History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c7.20

v1.c7.20

In this city reigned Harsha the patron of Bāṇa and Hiuen Tsang. Thanesar or Śrikantha as the country is called by Bāṇa, and Kanauj were kingdoms directly under Harsha. Hiuen Tsang mentions many kingdoms in the Gangetic valley besides these two and most of them also must have been directly under Harsha's rule. Pāriyātra or modern Alwar was however under a king of the Vaiśya caste as also Śrughna (about Hardwar) and Matipura where a Śūdra king ruled, and Brahmapura or modern Garhwal. But Ahicchatra and Pilośana, Sānkāśya and Ayodhyā, Allahabad and Kauśāmbi where no kings are mentioned by Hiuen Tsang were probably under the direct sway of Harsha. Along the foot of the Himalayas were small kingdoms like Śrāvasti and Kapilvastu, Rāmagrāma and Kuśinagara where petty chiefs ruled. These places were places of Buddhist worship and hence kept up some population; otherwise strangely enough the country was desolate. Many cultivable and fertile parts of India were indeed in ancient times under jungles which have been cleared only under the British rule. Civilization and prosperity followed in ancient days the course of the Ganges and the Jumna, and away from them were jungles infested by elephants. The incessant internecine fights between opposing kings prevented the growth of overflowing population and the means of communication being limited, the export of grain from India must then have been almost nil. Hence the need for extension of cultivation was not felt and it is no wonder that even the empire of Harsha was bordered, so to speak, on both sides by wide fringes of jungles along the Himalayas on the north and the Vindhyas on the south. These jungles provided the immense number of elephants required for the armies of contending kings. Considering this state of the country, therefore, we need not be surprised that there were 60,000 elephants in the army of the emperor Harsha alone, while there must have been thousands more in those of other kings.