History of Kanauj to the Moslem Conquest c11.187

c11.187

It has been conjectured that the Nidhanpur inscription celebrates the triumphant entry of Bhāskaravarman of Assam into the capital of Karṇasuvarṇa after his victory, for it describes him as a vanquisher of "hundreds of kings" and records a grant made from his camp there.¹ This must have happened after the tumult following Aruṇa's usurpation and Bhāskara's siding with Wang-hiuen-tse, as in spite of the "imperishable alliance" there seems little likelihood that Harṣa would allow him to appropriate those fertile provinces to himself, and thus gain an immense accession of strength. Politics is a game that hardly knows any magnanimity; and especially in ancient India, dominated by the theories of the *Arthaśāstra* and the *Mahābhārata*, which advocate that a king, although apparently showing friendly feelings, should always entertain a deep suspicion of an ally, such growth in the power of a contemporary kingdom would never have been tolerated. Hence, from the silence of Yuan Chwang we may conclude that Harṣa, who was waiting for a favourable opportunity to fulfil the vow taken at the start of his career, gratified his ancient grudge against Gauḍa when the backbone of strength and resistance was broken by the death of Śaśāṅka. Dr. R. G. Basak has, however, brought out a piece of evidence from the *Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa* (pp. 634-35), according to which Harṣa defeated Śaśāṅka and "caused a great havoc among the Bengali people." But this campaign does not appear to have resulted in the establishment of Harṣa’s supremacy over Gauḍa, and Dr. Basak rightly says that “it was probably after Śaśāṅka’s death that Harṣa could take entire possession of his enemy’s kingdom.”¹