Kannauj: the capital of Aryavarta (836 – 1019 AD)
For Kannauj, the period spanning
almost two hundred years after the death of King Harsha was one of continuous
wars and short-lived monarchies by the rival dynasties of the region, who were
perpetually at battle with each other in the attempt to consolidate their
empire and probably once again fulfil the ideals of a Chakravartin Samrat of Aryavarta.
Kannauj was already well established as the capital of North India from the
time of Harsha and with Magadh, Pataliputra, Mathura and other cities fading in
their prominence, Kannauj continued to be regarded as the heart of Aryavarta
and the jewel in the crown most sought after by the kings at war. After Harsha
and his immediate successor Yasovarma, the Ayudha
dynasty captured Kannauj and ruled for about fifty years. During this time, the
Chalukyas and even the King of Kashmir, Lalitaditya, is said to have attacked
Kannauj with the desire to rule over this magnificent city.
However, by the end of the 8th
century, the power and politics of Aryavarta remained in the hands of three
dynasties, who were forever at war with each other: the Gurjara-Pratiharas from
Rajasthan, the Rashtrakutas from Maharashtra and parts of south-central; and
the Palas of Bengal. All of them sought to keep Kannauj under their clamp, as
the city strongly signified power and control over Aryavarta. The chequered
history of war-torn Kannauj during these periods and tales of the battles and
coups forged by the Pratihara, Rashtrakuta and Pala kings over a hundred years
is, on one hand fascinating yet on the other, dark and of betrayals and
bloodshed.
It was also during this turbulent
period that Kannauj once again rose to a commendable height of glory under the Pratihara
King, Mihir Bhoja in 836 AD. Though not immediately comparable to the Kannauj
under Harsha, Mihir Bhoja ensured that he rebuilt the city’s war affected zones
and added further magnificence. Learning and culture surged in Kannauj and once
again the traditions of Brahmanical Hinduism were glorified under the
Kanyakubja Brahmins, who now had acquired the cult tag of ‘Kannaujia Brahmin’, one that was set to stay for many more
centuries to come. A devout follower of Lord
Vishnu, Mihir Bhoja built many temples across his kingdom and patronised
the Brahmins extensively, as bearers and keepers of traditional Brahminical
Hindu faith who propagated the Vedic rituals, culture and literature.
Mihir Bhoja’s kingdom ranged from
the Sutlej River in the North-west to the foothills of Himalayas in the North
and from Bengal in the East to Gujarat in the West, while the Narmada River
made up for the border in the South. Kannauj was the illustrious capital of his
expansive empire and a very prosperous one at that, as we read from the works
of Sulaiman, the Arab traveller who
visited India during this time. Mihir Bhoja also successfully repulsed several
Arab invasions on the North-west borders of his kingdom (present day Sindh in
Pakistan) and ensured that he united Aryavarta under Kannuj once again, till
885 AD.
Mihir Bhoja’s successors, though
defended their kingdom for a few more generations, were steadily losing parts
of their territories to other kings. They lost some parts of the Punjab to the
King of Kashmir, while the Rashtrakutas in the south were posing a fierce
threat yet again against the weakened Pratiharas. It was during the initial
years of the reign of Mahipala, 913 AD to be exact, that the Rashtrakuta King,
Indra III, attacked Kannauj and ransacked the city mercilessly. Mahipala had to
flee and Kannauj passed on to the hands of the Rashtrakutas for the next three years. Kannauj had hitherto not seen such a
bloody war and pillage of its wealth and magnificence as it saw at the hands of
the Rashtrakuta king Indra III; however then, little did the city know that it
would have to face an even more merciless ransacking, killing and looting
within the turn of the same century at the hands of the first Muslim invaders.
Mahipala was however able to
return to his capital and overthrow the Rashtrakuta vassals in Kannauj and take the city back for the Pratiharas by 916 AD. Barring the singular blot of
the ‘ransacking of Kannauj’ by Indra III, Mahipala is credited with the
attributes of a valiant ruler and warrior who maintained his kingdom and
subjects well. The Arab chronicler, ‘Al-Masudi’ writes about him:
"The
ruler has four armies according to the four quarters of the wind. Each of these
number 700,000 or 900,000 men. He has large armies in the garrisons in the
north and in the south; in the east and in the west, for he is surrounded on
all sides by warlike rulers."
Thus in the fight for the control
of Aryavarta and pursuit of keeping
suzerainty over Kannauj as the capital of Aryavarta,
the Pratiharas had overall emerged victorious against their rivals the Rashtrakutas
and the Palas. However, constant wars and break down of kingdoms over this
period actually worked against the interests of Aryavarta, for after Mihir
Bhoja there was no king who could unite Aryavarta again and build a formidable
force. The powers of the Palas in Bengal were limited, while that of the later
Pratiharas and the Rashtrakutas got weakened. Their vassals rebelled against
them and broke away from the kingdoms to form smaller kingdoms of their own.
Thus by 1000 AD, Aryavarta had disintegrated into a disjoined and fragmented
structure of many states and kingdoms with independent rulers, mostly still
fighting against themselves. This paved the way easily for the successful raids
into India by Mahmud of Ghazni, which began in 1001 AD.
The first Muslim conquest of Kannauj (1018 AD)
It was in 1018 AD that the
tremors of the pounding hoofs of the troops of horsemen of Mahmud of Ghazni’s
ferocious army were felt on the soil of Kannauj, heralding the most ominous and
dreaded of the battles that the magnificent city had ever witnessed. Stories of
Mahmud’s fearsome invasions and battles on the plains of the Indus and Sutlej
had by then spread all across Aryavarta (northern India), as the burly Sultan
had already invaded the country at least ten times and indiscriminately killed
and looted in the towns and cities that fell in his way.
