History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c6.2

v1.c6.2

It is to be regretted that no details of this conquest or subjugation of Northern India are available. It is not even discoverable how Harsha punished Śaśānka of Karṇasuvarṇa or Bengal called Gauḍa by Bāṇa in his Harsha-Charita for treacherously murdering his brother Rājya. Probably he saved himself by another stroke of policy in much the same way as he had saved himself from Rājya. He was alive and ruling in 619 A. D. in which year a vassal king of his gave a village in gift to a Brahmin in Ganjam (Ep. Ind. Vol. VI, p. 144). This inscription plainly shows that he enjoyed the whole of his kingdom including those of his vassals intact. This was of course in consonance with the ideas of empire above described. Perhaps Harsha, in his Buddhistic tendencies, extended forgiveness to Śaśānka and did not exact from him the threatened reparation for murder.