Harsha or Harsha Vardhana or Harshvardhan (Hindi: हर्षवर्धन) (c. 590—647) was an Indian emperor who ruled northern India from 606 to 647 AD. He was the son of Prabhakara Vardhana and younger brother of Rajya Vardhana, a king of Thanesar, Haryana. At the height of his power his kingdom spanned the Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Bengal, Orissa and the entire Indo-Gangetic plain north of the Narmada River.
After the downfall of the prior Gupta Empire in the middle of the sixth century CE, North India reverted to small republics and small monarchical states ruled by fractured fragments of Gupta rulers. Harsha, a Buddhist convert,[1] united the small republics from Punjab to central India, and they, at an assembly, crowned Harsha king in April 606 AD when he was merely 16 years old.[2]