What started as a battle for territorial
supremacy between the Ghaznavids and the Hindu Shahi kings of Kabul in 1000 AD,
in no time broke down the barriers of the rugged North-western frontier and
opened the doors to India for Mahmud. The Hindu Shahi King Jayapaladeva of Kabul
was defeated by Mahmud in the first battle in 1000 AD, but Mahmud returned
within a year with a larger force to capture Kabul and then furthered his
intention to loot and fill his Ghaznavid capital with the riches of Hindustan,
as he chased the Hindu Shahi forces further down. By 1006 AD, he had defeated
Jayapaladeva and his son and successor King Anandapala repeatedly and ransacked
the cities of Purushapura (modern
Peshawar in Pakistan), Udabhandapura
(modern Und in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan – which was the later capital of the
Hindu Shahi kings once Kabul was taken), Bhera
(modern Bhira in Pakistan-Punjab) and Mulasthanam
(modern Multan in Pakistan). Making it a sport and easy exploit, Mahmud
continued his series of infamous raids to India and emboldened by each lavish
victory, he soon swooped down onto the heartland of north India.
Having deposed the Hindu Shahi
Kings from Kabul and North-west of India, over the next decade Mahmud continued
to plague the country with his raids, ransacking and looting. While Peshawar
and Multan were repeatedly sacked, Mahmud’s fury did not spare the Nandana, the last capital city of the
Hindu Shahi Kings - after Mahmud destroyed and annexed Udabhandapura (Und). Nandana
was a picturesque town nestled in the verdant valleys of the Salt Range of the
Indus valley, and King Anandapala had chosen to name it Nandana, after the celestial garden of Lord Indra. (In modern day, the only remains of Nandana
city are the ruins of the Shiva temple built by Anandapala, which still stands
atop a hill in the Salt Range of Pakistan; the city has been completely
decimated, destroyed and has over time slipped into oblivion).
In his invasions of 1011 Mahmud
had come as far as Delhi and sacked Thaneswar, and in 1015 he had successfully
pillaged the formidable city of Lohkot (modern Lahore in Pakistan). He
completely overthrew the Hindu Shahi kingdom and forced its last ruler
Trilochanapala to flee. Trilochanapala was given refuge by the king of Kalinjar.
Having conquered and subjugated the kingdoms in the North-west provinces, it
was but expected that in his next adventure the ferocious Sultan would come
charging down on the cities that lay further deep in the Ganga-Yamuna Doab, the
opulence of which were not unknown to him by then.
When Mahmud attacked Mathura and
Mahaban in 1018, he was met by armies of some of the regional kings but they
were hardly a match to the ferocity of the invading Ghaznavid army under
Mahmud. Mathura and Mahaban fell after a fierce battle in 1018 and were
completely ransacked post which the Sultan turned his attention to Kannauj, as
he intruded further down the plains. The ruling Pratihara king of Kannauj at
that time was Rajyapala who was terrified at the prospect of facing Mahmud’s
army with the almost certainty of defeat and bloodshed in the capital.
Rajyapala had been part of the Hindu confederacy (the joint armies of Ujjain,
Gwalior, Kalinjar, Kannauj, Delhi and Ajmer) which had earlier fought in
support of the Hindu Shahi kingdom and had opposed Mahmud between Und and
Peshawar and had been completely routed by the invading forces. Faced with the
daunting task of fighting Mahmud’s army alone, Rajyapala chose not to engage in
battle with the Sultan and Kannauj was surrendered without a fight. This
however did not stop the greedy Sultan from ransacking the city and he
proceeded to destroy many important Hindu temples and Buddhist stupas in
Kannauj. The holy shrines were desecrated and the temple wealth was looted
indiscriminately.
As the pillage and plundering in
Kannauj went on at the hands of Mahmud’s army, among the subjects the worst
fate probably befell the Kanyakubja (Kannaujia) Brahmins. On the pretext of jihad, the Muslim invaders fanatically
crushed the Hindu centres of worship and learning, burning Vedic and Sanskrit
texts and scriptures wherever they could find them. They were aware that the
Brahmins were the keepers of the religious culture and traditions as well as
the temple wealth, and hence the wrath fell on them. The Brahmin houses were
invaded, destroyed and looted and the priests and scholars were mercilessly
tortured, their books and belongings being burnt in front of their eyes. The
king had already surrendered and remained a mute spectator as the once glorious
city of Kannauj was brought to its knees and its wealth forcibly taken away.
Mahumd of Ghazni left a burning
and destroyed Kannauj, and if that wasn’t enough, within a year Kannauj was
attacked by the neighbouring Chandelas. The rage of the Chandela King was directed
against Rajyapala for having meekly surrendered to Mahmud without a fight and for
allowing the destruction, arson and looting of his city, but the Chandel
soldiers ensured that they also had their share of looting as they ravaged
through the already broken city. Rajyapala was killed by the Chandelas and that
marked the end of the Pratihara dynasty, leaving Kannauj in a total state of
anarchy and political chaos, by the end of 1019 AD.
Coming
Soon …. Kanyakubja Chronicles V
In the next article, we shall read
about the revival of Kannauj and the restoration of its glory under the lineage
of the Gahadavala Kings, until the final decimation of the city and its Hindu
Brahminical culture, in the second Muslim conquest at the hands of Muhammad
Ghori. Kannauj thereafter came under Islamic rulers, an influence which
relegated all Hindu culture and learning to minimal relevance, thus forcing
large sections of the remaining Kanyakubja Brahmins to desert the city to
escape forced conversion and attempt safekeeping of the remnants of Vedic
scriptures and traditions that were miraculously saved.
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