The Indian Buddhist emperor Harṣavardhana / Śrīharṣa / Śīlāditya (590–648 CE), of the Vardhana dynasty, who reigned 606–648 from his capital at Kanyākubja (modern Kannauj) over most of north India. Known in Chinese sources as Jiè-rì wáng 戒日王 (“King of Precept-Days”) or Hé-lì-shā fá-tán-nà 曷利沙伐彈那 (a phonetic rendering of Harṣavardhana); the Chinese add 西天 (= “Western-Heaven”, i.e., Indian) when distinguishing him from East Asian rulers.
A pivotal figure in the Buddhist-friendly North Indian polity of the early seventh century: he hosted 玄奘 Xuánzàng on his pilgrimage to India (629–645), arranged the great religious assembly at Kanyākubja in 643 attended by all the leading Buddhist masters, and corresponded with the Tang court (Hé-lì-shā 曷利沙 sent embassies to Cháng’ān in 641 and again under Tang Tài-zōng). Harṣa was himself a literary and devotional author: the dramas Ratnāvalī, Priyadarśikā, and Nāgānanda are attributed to him; the Buddhist Aṣṭamahāsthānacaityastotra 八大靈塔梵讚 is preserved in Chinese translation as KR6o0139 (T32n1684), translated by 法賢 Fǎxián at the Sòng Institute.
Sources: DILA Buddhist Person Authority A000508; Dà Táng Xī-yù jì 大唐西域記 (Xuánzàng’s pilgrimage memoir); Bāṇa, Harṣacarita (Sanskrit biography); Devahuti, D. Harsha: A Political Study (Oxford UP, 1970).