For an extended period of time in
the mythological period, especially during the time span between the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, the story of Kanyakubja
is quite blurred and there seems to be no significant mention of it, until the
period of the Mahabharata.
The Mahabharata times (3rd Century BC,
during the Dwapar Yuga) –
In ancient India, from the 6th
to 4th century BC, there existed sixteen Mahajanapadas, kingdoms or oligarchic republics, ranging from Kamboja (modern day Kabul) and Gandhara (modern day Qandahar) in the
North-west to Anga (modern day
Bengal) in the eastern part. Two of them were ‘ganas’ or republics while the others were ruled over by monarchs. Of
these, Panchal Pradesh was a notable one,
which also carries historic importance for us.
Spread across the Gangetic basin,
Panchal Pradesh was criss-crossed by
five rivers, viz., Ganga, Yamuna, Kosi, Kali and Chambal. The kingdom was
divided by the Ganga into two parts: North Panchal and South Panchal, with
capitals at Ahichchhatra and Kampilya respectively. During the time
of the Mahabharata, King Drupad was
the monarch of Panchal and Kampilya was his capital. Among other smaller
territories governed by sub-lords, Kanyakubja too was a part of South Panchal
kingdom, the city being located a mere thirty miles away from the capital
Kampilya.
As the Mahabharata legend goes, the
guru of the Kauravas and Pandavas, Dronacharya, sent his pupil
Arjun to avenge him and put Drupad in his rightful place. Arjun defeated
Drupad, annexed his kingdom and brought him bound to Dronacharya. In the truce
that followed, ending the bitter rivalry between the erstwhile closely bonded
friends, Dronacharya took away the North Panchal part of Drupad’s kingdom and
aligned the same to Hastinapur (capital
of the Kuru kingdom) while giving
back the South Panchal portion to Drupad to retain. Dronacharya then stayed in
Ahichchhatra for some time before returning to Hastinapur and leaving his son
Ashwathama as ruler of North Panchal, under subjugation of the Hastinapur kingdom.
It was also in Kampilya, the shining
capital of South Panchal kingdom, that the famous swayamvara ceremony of Princess Draupadi (Panchali) was held where
Arjun won the hand of the Princess of Panchal. During this period, the Pandavas
are said to have extensively travelled through the South Panchal kingdom,
staying in places like Kanyakubja, which is spoken of as a thriving city and a
great seat of culture, education and Vedic religion, in the references found in
the Mahabharata.
To put the geography in modern
day perspective, Kampilya still remains as a small town called Kampil in Farukhabad
in Uttar Pradesh. Out of the North Panchal area which was annexed to
Hastinapur, the Kauravas gave away a part of Ahhichchatra to Guru Dronacharya
and his family – which today can be identified as modern Haryana as Gurgaon or ‘Gurugram’,
truly as the name suggests. Kanyakubja, as we already know, came to be the modern
day Kannauj, eighty kilometres away from Kanpur city.
Ancient history of India – later Vedic era, Maurya and Gupta, periods (1200 BC – 550
AD)
If Panchal Pradesh as one of the
sixteen Mahajanapadas had an
important place in the mythological references, there was yet another Mahajanapada which proclaims to have changed
the course of Indian history. It is the Magadha
kingdom, the existence and references of which we find in Vedic texts and
Epics, in time much earlier than 600 BC. According to the Brahmanda Purana references we come to know of Brihadratha who is
said to be the first king of Magadha, in the post Vedic period.
Brihadratha’s dynasty was
followed by a quick succession of dynasties between 600 and 322 BC. Magadha saw
its first expansion under the Haryanka dynasty kings, notably Bimbisara and
Ajatsatru, the latter being the contemporary of Lord Buddha. Ajatsatru had his
capital at Girivraja, which he
renamed to Rajagiri (modern-day
Rajgir, in the state of Bihar). The Shishunaga dynasty overthrew the Haryankas
in 413 BC and ruled for less than hundred years. They were overthrown by
Mahapadma Nanda Ugrasena, who founded the Nanda dynasty in 345 BC. It was
during the reign of the last Nanda king, Dhana Nanda, in 326 BC, that Alexander
the Great invaded India. However, their armies did not meet for a battle, as
Alexander’s armies were exhausted and had mutinied in the region of the Beas
River in the northwest province forcing Alexander to turn back.
Chandragupta Maurya, who overthrew
the Nanda dynasty, established the Maurya Empire in 321 BC. The capital of the
Maurya Empire was Pataliputra
(modern-day Patna). The Maurya Empire reached its zenith under his grandson
Ashoka and extended from the eastern borders of Persia (modern-day Iran) till
the southern borders of Burma. The Mauryan period professed Buddhism as the
state religion and propagated it throughout the empire. The Mauryan Empire went
into decline by 180 BC and was followed by few other local rulers who took
control of Magadha and the capital Pataliputra.
