History of Kanauj to the Moslem Conquest c17.s2.t1: Arab testimony
History of Kanauj to the Moslem Conquest c17.s2.t1
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Arab testimony
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The Arab traveller Al Mas‘ūdī,² who visited the valley of the Indus in Hijri 303-04 or 915-16 A. D. at the beginning of Mahīpāla’s reign and wrote an account of his travels in 332 H = 943-44 A. D.,³ bears eloquent testimony to the power and prestige of the king of Kanauj. He informs us in his Murūj-ul-Zahāb that “one of the neighbouring kings of India who is far from the sea, is the Baūūra, who is lord of the city of Kanauj. This title is given to all the sovereigns of that kingdom.” Evidently the term Baūūra is an Arabic corruption of the term Pratihāra or its Prakrit equivalent Paḍihāra, and the description of being “far from the sea” also answers well to the position of Kanauj. The Arab chronicler then testifies to the Rāṣṭrakūṭa-Pratihāra struggle that was the characteristic feature of this epoch.
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² Elliot, History of India, Vol. I, pp. 21-23.
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³ Ibid., p. 454.
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He says : “This Baüüra who is the king of Kanauj is an enemy of the Balhara, the king of India.” Further he gives a rough indication of the dimensions of the kingdom of Kanauj, which according to him extended about one hundred and twenty square parasangas of Sindh, each parasang being equal to eight miles of this country. We are also told that the king of Kanauj maintained a large army both for aggression and defence. “He has large armies in garrisons on the north and on the south; on the east and on the west, for he is surrounded on all sides by warlike kings.” In another passage Mas‘ūdī gives the huge numbers of the army : “The king has four armies according to the four quarters of the wind. Each of them numbers 700,000 or 900,000 men.” Lastly, the traveller indicates the political disposition of the times, and mentions some of the powers that had relations with Kanauj. “The army of the north wars against the prince of Multan, and with the Musulmans, his subjects, on the frontier. The army of the south fights against the Balhara, king of Mankir. The other two armies march to meet enemies in every direction.” From these brief references it is clear that to an observant foreigner Kanauj appeared as the leading state of northern India, whose western limits extended upto Sindh, and whose ruler kept other kingdoms in awe and subjection by his vigilant forces.¹
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¹ See J. A. S. B., N. S. XVI (1920), p. 84, also pl. XII, No. 1, for certain gold coins which have been attributed by Mr. R. D. Banerji to Mahīpāla Pratihāra. On the obverse the king's name appears in three lines and on the reverse there is the seated goddess of the Gupta type. The form of ha no doubt shows that the coins are earlier than the 12th century A. D., but their ascription is rather doubtful.