Harsha and Nalanda: the last great power of northern India
The king of Kannauj gathers the north of India, and at Nalanda thousands of monks study under teachers from all Asia; a Chinese pilgrim described both.
In 606 the sixteen-year-old Harsha inherits the throne of Thanesar after the deaths of his father and brother and within a few years gathers the whole Gangetic plain under his hand, with his capital at Kannauj; to the south Pulakeshin II of the Chalukyas bars his way. Harsha patronises Brahmins and Buddhists alike, writes plays, and every five years gives away his treasury at an assembly at Prayag. His court, roads and monasteries were described in detail by the Chinese monk Xuanzang, who spent the years 630–645 in India: at Nalanda, the monastic university in Bihar, he found thousands of students, a library of several buildings and the teaching of logic, medicine and grammar. After Harsha’s death in 647 his realm falls apart, and for five centuries, until the Delhi Sultanate, the north of India is divided among local kingdoms.
Sources
Documents of the period
- Xuanzang, Records of the Western Regions — the court of Harsha and Nalanda through a pilgrim’s eyes
- Bana, Harshacharita — the accession after the deaths of his father and brother
Scholarship
- history of ancient and early medieval India — the dating to 606–647 and the break-up of the realm
Basis: documents and evidence.