Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c25.s3: § 103. Hūṇas
Indische Paläographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c25.s3
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§ 103. Hūṇas
c25.s3.1
The Hūṇa invaders of India (called in Sk. lit. and inscrr. also Sita-, Sveta-, or Hāra-Hūṇas, v. SMITH, JBA. 1894, p. 186) whose attacks, beginning during the reign of Skandagupta, c. 452—480 A.D., led to the dismemberment of the Gupta empire, were an offshoot from the Ephthalites or White Huns, a people of Tartar origin who settled in the Oxus territories. c. 420 A.D., and, from this date until the destruction of their power by the Turks in 556 A.D., waged almost incessant war¹ on the Sassanian monarchy.
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¹ DROUIN, Les Huns Ephthalites dans leurs rapports avec les rois perses sassanides, Muséon, 1895.
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The extension of this power to India followed the defeats inflicted on the Sassanians during the reigns of Yezdegerd II, 438—457, A.D., and Fīrūz, 457—484 A.D., in consequence of which the Sassanian provinces which bordered on India passed into the hands of the Ephthalites (C.NChr. 1894, p. 245). The leader of this invasion who conquered the kingdom of Gandhāra from the Kidāra Kuṣaṇas (v. sup. § 76) and established his capital at Sākala, probably c. 465—470 A.D., is known from Chinese sources as *Lae-lih* and has been conjecturally identified with the *Rāja Lakhana Udayāditya* of the coins²
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² C.NChr. 1894, pp. 247. 251. 279, Pl. IX, 12. The name read as *Lamata* by TH.PE. I, p. 411 (no. 4), and *Latona* or *Lanona* by DROUIN, JA. 1893, (I), p. 548.