While much of the action was happening
in the Indo-Gangetic plains with Magadha assuming all the importance and
limelight, Panchal Pradesh in the post Vedic period was having a quiet run with
its series of local rulers having consolidated the kingdom. With the decline of
power and resultant threat from the Kuru
kingdom (Mahajanapada) and its capital
Indraprastha (modern-day Delhi – legacy
left behind by the Pandavas), the
Panchala Kings were able to regain back most of their original kingdom,
including the northern important town of Ahichchhatra. Kanyakubja continued
with its journey of Vedic learning through the breed of the Kanyakubja
Brahmins, however, their agenda of propagating the Hindu scriptures had
significantly diminished in the wake of the surge of Buddhism across the
country at that period of time.
It was during the reign of the
fiery Mahapadma Nanda of the Nanda dynasty that Panchal Pradesh along with many
other Mahajanapadas was won over and
annexed to the expanding Magadha kingdom. This was consolidated firmly during
the Mauryan period as the entire country from the north-west to the south-east
borders was won over by Chandragupta Maurya and his worthy descendants, and the
concept of separate Mahajanapadas of
the later Vedic times was dissolved to give way to a unified India and provincial
heads or capitals therein. The resultant wide spread of Buddhism and the Pali language and their Prakrits used extensively during the
Mauryan period, forced Hinduism to take a back seat and classical Sanskrit as
the language of Vedic literature to be down forced. Thus centres of Hindu
scriptural and Vedic learning, like Kanyakubja,
Takshashila and Girivraja were affected by the upsurge of Buddhism and later
Jainism.
Kanyakubja had a milder effect in
the changed era, in comparison to the other two of its sibling cities Takshashila (modern Taxila – in North
Pakistan) and Girivraja (modern
Rajgir – in Bihar). This could be attributed to the fact that Kanyakubja was
not as popular and had not been adequately patronised by its Panchala rulers as
a seat of learning and could neither boast of accomplished faculty nor attract
students from afar. The city, though lived up to its potential of Vedic and
scriptural learning in Sanskrit and of being staunchly proud of its Brahminical
Hindu roots and traditions, albeit in a very contained and captive manner. The
Kanyakubja Brahmins continued to be the mainstay of the learning and tradition
being upheld, but they remained quite focussed internally turning their faces
away from the political, social and religious change that was sweeping across
the country over these centuries.
Takshashila (Taxila), revered till
date to have been one of the oldest universities of the world, became not only
a provincial capital for the Maurya emperors, but also an important seat of the
Mahayana Buddhist preaching and learning. Ashoka, the great propagator of
Buddhism, was a patron of the Taxila centre and had erected a lot of Buddhist
statues and icons in the city. However, even before the surge of Buddhism and
during the initiation of the Maurya Empire, Taxila had been credited as being
the abode of the famous Chanakya
(Kautilya) who is said to have composed his treatise Arthshastra in Taxila. The city even finds reference in the
Mahabharata in that the first recital of the Indian epic was done by sage Vaisampayan to King Janmejaya (of the Kuru royal
lineage) at Taxila.
Girivraja (Rajgir) had the next
famous seat of learning after Taxila during this period: the Nalanda University. Even though the
Mauryas had their capital at Pataliputra, Nalanda was a very important location
for them as a centre for preaching and teaching Buddhism. With Taxila and
Nalanda, strategically placed in the north-west and eastern parts of the
kingdom respectively, the Maurya period saw the significant rise of these
centres of learning. Even though the earlier Vedic and Sanskrit literature was
taught in both these places, the tide of time had turned the focus to be
predominantly Buddhist literature and the medium to be the Pali and Prakrit
language. In the whole scheme of things, Kanyakubja (for reasons mentioned
earlier) fell into a shadow area and continued its low-profile existence.
India was again unified and saw resurgent
glorious times under the Gupta Empire (240 AD to 550 AD) and the rise of
Brahminical Hinduism was observed during this time. This period is also known
as the age of Classical Sanskrit literature. As we have read from the accounts
of the Chinese travellers, notably Fa
Hien in the Mauryan period and Hiuen
Tsang in the post-Gupta era, along with Taxila, Nalanda and Kanyakubja,
other towns such as Mathura, Sarnath, Ujjain, Vidisha and Sravasti were developing
as fantastic centres of learning and architecture.
