KANAUJ, an ancient city of British India, in Farukhabad district, United Provinces, near the left bank of the Ganges. Pop. (1901), 18,552. Kanauj in early times formed the capital of a great Hindu kingdom. Its prosperity dates from a prehistoric period, and seems to have culminated about the 6th century under Harsha. In 1019 it fell before Mahmud of Ghazni, and again in 1194 before Mahommed Ghori. The existing ruins extend over the lands of five villages, occupying a semicircle fully 4 m. in diameter. No Hindu buildings remain intact; but the great mosque, constructed by Ibrahim Shah of Jaunpur in 1406 out of Hindu temples, is still called by Hindus "Sita's Kitchen." Kanauj, which is traditionally said to be derived from _Kanyakubja_ (= the crooked maiden), has given its name to an important division of Brahmans in northern India. Hinduism in Lower Bengal also dates its origin from a Brahman migration southwards from this city, about 800 or 900. Kanauj is now noted for the distilling of scents. KANDAHAR, the largest city in Afghanistan, situated in 31 deg. 37' N. lat. and 65 deg. 43' E. long., 3400 ft. above the sea. It is 370 m. distant from Herat on the N.W., by Girishk and Farah--Girishk being 75 m., and Farah 225 m. from Kandahar. From Kabul, on the N.E., it is distant 315 m., by Kalat-i-Ghilzai and Ghazni--Kalat-i-Ghilzai being 85 m., and Ghazni 225 m. from Kandahar. To the Peshin valley the distance is about 110 m., and from Peshin to India the three principal routes measure approximately as follows: by the Zhob valley to Dera Ismail Khan, 300 m.; by the Bori valley to Dera Ghazi Khan, 275 m.; by Quetta and the Bolan to Dadar, 125 m.; and by Chappar and Nari to Sibi, 120 m. The Indian railway system extends to New Chaman, within some 80 m. of Kandahar. Immediately round the city is a plain, highly cultivated and well populated to the south and west; but on the north-west barren, and bounded by a double line of hills, rising to about 1000 ft. above its general level, and breaking its dull monotony with irregular lines of scarped precipices, crowned with fantastic pinnacles and peaks. To the north-west these hills form the watershed between the valleys of the Arghandab and the Tarnak, until they are lost in the mountain masses of the Hazarajat--a wild region inhabited by tribes of Tatar origin, which effectually shuts off Kandahar from communication with the north. On the south-west they lose themselves in the sandy desert of Registan, which wraps itself round the plain of Kandahar, and forms another impassable barrier. But there is a break in these hills--a gate, as it were, to the great high road between Herat and India; and it is this gate which the fortress of Kandahar so effectually guards, and to which it owes its strategic importance. Other routes there are, open to trade, between Herat and northern India, either following the banks of the Hari Rud, or, more circuitously, through the valley of the Helmund to Kabul; or