KANAUJIA or Canoujia. Hum. A designation of various tribes in Hindustan, implying a notion of their having come originally from Kanouj or Kenya Kubja. It is especially applied to a large and influential tribe of Brahmans. Five chief subdivisions of them are reckoned, all numerous and well known,—Kanaujia proper, Sarwaria, San audha, Jijhotia, Bhunhar,—who are again divided into 16 classes, named either from their reputed founders, who were celebrated sages, as Garga, Gautama, and others, or from their former ac quirements, as Dobe, Tewari or Trivedi, Chaube, or as learned in two, three, or four Vedas, or from their having been teachers, as Bhattachari and Upadhyaya, or from other circumstances, as Pande, Dikshit, Bajpeyi, etc.
The Kanaujia proper are found principally in the Central Doab, extending into Bundelkhand on the one hand, and on the other into Oudh, and are divided into 6 or si families, thence termed Khat (for that six) Kol, or, severally Gates (from the Sanskrit Gotra, a race), as the Sandel gote, Upaman gote, Bharadwaj gote, Katyayana or Viswamitragote, Kasyapa gote, and Sakrint gote.
They correspond in rank to the Kulin Brahmans of Bengal, and although taking wives from the other tribes, allow their daughters to marry only into one of the Khat-Kul.
The Samaria class is also called Saryu or Sarju-paria, living beyond the Saryu or Ga.gra river, or chiefly in Gorakhpur. The Sanandhas are met with principally in Rohilkhand and the Upper and Central Doab, extending westwards to Gwalior. The Jijhotias are settled to the south west. The Bunhars are found with the Sar warias in Oudh, and spread to the hills of Bundelkhand. The term Kanaujia is applied, however, to other than Brahmanical tribes, and we have Kanaujia Kurmis, or agricultural castes, and even Kanaujia Thugs.— Wilson's Glossary.