Kingdom of Kannauj Kānyakubja Rājya | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 510–1036 | |||||||||
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| Status |
| ||||||||
| Capital | Kannauj | ||||||||
| Official languages | Sanskrit | ||||||||
| Common languages | Shauraseni | ||||||||
| Religion | Hinduism | ||||||||
| Government | Absolute monarchy | ||||||||
| King | |||||||||
• 510–520 | Harivarman (first) | ||||||||
• 1024–1036 | Yasahpala (last) | ||||||||
| Historical era | Early Mediaeval Era | ||||||||
| Area | |||||||||
| 634 CE | 1,000,000 km2 (390,000 sq mi) | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Today part of | India | ||||||||
The Kingdom of Kannauj was a medieval kingdom in northern India from 510, when it was established as a vassal state of the Magadhan Empire, and as an independent sovereign state after 550, until 1036, when it collapsed after Ghaznavid invasions.[1] During the reign of Harsha, and later under the Pratiharas, the Kingdom of Kannauj stood as the most powerful state in India, flourishing in the seventh century, and again in the ninth and tenth centuries.
Kannauj became the most important city in North India during this period, and hence was contested by the three great powers of the subcontinent of the period — the Gurjara kingdom under the Pratihara dynasty, the Bengal kingdom under the Pala dynasty, and the Rashtrakutas of Manyakheta.[2][3]
Following his victory in 816, the king of the Gurjaras, Nagabhata II declared himself the king of Kannauj. For nearly half a century, between 890 and 944, the kings of Kannauj also bore the imperial title of 'Emperor of Aryavarta'. However, after this period, the empire began to fragment as its vassals gradually declared their independence, eventually reducing the kingdom to the Doab region by the late tenth century. Following invasions of the Ghaznavid Empire in the early eleventh century, the kingdom came to an end and the prestige of Kannauj slowly dwindled, and Delhi became the most important city of (North India.
- ^ Tripathi, Rama S. (1989). History of Kanauj: To the Moslem Conquest. Motilal Banarsidass Publ. p. 36. ISBN 9788120804043.
- ^ Pratiyogita Darpan. Upkar Prakashan. p. 9. Archived from the original on 8 March 2024. Retrieved 15 November 2015.
- ^ R.C. Majumdar (1994). Ancient India. Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 282–285. ISBN 978-81-208-0436-4.