Every Five Years He Gave It All Away

Every five years he gave away everything he owned.

At Prayag, where the rivers meet, Harsha held an assembly.

And he gave away the gathered wealth of the empire. To monks. To brahmins. To the poor. To whoever had come. The Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang, who was there, describes it. By the end of it the emperor is said to have given away his own clothing and borrowed something to wear home.

Then he went back and did it again five years later.

How he got the throne

Not by expecting it.

He was born on the 4th of June, 590, probably at Thanesar, the younger son of Prabhakaravardhana of the Pushyabhuti line. He had an elder brother, Rajyavardhana, and a sister, Rajyashri, married to the Maukhari king Grahavarman.

Then it came apart inside a year. Devagupta of Malwa killed Grahavarman and imprisoned Rajyashri. Rajyavardhana marched to get her back and was murdered, treacherously, the sources say, by Shashanka of Gauda, around 606.