Kannauj

Kanauj, or Kannauj, is an ancient city lying in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The town was in earlier times the capital of a great Hindu kingdom. Its population in 1991 was 58,932. The name Kanauj is traditionally held to be derived from the term Kanyakubja (the crooked maiden). It has given its name to a distinct dialect of the Hindi language known as Kanauji. Kanauj is known for the distilling of scents and is a market center for tobacco, perfume, and rose water.

Kanauj District

The town of Kanauj is the administrative center of Kannauj District. The district is bounded by the districts of Farrukhabad to the north, Hardoi to the northeast, Kanpur Nagar to the east, Kanpur Dehat to the southeast, Auraiya to the south, Etawah to the southwest, and Mainpuri to the west. The district is divided into three tehsils and seven development blocks. The district was split from Farrukhabad on September 18 1997, and is part of Kanpur division.

History

Formerly known as Kanyakubja (called Kanogiza by Ptolemy), the town is known to have been an important center during the Gupta empire. It reached the pinnacle of its glory in the 7th century under Harsha as the capital and cultural center of the empire he built. Harsha however was greatly weakened after being defeated by the Chalukya emperor Pulakesin II; his empire fell apart soon after his death.

Resultantly, by the end of the 8th century, Kanauj became the focus of a three-way contest by the three dominant dynasties of the time, the Pratiharas of Malwa, the Rashtrakutas of the Deccan, and the Palas of Bengal. The Pala king Dharmapala installed a proxy king at the end of the 8th century; howeve, the Pratihara king Nagabhatta II conquered Kanauj in the 9th century. Kanauj became the Pratihara capital for nearly 200 years. During this period, it became known as a center for poetry. The Pratiharas ruled much of northern India in the latter half of the 8th century, but they had weakened by the early 10th century. The Rashtrakuta king Indra III captured Kanauj in 916, and by the end of that century, the Pratihara domains had been reduced to a small kingdom around the town of Kanauj.

In 1019, the town was sacked by Mahmud of Ghazni, who ushered in a chaotic period for the city, which ended with the establishment of the Gahadvala dynasty at the end of the 11th century. Kannauj recovered some of its former prosperity under the Gahadvalas, but the respite was brief, for the city was sacked again in 1194 by Mohammed of Ghori. Kanauj has never since recovered its importance. After this sacking of Kannauj, the area came to be dominated by the Chandela Rajput clan of Bundelkhand.

Monuments

The size and scale of the ancient town can be gauged from the fact that existing ruins extend over the lands of five villages, occupying a semicircle fully 4 miles in diameter. While no Hindu structures remain intact, the "great mosque", constructed by Ibrahim Shah of Jaunpur in 1406 out of the remains of wontonly demolished Hindu temples, is still known to Hindus as "Sita's Kitchen". Brahminism in lower Bengal also dates its origin from a migration southwards from this city in the 9th and 10th centuries AD.

References

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)