KANAUJ, a district or province in Hindustan, known also as Kenya Kubja. It takes its name from Kanauj, an ancient city in Farrakhabad district, North-Western Provinces, in lat. 27° 2' 30" N., and long. 79° 58' E. Kanouj for many hundred years was the Hindu capital of Northern India, but the existing remains are few and unimportant. In A.D. 1016, when Mahmnd of Ghazni approached Kanouj, the historian relates that he there saw a city which raised its head to the skies, and which in strength and structure might justly boast to have no equal.' Just one century earlier, or in A.D. 915, Kanouj is mentioned by Masudi as the capital of one of the kings of India ; and about A.D. 900, Abu Zaid, on the authority of lbn Wahab, calls ' ICadnje a great city in the kingdom of Gozar.' At a still earlier date, in A.D. 634, we have the account of the Chinese pilgrim Iliwen Thsang, who describes Kanouj as being 20 li, or 3} miles in length, and 4 or 5 Ii, or of a mile in breadth. The city was sur rounded by strong walls and deep ditches, and was washed by the Ganges along its eastern face.
At the time of Hiwen Thsang's visit, Kanouj was tho capital of Raja flambe Vardhana, tho most powerful sovereign in Northern India. The Bais Rajputs claim descent from the famous Salivahan, whose capital is said to have been Dawndia Khera, on the north bank of the Ganges. Their close proximity to Kanouj is in favour of the sovereignty which they claim for their an cestors over the whole of the Gangetic Doab from Dehli to Allahabad. The more important architectural remains are the shrine of raja Ajai pal, supposed to have lived in the 9th or 10th century; the Jama Masjid ; the tombs of Bala Pir and of his son Shaikh Mchndi.
The modern town of Kanouj occupies only the north end of the site of the old city, including the whole of what is now called the Kilah or citadel. The stream which flows under Kanouj, from Sangrampur to Mhendi Ghat, although now chiefly filled with the waters of the Kali Nadi, was originally the main channel of the Ganges.— Cunninglianes Ancient Geog., of India, pp. 376, 379 ; Imp. Gaz.