History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c19.26

c19.26

These two references, only one of which refers to Harṣa as a *Turuṣka*, are inconclusive. The first verse employs the word metaphorically. It must be remembered that Kalhaṇa wrote when the memory of Maḥmūd’s pillage of Hindu and Buddhist temples was still fresh. The second verse merely states that Harṣa was not affected by Islām, at least in diet, despite his Turkish mercenary officers. The naked ascetics described in the *Rājataraṅgiṇī* cannot have been Muslims, who have never held that nudity is necessary for salvation. It is hardly likely that they were Jainas, who have never shown marked hostility to the Hindu gods, or (except in the case of the much later sect of the Sthānakavāsīs) to the use of ikons in religious ceremonies.