Hiuen Tsang

• Hiuen Tsang who travelled in India between 628 A.D.and 645 A.D. during the reign of Harshavardhana, the last great Hindu Emperor of north India (A.D. 606-647), took note of untouchables as scavengers, executioners etc. According to him, they lived outside the villages and consumed garlic and onion. The Untouchables announced their entry into the town or village by shouting loudly, so that the people might keep away from them.
• The socio-cultural life of North India was also characterized by downhill trends. Harsha’s age was marked by great rigidity in social life. The social mobility had disappeared. The status of women declined sharply during this period due to the popularity of child marriage and prohibition of widow remarriage.
• He described that the kingdom was well-governed; it was- free from revolts; there were a few cases of law-breaking; offenders were given physical punishments and tortured as well to extract the truth from them while the traitors were given death sentence or turned out of the kingdom. The burden of taxation was not heavy on the subjects; they were free from the oppression of the government servants and were, thus, happy. The state used to record its every activity.
• He, however, described that travelling was not very much safe at that time. The main source of income of the state was land-revenue.