हिंदीOn this day
Photo: Emperor Harsha (Harshavardhan) · Public domain
Ruler

Harshavardhana

Emperor of Kannauj, playwright

590—647

590–647 CE; reigned 606–647

Harsha came to the throne of Thanesar at sixteen after his brother’s murder, rescued his widowed sister and made Kannauj the capital of north India. Banabhatta wrote his life, Xuanzang lived at his court, and he wrote three Sanskrit plays himself.

01Rajyashri in the Vindhyas

Banabhatta’s Harshacharita tells it. The Malava king killed Harsha’s brother-in-law, the Maukhari Grahavarman of Kannauj, and imprisoned his sister Rajyashri. The elder brother Rajyavardhana beat the Malavas and was then murdered by Shashanka, king of Gauda, while at a parley. Rajyashri escaped into the Vindhya forest. Harsha, now king, searched for her and found her as she was about to enter a funeral fire. He took up the Maukhari kingdom with her, and Kannauj became his capital. The Harsha era begins with his accession in 606 CE.

02Checked at the Narmada

Harsha ruled the Ganga plain from Punjab to Bengal, but the south was closed to him. The Aihole inscription of 634 CE, cut for Pulakeshin II of the Badami Chalukyas, says Harsha’s harsha, his joy, melted away when his war elephants fell in battle. The fight took place near the Narmada, which stayed the frontier. Xuanzang, who met both kings, confirms that the Chalukya ruler alone did not submit.

Kamarupa
Dynasty · c. 350–1140 CE (Varman, Mlechchha and Pala houses)KamarupaKamarupa, the Pragjyotisha of the Mahabharata, was ruled by three houses in turn for about eight centuries. Its best-known king, Bhaskaravarman, was Harsha’s ally and the host of the pilgrim Xuanzang.Read →

03Prayag and the signed plates

Xuanzang describes a great assembly at Kannauj in 643 and then the gathering at Prayag, held every five years, where over seventy-five days Harsha gave away the stored wealth of the treasury to Brahmins, shramanas, the poor and orphans, until he begged a used garment from his sister. Harsha wrote Ratnavali, Priyadarshika and Nagananda. His Banskhera and Madhuban copper plates end with his signature in a fine flowing hand: svahasto mama maharajadhiraja shri harshasya, this is my own hand, of Maharajadhiraja Shri Harsha. He died in 647 with no heir, and his empire died with him.

Battles

The Malava–Gauda war against the Pushyabhutis

Within weeks of the old king’s death at Thanesar, his son-in-law was murdered at Kannauj, his daughter was in chains, and his elder son was dead on the road back from victory.

c. 605–606 CE

Pulakeshin II against Harsha on the Narmada

Harsha, master of the north, tried to cross into the Deccan and was turned back at the Narmada by Pulakeshin II of Badami. Both the Aihole inscription and Xuanzang record it.

c. 618–619 CE (some date it c. 630–634)

Places

Nalanda MahaviharaExcavated
The Gupta Age

Nalanda Mahavihara

For some seven centuries the greatest seat of learning in Asia, with thousands of monks and teachers, libraries and royal grants from Kanauj to Sumatra. It was ruined in the raids on Bihar around 1200 and its brick courts were dug out from 1915.

Thanesar (Sthanvishvara)Rebuilt
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Thanesar (Sthanvishvara)

The city of Sthanu, Bhagwan Shiva, on the edge of the Kurukshetra plain, where Prabhakaravardhana and his son Harsha ruled before Harsha moved to Kannauj. Mahmud of Ghazni sacked it in 1014.

Kannauj (Kanyakubja)Ruined
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Kannauj (Kanyakubja)

For five hundred years whoever held Kannauj on the Ganga held the claim to north India. Harsha ruled from it, the Pratiharas, Palas and Rashtrakutas fought a century-long war over it, and its fall to Muhammad Ghuri in 1194 opened the Ganga plain.

Prayagraj, Triveni SangamStanding
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Prayagraj, Triveni Sangam

Tirtharaj, the king of tirthas, where the Ganga, the Yamuna and the unseen Sarasvati meet. The Kumbh Mela here is the largest gathering of people on earth.

Evidence

Banskhera copper plate of HarshaInscription
628 CE (Harsha year 22)

Banskhera copper plate of Harsha

A land grant to two Brahmanas that carries the signature of Emperor Harsha himself.

Nidhanpur copper plates of BhaskaravarmanInscription
7th century CE

Nidhanpur copper plates of Bhaskaravarman

Copper plates of Kumara Bhaskaravarman of Kamarupa, Harsha’s ally, renewing a land grant whose original plates had been burnt.

On the timeline

  • 606 CE

    Harsha takes the throne of ThanesarPolity

    After his brother’s murder, the sixteen-year-old Harshavardhana became king, later ruling from Kannauj. The Harsha era counts from this year.

  • 643 CE

    Harsha’s assemblies at Kannauj and PrayagFaith

    Xuanzang saw Harsha hold a great debate at Kannauj and then, at the Prayag sangam, give away his treasury to monks, Brahmins and the poor, as he did every five years.