History of Kanauj to the Moslem Conquest c17.s2.t1.1

c17.s2.t1.1

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.