Harsha's Kannauj

Harsha became king of Thanesar in 606, the first year of the Harsha era, and soon took over Kannauj, which became the city every north Indian power fought for over the next three centuries. His court poet Bana wrote a prose life of him, the Harshacharita, and three Sanskrit plays are credited to the king himself.

Xuanzang spent years in his realm and describes great assemblies at Kannauj and at Prayaga, where the king gave away his treasure every five years. Harsha's push into the Deccan was stopped on the Narmada by the Chalukya king Pulakeshin II, whose Aihole inscription of 634 boasts of it. How much of the north Harsha really ruled is debated: his direct rule seems to have covered much of the Ganga plain, with kings beyond it acknowledging him, and his realm did not survive his death in 647.