Cunningham's Ancient Geography of India c7.55

c7.55

rivers, were subject to Harsha Vardhana, the great King of Kanoj. Jâlandhara, the most easterly district of the Panjâb, was also subject to him; and it is highly probable that the ruler of Tâki, or the plains of the Panjâb, must likewise have been a dependent of Kanoj, as we are informed by the Chinese pilgrim that Harsha Vardhana advanced through his territory to the foot of the Kashmir hills, for the purpose of coercing the ruler of that country to deliver up to him a much-venerated tooth of Buddha. The Rajput king of Mahârâshtra, in Southern India, was the only sovereign who had successfully resisted the armies of Kanoj. This statement of the Chinese pilgrim is corroborated by several inscriptions of the Châlukya princes of Mahârâshtra, who make a proud boast of their ancestor's discomfiture of the great king Harsha Vardhana.[*] This powerful prince was the paramount sovereign of thirty-six different States, comprising nearly one-half of India in extent, and including all its richest and most fertile provinces. The substantial reality of his power may be gathered from the fact that no less than eighteen, or just one-half, of these tributary princes attended on their suzerain lord during his great religious procession from Pâtaliputra to Kanoj, in A.D. 643. The extent of his dominions is clearly indicated by the names of the countries against which he directed his latest campaigns, namely, Kashmir in the northwest, Mahârâshtra in the south-west, and Ganjam in the south-east.* Within these boundaries he was the paramount ruler of the continent of India during the first half of the seventh century of the Christian era.