Template:Short description Template:Pp Template:Redirect {{#invoke:other uses|otheruses}} Template:Use Indian English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox royalty
Harshavardhana (Sanskrit: हर्षवर्धन; 4 June 590 – 647) was an emperor of Kannauj from April 606 until his death in 647. He was the king of Thanesar who had defeated the Alchon Huns,<ref>India: History, Religion, Vision and Contribution to the World, by Alexander P. Varghese p.26</ref> and the younger brother of Rajyavardhana, son of Prabhakaravardhana and last king of Thanesar. He was one of the greatest kings of the Kingdom of Kannauj, which under him expanded into a vast realm in northern India.
At the height of Harsha's power, his realm covered much of northern and northwestern India, with the Narmada River as its southern boundary. He eventually made Kanyakubja (present-day Kannauj, Uttar Pradesh state) his imperial capital, and reigned till 647 CE.<ref name="Historic Places p.507">International Dictionary of Historic Places: Asia and Oceania by Trudy Ring, Robert M. Salkin, Sharon La Boda p.507</ref> Harsha was defeated by the Emperor Pulakeshin II of the Chalukya dynasty in the Battle of Narmada, when he tried to expand his empire into the southern peninsula of India.<ref>Ancient India by Ramesh Chandra Majumdar p.274</ref>
The peace and prosperity that prevailed made his court a centre of cosmopolitanism, attracting scholars, artists and religious visitors from far and wide.<ref name="Historic Places p.507"/> The Chinese traveller Xuanzang visited the imperial court of Harsha and wrote a very favourable account of him (as Shiladitya), praising his justice and generosity.<ref name="Historic Places p.507"/> His biography Harshacharita ("The Life of Harsha") written by the Sanskrit poet Banabhatta, describes his association with Sthanesvara, besides mentioning a defensive wall, a moat and the palace with a two-storied Dhavalagriha (white mansion).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Early yearsEdit
Much of the information about Harsha's youth comes from the account of Bāṇabhaṭṭa.<ref name="Routledge"/> Harsha was the second son of Prabhakarvardhana, king of Thanesar. After the downfall of the Gupta Empire in the middle of the 6th century, Northern India was split into several independent kingdoms. The northern and western regions of the Indian Subcontinent passed into the hands of a dozen or more feudatory states. Prabhakaravardhana, the monarch of Sthanvesvara, who belonged to the Vardhana family, extended his control over neighbouring states. Prabhakaravardhana was the first monarch of the Vardhana dynasty with his capital at Sthanvesvara. After Prabhakaravardhana's died in 605, his eldest son, Rajyavardhana, ascended the throne. Harshavardhana was Rajyavardhana's younger brother. This period of kings from the same line has been referred to as the Vardhana dynasty in many publications.<ref>Harsha Charitra by Banabhatt</ref>Template:Dead<ref>Legislative Elite in India: A Study in Political Socialization by Prabhu Datta Sharma, Publ. Legislators 1984, p32</ref><ref>Revival of Buddhism in Modern India by Deodas Liluji Ramteke, Publ Deep & Deep, 1983, p19</ref><ref>Some Aspects of Ancient Indian History and Culture by Upendra Thakur, Publ. Abhinav Publications, 1974,</ref>Template:Pn
At the time of Hiuen Tsang's visit, Kanyakubja was the imperial capital of Harshavardhana, the most powerful sovereign in Northern India.
K.P. Jaiswal in Imperial History of India, says that according to a 7-8th century Buddhist text, Mañjuśrī-mūla-kalpa, Harsha was born of King Vishnu (Vardhana) and his family was of Vaishya varna.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Pn This is supported by some more writers.<ref name=" Sailendra Nath Sen">Template:Citation</ref><ref name=" Amal Chattopadhyay ">Template:Citation</ref><ref name=" Raj Narain Arya ">Template:Citation</ref><ref name=" V. Ramanathan ">Template:Citation</ref>
AscensionEdit
Harsha's sister Rajyashri had been married to the Maukhari monarch, Grahavarman. This king, some years later, had been defeated and killed by King Devagupta of Malwa and after his death Rajyashri had been captured and imprisoned by the victor. Harsha's brother, Rajyavardhana, then the king at Sthanesvara, could not accept this affront to his sister and his family. So he marched against Devagupta and defeated him. However, Shashanka, the King of Gauda in Eastern Bengal, then entered Magadha as a friend of Rajyavardhana, but was in a secret alliance with the Malwa king.Template:Citation needed Accordingly, Shashanka treacherously murdered Rajyavardhana.<ref name="Sinha1977">Template:Cite book</ref> In the meantime, Rajyashri escaped into the forests. On hearing about the murder of his brother, Harsha resolved at once to march against the treacherous King of Gauda, but this campaign remained inconclusive and beyond a point he turned back. Harsha ascended the throne at the age of 16. His first responsibility was to rescue his sister and to avenge the killings of his brother and brother-in-law. He rescued his sister when she was about to immolate herself.
ReignEdit
As Northern India reverted to small republics and small monarchical states ruled by Gupta rulers after the fall of the prior Gupta Empire, Harsha united the small republics from Punjab to central India, and their representatives crowned him emperor at an assembly in April 606 giving him the title of Maharajadhiraja. Harsha established an empire that brought all of northern India under his rule.<ref name="Historic Places p.507"/> The peace and prosperity that prevailed made his court a centre of cosmopolitanism, attracting scholars, artists and religious visitors from far and wide. The Chinese traveller Xuanzang visited the imperial court of Harsha, and wrote a favourable account of him, praising his justice and generosity.<ref name="Historic Places p.507"/>
Pulakeshin II repelled an invasion led by Harsha on the banks of Narmada in the winter of 618–619. Pulakeshin then entered into a treaty with Harsha, with the Narmada River designated as the border between the Chalukya Empire and that of Harshavardhana.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Xuanzang describes the event thus:
- "Shiladityaraja (i.e., Harsha), filled with confidence, marched at the head of his troops to contend with this prince (i.e., Pulakeshin); but he was unable to prevail upon or subjugate him".
