_Brahman, Kanaujia, Kanyakubja._--This, the most important division
of the northern Brahmans, takes its name from the ancient city of
Kanauj in the Farukhabad District on the Ganges, which was on two
occasions the capital of India. The great king Harsha Vardhana, who
ruled the whole of northern India in the seventh century, had his
headquarters here, and when the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsang stayed at
Kanauj in A.D. 638 and 643 he found upwards of a hundred monasteries
crowded by more than 10,000 Buddhist monks. "Hinduism flourished as
well as Buddhism, and could show more than two hundred temples with
thousands of worshippers. The city, which was strongly fortified,
extended along the east bank of the Ganges for about four miles, and
was adorned with lovely gardens and clear tanks. The inhabitants were
well-to-do, including some families of great wealth; they dressed in
silk, and were skilled in learning and the arts." [424] When Mahmud
of Ghazni appeared before Kanauj in A.D. 1018 the number of temples
is said to have risen to 10,000. The Sultan destroyed the temples,
but seems to have spared the city. Thereafter Kanauj declined in
importance, though still the capital of a Rajput dynasty, and the
final sack by Shihab-ud-Din in A.D. 1194 reduced it to desolation
and insignificance for ever. [425]
The Kanaujia Brahmans include the principal body of the caste in
Bengal and in the Hindi Districts of the Central Provinces. They are
here divided into four sub-groups, the Kanaujia proper, Sarwaria,
Jijhotia and Sanadhya, which are separately noticed. The Sarwarias
are sometimes considered to rank a little higher than the proper
Kanaujias. It is said that the two classes are the descendants of two
brothers, Kanya and Kubja, of whom the former accepted a present from
the divine king Rama of Ayodhya when he celebrated a sacrifice on his
return from Ceylon, while the latter refused it. The Sarwarias are
descended from Kubja who refused the present and therefore are purer
than the Kanaujias, whose ancestor, Kanya, accepted it. Kanya and Kubja
are simply the two parts of Kanyakubja, the old name for Kanauj. It may
be noted that Kanya means a maiden and also the constellation Virgo,
while Kubja is a name of the planet Mars; but it is not known whether
the words in this sense are connected with the name of the city. The
Kanaujia Brahmans of the Central Provinces practise hypergamy,
as described in the general article on Brahman. Mr. Crooke states
that in the United Provinces the children of a man's second wife can
intermarry with those of his first wife, provided that they are not
otherwise related or of the same section. The practice of exchanging
girls between families is also permitted there. [426] In the Central
Provinces the Kanaujias eat meat and sometimes plough with their own
hands. The Chhattisgarhi Kanaujias form a separate group, who have
been long separated from their brethren elsewhere. As a consequence
other Kanaujias will neither eat nor intermarry with them. Similarly
in Saugor those who have come recently from the United Provinces will
not marry with the older settlers. A Kanaujia Brahman is very strict
in the matter of taking food, and will scarcely eat it unless cooked
by his own relations, according to the saying, '_Ath Kanaujia, nau
chulha_' or 'Eight Kanaujias will want nine places to cook their food.'