As Taxila was for the Uttarapath (Noth-west frontier) and
Nalanda for the Magadha region, Mathura
and Kanyakubja were the key town for the Madhyadesh
region. Under the Gupta kings, these cities rose to the pinnacle of glory as
centres of administration, culture, diverse religions, architecture and
celebration of the Classical Sanskrit knowledge. This golden age of the
Classical Sanskrit renaissance produced famous litterateurs like Kalidasa, Bharavi, Sriharsha and Magha who wrote the five ‘Mahakavyas’. Scholars and writers like Banabhatta, Bhartrihari and Vatsyayana also composed their famous
works Kadambari, the three Shatakas
and the Kama Sutra respectively during
this time. Further, the Hindu Puranas
are stated to be composed and refined during this age.
However, in the post-Gupta era
(570 AD – 650 AD, Mathura gave way to Kanyakubja, as the latter became
important for political reasons and rose to become the capital of King Harsha’s
undivided Indian empire.
The later Ancient history of India – Maukhari, and Vardhana periods (550 AD – 647 AD)
The Maukharis were the vassals of
the Gupta kings and were governing the Madhyadesh region from Kanyakubja. King
Isha Varman asserted his independence from the weakening Gupta Empire (which
was already breaking up) in 550 AD and established Kanyakubja as the capital of
Madhyadesha which he declared as a separate and independent kingdom. Over their
little-above-fifty-years of rule, they rapidly consolidated their kingdom and developed
Mathura as the second important city after the capital Kanyakubja. However,
they were engaged in constant skirmishes with the Later Guptas of Magadha and
other neighbouring kingdoms.
King Isha Varman was defeated by
Kumaragupta of Magadha in 554 AD, but his son Sharva Varman soon defeated the
Guptas and reclaimed his kingdom and capital of Kanyakubja. By the time of 605
AD, the power of the Later Gupta rulers had also diminished with many other
kingdoms asserting their independence and establishing separate ruling
dynasties. These kingdoms, viz., Madhyadesh ruled by the Maukhari Varmans,
Magadha ruled by the Later Guptas, Malwa ruled by Devagupta, Gauda (Bengal)
ruled by Shashanka, were always at war with each other in the attempt to expand
their territories and loot wealth from the other kingdoms.
One such dynasty was the Pushyabhuti
dynasty founded by Prabhakar Vardhana with their capital in Thaneswar (modern
day Haryana). Prabhakar Vardhan left behind two sons Rajya Vardhan and Harsha
Vardhan and a daughter Rajyasri. Rajya Vardhan ascended the throne and ruled
from Thanesar while his younger brother Harshavardhan took up the charge of
expanding the kingdom by conquering other territories. Their sister Rajyasri
was married to Graha Varman, the Maukhari king of Kanyakubja.
A few years after the matrimonial
alliance, Devagupta, the King of Malwa attacked Kanyakubja and defeated and
killed Graha Varman, taking the city and his queen Rajyasri captive in her own
palace. Rajya Vardhan, the king of Thanesar and Rajyasri’s elder brother
immediately rushed to Kanyakubja in support of his sister. He succeeded in defeating
and killing Devagupta in Kanyakubja and freed his sister Rajyasri from
captivity. But at this point, King Shashanka, the ruler of Gauda (Bengal) and
an ally of Devagupta of Malwa entered Kanyakubja to avenge the death of his
friend.
Shashanka treacherously murdered
Rajya Vardhan in Kanyakubja, and was planning to annex the kingdom when the
news of Rajya Vardhan’s death reached his younger brother Harsha. Wasting no
time and in furious anger, Harshavardhan marched on to Kanyakubja and defeated Shashanka
and his Gauda army.
Harsha’s successful campaign in
saving Kanyakubja also meant that the immediate threats to the kingdom had been
quelled. The people of Kanyakubja praised Harsha and looked upon him as their
saviour who had not only protected them but had also avenged the death of their
earlier king Graha Varman. The council of priests, ministers and the
representatives of the people at the Kanyakubja court requested Harsha to
ascend the throne as their new King. Harshavardhan was therefore anointed as
the new king of Madhyadesh at the palace in Kanyakubja in 606 AD. He was only
sixteen years of age at that time.
In quick succession, he brought
the other kingdoms around him to his subjugation and expanded his territories
from the Northwest borders of India to Kamarupa (Assam) in the east and to the
Narmada River in the south. King Harsha ruled for about forty years and it is
said that not only under him was the last unified Hindu empire in the country,
but also one of great glory and pomp, with Kanyakubja enjoying its most
prominent time as its capital of King Harsha’s empire.
Coming Soon ….. Part 4
In the next article, we shall
explore more on the glorious period of Kanyakubja under King Harsha, and then
its history under the subsequent kings till the Muslim conquests and
destruction of the city. The role of the Kanyakubja Brahmins also becomes more
pronounced in this era as the age of the renaissance of classical Hinduism
reaches its zenith.
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