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SOCIETY

No. I. 1862.

Vestiges of Three Royal Lines of Kanyakubja, or Kanauj; with Indications of its Literature.-By FITZ-EDWARD HALL, Esquire, D. C. L. Oxon.

By no means alone among Indian cities of old renown, Kanauj has shrunk from the once proud position of a metropolis into a town whose extent and importance are now most inconsiderable. If the entire site of its ruins was ever peopled simultaneously, its habitancy may at one time have competed with that of London; and yet our knowledge of its political vicissitudes, and even of its rulers and of its men of letters, is scarcely more than a dreary blank. It is my purpose, in the present brief paper, to collect, and, as far as possible, to connect, the detached facts, bearing on a portion of its mediæval history, which recent research has rendered available. These facts, in no small share, are of my own discovering.

From the Harsha-charita* of Báṇa, likewise author of the Kádambarí, and of the Chandi-s'ataka,† we learn, that, in his time, which is

For a page or two, here, I do little more than copy from my preface to the Vásavadattá; a publication not likely to meet the eyes of many readers of this Journal, or to be consulted for matters of historical fact.

For a story about this poem, see my preface to the Vásavadattá, p. 8. Whether the Chandi-s'ataka was written in rivalry of Mayúra's Súrya-s'ataka, or whether the latter was prompted by the former, each of the compositions reminds one vividly of the other. I have seen but a single copy of the Chandi-s'ataka; and that was very incorrect. It contains one hundred and one stanzas, and is attributed, in the epigraph, to Báņa Bhaṭṭa. The beginning and end are subjoined, without amendment :

मा भाङ्गच्यी निभ्रमं भूरविधुरताकयमास्या स्यरागं

याष्ये प्राण्येव नाऽयं कलयति कलह श्रद्वया किं निशूलम् ।

B

known to have been shortly before the middle of the seventh century, the king of Kanauj.was Harshavardhana, Harshamalla, or simply Harsha.* His elder brother was Rajyavardhana;† and he had a sister, Mahadeví, or Rájyas'rí. Their parents were Pratápas'íla, or Prabhakaravardhana,‡ and Yas'ovatí. Prabhákaravardhana's ancestor, of some unnamed degree, was Pushpabhúti, a native of S'ríkantha. इत्युद्यत्कोपकेतून् प्रतिमवयवान् प्रापयन्त्येव देव्या

न्यस्तो वो मूर्ध्नि युष्मान् मरुदसुहृदवन् संहरत्रं हिरंहः ।।
खस्ताङ्गः मन्नचेष्टा भयहृतवचनः सन्नदोर्दण्डमाखः
स्थाणुर्दृष्ट्वा यमाजा चणमिव सभयः स्थाणुरेवापजातः ।
तस्य ध्वंसात् सुरारेर्महिषितवपुषा लब्धमानावकाशः
पार्वत्या वामपादः शमयतु दुरितं दारुणं वः स देवः ।।

Its sixty-sixth stanza occurs, anonymously, in the Saraswati-kanthábharana. It is found in the S'árngadhara-paddhati as well, and is there ascribed to Báņa. विद्राणे रुद्रवृन्दे are the initial words.

* He was reigning when Hiouen-Thsang was in India, namely, between A. D. 629 and 645. Voyages des Pèlerins Bouddhistes, Vol. II., p. 247. Bána was a contemporary of Harsha, whom he first saw, he tells us, at S'rîkaṇṭha.

Hiouen-Thsang declares, that Harsha was called S'íláditya also. But of this assertion there is not an inkling in what I have seen of the Harsha-charita. Its truth is, indeed, open to grave question; for the titles of none, I suspect, but Kshatriyas end in áditya; and the Chinese pilgrim informs us, that Harsha was a Vais'ya. For the rest, he has, pretty evidently, confounded him with another S'íláditya, whom he terms a Kshatriya. Was Dhruvapatu,-called son-in-law of S'iláditya, another name of Grahavarman, soon to be mentioned? Voyages, &c., Vol. I., pp. 111, 112, 206, and 370; Vol. II., p. 251; and Vol. III., p. 163. For Dhruvasena, son of S'íláditya, see the Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. III., Part II., p. 216.

Of this Dhruvasena, or of some relative of his, bearing the same name, and under the title of Rájá of Vallabhínagarí, Lakshmívallabha, the Jaina, tells a story, in his Kalpa-druma-kaliká.

The partiality for Bauddhas, asserted, by Hiouen-Thsang, of Harsha, must, very probably, be received with liberal discount.

