Harsha and the South Indian Kingdoms: Rulers and PYQs

Harshavardhana ruled northern India from 606 CE to about 647 CE and is the last great ruler of ancient north India before the age of the Rajputs. Examiners almost always set him alongside the Chalukyas of Badami, the Pallavas of Kanchi and the Pandyas of Madurai, because the same century produced all four powers and because the only battle Harsha lost was fought against a southern king. This note takes Harsha first and then each southern house, fixing the ruler, the capital, the inscription and the monument that papers keep asking about.

The Pushyabhuti dynasty and Harsha's accession

Harsha belonged to the Pushyabhuti or Vardhana family, whose early capital was Thanesar in present-day Haryana. His father Prabhakaravardhana was the first of the line to claim an imperial title. Harsha's elder brother Rajyavardhana was killed by Shashanka, the ruler of Gauda in Bengal, and his sister Rajyashri had been married to Grahavarman of the Maukhari house of Kannauj, who was killed by Devagupta of Malwa. Harsha came to the throne in 606 CE as a boy of about sixteen, and the Harsha era is counted from that year. He rescued Rajyashri, joined Thanesar to Kannauj and shifted his capital to Kannauj, which remained the great prize of northern India for the next two centuries.

Conquests and the check at the Narmada

Harsha campaigned for years and brought Punjab, Kannauj, Bihar, Bengal and Odisha under his authority, which is why his own writers called him the lord of the north. His march to the south was stopped by Pulakeshin II, the Chalukya king of Badami, on the banks of the Narmada in about 618 CE. The defeat is recorded not by Harsha's court but by the Aihole inscription of Pulakeshin II, composed by the Jain poet Ravikirti. That one line of an inscription is the most frequently asked fact of the whole topic, and the trap is to credit the victory to a Pallava or a Rashtrakuta king instead.

Administration and the account of Hiuen Tsang

The Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsang, whose name is also written Xuanzang, travelled in India between 629 and 645 CE and spent several years at Harsha's court. His book, the Si-yu-ki or Records of the Western World, is the main source for the reign alongside Banabhatta's Harshacharita. He records a land revenue demand of about one sixth of the produce, officers paid by grants of land instead of cash salaries, and roads less safe than in Gupta times, for he was robbed himself on the Ganga. Harsha moved through his empire almost continuously, held a great religious assembly at Kannauj in honour of Mahayana Buddhism, and a quinquennial assembly at Prayag where he distributed the contents of his treasury.

Literature and learning under Harsha

Harsha was himself an author. Three Sanskrit plays are credited to him: Ratnavali, Priyadarshika and Nagananda. His court poet Banabhatta wrote the Harshacharita, the first historical biography in Sanskrit, and the prose romance Kadambari. Harsha endowed the Nalanda mahavihara, where Hiuen Tsang studied under the monk Shilabhadra. Two copper plate grants, from Madhuban and Banskhera, preserve his orders, and the Banskhera plate carries his own signature.

The Chalukyas of Badami

The Chalukyas ruled from Vatapi, modern Badami in Karnataka. Pulakeshin I founded the house. Pulakeshin II, who ruled from about 609 to 642 CE, was its greatest king: he defeated Harsha, received an embassy from the Persian ruler Khusrau II, and was finally defeated and killed when the Pallava Narasimhavarman I captured Vatapi. The Chalukyas left the rock-cut caves of Badami, the experimental temples of Aihole and the group of monuments at Pattadakal, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A brother of Pulakeshin II, Kubja Vishnuvardhana, founded the Eastern Chalukya line at Vengi. The Badami house was ended by the Rashtrakuta Dantidurga, who overthrew Kirtivarman II about 753 CE.

The Pallavas of Kanchi

The Pallavas ruled the Tamil country from Kanchipuram. Mahendravarman I began the rock-cut phase of Pallava architecture and wrote the satirical play Mattavilasa Prahasana; he turned from Jainism to Shaivism under the influence of the saint Appar. His son Narasimhavarman I, called Mamalla, avenged his father by capturing Vatapi in 642 CE and took the title Vatapikonda, the conqueror of Vatapi; the monolithic rathas of Mahabalipuram belong to his reign. Narasimhavarman II Rajasimha built the structural Shore Temple at Mahabalipuram and the Kailasanatha temple at Kanchipuram. The last Pallava, Aparajita, was defeated by the Chola king Aditya I.

The Pandyas and the Tamil bhakti saints

The Pandyas ruled from Madurai, used the port of Korkai and were famous for their pearls; Kadungon revived the line in the sixth century after the obscure Kalabhra interregnum. The same centuries produced the Tamil bhakti movement. The sixty-three Nayanars sang of Shiva and the twelve Alvars of Vishnu; the Nayanar hymns form the Tevaram and the Alvar hymns the Nalayira Divya Prabandham.

The four powers at a glance

After Harsha

Harsha died about 647 CE leaving no heir, and his empire dissolved immediately. A minister named Arunashva seized power and attacked the Chinese envoy Wang-hiuen-tse, who returned with Tibetan and Nepalese troops and carried him off to China. North India then broke into the regional kingdoms whose struggle for Kannauj fills the next chapter of the syllabus.