HARSHAVARDHANA
Contribution To Religion and Literature
Contribution To Literature
Harsha was not only a conqueror and administrator, but also a man learning. Bana has paid a tribute to Harsha, on account of his poetical skill, originality and wide learning. Harsha was a man of letters. He was responsible for calling poetical compositions by literary man of his court. As many as 500 poems, dealing with previous lives of Buddha were presented to the king and came to be known as 'Jatakamala'.
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| King Harshavardhana |
Harsha, put in verse the story of Bodhisattva and Jimuta-vahana. Harsha is also credited with the authorship of Ratnavali, Priyadarshika and Nagananda. Harsha was a great poet as a Kalidasa and Bhasa.
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Harsha, had a large number of scholars in his court. Bana was the chief among them, and he wrote Harshacharita and Kadambari. Haridatta was also patronised by Harsha. Jayasena was famous for his learning in various subjects and Harsha offered him the revenues of 8 villages in Orissa. However, the offer was declined by Jayasena.
Contribution To Religion
The Members of the royal family to which Harsha belonged acted freely on their individual preferences in the matter of their religion. Prabhakar vardhan was a devotee of the sun. It is stated that, he offered everyday to the sun 'a bunch of red lotuses, sat in a pure vessel of Ruby and tinged like his own heart, with same hue'. Rajya-vardhana was a Buddhist. Harshavardhana himself distributed his devotions among the three dieties of his family, namely-Shiva, Surya and Buddha.He is stated to have established costly temples, for the service of all three.
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| Harshavardhana |
However, in his later days, he began to favour the Mahayana form of Buddhism. This was the result of the influence exercised on him by Hiuen Tsang.
We are told that, Harsha was fond of listening to the religous dicussions of the learned people belonging to the various faiths. He was very much impressed by the exposition of Mahayanism by the Hiuen Tsang.
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In 643AD, Harshavardhana summoned an assembly at Kanauj. The objective of the assembly was to spread the teaching of Buddha. Large number of kings attended the assembly. There were 3000 Mahayana and Hinayana Buddhist monks, 3000 Brahmana and about about 1000 Buddhist scholars from the Nalanda University. Harshavardhana proposed Hiuen Tsang to the chair and prescribed for discussion on a topic on Mahayanism. This meeting lasted for 23 days and was one-sided preaching of Mahayanism.
A great monastry and a shrine were specially established at the banks of he Ganges of that occassion. A golden image of Buddha equal to king in the stature was kept in a tower, 100 feet high. A similar image, 3 feet height was carried everyday in procession, which was joined by 200 rajas and 300 elephants. The canopy was carried by Harsha himself.
Prayag Assembly
In the same year, Harshavardhana arranged another assembly at Prayag. The assembly was held on the sand where the rivers Yamuna and Ganga meet. It was attended by 18 companions of Harshvardhana and Hiuen Tsang. There were more than half a million people present. On the first day of he assembly an image of Buddha was setup on on one of the temporary buildings upon the sands and large number of clothes and valuable articles were distributed among the people.
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| Varahamihira |
On he second and third days respectively, the images of Shiva and Surya were honoured. On the fourth day, gifts were given to 10,000 Buddhist monks. Each monk received 100 gold coins, a pearl and a cotton garment. They were also given food, drink, flowers and perfumes. During the next 20 days, Brahmanas were given gifts and presents for 10 days. During the next 1 month, help was given to the poor, orphans and destitutes. All these lasted for 75 days.
As regards the religious condition of the country in the time of Harsha, it cannot be denied that Brahmanism was dominant religion of country. Sanskrit was the language of all cultured classes. Bana refers to the followers of Krishna-Kapil, Kanada, Nyaya and the Upanishads among the Brahamana. As regards Buddhism, Mahayanism. Mahayanism was more prominent than Hinayanism.
South India
The Pallavas
A critical Study of the ancient Tamil literature shows that, the Pallava were originally connected with ceylon. The Pallavas were the branch of Brahmana royal dynasty of Vakatas of the north. They were militarists by profession and carved out a principality for themsleves in the south. Inscriptions clearly state that, the Pallavas were Kshatriyas.
The Pallavas rise into prominence about 325A.D. on the east-coast in the country between Krishna and Godavari rivers. They collected around themselves the Kurumbas, Maravas, Kallas and other tribes, and formed them into a strong and aggressive power. It is significant that, the word 'Pallava' is synonyms in Tamil with themselves on the east-coast and occupied the famous city of Kanchi or Conjeevaram.
The Prakrit charters mention several kings including Sivaskandavarman who ruled probably about beginning of 4th cent. AD. He was probably the greatest of the early Pallavas. He performed sacrifices like, Ashwamedha. Vishnugopa was another king of Pallava dynasty. During the period of decline, Pallavas had to fight against Rashtrakutas.
There was also war between Pallavas and Gangas. The later Pallava king came down to the position of mere feudatory of king Vikram chola. The Pallava chiefs can be traced down to the 13th Cent.
Literature
The rule Of Pallavas was remarkable in many ways. There was a lot of literary activity during thar period. The Pallava rulers were great patrons of learning. Except a few inscirptions at beginning, the rest of inscription of Pallavas were written in Sanskrit. Kanchi was a centre of Sanskrit learning in south. The Brahmanas paid special attention to study of Sanskrit.
The works of Kalidasa, Bharavi and VarahaMihira were well-known in the country. A provision was made for the recitation of Mahabharata in in a Mandrapa at Karram at Kanchi.. At that place, there were 108 families which were completely devoted to study of Vedas.
The royal patronage was extended to classics in Tamil. The Tamil Kural of Triavalluar was a work of great learning.
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