Not Rájavardhana,-an all but impossible name,-as Hiouen-Thsang has it; but venially, considering the slight difference, to the ear, between the syllables rája and rájya. This I pointed out some years ago. But M. Julien still adheres to his authority. He says: "Lo che fa-t'an-na (Râdjavarddhana); en Chinois,** Wang-tseng l'augmentation, l'agrandissement du roi —Sur la suppression de d devant dh, voyez § XV. P. 76 of Méthode pour déchiffrer et transcrire les Noms Sanscrits qui se rencontrent dans les Livres Chinois, &c. Paris: 1861. In passing, there is no necessity for supposing, in this case, that d is suppressed before dh; for vardhana is just as correct Sanskrit as varddhana.

I have no time to dwell on the speculations of Professor Lassen touching these persons. Misled by Hiouen-Thsang's indeterminate style of expression, he makes two kings, Harshavardhana and S'íláditya, out of one. Again, characteristically enough, he gratuitously provides, in S'íláditya, a father for one Dharmáditya,—a foundling, for anything ascertained to the contrary,-whom he elevates, and his son Jayáditya after him, to the throne of Kanauj. See the Indische Alterthumskunde, Vol. III., pp. 669-715, and 1162; and Voyages, &c., Vol. I., pp. 111, 112.

I write without the privilege of access to what M. Reinand has published on India as represented by the Arabian travellers.

Whether Pushpabhúti was, or was not, of regal condition does not appear. In religion, he was a S'aiva; and one Bhairava Acharya was his mystagogue.

Prabhakaravardhana accorded his preference, in matters of devotion, to the sun; and Mádhavagupta served him as spiritual counsellor. His exploits, as recorded, include the subjugation of the Húņas, with Sindhu, Gurjara, Gándhára, Láța, and Málava. Due allowance must, of course, here be made for exaggeration. Unquestioning confidence in the representations of Indian panegyrists would entail the conclusion, that, in the bygone days of this country, everybody, above all if a patron, was constantly vanquishing everybody else.

Rájyavardhana, by command of his father, made an expedition to the north, against the Húrahúnas.* Harsha followed him. While hunting on the skirts of the Himalayas, a domestic, Karangaka, brought intelligence, that the king was critically ill. Harsha hastened back, and was just in time to see him expire. On the very day of Prabhákaravardhana's decease, Grahavarman was massacred by the king of Málava, who also threw Rajyas'rí into chains. This took place at Kanauj.

Grahavarman, son of Avantivarman, of the Maukhara family, was husband of Rajyas'rí. As we do not find it stated distinctly, that the king of Málava had aggressed on Kanauj, we should understand, it may be, that Grahavarman owed his death to the son of that sovereign, who, it is said, was staying at the Kanaujan court. Apparently, he was there in character of hostage; and perhaps he received the assistance of troops from his home unexpectedly.

Rájyavardhana, taking with him Bhaṇḍin,†-a subject of high

* As I have noted elsewhere, the Hárahúņas-and they may have been the same as the Húrahúņas,- -are coupled with the S'akas in the Mahábhárata, Sabháparvan, s'l. 1843, 1844. See some remarks on the Húnas in the Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. VI., pp. 528, 529.

For the Halahúņas (?), see Professor Weber's Catalogue of the Berlin Sanskrit MSS., p. 241.

Colebrooke, speaking of a King Devapála, says: "The tribes of Lásata and Bhota, as well as Hun, are mentioned among his subjects, with the tribes of Gauda, Málava, Karnáta, &c. He was, therefore, sovereign of Thibet and Bootan, as well as of Hindusthan, Bengal, and the Dekhin. It was, probably, in Thibet that he encountered the Huns, and reduced them to subjection." Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. I., p. 227.

The Húṇas are, thus, not recognized, by Colebrooke, as other than a people foreign to India. The notion, that there were not Hindu Húņas, I have previously shown to be, anyhow, not established entirely beyond scope of question.

+ The minister "P'o-ni"-M. Julien's Báņí, Bhaṇí, and Bhaņi (?)—into

*

rank, by whom his education had been superintended,--and an army of ten thousand horse, marched to attack the king of Málava. Him he slew; but his own fate was defeat and death at the hands of Gupta, king of Gauḍa, of which the news was brought back by Kuntala, a chief officer of cavalry. Sinhanáda and Skandagupta, the generalissimos, urge Harsha to make reprisals; and they lose no time in embarking on the enterprize.

