Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. I, Part I: History of Gujarat c19.s2.t1.63

c19.s2.t1.63

Kanauj. Al Masúdi⁴ (A.D. 956) is the first Arab traveller who gives an account of Kanauj. He says:⁵ The kingdom of the Baúra king of Kanauj extends about a hundred and twenty square parasangs of Sindh, each parasang being equal to eight miles of this country. This King has four armies according to the four quarters of the world. Each of them numbers 700,000 or 900,000. The army of the north was against the prince of Mukán and with his Musalmán subjects on the frontier. The army of the south fights against the Balhára king of Mánkir. The other two armies march to meet enemies in every direction. Ibn Haukal (A.D. 968-976) says⁶ that from the sea of Fárs to the country of Kanauj is three months journey. Rashid-ud-din from Al Birúni (A.D. 970-1039) places⁷ Kanauj south of the Himálayás and states⁸ that the Jamna falls into the Ganga below Kanauj which is situated on the west of the river (Ganga). The chief portion of Hind included in the "second climate" is called the central land or Madhya Desh. He adds that the Persians call it Kanauj. It was the capital of the great, haughty, and proud despots of India. He praises the former magnificence of Kanauj, which he says being now deserted by its ruler has fallen into neglect and ruin, and the city of Bári, three days' journey from Kanauj on the eastern side of the Ganges being now the capital. Kanauj was celebrated for its descendants of the Pândavas as Mâhura (Mathra) is on account of Bâs Dev (Krishna). Al Idrisi, end of the eleventh century, speaks¹ of Kanauj in connection with a river port town of the name of Samandâr "a large town, commercial and rich, where there are large profits to be made and which is dependent" on the rule of the Kanauj king. Samandâr, he says, stands on a river coming from Kashmir. To the north of Samandâr at seven days is, he says, the city of Iuner Kashmir under the rule of Kanauj. The Châch Nâmah (an Arabic history of great antiquity written before A.D. 753, translated into Persian in the time of Sultân Nâsiruddin Kabâchah) (A.D. 1216) says² that when Châch (A.D. 631-670) advanced against Akham Lohâna of Brahmanâbâd that the Lohâna wrote to ask the help of "the king of Hindustân," that is Kanauj, at that time Satbân son of Râsal, but that Akham died before his answer came.