Kannauj

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

1 History
- 1.1 Monuments
2 Population
3 References

[edit] 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 the ghosh were came from kanauj and were rajput at that time thre was ghosh.

By the end of the 8th century, Kannauj 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; however, the Pratihara king Nagabhatta II conquered Kannauj in the 9th century. Kannauj 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 Kannauj in 916, and by the end of that century, the Pratihara domains had been reduced to a small kingdom around the town of Kannauj.the ghosh are indo-bangla rajputs fromed in kannuj

In 1019, the town was sacked by Mahmud of Ghazni, who ushered in a chaotic period for the city. After this sacking of Kannauj, the area came to be dominated by the Chandela Rajput clan of Bundelkhand. The Gahadvala dynasty, descended from former vassals of the Pratiharas, established themselves as rulers of Kannauj 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, and by the early years of the 13th century it was incorporated into the Delhi Sultanate. Kannauj has never since recovered its importance.

[edit] 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 historic Hindu structures remain intact, the "great mosque", constructed by Ibrahim Shah of Jaunpur in 1406 out of the remains of 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.