How Harshavardhana became the King¿

The year is 606 AD. In the city of Kanyakubja or Kannauj, a boy of 16 was about to be crowned the king. This 16-year-old boy was none other than Harshvardhan and soon he will rule over two kingdoms, the Pushyabhutis and the Maukhris. The circumstances under which Harshvardhan became the king were truly extraordinary. During the reign of his father, Prabhakarvardhan, no one would have thought that Harsh, who was the younger son of Prabhakarvardhan, would become the king and that too not only of the Pushyabhutis but also of the Maukhris. How these extraordinary events that made Harshvardhan the king of the Maukhris and the Pushyabhutis unfolded will be looked at in this video. Most of this information about these unexpected events that led to the coronation of Harshvardhan comes primarily from Harsha's own biography, Harshcharit. And to understand these events, we have to go back to the reign of Prabhakarvardhan. We all know that Prabhakarvardhan had two sons, Rajyavardhan who was the elder son and Harshvardhan who was the younger son. Apart from these two sons, Prabhakarvardhan also had a daughter named Rajyashree. And if we look at Harshcharit, we find that Prabhakarvardhan had decided to marry his daughter to the eldest son of the Maukhri ruler whose name was Grahavarman. Maukhris were the great power of northern India during this period. And the fact that the Pushyabhuti ruler Prabhakarvardhan had decided to marry his daughter to the Maukhris suggests that the Pushyabhutis had gained enough prominence to form a matrimonial alliance with the Maukhris. Most scholars are of the opinion that the marriage between Rajyashree and Grahavarman happened around 603-604 AD. At this time, Rajyashree was about 12 years old. The reason behind this early marriage was the desire on the part of Prabhakarvardhan to form a matrimonial alliance with the Maukhris as soon as possible. Prabhakarvardhan knew that the Maukhris were the premier power of northern India and other powers were trying to form a matrimonial alliance with them. So, in order to have the matrimonial alliance as soon as possible, he decided to marry his daughter as early as possible. With this marriage, the Pushyabhutis gained a powerful ally. It also meant that now they did not have to worry about their eastern borders. They could focus all their attention in the north where the Huns had started to appear again as a threat. These Huns were probably the descendants of the Huns that once ruled a great part of northern India. But after the famous defeat of the Hunnic ruler Mihirkula by the Indian powers around the middle of the 6th century AD, the Huns had retreated back to their base in Punjab and Kashmir. Most likely, it was from these regions that they were now again threatening the Pushyabhuti territory. From Harshcharit, we learn that the Pushyabhuti ruler Prabhakarvardhan had tasked his elder son Rajyavardhan to lead a military campaign against this nomadic foe. For Rajyavardhan, as he was the crowned prince, this was a great opportunity to show to his father and the royal court that he would be a capable ruler. As Rajyavardhan was leading the campaign against the Huns, we find that his younger brother Harshvardhan was also away from the capital at Thanesar, enjoying a great hunt at the foothills of Himalaya. If we look at Harshcharit, it appears that this campaign of Rajyavardhan was a great success. But things were not so great in the capital Sthaneshwar. Here, the Pushyabhuti ruler Prabhakarvardhan had fallen seriously ill. Messengers were dispatched to both the brothers so that they could see their dying father. As Harshvardhan was close to the capital, he arrived just before the death of his father. Harshvardhan was fortunate enough to be with his father in his last moments. His elder brother Rajyavardhan was not. Since he was far away from the Pushyabhuti territory, news arrived him late and when he reached Thanesar, he found that weeks had passed since his father's demise. After arriving at Thanesar, this was not the only bad news waiting for Rajyavardhan. He also learnt that his mother had committed sati. This unexpected death of his parents overwhelmed Rajyavardhan and it also invoked a sense of renunciation. Harshcharit tells us that Rajyavardhan told his younger brother that he wants to become a hermit and in response, Harshvardhan declared that he would also join his brother. But fate had decided otherwise. At this time, a messenger from Kannauj arrives at Thanesar. This messenger was the servant of their sister Rajyashri. The news was not great. The messenger tells these two brothers that the lord of the Malwas had killed the Maukhri ruler and had also imprisoned Queen Rajyashri. Moreover, this lord of the Malwas was also planning to invade Thanesar. The death of their parents and now the death of their brother-in-law and the imprisonment of their sister evoked in these two brothers a great sense of revenge. Ban in his Harshcharit writes and I quote, This unexpected, unimagined, and sudden disaster brought to an end the feeling of renunciation caused by sorrow. It was replaced by anger. And in order to punish the Malav king, Rajyavardhan