Harshvardhana: A Secular Scholar (r. 606–647)
It was decades later, in 606, that the fragmented states of northern India came together again under the strong leadership of Harshvardhana, a scion of the Vardhana dynasty of the kingdom of Thaneswar. By this time, ‘India’, as a single entity, was perceived to stretch from the Himalayas to the southern tip at Kanyakumari.
Harshvardhana was only 16 when he ascended the throne upon the death of his father and brother. but the young monarch proved to be a unifying force and succeeded in building an empire stretching from Gujarat in the west to Bengal in the east and Kashmir in the north.
Chinese Buddhist monk Hsuan Tsang, who visited India in 630 during Harshvardhana’s reign, is full of praise for the monarch, whom he describes as generous, talented and energetic. Harshvardhana was an able leader and administrator who kept in touch with his people by travelling extensively in his kingdom. He often visited his subjects in disguise so he could get a first hand view of their problems. He had a tolerant, secular approach to religion and was himself a follower of both Hinduism and Buddhism. In 644, he held a Buddhist Council at Kanauj, in Uttar Pradesh state during Hsuan Tsang’s visit. Like the Gupta rulers before him, Harshvardhana was a scholar who enjoyed literature and promoted it during his reign. He himself wrote several plays, with religion or comedy as the theme. Harshvardhana died in 647 without an heir. His death brought an end to the rule of the Vardhana dynasty in north India.