Maharashtra kingdom people were affable: Chinese traveller Xuanzang

By Quaid Najmi Mumbai, Jan 19 : The people of the ancient Maharashtra kingdom were “very warm, friendly and helpful, with high self-esteem”, observed the great Chinese Buddhist monk and wanderer Xuanzang, according to a new book.
The scholar Xuanzang (602-664 AD) travelled in classical India during the 7th century AD, spending around 12 years traversing the length and breadth of the country, according to the new treatise, ‘Mumbai Beyond Bombay’ by historian, scholar and archaeologist Dr Suraj A. Pandit.
“Though he roamed all over the country then, little is known about his journeys in Maharashtra and even the present-day Mumbai Metropolitan Region, which I have researched to bring out several aspects concerning Xuanzang,” Dr Pandit told IANS.
Primarily, he visited India to learn Buddhism and spoke and compared it with Chinese Buddhism during the Harshavardhana Empire of yore.
Among other things during his tour of this western Indian domain, Xuanzang met the King of Maharashtra, Pulakeshin II of the Chalukyas Dynasty of Badami, in modern-day north Karnataka.
“He described the people from this kingdom as ‘very humble, warm, helpful and having a high self-esteem’ when he mingled with even the ordinary folk during his sojourn for an unspecified period here,” Dr Pandit said.