gathers a force of 10,000 strong cavalry and marches straight to meet him. Several days passed after Rajyavardhan had left Thanesar. But there was no news from him. But one day, Harshvardhan meets a cavalry officer that had accompanied Rajyavardhan. The name of this cavalry officer was Kuntala. And seeing the face of Kuntala, according to Harshcharit, Harshvardhan knew that the news which Kuntala was about to tell Harshvardhan was bad. Kuntala first told Harsh that Rajyavardhan was able to defeat the Malav king's army quite easily. But then he was lured into a trap by the Gauda king. Rajyavardhan, weaponless and without any troops, went to meet the lord of the Gaudas in his camp. There, the king of the Gaudas treacherously murdered Rajyavardhan. So, this is what Harshcharit tells us about the fate of Rajyavardhan. Interestingly, in this text, both the lord of the Malavas and the king of the Gaudas has not been named. Now, there are scholars who argue that this lord of the Malavas was probably Devgupt who has been mentioned in the inscriptions of Harshvardhan when he talks about his brother. Now, when it comes to the king of the Gaudas, he was certainly Shashank. And even the famous Chinese traveller, Wen Sang mentions the assassination of Rajyavardhan by Shashank. Devgupt and Shashank were allies who had joined hands to defeat the Maukhari and the Pushyabhutis. After assassinating Rajyavardhan, Shashank had probably defeated the Pushyabhuti army. How great this Pushyabhuti defeat was, we do not know because both Harshcharit and Harsha's inscription does not talk about this unpleasant episode. Coming back to Harshvardhan, we are told that this news of his brother's assassination had filled him with a great sense of revenge. An elderly statesman of Sthaneshwar advised him to lead a great military campaign not only against the king of the Gaudas but also against other enemies. This military campaign was a show of force that would display the might of the Pushyabhutis and it will also show to other powers that even after the demise of two kings, the Pushyabhuti house still stands strong. According to Harshcharit, after Harshvardhan had just started his campaign, he was met on the outskirts of Sthaneshwar by an envoy of Bhaskar Varman. Bhaskar Varman was the king of Kamrup. Kamrup roughly corresponds to modern Assam and this envoy of Bhaskar Varman presented Harsh an umbrella. This gift of Bhaskar Varman had a great symbolic value. As we know, in ancient Indian custom, umbrella represented royal authority and Bhaskar Varman gifting an umbrella to Harsh suggests that Bhaskar Varman was acknowledging the suzerainty of Harsh over his dominion. Why Bhaskar Varman was doing this is pretty straightforward. He was seeking the alliance of Harsh against Sashang. How this alliance unfolded will be looked at in another video. Now coming back to Harshvardhan, after meeting this envoy of Bhaskar Varman, Harsh again started his march towards Kannauj and probably halfway through this journey, he was met by the commander in chief of Rajyavardhan's army. His name was Bhandi and Bhandi was accompanied by the army that was defeated by Rajyavardhan. Bhandi told Harsh what has conspired. But for Harshvardhan, the most important news was about his sister. He gathered from Bhandi that Rajyashri had freed herself from the prison and had entered in the Vindhya forest. At this time, the paramount thing to do for Harsh was to secure the safety of his sister and he decides that he will rescue his sister himself. Bhandi was ordered to lead the main army against the lord of the Gaudas. Now when Harsh enters the Vindhya forest, he learns from a Buddhist saint that a young woman was about to burn herself. Harsh realizes that this was none other than his sister Rajyashri and he rushes to save her. Fortunately, he arrives just in time, the two meet and Rajyashri safely returns with Harsh to Kannauj. In Kannauj, Harsh was coronated the king of the Pushyabhutis and the Maukris. And with this coronation, the Harshcharit ends. Now this ending of Harshcharit is quite strange. We would expect from a royal biography of a king like Harsh that it will also talk about his reign. But Harshcharit is different. There are some scholars who have argued that in Harshcharit, Rajyashri is represented as goddess Shri, the goddess of fortune. And in the last chapter where Rajyashri meets Harshvardhan, it should be seen as the coming of good fortune in Harsh's life. The episode of Rajyashri's rescue was also important for Harsh as it strengthened his claim over Kannauj. For Bandh, the main aim of writing Harshcharit was to explain how Harsh became the king of Kannauj. With the rescue of Rajyashri, this aim was fulfilled. Harshvardhan ascended the throne of Kannauj in around 606 AD. Soon he would embark on an ambitious campaign that would earn him the sovereignty of most of northern India. But this campaign of Harshvardhan and the fact that he became the king of two great kingdoms was possible because of the efforts of his father Prabhakarvardhan. If you want to know more about Prabhakarvardhan, do watch this video where I have done a deep dive into the reign of Prabhakarvardhan. Thank you for watching.