Page:History of India Vol 2.djvu/343

 HARSHA'S CAMPAIGNS 301 military resources were so increased that he was able to put in the field sixty thousand war elephants and one hundred thousand cavalry. But he continued fight- ing for thirty years longer, and, as late as 643 A.D., was engaged in his last campaign, an attack upon the sturdy inhabitants of Ganjam on the coast of the Bay of Bengal. His long career of victory was broken by one fail- ure. Pulikesin II, the greatest of the Chalukya dy- nasty, whose achievements will be noticed more fully in a later chapter, vied with Harsha in the extent of his conquests, and had raised himself to the rank of lord paramount of the south, as Harsha was of the north. The northern king could not willingly endure the ex- istence of so powerful a rival, and essayed to overthrow him, advancing in person to the attack, with " troops from the five Indies and the best generals from all countries. " But the effort failed. The King of the Deccan guarded the passes on the Narmada so effectu- ally that Harsha was constrained to retire discomfited, and to accept that river as his frontier. This campaign may be dated about the year 620 A. D. In the latter years of his reign the sway of Harsha over the whole of the basin of the Ganges (including Nepal), from the Himalaya to the Narmada, was undis- puted. Detailed administration of course remained in the hands of the local rajas, but even the king of distant Assam (Kamarupa) in the east obeyed the orders of the suzerain, and the King of Valabhi in the extreme west attended in his train.