Bharat Ek Khoj-The Discovery of India
A Production of Doordarshan, the Government of India’s Public Service Broadcaster
Episode 20: Harshavardhana
With Pankaj Berry as Harshavardhan, K. Makhija as Prabhakaravardhan, Aparajita as the Queen, Mansi Upadhyaya as the Maid,Chandra Mohan as Rajyavarman, Vasant Soman as Banabhatta, and Milan Barua as Hsüan-tsang.
Nehru notes that from the 4th century onwards the Guptas ruled for about 150 years over a powerful and prosperous state in the north. For almost another 150 years their successors continued but the empire shrank and became smaller and smaller. New invaders from Central Asia were pouring into India and attacking them. When some of their chiefs became aggressive in the 7th century, they were crushed by the King of Kanauj, Harsha Vardhana, who thereafter built up a powerful state right across Northern and Central India. Although an ardent Buddhist, he encouraged both Buddhism and Hinduism. A poet and dramatist himself, he gathered round his court many artists and poets, making his capital, Ujjaayini (now Ujjain), a famous centre of cultural activities.
In the new artistic revival, Banabhatta from Thaneshwar was an important literary figure. Besides authoring Kadambari, India’s first novel in prose, he penned Harsha Charita, the emperor’s biography. Here we witness Katha Vachan (story-telling) by Banabhatta to his avid listeners.
Finally, Harsha’s position was consolidated with Ujjain as the seat of a powerful kingdom spread over entire North India up to the eastern and western seas, from the Himalayas to Vindhyachal and contained in the south by Pulakesin II of the Chalukya Empire.
Nehru notes that when Harsha was reigning over his powerful kingdom, Hsüan-tsang, the Chinese scholar-pilgrim was studying at Nalanda University. Hsüan-tsang came overland and crossed the Himalayas into India. As an ardent Buddhist he travelled all over the country. In a grand congregation of Shamans, Brahmins and Bhikshus in a Buddhist monastery on the Ganga-banks, ‘Mahayana’ wins. But when the monastery is gutted by fire caused by the opponents, Hsüan-tsang serenely infers that it only proves the point of mortality of everything: a ‘Mahayana’ conviction!
While the arsonist-leader is banished, the local prince arranges a dramatic-show for entertaining Hsüan-tsang and other dignitaries of his own play Nagananda, where he himself participates as an act of atonement. The play depicts the fiery antagonism between Vasuki, the king of Nagas (snakes) and Garuda, the bird-mount of Vishnu. The compromise reached is that a snake would be offered as food to Garuda everyday. Moved by the wailing of an old woman whose son is about to be devoured, the pious prince offers himself clad in symbolic red as a sacrifice to Garuda.
Nehru recorded that Hsüan-tsang returned the way he came via Central Asia, carrying a large number of manuscripts with him. Harsha died in 648 AD, after which his empire disintegrated into small principalities.
#history #harshvardhan #king #dynasty #rules #ancienthistory #entertainment
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8 сен 2024
