History of Kanauj to the Moslem Conquest c12.s2: Alliances
History of Kanauj to the Moslem Conquest c12.s2
- Language
- English
Alliances
c12.s2.1
But the army is merely an arm of policy. Harṣa secured and strengthened his position by other means as well. He concluded an “undying alliance” with the king of Assam at the very beginning, which gave Harṣa the help and co-operation of a powerful ruler both in his external and internal affairs. In ancient India, as in mediæval Europe, royal marriages played a very important part in the politics of the country. Harṣa, therefore, cemented his alliance with Valabhi after the termination of hostilities by giving the hand of his daughter to its king. Thereby he not only gained a valued ally, but it must have also meant the opening of the southern routes for him. Further, he maintained diplomatic intercourse with the Chinese empire. A Brahman envoy, whom he had sent to the Tang Emperor of China, Tai-Tsung, in 641 A. D. returned in 643 A. D., accompanied by a Chinese mission bearing a reply to Harṣa’s dispatch.¹ His diplomatic relations with China were probably meant as a counterpoise to the friendship that Pulakeśi II, his southern rival, cultivated with the king of Persia about which we are informed by the Arab historian Tabari.²
c12.s2.2
¹ *Early Hist. of India*, 4th ed., p. 366.
c12.s2.3
² *J. R. A. S.*, N. S., XI (1879), pp. 165-66.