The account of Harsha's progress towards the south-east I omit.† Before he could reach Gauḍa, Bhandin arrived, with spoils of the Málavas. Enquiries were at once made for Rájyas'rí. She had escaped from Kanauj, and had fled towards the Vindhya mountains. Thither Harsha directs his steps. He is visited by Bhúkampa, a military retainer to some local dignitary, Vyághraketu, son of S'arabha. ketu. These names, by the bye, seem to be coinages suggested by the fancied fitness of circumstances, Bhúkampa knows nothing of Rájyas'rí's present quarters, and recommends, that Harsha should seek for information at a neighbouring hamlet. She is discovered, when on the very point of burning herself.

At this juncture my least imperfect manuscript of the Harshacharita unfortunately breaks off. With one more reference, I shall take leave of it. Among the Vindhyas, Harsha meets with a holy mendicant, Divákaramitra by name, a Bauddha pervert from Hinduism. In his vicinity resided various religionists, whose denominations I detail; it being interesting to know what Indian sects had existence in the seventh century. There were Arhatamaskarins, S'wetavratas, Páṇḍurabhikshus, Bhágavatas, Varņins, Laukáyatikas, Jainas, Kápilas, Kánádas, Aupanishadas, I's'warakáraņins, Dharmas'ástrins, Páuránikas, Sáptatantavas, S'ábdas, and Páncharátras.

whose mouth a long speech is put, in the Chinese, is, in all probability, my Bhandin, or Bhandí-to write the word in the nominative: only Bána provides Bhandin with an alibi at the time Hiouen-Thsang sets" P'o-ni" to haranguing at Kanauj. Voyages, &c, Vol. I., p. 112; Vol. II., p. 248; and Vol. III., pp. 435, 492.

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According to Hiouen-Thsang, Rajyavardhana fell a victim to the machinations of S'asʼánka, who reigned at Karṇasuvarna. May not that potentate's full name have been S'as'ánkagupta ?

The ruins of Karṇasuvarṇa have been discovered, by Captain F. P. Layard, about twelve miles to the south of Murshidabad. See this Journal, for 1853, pp. 281, 282.

I have taken the last paragraph from my preface to the Vásavadattá, p. 52 The sentence standing just before it, in that page, is to be expunged.

At Prágjyotishapura he entered into an alliance with Bháskaravarman, the king of Kámarúpa whom Hiouen-Thsang visited. Voyages, &c., Vol. I., pp. 390, 391; and Vol. III, pp. 76, 77.

Harsha's immediate successors in empire have still to reveal themselves. It cannot have been a short catalogue of names that connected his own with those of the next known masters of Kanauj. Of these persons we catch a glimpse in an inscription* of which a redeciperment will conclude this paper. For two facsimiles of the original I am indebted to the kindness of our Secretary. The kings, and their consorts, with whom that document brings us acquainted, are as follows:

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Of these, Nos. I. and VII. are called Vaishnavas; No. II., a Máhes'wara; Nos. III., V., and VI., devotees of Bhagavatí; and Nos. IV. and VIII., heliolators.

Since Vinayakapála bestowed away land in close proximity to Benares, we have proof, that, still in his time, which may have been as late as the middle of the eleventh century, the jurisdiction of Kanauj§ was of great compass.

* It has already been printed in this Journal, for 1848, Part I., p. 71. For Professor Lassen's groundless assignment to Udayapura of the kings with whom it is concerned, see my paper at pp. 195-210 of the last volume of this Journal. + Every king is styled, in the original, deva, and every queen, deví,—or leds and feà;—a mode of nomenclature which the later Greek-speaking people employed very generally, and the Romans, to some extent, in the same way. The author of the Curiosities of Literature, had he read excursively in the classical languages of Europe, must have modified his chapter on the "Titles of Sovereigns."

We are informed, that the village of Tikkariká, the object of donation, was situate in the bhukti of Pratishthána, in the vishaya of Váráṇasí.

Pratishthána once designated, no less than other places, what is now Allahabad. It was, I apprehend, at this locality, characterized-to distinguish it from other Pratishthanas,- -as S'rís'a's, or Vishnu's, Pratishthána, that Govindachandra, of Kanauj, bathed in the Ganges, previously to issuing a patent which, a few years ago, was still in existence. See this Journal, for 1858, p 248. Bhukti appears as a synonyme of bhoga. Vide ibid., for 1861, p. 197. Tikkariká lay on the high road opposite Kás'í. There is a Tikarí about two miles from Benares, across the river. Thus, at a period when Kásí was, presumably, the more popular name of the city of Benares, the circumjacent territory was known as Váráṇasí.

§ In the seventh century, the principality of Kanauj was one of four into which north-eastern Hindusthan was distributed. Albirání gives Madhya-des'a,

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