HARSHA

HARSHA (c. 590–647), ruler of North India (r. 606–647). King Harsha ruled over much of North India during the first half of the seventh century. The sources for reconstructing Harsha's life include a biography written by the court poet B?na, a handful of inscriptions issued by Harsha and contemporary rulers, and the travel account of the Chinese monk Hsieun Tsang, who visited Harsha's court toward the end of his reign. Harsha (also known as Sh?l?ditya) belonged to the Vardhana or Pushyabh?ti family of Sth?nv?shvara in eastern Punjab. Though their origins are obscure, the Vardhanas seem to have taken royal titles not long after the fall of the Gupta empire at the beginning of the sixth century, when they were subordinate to more powerful houses like the Maukharis of Kanauj. The family's fortunes began to change in the reign of Prabh?kara Vardhana (c. 580–606), Harsha's father. This king's military conquests and alliances made him a formidable enough ruler to attract a marriage proposal for his daughter R?jyashr? (Harsha's sister) from the prince Grahavarman, of the powerful Maukhari house. Soon after, Prabh?kara Vardhana was taken ill and died suddenly. Though his court biographer, B?na, portrays Harsha as his father's choice in succession, other sources indicate that his elder brother, R?jya Vardhana, actually inherited the throne. But other events soon changed the course of dynastic politics.

A rival alliance between kings from Malwa and Gauda attacked Kanauj. When news arrived that Grahavarman had been killed and his queen R?jyashr? imprisoned, the young R?jya Vardhana set off to avenge his brother-in-law and release his sister. Though successful in battle, he was treacherously murdered while negotiating with the king of Gauda. According to B?na, the ministers of the ruined Maukhari court then invited young Harsha to ascend the throne. As inheritor of both his patrimonial lands as well as the more powerful Maukhari kingdom, Harsha was now the most powerful king in North India. He immediately embarked on a conquest of eastern India to avenge the death of his brother and to subdue the Gauda sphere of influence; he then turned his attention to the kingdoms to the west and eventually southward to M?lwa. Harsha's victories did not lead to the accession of lands directly to his empire, but rather to the establishment of a hierarchy of vassals and subordinate kings called s?mantas.

Harsha's empire was among the most famed in Asia, receiving emissaries from the Tang emperor and drawing a number of prominent poets and scholars to his court. He himself was a skilled poet and wrote two palace dramas, Ratnaval? and Priyadarshik?). The culture of Harsha's age, though still very much like that of the Guptas, reveals a discernible predilection for luxury and the trappings of a "feudal" mannerism. Politically, his long-term goal was the defeat of the powerful Chalukya dynasty in the Deccan, who regarded Harsha as the mere lord of "northern" India. Harsha and the Chalukyan king Pulakeshin II (r. 610–643), accompanied by their s?mantas, met in battle near the Narmada River between 630 and 634, where Pulakeshin seems to have been victorious, dashing Harsha's ambitions of an India-wide empire. Harsha had no successor, and his death is usually seen as the beginning of a period of full-blown feudalism in North India.

Daud Ali

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Devahuti, D. Harsha: A Political Study. 3rd ed. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1998.

The Harsa-Carita of Bana. Translated by E. B. Cowell and F. W. Thomas. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1968.

Priyadarsika: A Sanskrit Drama by Harsha, King of Northern India in the Seventh CenturyA.D. Sanskrit text edited and translated by G. K. Nariman, Williams Jackson, and Charles Ogden. New York: AMS Press, 1965.