History of Kanauj to the Moslem Conquest c15.s1.t1.1

c15.s1.t1.1

After a momentous reign lasting for well-nigh half a century, Harṣa passed away in the year 647 or 648 A. D.¹ The withdrawal of his strong arm let loose all the pent-up forces of anarchy, and the result was that the mighty fabric of the empire reared by the genius of Harṣa soon collapsed like a house of cards. The outlying provinces fell off one by one, and Kanauj itself became the scene of a violent upheaval. Although all our indigenous sources of information are cut off at this period, it is fortunate that the Chinese writer Ma-twan-lin (13th century) affords us some ray of light on this tale of confusion.