between 8th and 9th centuries three Indian Powers fought for the control of kannoj we know this struggle as the tripatite struggle in which the palace the pratiharas and the rashkutas fought for the control of kanoj now one question which could be asked is why did kanoj became such an important city during this period because if we look at the Gupta period we find that kanoj was not as important as it later became so who were responsible for this rise of kannoj the answer to this question is the maokri's and in this video we will talk about the history of these maukaris and how they made the city of kanoj the political and cultural capital of Northern India now when we talk about the maokris we have to first look at the territory which they controlled and it was the modern day uttar Pradesh region which was the core of the maukri kingdom this region during the Gupta period falls under the Gupta Empire and we know that when the Gupta Empire declined at the start of 6th Century A.D it was the Hunts who had occupied this region we know that torman was able to conquer the ganga Valley up to the city of Varanasi now this rule of the Huns was short-lived because we know that torman was defeated by the awlikaras and with this defeat the Huns retreated from parts of central India and ganga Valley now the power vacuum that was created after this Retreat of the Huns was filled by these maukaris the maokris earlier during the Gupta period were most probably the fury of the Gupta Empire and their core territory during the Gupta period was the region of bagelkhand but with the retreat of the Huns at the start of 6th Century A.D these maukri's were able to take control of the ganga Valley now this rise of the Mercury's happened during the reign of the maukri ruler ishwar varman and it was the combined armies of the maukri ruler ishwar varman and the aulikara ruler yashodavarman that defeated the hanik ruler mihirukula with this victory over the Huns both the aulikaras and the maokris were able to establish their independent power in their respective regions but what we see is that ishwar varman after this Victory did not Proclaim himself as an independent ruler most likely at this point he was still a nominal feudatory of the Imperial guptas the Imperial guptas at this point only controlled the region of magadh and the Bengal region the maukri ruler who would proudly Proclaim him himself as an independent ruler was the son of ishwar varman ishan verman ishan varman in one of his inscriptions calls himself Maharaja dhiraj now this title is important because the title which ishan verman uses for the previous maukri rulers is Maharaja so this adoption of this title of Maharaja dhiraj by ishan varman suggests that ishan varman wanted to show that he is no longer the purity of the Imperial guptas and we see that during the period of fourth and fifth decade of 6th Century A.D which was most likely the period in which ishan varman ruled we see that he did not only adopt this title of Maharaja dhiraj but he also pursued an expansionist policy this bid of the maoris to expand their power did not go unchallenged and it appears that the aulika us who were their former allies did try to invade the maukri territory the evidence of this comes from an inscription which is called the jaunpur inscription this inscription is not complete but there is a sentence in this inscription which provide us some clue about this aulikara invasion in the maukri territory the the line reads like this a spark that had come by the road from the city of dhara dhara we all know is in the malwa region and during this time the malwa region was under the control of the awli Kara so this spark that had come by the road from the city of dhara was a reference to an awlikara invasion that did not succeed and it also shows that the short-lived alliance between the aulikaras and the maokhris that was created for the fight against miracula was all also short-lived and when mirkula was defeated the maukri's and the awlikaras started to fight with each other now coming back to the maukri's after defeating this aulikara Invasion we see that during the reign of ishan verman the expansionist a policy of the maokri's continued and the subsequent victories of ishan varman is documented in an inscription which is called the haraha inscription here Maharaja dhiraj ishan varman tells us that he gained victories over three powers these three powers were the andras the sulikas and the gowdas so who these three powers were let's start with the andras the haraha inscription tells us that the army of the Lord of the andras had exceptionally large number of elephants most callers believe that this lord of the andras was none other than or who is also known as who ruled from 526 A.D to 555 A.D and from the inscription it appears that the clash between the maukri's and the Vishnu kundans took place between the vindhya mountains as this was the natural boundary of these two Powers the result of this conflict in terms of territorial Conquest was not that much but it does appear that there was a matrimonial Alliance that happened between the maokris and the Vishnu kundins and some Scholars argue that the son of ishan verman married a daughter of the Vishnu kundan ruler Indra varman now coming to the second power which is mentioned in the Hara inscription the sulikas we find that there is a great debate among Scholars about who these sulikas were the inscription tells us that the sulicas had innumerable number of horses now because of this information some Scholars have argued that these sulicas were none other than the hunas or Hans now this identification of the sulikas with the Huns is not accepted by other Scholars they argue that if we look at the johnpur inscription we find that the term sulika is not mentioned instead we have the term Huna but when we look at the haraha inscription we see that the term Hunter is not mentioned instead we have the term sulicas now if both of these terms are same then Y in one inscription we have the term sulika and in the other we have the term Huna so both of these terms are not the same as some Scholars have argued now we find that in a text called brihad samita there is a term which is quite close to the term sulica this term is shulika so the term shulika and sulika are most likely the same now Bria samita tells us that these shulikas lived in the region of Northwest and interestingly brihad samita also mentions hunas so it appears that these shulikas were different from the hunas and most scholar and some Scholars have argued that these shulikas were a different Central Asian tribe that lived during this time in Northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent now interestingly in an inscription of the aulikara ruler yashoda varman we are told that yashoda varman went to war with the flying banners of shulapani so if some Scholars have argued shulpani is closer or is similar to shulikas then it would mean that some Indian Powers deployed these Central Asian tribes who are called shulikas in their army and it also suggests that ishan varman had defeated these shulikas or sulikas as the Hada inscription tells us the third power which is mentioned in the Hada inscription which was defeated by ishanwarman are the gowders now gowda here according to most Scholars are the Imperial guptas and the later guptas the later Gupta should not be confused with the Imperial guptas the later Gupta started off as a feudatory of the Imperial guptas but during the middle of 6th Century A.D we see that their status has increased and now they shared power with the Imperial guptas and these two Powers controlled jointly the region of magadh and inscription tells us that ishan verman because of his might drove the gowders from their territory and these gowders took Refuge at the ocean now this means that most likely ishan verban conquered the region of magadh and now the territory of the later guptas and the Imperial guptas was restricted to the gowda proper in this war against the later guptas and the Imperial guptas it appears that ishan varman got help from a junior branch of the maokris that controlled the Gaya region earlier most likely this junior branch of the maokris were the feuded tree of the later guptas and the Imperial guptas but when the invasion of the maokris of kanoj began we see that these maukaris of Gaya shifted their Alliance and now they supported their senior branch that had started to invade the magadhan territory for the later guptas this war against the maokris was a bloody one we learn from a later inscription that the later Gupta ruler gupt died while fighting against the maokris and his father Kumar gupt also committed suicide because of the later Gupta defeat with this victory over the Imperial guptas and the later guptas the maokris now control the region of magat one thing we should also note here is that in the inscription ishan varman does not call these Imperial guptas and the later guptas the ruler of magadhe he calls them gowdas calling them the king of magadh would mean that this territory of magadh which is now under the control of ishan varvan was illegally occupied by the Mercury's so because of this ishan verman calls the Imperial guptas and the later guptas gowders it is also possible that only after gaining control of magadh did ishan verman call himself Maharaja dhiraj this title suited him because now the maukri is controlled a large chunk of Northern India the victories of maokri's under ishan verman brought stability to this region after a century and the capital of this Rising power was kannoj during the reign of ishan varman's sons and grandson and avantivarman we will see that kanoj will become thus political and Cultural Center of Northern India now if you want to know about the aulikaras who had earlier fought with the maokris do watch this video thank you for watching