Page:History of India Vol 2.djvu/344

 302 THE EEIGN OF HARSHA For the control of his extensive empire, Harsha relied upon his personal supervision exercised with untiring energy rather than upon the services of a trained bureaucracy. Except during the rainy season, when travelling with a huge camp was impracticable, he was incessantly on the move, punishing evil-doers and rewarding the meritorious. Luxurious tents, such as were used by the Mogul emperors, and still form the movable habitations of high Anglo-Indian officials, had not then been invented, and Harsha was obliged to be content with a " travelling palace ' made of boughs and reeds, which was erected at each halting- place and burned at his departure. Hiuen Tsang, like his predecessor, Fa-hien, more than two centuries earlier, was favourably impressed by the character of the civil administration, which he considered to be founded on benign principles. The principal source of revenue was the rent of the Crown lands, amounting, in theory at all events, to one-sixth of the produce. The officials were remunerated by grants of land; compulsory labour upon public works was paid for; taxes were light; the personal services exacted from the subject were moderate in amount; and liberal provision was made for charity to various religious communities. Violent crime was rare, but the roads and river routes were evidently less safe than in Fa-hien 's time, as Hiuen Tsang was stopped and robbed by brigands more than once. Imprisonment was now the ordinary penalty, and it was of the cruel Tibetan type; the