History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c8.2

v1.c8.2

Fortunately, the materials for taking such a survey of the condition of the country are ample and reliable. In the first place we have the Records of the Chinese traveller Hiuen Tsang who was a minute observer and a detailed recorder. Secondly, we have the Harsha Charita of Bāṇa, another contemporary writer of eminence and credibility. The value of the Harsha Charita has been much underestimated by European scholars who cannot go to the original. His praise of Harsha is characterised by Sir Vincent Smith, in constrast with that by Hiuen Tsang, as fulsome and his performance is described as irritating, although his power as a writer is admitted and his descriptions are conceded as vivid. But if one dives beneath the gingle of his words and the hyperbole of his concepts one finds in the Hasha Charita an immense amount of detailed information about the condition of the country which can only come from a minute and accurate observer of things. I cannot but remark here that I have drawn much of my inspiration and information from Bāṇa’s Harsha Charita and in depicting particularly the state of the country and the people I shall have constantly to refer to him. These two great authorities for this period are supplemented and supported by epigraphic and other materials for constructing a detailed description of the country at this time. We proceed first to describe the people of India, or rather their race and their castes, their appearance and their occupations.