History of Kanauj to the Moslem Conquest c8.s4.1

c8.s4.1

There are indications that the title of Kānyakubja was not restricted to the city only, but also extended to the neighbouring territory, or even to the kingdom of which it was the centre. Yuan Chwang gives the name *Ka-no-kü-she*, i.e., Kānyakubja both to the capital and the country, which he describes as being 4,000 *li* in circuit.³ Similarly, the Barah copper plate shows that at that period (836 A. D.) both the names Mahodaya and Kānyakubja were current, the former being used for the capital city, and the latter for a *bhukti* or province of the kingdom,⁴ of which Kālañjara-*maṇḍala* formed a part. Again, we learn from Rashid-ud-din’s *Jami-ut-Tawārīkh* that according to the Persians the designation Kanauj stood for Mahades (Madhyadeśa) or middle-land, one of the traditional nine divisions of Hind.⁵ In support of this, it may be added here that the Somnāthpattan *praśasti* of Bhāva Bṛihaspati, dated 1169 A. D., mentions the Kānyakubja-viṣaya as including Bānārasi i.e., Benares.¹ In the Gāhaḍavāla plates the city itself is called the Kuśika tīrtha and the name Kānyakubja is given to the kingdom. Thus Candradeva, the founder of the line, is invariably extolled as “one who had acquired the kingdom of Kānyakubja by the prowess of his arm.”²