The Maukharis ruled over which of the following cities in western Uttar Pradesh that over the time replaced Pataliputra as a political centre of north India?

Correct — C. The Maukharis ruled from Kanyakubja, the city now called Kannauj, on the Ganga in what is today western Uttar Pradesh.

Their rise in the sixth century is the shift the stem describes. Political weight in the north moved off the lower Ganga, and Kannauj replaced Pataliputra, the seat it had been under the Mauryas and the Guptas.

The city kept that place for centuries: Harshavardhana ruled from it, and it was the prize three dynasties fought over in the Tripartite Struggle. Option (c).

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Kanpur — Kanpur is a modern city, grown around a British cantonment and later industry. It has no early-medieval dynasty of its own and no source places the Maukharis there.
• (b)
  Agra — Agra enters the record far later, as a Sultanate and then a Mughal seat. In the sixth century it was nothing that could replace Pataliputra.
• (d)
  Bareli — Bareilly, spelt 'Bareli' in the paper, belongs to the later history of Rohilkhand. It was never a post-Gupta capital.

After the Guptas the north broke into regional kingdoms, and the Maukharis of Kanyakubja were among the strongest. They began as subordinate rulers and made themselves independent, holding the Ganga-Yamuna doab from Kannauj.

The line ends with Grahavarman, who married Rajyashri, sister of Harshavardhana of the Pushyabhuti house of Thanesar. Grahavarman's killing is what draws Harsha into the story, and Harsha went on to rule from Kannauj rather than from Thanesar.

That is how one city carries three chapters of the syllabus: Maukhari capital, then Harsha's capital, then the object of the Tripartite Struggle between the Palas, the Gurjara-Pratiharas and the Rashtrakutas.

Key facts

• The Maukharis ruled from Kanyakubja, modern Kannauj in Uttar Pradesh.
• Grahavarman was the last Maukhari ruler and married Rajyashri, sister of Harshavardhana.
• Harshavardhana shifted his seat from Thanesar to Kannauj.
• Kannauj was the object of the Tripartite Struggle between the Palas, the Gurjara-Pratiharas and the Rashtrakutas.

Common traps

• Picking a familiar modern city such as Kanpur or Agra simply because it is in western Uttar Pradesh.
• Placing the Maukharis at Thanesar, which was the Pushyabhuti seat and not theirs.

No directly related past PYQ was found.