Kannauji

The Kannauji are the Indo-Aryan people of the central Ganga-Yamuna Doab around ancient Kannauj, with main centers including Kannauj and Etawah in 1337. Their speech is Western Hindi, transitional between Braj Bhasha and Awadhi.

Kannauj, ancient Kanyakubja, was capital of the Panchala kingdom and later the Maukhari dynasty, and peaked as Harsha's capital in the seventh century, when Xuanzang described it as a vast, prosperous city. From the eighth to tenth century it was the prize of tripartite struggle between the Gurjara-Pratiharas, Palas and Rashtrakutas, ending with the Pratiharas. Mahmud of Ghazni sacked it in 1018, the Gahadavalas restored it, and Muhammad Ghori triumphed at Chandwar in 1193, before Iltutmish absorbed it into Delhi Sultanate.

Long famed for learning and perfume distillation, Kannauj passed to the Mughals; in 1540 Sher Shah Suri defeated Humayun at the Battle of Kannauj. Under Mughal rule the region was a flourishing crown domain famed for attar scents, before the East India Company extended its rule over the Doab early in the nineteenth century.