After 643 Harsha, who was growing elderly, devoted much attention to religion and may be said to have become a Buddhist, while allowing himself a certain eclectic freedom.  Several creeds were represented among his immediate relatives.  Devotion to Siva was traditional in the family:  his father had been a zealous worshipper of the Sun and his brother and sister were Buddhists of the Sammitiya sect.  Harsha by no means disowned Brahmanic worship, but in his latter years his proclivity to Buddhism became more marked and he endeavoured to emulate the piety of Asoka.  He founded rest houses and hospitals, as well as monasteries and thousands of stupas.  He prohibited the taking of life and the use of animal food, and of the three periods into which his day was divided two were devoted to religion and one to business.  He also exercised a surveillance over the whole Buddhist order and advanced meritorious members.

Hsuean Chuang has left an interesting account of the religious fetes and spectacles organized by Harsha.  At Kanauj he attended a great assembly during which a solemn procession took place every day.  A golden image of Buddha was borne on an elephant and Harsha, dressed as Indra, held a canopy over it, while his ally Raja Kumara,[248] dressed as Brahma, waved a fly-whisk.  It was subsequently washed by the king’s own hands and in the evening his Majesty, who like Akbar had a taste for religious discussion, listened to the arguments of his Chinese guest.  But the royal instructions that no one was to speak against the Master of the Law were so peremptory that even his biographer admits there was no real discussion.  These edifying pageants were interrupted by disagreeable incidents which show that Harsha’s tolerance had not produced complete harmony.  A temporary monastery erected for the fetes caught fire and a fanatic attempted to stab the king.  He confessed under examination that he had been instigated to the crime by Brahmans who were jealous of the favours which the Buddhists received.  It was also established that the incendiaries were Brahmans and, after the ringleaders had been punished, five hundred were exiled.  Harsha then proceeded to Allahabad to superintend a quinquennial distribution of alms.  It was his custom to let treasure accumulate for five years and then to divide it among holy men and the poor.  The proceedings lasted seventy-five days and the concourse which collected to gaze and receive must have resembled the fair still held on the same spot.  Buddhists, Brahmans and Jains all partook of the royal bounty and the images of Buddha, Surya and Siva were worshipped on successive days, though greater honour was shown to the Buddha.  The king gave away everything that he had, even his robes and jewels, and finally, arrayed in clothes borrowed from his sister, rejoiced saying “all I have has entered into incorruptible and imperishable treasuries.”  After this, adds Hsuean Chuang, the king’s vassals offered him jewels and robes so that the treasury was replenished.  This was the sixth quinquennial distribution which Harsha had held and the last, for he died in 648.  He at first favoured the Hinayana but subsequently went over to the Mahayana, being moved in part by the exhortations of Hsuean Chuang.