, R. A. ''Tibetan Civilization'' 1962. Revised English edition, 1972, Faber & Faber, London. Reprint, 1972. Stanford University Press, p. 62. ISBN 0-8047-0806-1 cloth; ISBN 0-8047-0901-7 pbk., pp. 58-59
12. Bushell, S. W. "The Early History of Tibet. From Chinese Sources." ''Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society'', Vol. XII, 1880, p. 446
13. Beal, Samuel, Si-Yu-Ki: Buddhist Records of the Western World, by Hiuen Tsiang. 2 vols., 1884, Translated by Samuel Beal. London. 1884. Reprint: Delhi. Oriental Books Reprint Corporation. 1969.


★ Sri-harsha-charita, trans. Cowell and Thomas (1897)

★ Ettinghausen, Harsha Vardhana (Louvain, 1906).

★ ''Political and Social history of the Jats'', Dr B K Dabas, 2001. Sanjay Prakashan, New Delhi, India

★ Jat Viron ka Itihaas, Dilip Singh Ahlawat, 1998, Mathan Press, Rohtak, India

★ Deb-Ther-Dkar-Po, ''The White Annals'', Tibetan Freedom Press, Darjeeling, 1964.