Harsha's Empire (606–647): Kanauj and the Last Northern Kingdom

Harsha’s empire was the large overlordship that Harshavardhana built across northern India between 606 and 647, ruling from the city of Kanyakubja, better known as Kanauj. Coming to power after the murder of his brother, Harsha became the strongest king north of the Narmada River, a patron of Buddhist monasteries and Sanskrit poets, and the host of the Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang. Because two unusually rich eyewitness sources survive, his reign is one of the best-documented periods of early medieval Indian history.

Background: northern India after the Guptas

By the mid-sixth century the Gupta Empire, which had unified much of northern India, had fragmented. Its place was taken by regional dynasties: the Maukharis of Kanauj, the Later Guptas of Magadha and Malwa, the Maitrakas of Valabhi in Gujarat, the kings of Gauda in Bengal and the Pushyabhutis of Sthanvishvara, modern Thanesar in Haryana.

The Pushyabhuti king Prabhakaravardhana strengthened his position by marrying his daughter Rajyashri to Grahavarman, the Maukhari king of Kanauj. This alliance linked two of the main northern courts and set the stage for the crisis that brought Harsha to the throne.

A violent succession in 606

According to Banabhatta, Prabhakaravardhana died around 605 while his elder son Rajyavardhana was fighting the Huna peoples in the north-west. Soon afterwards Devagupta, a king of Malwa, killed Grahavarman and imprisoned Rajyashri. Rajyavardhana marched against Devagupta and defeated him, but was then killed by Shashanka, king of Gauda, apparently during a meeting under a pretence of friendship.

The younger brother, Harshavardhana, then aged about sixteen, accepted the throne in 606. The Harsha era, a calendar used in northern India for some time afterwards, counts from that year. Harsha’s first tasks were revenge on Shashanka and the rescue of his sister, who had escaped into the Vindhya forests. Banabhatta tells how Harsha found her just as she was preparing to throw herself into a fire.

Harsha then took over the Maukhari kingdom as well, probably acting at first on his widowed sister’s behalf, and moved his court to Kanauj. Uniting Thanesar and Kanauj gave him a strong base in the fertile land between the Ganges and Yamuna rivers.

Wars and the extent of his power

Harsha spent much of his reign on campaign. He allied with Bhaskaravarman, king of Kamarupa in Assam, against Shashanka, who nevertheless kept his throne in Bengal until his death around 625. Harsha later extended his influence eastward towards Magadha, Bengal and Odisha, and he fought the Maitrakas of Valabhi before making peace through a marriage alliance.

His advance southward was stopped by Pulakeshin II of the Chalukya dynasty. The Aihole inscription of 634, composed by the poet Ravikirti, boasts that Harsha’s joy melted away when his elephants fell in battle against Pulakeshin. The battle took place near the Narmada River, and historians date it anywhere from about 618 to about 634.

Harsha’s state was not a centralised empire. It was a network of tributary kings and feudatory lords, called samantas, who acknowledged his overlordship, sent troops and attended his court, but ran their own lands. Xuanzang claimed Harsha commanded 60,000 war elephants and 100,000 cavalry, figures that should be treated as impressions rather than counts.

Court, religion and learning

Harsha came from a family of Shiva and Sun worshippers, and his copper-plate grants call him a devotee of Shiva. Yet he gave generously to Buddhists. Xuanzang describes him favouring Mahayana Buddhism and supporting the great monastery of Nalanda, where thousands of monks studied.

The king was also an author. Three Sanskrit plays carry his name: Ratnavali and Priyadarshika, light court dramas about palace romance, and Nagananda, which tells of a prince who sacrifices himself to save the serpent people. His court poet Banabhatta wrote the Harshacharita, an ornate prose account of Harsha’s family and early reign, and the romance Kadambari.

Xuanzang also gives a rare glimpse of government. He reports that taxes were light, that the main land tax was a sixth of the crop, that forced labour was limited and that officials were paid with grants of land rather than cash. Such grants of land and village revenue to officials, Brahmins and monasteries, recorded on copper plates, became increasingly common in this period and helped spread local lordship across the countryside.

Copper-plate inscriptions recording land grants survive from Banskhera (dated to year 22 of his era, 628) and Madhuban (year 25, 631). The Banskhera plate ends with what is regarded as Harsha’s own signature, engraved from his handwriting.

Xuanzang at Harsha’s court

The Chinese monk Xuanzang spent years in India and met Harsha around 642–643. His record describes Harsha touring his lands constantly, holding audiences in temporary pavilions and dividing the royal revenue between government, officials, scholars and religious gifts.

Xuanzang reports two great events. At Kanauj, Harsha convened an assembly where Xuanzang defended Mahayana doctrine before kings, Brahmins and monks. Soon afterwards, at Prayaga (modern Prayagraj) where the Ganges and Yamuna meet, Harsha held one of the great assemblies he staged every five years, distributing his accumulated treasure to monks, Brahmins, the poor and orphans until, according to Xuanzang, he gave away even his own clothes.

Harsha also opened diplomatic contact with Tang China. He sent an envoy to Emperor Taizong in 641, and Chinese missions travelled to India in return. This exchange was part of the wider web of contacts that linked India with the Tang dynasty.

Death and fragmentation

Harsha died in 647, or possibly early 648, apparently without an heir. A minister, called Aluonashun in Chinese sources and often rendered Arunashva, seized power. When the Tang envoy Wang Xuance arrived, he was attacked and robbed; he escaped to Tibet and Nepal, raised troops there and defeated the usurper, taking him captive to China.

Harsha’s network of alliances dissolved. Kanauj, however, kept the prestige he had given it. Between the eighth and tenth centuries the Gurjara-Pratiharas, the Palas of Bengal and the Rashtrakutas of the Deccan fought a long three-sided struggle for control of the city.

Myths and facts

Myth: Harsha was “the last great Hindu emperor” who ruled all of northern India. This phrase comes from early twentieth-century historians such as Vincent Smith. Modern scholars stress that Harsha’s power was a loose overlordship, that Bengal and Kashmir were never firmly his, and that the label “Hindu” fits poorly a king who patronised Buddhism so openly.

Myth: Harsha’s reign is known only from flattering court sources. Banabhatta was indeed a court poet, but Xuanzang wrote as a foreign observer, and hostile evidence such as the Aihole inscription records Harsha’s defeat. Comparing them gives a more balanced picture.

Timeline

• c. 590: Harshavardhana is born to Prabhakaravardhana of Sthanvishvara.
• c. 605: Prabhakaravardhana dies; Grahavarman of Kanauj is killed and Rajyashri imprisoned.
• 606: After Rajyavardhana’s murder, Harsha becomes king; the Harsha era begins.
• c. 618–634: Harsha is defeated by Pulakeshin II near the Narmada River.
• 628: The Banskhera copper plate records a land grant bearing Harsha’s signature.
• 641: Harsha sends an embassy to Emperor Taizong of Tang China.
• c. 642–643: Xuanzang attends Harsha’s assemblies at Kanauj and Prayaga.
• 647: Harsha dies without an heir and his overlordship breaks apart.

Why it matters

Harsha’s reign shows how power worked in early medieval India: a king of kings bound together vassals through warfare, marriage and gift-giving rather than a centralised bureaucracy. It also made Kanauj the symbolic prize of northern India for centuries. Above all, the survival of both Banabhatta’s biography and Xuanzang’s travel record lets historians see a seventh-century Indian court from inside and outside at once.