On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c14.19

v1.c14.19

With Yuan-chuang’s story of Harshavardhana going to consult Avalokiteśvara we may compare the statement in the “Harṣa-carita” that he “was embraced by the goddess of the Royal Prosperity, who took him in her arms and, seizing him by all the royal marks on all his limbs, forced him, however reluctant, to mount the throne, — and this though he had taken a vow of austerity and did not swerve from his vow, hard like grasping the edge of a sword”.¹ It seems probable that Harshavardhana in the early part of his life had joined the Buddhist church and perhaps taken the vows of a bhikshu, or at least of a lay member of the Communion. His sister, we learn from the Life, had become an adherent of the Sammatiya school of Buddhism.² Our pilgrim’s sympathetic and generous praise of king Harshavardhana may be compared with the pompous, fulsome, and feigned panegyric of the king by Bāṇa.