In 648, Tang Chinese emperor Tang Taizong sent Wang Xuance to India in response to emperor Harsha having sent an ambassador to China. However once in India, he discovered that Harsha had died and the new king Aluonashun (supposedly Arunāsva) attacked Wang and his 30 mounted subordinates.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> This led to Wang Xuance escaping to Tibet and then mounting a joint expedition of over 7,000 Nepalese mounted infantry and 1,200 Tibetan infantry and attacking Indian state on June 16. The success of this attack won Xuance the prestigious title of the "Grand Master for the Closing Court."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He also secured a reported Buddhist relic for China.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Full citation needed 2,000 prisoners were taken from Magadha by the Nepali and Tibetan forces under Wang.<ref name="Benn2002">Template:Cite book</ref> Tibetan and Chinese writings document describe Wang Xuance's raid on India with Tibetan soldiers.<ref name="Sen2003">Template:Cite book</ref> Nepal had been subdued by the Tibetan King Songtsen.<ref name="Sen2003 2">Template:Cite book</ref> The Indian pretender was among the captives.<ref name="Yule1915">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Pordenone)Ṭabīb1998">Template:Cite book</ref> The war happened in 649.Template:Citation needed Taizong's grave had a statue of the Indian pretender.<ref name="Bagchi2011">Template:Cite book</ref> The pretender's name was recorded in Chinese records as "Na-fu-ti O-lo-na-shuen" (Dinafudi is probably a reference to Tirabhukti).<ref>See</ref><ref name="Sircar1990">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Schaik2011">Template:Cite book</ref>
Xuanzang mentions that Harsha waged wars to bring "the Five Indias under allegiance" in six years.<ref name="BNS"/> Xuanzang uses the term "Five Indias" (or "Five Indies" in some translations) inconsistently, variously applying it to refer to Harsha's territories in northern India or to the entire subcontinent, grouped around Central India in the four directions.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Based on this statement, historians such as R.K. Mookerji and C.V. Vaidya have dated Harsha conquests to 606-612 CE. However, it is now known that Harsha engaged in wars and conquests for several more years.<ref name="BNS">Template:Cite journal</ref> Moreover, whether Xuanzang used the term "Five Indias" to describe Harsha's territory in a narrower or wider sense, his statement is hyperbole it cannot be used to make conclusions about Harsha's actual territory. While Harsha was the most powerful emperor of northern India, he did not rule the entire northern India.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Religion and Religious PolicyEdit
Like many other ancient Indian rulers, Harsha was eclectic in his religious views and practices. His seals describe his ancestors as worshippers of the Hindu sun god, Surya, his elder brother as a Buddhist, and himself as a Shaivite Hindu. His land grant inscriptions describe him as Parama-maheshvara (supreme devotee of Shiva). His court poet Bana also describes him as a Shaivite Hindu.<ref name="AbrahamEraly_2011">Template:Cite book</ref>
Harsha's play Nāgānanda tells the story of the Bodhisattva Jīmūtavāhavana, and the invocatory verse at the beginning is dedicated to the Buddha, described in the act of vanquishing Māra (so much so that the two verses, together with a third, are also preserved separately in Tibetan translation as the *Mārajit-stotra).<ref name="Michael Hahn_1996">Template:Cite news</ref> Shiva's consort Gauri plays an important role in the play,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and raises the hero to life using her divine power.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
According to the Chinese Buddhist traveler Xuanzang, Harsha was a devout Buddhist. Xuanzang states that Harsha banned animal slaughter for food, and built monasteries at the places visited by Gautama Buddha. He erected several thousand 100-feet high stupas on the banks of the Ganges river, and built well-maintained hospices for travellers and poor people on highways across India. He organized an annual assembly of global scholars, and bestowed charitable alms on them. Every five years, he held a great assembly called Moksha. Xuanzang also describes a 21-day religious festival organized by Harsha in Kanyakubja; during this festival, Harsha and his subordinate kings performed daily rituals before a life-sized golden statue of the Buddha.<ref name="AbrahamEraly_2011"/>
Since Harsha's records describe him as a Shaivite Hindu, his conversion to Buddhism would have happened, if at all, in the later part of his life. Even Xuanzang states that Harsha patronised scholars of all religions, not just Buddhist monks.<ref name="AbrahamEraly_2011"/> According to historians such as S. R. Goyal and S. V. Sohoni, Harsha was personally a Shaivite Hindu and his patronage of Buddhists misled Xuanzang to portray him as a Buddhist.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Literary prowessEdit
Template:Further Harsha is widely believed to be the author of three Sanskrit plays Ratnavali, Nagananda and Priyadarsika.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref> While some believe (e.g., Mammata in Kavyaprakasha) that it was Dhāvaka, one of Harsha's court poets, who wrote the plays as a paid commission, Wendy Doniger is "persuaded, however, that king Harsha really wrote the plays ... himself."<ref name=":0" />
In popular cultureEdit
A 1926 Indian silent film, Samrat Shiladitya, about the emperor was directed by Mohan Dayaram Bhavnani.<ref name="encyc">Template:Cite book</ref>
See alsoEdit
ReferencesEdit
Further readingEdit
- Reddy, Krishna (2011), Indian History, Tata McGraw-Hill Education Private Limited, New Delhi
- Price, Pamela (2007), Early Medieval India, HIS2172 - Periodic Evaluation, University of Oslo
- "Conquests of Siladitya in the south" Template:Webarchive by S. Srikanta Sastri