Pushyabhuti Dynasty

(6th–7th c.) Northern Indian dynasty
whose capital was at Kanyakubja, the
modern city of Kanuaj in the Ganges
river basin, and whose territory ran
through the northern Indian plain from
the Punjab to Bihar. The Pushyabhutis
filled the northern Indian political
vacuum after the demise of the Gupta
empire and in some measure regained
its greatness. The dynasty’s greatest
ruler was the emperor Harsha
(r. 606–47), whose reign was chronicled
in panegyric fashion by the playwright
Bana, and perhaps more factually by the
Chinese Buddhist pilgrim Hsuan Tsang.
The latter’s journals give a detailed
picture both of Harsha himself, in whose
court Hsuan Tsang stayed for some time,
and of everyday life in Harsha’s
kingdom. See also Gupta dynasty.