Give a brief introduction of each in one or two sentences: 1) King Harshvardhan 2) Hiuen Tsang:
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Answer:
1) King Harshvardhan
Harsha (c. 590–647 CE), also known as Harshavardhana, was an Indian emperor who ruled North India from 606 to 647 CE. He was a member of the Vardhana dynasty; and was the son of Prabhakaravardhana who defeated the Alchon Huna invaders, and the younger brother of Rajyavardhana, a king of Thanesar, present-day Haryana.
At the height of Harsha's power, his Empire covered much of North and Northwestern India and South until Narmada River; and eventually made Kannauj (in the present Uttar Pradesh state) his capital, and ruled till 647 CE.[7] Harsha was defeated by the south Indian Emperor Pulakeshin II of the Chalukya dynasty in the Battle of Narmada when Harsha tried to expand his Empire into the southern peninsula of India.
The peace and prosperity that prevailed made his court a centre of cosmopolitanism, attracting scholars, artists and religious visitors from far and wide. The Chinese traveller Xuanzang visited the court of Harsha and wrote a very favourable account of him, praising his justice and generosity. His biography Harshacharita ("Deeds of Harsha") written by Sanskrit poet Banabhatta, describes his association with Thanesar, besides mentioning the defence wall, a moat and the palace with a two-storied Dhavalagriha (white mansion).
2) Hiuen Tsang
Xuanzang (Chinese: 玄奘; fl. 602 – 664), born Chen Hui / Chen Yi (陳禕), was a Chinese Buddhist monk, scholar, traveler, and translator who traveled to India in the seventh century and described the interaction between Chinese Buddhism and Indian Buddhism during the reign of Harsha.
During the journey he visited many sacred Buddhist sites in South Asia. He was born in what is now Henan Province on 6 April 602, and from boyhood he took to reading religious books, including the Chinese classics and the writings of ancient sages.
While residing in the city of Luoyang in Henan in Central China, Xuanzang was ordained as a śrāmaṇera (novice monk) at the age of thirteen. Due to the political and social unrest caused by the fall of the Sui dynasty, he went to Chengdu in Sichuan, where he was ordained as a bhikṣu (full monk) at the age of twenty. He later traveled throughout China in search of sacred books of Buddhism. At length, he came to Chang'an, then under the peaceful rule of Emperor Taizong of Tang, where Xuanzang developed the desire to visit India. He knew about Faxian's visit to India and, like him, was concerned about the incomplete and misinterpreted nature of the Buddhist texts that had reached China.
He became famous for his seventeen-year overland journey to India (including Nalanda Monastery), which is recorded in detail in the classic Chinese text Dà Táng Xīyù Jì (Great Tang Records on the Western Regions), which in turn provided the inspiration for the novel Journey to the West written by Wu Cheng'en during the Ming dynasty, around nine centuries after Xuanzang's death.
Answer:
1) King Harshvardhan is also known as Harshavardhana, eho was an Indian emperor who ruled North India from 606 to 647 CE. He was a member of the Vardhana dynasty; and was the son of Prabhakaravardhana who defeated the Alchon Huna invaders,and the younger brother of Rajyavardhana, a king of Thanesar, present-day Haryana.
2)Hiuen Tsang is also called Xuan Zang ,who visited India during Harsha Vardhana's reign in the 7th Century AD, in search of Buddhist scriptures. His journey became part of traditional Chinese lore when narrated in a later period book called "A Journey to the West".