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History of Kanauj to the Moslem Conquest c8.s3: Variety of names

History of Kanauj to the Moslem Conquest c8.s3

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Variety of names

c8.s3.1

Owing to a fondness for synonyms, the ancient Hindu often used different names for the same place, and this laxity of nomenclature is perhaps nowhere so noticeable as in the case of Kanauj. Its most commonly recognised name was, of course, Kānyakubja or Kanyākubja or Kanyakubja,³ which continues to occur in literature and inscriptions from the earliest to the latest period of its history.¹ Next, we find mention of the name Mahodaya or Mahodayā, meaning “full of high prosperity.” Although there are references to this name in earlier literature,² it did not hold the preference until the time of the Pratīhāras, when Kanauj was renovated to a life of opulence and power.³ That Kānyakubja and Mahodaya were names of one and the same city is also testified by Hemacandra’s *Abhidhāna-cintāmaṇi*,⁴ Halāyudha’s *Abhidhānaratnamālā*,⁵ and other lexicons.⁶

c8.s3.2

³ Compare : “......... Athokanya-kanyā-kānyebhyaḥ kubjamityapi ......” (Keśava’s Kalpadrukośa, verse 16, p. 10, Gaekwāḍ’s Oriental Series, No. XLII, 1928), or, cf. “Daratstriyāṁ ca Daradā Kānyakubjaḥ Kuśasthalaṁ Kānyakubjaḥ Kānyakubjaḥ Kośalaḥ Kosalopi ca” (Ibid., verse 22, p. 6).

c8.s3.3

¹ See also for the forms:
(a) Kānyakubja—*Ind. Ant.*, XVIII, pp. 13, 133; Kalhaṇa’s *Rājatarangiṇī*, ed. Durgā Pd. (Bombay, 1892), Vol. I, Bk. I verse 117, (Stein’s Trans. p. 22); Bk. IV, verse 145, (Stein, p. 134, etc.).
(b) Kānyakubja—*Ibid.*, Bk. VIII, verse 2453, (Stein, p. 191); *Rāmāyaṇa*, ante; *Mahābhārata*, III, ch. 116, verse 19; *Padma Purāṇa*, V (Sṛiṣṭi-khaṇḍa), ch. 35, verse 1; *Harṣacarita*, ed. Jivānanda Vidyāsāgara, (Calcutta, 1892), p. 425; *Ep. Ind.*, I, pp. 197, 203, verse 3, etc.
(c) Kānyakubja—*Ind. Ant.*, XVIII, pp. 16, 18; *Śiva Purāṇa*, *Dharmasaṃhitā*, ch. 11, verse 52; *Ep. Ind.*, I, pp. 219, 222, verse 22, etc.

c8.s3.4

² See e.g., *Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa*, Bālakāṇḍa, canto 32, verse 6; *Padma Purāṇa*, V, ch. 35, verse 193.

c8.s3.5

³ *Ep. Ind.*, V, p. 208; IV, p. 131; *Ind. Ant.*, XV, p. 305; *Bālarāmāyaṇa*, X, p. 306; *Kāvyamīmāṃsā*, ed. C. D. Dalal (1916), p. 8, etc.

c8.s3.6

⁴ Cf. “Kānyakubjaṃ Mahodayaṃ” (verse 39, p. 166).

c8.s3.7

⁵ Cf. “Kānyakubjā Mahodayā” (II, verse 132, p. 32).

c8.s3.8

⁶ See also the *Śabdārtbharatnasamanvaya-koṣa*, line 6, p. 79 (Gaekwāḍ’s Oriental Series, 1932); and the *Vaijayantī* of Yādava-prakāśa, ed. Gustav Oppert (1893), Bk. I, Sec. 4, verse 7, p. 159, etc.

c8.s3.9

Gādhipura or Gādhinagara was another name of Kanauj in early times.⁷ Gādhi, as we shall see below, was one of its celebrated legendary rulers, and it appears that the city came to be called after him owing to his great deeds.

