Who among the following usurped power in Kanyakubja after the death of Harshavardhana?
- (a)Adityasena
- (b)Arunashva
- (c)Shashanka
- (d)Lalitaditya
Correct — B, Arunashva. Harshavardhana died about 647 CE leaving no heir, and the throne of Kanyakubja — Kannauj — was seized by one of his own officers, Arunasva, whom Chinese sources call Aluonashun and some accounts render as Arjuna. He had been governor of Tirabhukti, roughly north Bihar, under Harsha. What makes this obscure usurper memorable is what he did next. A Tang embassy under Wang Xuance arrived in 648 expecting to continue relations with Harsha, found the emperor dead, and was attacked by Arunasva, who scattered the envoy's escort of thirty horsemen. Wang Xuance escaped north, raised about 7,000 Nepalese cavalry and 1,200 Tibetan infantry, returned, and defeated him in 649. Arunasva was captured and carried off to China — one of the strangest episodes in early medieval Indian history, and the reason his name survives at all. He was followed at Kannauj by Yashovarman.
- (a)Adityasena — A Later Gupta ruler of Magadha, and one of the several regional kings who asserted independence as Harsha's structure came apart. He belongs to the aftermath in Magadha, not to the seizure of Kannauj itself.
- (c)Shashanka — The chronological trap, and the one that catches most candidates. Shashanka of Gauda was Harsha's great adversary at the beginning of the reign — he is held responsible for the death of Harsha's elder brother Rajyavardhana, which is what brought Harsha to the throne in the first place. He died well before Harsha, so he could not have taken anything after him.
- (d)Lalitaditya — Lalitaditya Muktapida of Kashmir belongs to the eighth century, roughly a hundred years later, and is remembered for the Martand Sun temple and for defeating Yashovarman of Kannauj — that is, Arunasva's successor, not Harsha's.
Harshavardhana of the Pushyabhuti dynasty moved his capital from Thanesar to Kanyakubja and made it the political centre of northern India between about 606 and 647 CE. His empire was held together by his own campaigning and personal authority rather than by an administrative machine, and it had no succession to fall back on. When he died childless the structure dissolved almost immediately — which is why Kannauj passes through a usurper, then Yashovarman, and then becomes the prize that the Palas, Pratiharas and Rashtrakutas fight over for the next two centuries in what historians call the tripartite struggle.
The item is really a chronology test dressed as a name test. Three of the four options are genuine early medieval rulers, and the way to sort them is to place each one relative to Harsha: Shashanka before him, Adityasena beside and after him in Magadha, Lalitaditya a century later in Kashmir. That leaves the one name that belongs to the exact moment of Harsha's death. It also helps to know why the moment is documented at all — the presence of a Chinese embassy. Xuanzang had travelled in India during Harsha's reign and left the fullest account we have of his court and of the Prayag assembly; Wang Xuance's mission was a diplomatic follow-up, and its violent reception is recorded in Chinese annals rather than in Indian sources.
- Harshavardhana ruled from about 606 to 647 CE and made Kanyakubja, or Kannauj, his capital.
- Arunasva, called Aluonashun in Chinese sources, had been governor of Tirabhukti in north Bihar and seized Kannauj around 647.
- The Tang envoy Wang Xuance was attacked by Arunasva in 648, returned with Nepalese and Tibetan troops, and defeated and captured him in 649.
- Yashovarman succeeded at Kannauj and was later defeated by Lalitaditya Muktapida of Kashmir.
- Shashanka of Gauda was Harsha's earlier adversary, held responsible for the killing of Rajyavardhana.
- Picking Shashanka because he is the name most firmly attached to Harsha — but he belongs to the start of the reign, not its end.
- Confusing Yashovarman, who ruled Kannauj afterwards, with the usurper who took it immediately.
- Placing Lalitaditya in the seventh century; he is an eighth-century Kashmiri ruler.
As a who-followed-whom question on the collapse of Harsha's empire, or through the Wang Xuance episode as a curiosity in Indo-Chinese contacts.
From the decline of the Gupta Empire until the rise of Harshavardhana, which of the following dynasties ruled over North India? 1. The Guptas of Magadha 2. The Paramaras of Malwa 3. The Pushyabhutis of Thanesar 4. The Maukharies of Kanauj 5. The Yadavas of Devagiri 6. The Gurjara-Pratiharas of Jodhpur Select the correct answer using the code given below:
- (a) 1, 2 and 5
- (b) 1, 3, 4 and 6
- (c) 2, 3 and 4
- (d) 5 and 6
Answer(b) 1, 3, 4 and 6
The political map on either side of Harsha. That item asks who held northern India before he unified it — the Later Guptas of Magadha, his own Pushyabhutis of Thanesar, the Maukharis of Kanauj and an early Gurjara-Pratihara line near Jodhpur; this one asks what became of the same territory the moment he was gone.
Yashovarman was ruler of which one of the following kingdoms?
- (a) Kannauj
- (b) Mewar
- (c) Marwar
- (d) Kalinga
Answer(a) Kannauj
The next ruler of the same city. Arunasva's seizure of Kannauj is followed by Yashovarman, whose defeat at the hands of Lalitaditya of Kashmir is the fourth option in this very question.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Chinese pilgrim who travelled in India during the reign of Harshavardhana and left a detailed account of his court was
- (a)Fa-Hien
- (b)Xuanzang
- (c)I-tsing
- (d)Wang Xuance
Answer(b) Xuanzang — Fa-Hien visited during the Gupta period, I-tsing later in the seventh century, and Wang Xuance came as a diplomatic envoy rather than as a pilgrim-scholar.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Yashovarman, who ruled Kannauj in the eighth century, was defeated by which of the following rulers?
- (a)Dharmapala of Bengal
- (b)Lalitaditya Muktapida of Kashmir
- (c)Nagabhata I of the Pratiharas
- (d)Govinda III of the Rashtrakutas
Answer(b) Lalitaditya Muktapida of Kashmir — the Kashmiri ruler remembered for the Martand Sun temple.