[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [General history and culture](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general) › [History of Kanauj to the Moslem Conquest](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.tripathi-1937) › c8.s2 # History of Kanauj to the Moslem Conquest c8.s2: Origin and derivation of the name History of Kanauj to the Moslem Conquest c8.s2 - **Language:** English ### Origin and derivation of the name ### [c8.s2.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.tripathi-1937.c8.s2.1) The \*Rāmāyaṇa\* of Vālmīki and other works contain an amusing story, describing its foundation and how it got the name Kānyakubja, from which Kanauj is said to be a modern derivation.¹ We are told that in early times there was a king named Kuśa, who married the daughter of the king of Vidarbha or Berar. He was blessed with four sons : (\*a\*) Kuśanābha, (\*b\*) Kuśāmbha, (\*c\*) Asūtaraja and (\*d\*) Vasu. Each of them, on being requested by the reigning monarch to protect the kingdom, founded a town after his own name. Of these, Kuśanābha founded a town called Mahodaya, meaning “of high prosperity.”² King Kuśanābha begot a hundred beautiful daughters by the celestial damsel Ghṛtācī,³ and one day, when they were sporting together in the royal gardens, Vāyu (the wind god)¹ became enamoured of their surpassing charms. He made a proposal to marry all the hundred sisters, but was met with a scornful refusal. Their rebukes further enraged the wind god to such an extent that he instantly changed them all into hunchbacks by his curses. From this circumstance (kanyānāṁ kubjatvaṁ) the city got its name Kānyakubja or Kanyā-kubja, meaning “the city of hunchbacked maidens.”² Historically the story is no doubt worthless except that it proves the high antiquity of both the town and its name. ### [c8.s2.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.tripathi-1937.c8.s2.2) ¹ Compare also : “Kannojam kila Kānyakubja-nagaram sā rājadhānī purā” (\*Kānyakubja-Mahākāvya\*, p. 194). Moslem writers usually write Qannauj قنوج (see e.g., \*Ṭabaqāt-i-Akbarī\*, Vol. I, p. 39, ed. B. De). Raverty, however, gives the form Kinnauj in his translation of the \*Ṭabaqāt-i-Nāsirī\* (I, p. 470, etc.). From the \*Śarb-i-Ta’rīkh-i-Yamīnī\* also the proper way of pronouncing Kanauj appears to be “Kinnauj” with the last letter but slightly enunciated (see Extracts in Elliot, II, p. 52). Fa-hian transliterates it as Ka-nao-yi or Kanoyi, and Thomas Watters is of opinion that it represents “the name which was probably in use among the natives” (Watters, I, p. 341). Accordingly Vincent Smith asserts that the name Kanauj is “ancient” and was “current fifteen hundred years ago” (\*J. R. A. S.\*, 1908, p. 767). Whatever the truth, this much is certain that the Prakrit transliteration used by Rājaśekhara in the beginning of the ninth century A. D. is Kaṇṇaujjā (Konow and Lanman, \*Karpūra-mañjarī\*, III. 5. p. 74, Harvard Oriental Series, 1901). ### [c8.s2.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.tripathi-1937.c8.s2.3) ² “Kuśanābhas tu dharmātmā puram cakre Mahodayam” (\*Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa\*, Bālakāṇḍa, canto 32, Verse 6, Calcutta, 1881). ### [c8.s2.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.tripathi-1937.c8.s2.4) ³ “Kuśanābhas tu rājarṣiḥ kanyāśatamanuttamam Janayāmās dharmātmā Ghṛtācyāṃ Raghunandana” (\*Ibid.\*, verse 11). ### [c8.s2.5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.tripathi-1937.c8.s2.5) ¹ Also called a Ṛiṣi or “Great Tree Ṛiṣi” (Watters, I, p. 341; Samuel Beal, Buddhist Records of the Western World, Vol. I, pp. 207-08). ### [c8.s2.6](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.tripathi-1937.c8.s2.6) ² “Yad Vāyunā ca tāḥ kanyāḥ tatra kubjikṛtā purā, Kānyakubjamiti khyātaṁ tataḥ prabhṛiti tat puram.” (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, (North-Western Recension, ed. Bhagvad Datta, 1931), Bālakāṇḍa, canto 33, verses 34-35). Yuan Chwang narrates a similar story with minor variations (cf. Watters, I, p. 341; Beal, I, pp. 207-09). See also Śiva Purāṇa, Dharmasaṁhitā, ch. 11, verses 39-52 (Calcutta, 1890); Kalhaṇa’s Rājatarangiṇī, ed. Durgāprasāda (Bombay, 1892), Vol. I, Bk. IV, verse 133, (Stein’s Translation, p. 132); Dowson’s Hindu Classical Dictionary (1914), pp. 149, 344, etc. ## Linked texts (5) - [Rājataraṅgiṇī](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.historical.kashmir.rajatarangini.4.133) — Kalhaṇa, Sanskrit - [Śivapurāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.siva) — Vyāsa, Sanskrit - [Vālmīkirāmāyaṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.ramayana.valmiki) — Vālmīki, Sanskrit - [Karpūramañjarī](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.plays.karpuramanjari.3.5) — Rājaśekhara, Śaurasenī Prakrit - [Ṭabaqāt-i Nāṣirī](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.sultanate.tabaqat-i-nasiri) — Minhāj al-Dīn Jūzjānī --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.tripathi-1937.c8.s2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.tripathi-1937.c8.s2) · Pramāṇa