NCERT Solutions for Class 7th Social Science Chapter 15 A Tripartite Struggle for Kannauj (Fig. 3.3) — LET’S EXPLORE
Book page 68 Updated on2026-09-19
Q1.
Why was Kannauj so attractive to those powerful dynasties? Observe its location on the map (Fig. 3.3) and discuss in class.Fig. 3.3, page 63 — a simplified map of a few dynasties in north and peninsular India from the 7th century onward, redrawn at true latitude and longitude. The book prints it over a physical relief background.
Answer
Because whoever held Kannauj held the richest, best-connected land in north India — and with it the claim to be paramount ruler. Find it on Fig. 3.3 (it is marked Kānyakubja, on the Ganga at about 80°E) and four reasons come off the map at once.
It stands in the middle of the Ganga–Yamuna plain. This is the most fertile farmland in the subcontinent. Fertile land means big harvests, big harvests mean big land revenue, and land revenue paid for armies. Nothing else on the map produces so much wealth in one place.
It sits on the Ganga. The river was the highway of north India. From Kannauj goods and armies could move east to Bengal and the sea, and the routes west and northwest lay open across the plain. Look at the tangle of rivers around it on the map — Yamuna, Gomti, Ghaghara, Chambal, Betwa, Son — every one of them a road.
It lies where three power blocs meet. On Fig. 3.3, the Gurjara-Pratīhāras are labelled to the west, the Pālas to the east, and the Rāṣhṭrakūṭas to the south across the Narmada. Kannauj is the point all three can reach — and none can be safe while a rival holds it.
It carried prestige. It had been Harṣha’s imperial capital. Taking Kannauj was the way to announce that you were his successor as the great king of north India. The chapter shows the Rāṣhṭrakūṭas “briefly occupying Kannauj”, and later destroying it — a destruction that “hastened the disintegration” of the Pratīhāra empire.
Why the struggle stayed indecisive: a prize that three powers can all reach is a prize none of them can hold. Each time one took Kannauj, its army was far from home and the other two were still intact. So the fighting went on “with fluctuating outcomes and no lasting victor” through the 8th and 9th centuries — and the real winners were the kingdoms far away in the south, which were left alone to grow.
For the class discussion: ask what Kannauj had that Sthāneśhvara did not. Sthāneśhvara (Thanesar) lies near the northwestern approaches — good for defence, poor for wealth. Kannauj is the opposite. Harṣha’s choice tells you what a 7th-century king valued most.