c8.s3.10

⁷ Compare e.g., “......... Mahodayaṃ Gādhipuram......” (Keśava’s *Kalpadrukoṣa*, verse 16, p. 10); *Śabdakalpadruma* (Calcutta, 1889), Vol. II, p. 85; Kalhaṇa’s *Rājatarangiṇī*, Vol. I, Bk. IV, verse 133, (Stein, p. 132). The name Gādhinagara occurs in the

c8.s3.11

It was also known as Kuśasthala,¹ which in its etymological sense means "a spot of kuśa grass." Probably it derived this name from the fact that the kuśa grass, considered sacred for sacrificial purposes, grew there in abundance.² Or, alternatively it may be suggested that the place was called after king Kuśa, father of Kuśanābha, and thus signified "the residence or possession of Kuśa." Of a piece with this name is the synonym Kauśa, which is almost certainly a derivation of Kuśa.³

c8.s3.12

¹ Cf. "Kuśasthalaṃ Kānyakubjaṃ" (*Abhidhāna-saṃgraha*, II (puravarga), verse 193, p. 9); *Śabdakalpadruma*, Vol. II, p. 85; *Harṣacarita* (Calcutta, 1892), p. 603; Cambay plates of Govinda IV: *Ep. Ind.*, VII, p. 43; *Mahābhārata* (P. C. Roy's Sanskrit text) V (Uddyogaparva), section 30, verse 19, etc.

c8.s3.13

² We may compare this name with Kuśāgarapura, the designation of the old city of Rājagriha. According to Yuan Chwang the city derived its name from the excellent fragrant reed grass which abounded there (Watters, II, p. 148; Beal, *Life of Yuan Chwang*, p. 113).

c8.s3.14

³ "Kanyākubjaṃ Gādhipuraṃ Kauśaṃ Kuśasthalaṃ ca tat" (Hemacandra's *Abhidhānacintāmaṇi*, verse 40, p. 166). See also Keśava's *Kalpadrukośa*, verse 16, p. 10, etc.

c8.s3.15

The records of the Gāhaḍavāla dynasty represent its kings as protecting the four sacred places (*tīrthas*)—Kāśī, Kuśika, Uttara Kośala (Ayodhyā) and Indrasthāna; and Kielhorn was of opinion that in this list the name Kuśika stands for Kanauj.⁴

c8.s3.16

⁴ *Ind. Ant.*, XV, p. 8, note 46; Ibid., XVIII, p. 13, note 33.

c8.s3.17

Lastly we learn from Yuan Chwang that Kusumapura (*Keu-su-mo-pu-lo*) or "the city of flowers" was the original name, and it came to be invested with the name of Kanyākubja ("city of hunchbacked maidens")

c8.s3.18

Gwalior Sāsbahū inscription, see *Ind. Ant.*, XV, pp. 36, 41, verse 6.

c8.s3.19

only after the curses of the “great Tree Riṣi”.¹ Hindu authority in support of this synonym is wanting, but such a name seems to have been fairly current in ancient times. Indeed, the pilgrim notes that Pāṭaliputra—the earlier Imperial city—bore the same name.²

c8.s3.20

¹ Watters, I, p. 341; Beal, I, p. 207.

c8.s3.21

² *Ibid.*, II, p. 87; *Ibid.*, II, pp. 83, 85. On the authority of certain Jain chronicles of Gujarat Dr. Vincent Smith affirms that Kalyāṇa was another name of Kanauj (J. R. A. S., 1908, p. 768). The fact that ‘Mahodaya’ and ‘Kalyāṇa’ are almost synonymous words in Sanskrit, no doubt, lends some support to this view. See also Bühler, *Ind. Ant.*, VI, pp. 181, 183; D. R. Bhandarkar, *J. B. B. R. A. S.*, XXI, pp. 427-28.

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