Kanyakubja is an Ancient Indian City which is presently known as Kannauj. The Brahmins who belonged to Kannauj were known as Kanyakubja. In the history, the city Kanyakubja is known for the distilling of scents and was a market centre for tobacco, perfume, and rose water. Due to this, it is also popularly known as `Attar City` or the perfume city of India. It has given its name to a distinct dialect of the Hindi language known as Kanauji.
Locations of Kanyakubja
This great Hindu kingdom is located in the Uttar Pradesh state of India. It is located at 27.07 Degree N 79.92 Degree E. It has an average elevation of 139 metres.
History of Kanyakubja
The history of natural attars is very much associated to the history of Kanyakubja. Kanyakubja is noted for natural attars from the Mugal period. During this time, aroma bearing substances like Sandal, Musk, and Camphor were used. In order to create more such scents, new plants were brought by the Mugals from Central Asia to this country. This led to the discovery of process for the preparation of attar from Roses by Noorjahan, the Mugal queen. This marked the beginning of the natural attars in India. The process progressed in and around Kannauj and eventually Kannauj came to occupy the centre of this industry.
Tourism of Kanyakubja
Kannauj is encircled by many ancient temples and sacred places. However, during Muslim era, many temples were destroyed and mosques were built in their places. It was in 1640 that some temples were renovated during the Maratha rule. Some of the temples and holy places are Ajay Pal Temple, Annapoorna Devi Temple, Baba Gauri Shankar Temple, Baba Vishwanath Temple, Govardhan Devi Temple, Jagannath Temple, Jain Temple, Kaleshwar Nath Temple, Kali Devi Temple, Kali Durga Temple, Kshemkari Devi Temple, Maurari Devi Temple, Padma Sati Temple, Phoolmati Devi Temple, Ram Lakshman Temple, Sandohan Devi Temple, Shitla Devi Temple, Balapir, Chintamani, Dargah Haji Sharif, Fort of King Jai Chandra, Makhdum Jahaniyan, Ramashram shyamnagar, and Suryakund Tirth to name a few.
Besides these religious places, Kanyakubja or Kannauj is renowned for being an ancient city where once art and culture flourished. There are reports that every now and then, people in the course of work while ploughing their land or digging the foundation for construction of a house discover pottery, coins,
terra cotta and sculpture. Kannauj has a Government Archaeological Museum where tourists can see all the excavated material that represent Gods and Goddesses, male and female figurines and animal figurines. Theses coins belong to different periods of history stretching from the Maurya period of 325 BC right down to the Gupta period AD. In addition to coins, several Ekmukhi (with one face) and Chaturmukhi (four faced) faced lingas have been found in Kannauj.
It has a sanctuary called `Lakh Bahosi Bird Sanctuary` which is home to about 49 bird families. From November to March, are the months for bird watching here.
Connectivity of Kanyakubja
The nearest city to Kanyakubja is Kanpur which is well connected to almost all the major cities in India by regular air, rail, and road network.
