# Harsha's Kannauj
**हर्षवर्धन का कन्नौज**

- Canonical page: https://indianepics.online/event/harsha-kannauj/
- Chapter: [Gupta and the classical age](https://indianepics.online/chapter/classical.md)
- Track: evidence (archaeology and documents)
- When: 606 CE – 647 CE
- Where: Kannauj, Uttar Pradesh (27.055, 79.918)
- Tags: political, religion

## Summary

Harshavardhana rules the north from Kannauj, is turned back at the Narmada by Pulakeshin II, and hosts the Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang.

हर्षवर्धन ने कन्नौज से उत्तर भारत पर शासन किया, नर्मदा पर पुलकेशिन द्वितीय ने उसे रोका, और चीनी यात्री ह्वेनसांग उसका अतिथि बना।

## Account

Harsha became king of Thanesar in 606, the first year of the Harsha era, and soon took over Kannauj, which became the city every north Indian power fought for over the next three centuries. His court poet Bana wrote a prose life of him, the Harshacharita, and three Sanskrit plays are credited to the king himself.

Xuanzang spent years in his realm and describes great assemblies at Kannauj and at Prayaga, where the king gave away his treasure every five years. Harsha's push into the Deccan was stopped on the Narmada by the Chalukya king Pulakeshin II, whose Aihole inscription of 634 boasts of it. How much of the north Harsha really ruled is debated: his direct rule seems to have covered much of the Ganga plain, with kings beyond it acknowledging him, and his realm did not survive his death in 647.

## Sources

- Watters, T., On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629-645 A.D., vol. 1 (1904) — https://archive.org/details/pli.kerala.rare.17898
- Devahuti, D., Harsha: A Political Study (1970)

## Image

Harshavardhana Circa AD 606-647. CNG Coins, CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/), via Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AHarshavardhana_Circa_AD_606-647.jpg

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