The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v1.c12.22

Language: English

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During the 4th and 5th centuries another important development appears to have occurred in the fortunes of the *Sāhis*. Spectht has shown from the Chinese annals that during the reign of the Wei-dynasty (386-556 A.D.) there was a division in the power of the Yueh-chis. In that period Ki-to-lo, a prince of the Great Yueh-chi clan, separated himself from the main body and established the kingdom of Little Yueh-chi in the territories south of the Hindukush with Fo-lu-sha (Peshawar) as his capital. The Great Yueh-chi clan however continued to rule in the region north of the Hindukush. In the opinion of Alfred von Gutschmid, the separation of this new branch from the old Indo-Scythian ruling dynasty occurred in about the year 430 A.D.² The causes of this revolution are probably largely to be found in the continued domination of the Balkh and the Oxus valley by the Sasanids. But there was another important reason. In the 4th century A.D. there was again one of those mysterious movements of the nomadic tribes of Central Asia which had brought the Yueh-chi hordes to the Oxus and the borders of India in the 2nd and 1st centuries B.C. Though it is perhaps not permissible to assume that "the Hūns and the Hūnas are the same as the Hiung-nu of the Chinese"³ who first caused the dislocation of the Yueh-chi in the middle of the 2nd century B.C., yet there is no doubt that they belonged to the same stock of warlike nomads.

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A branch of these settled in Transoxania, and troubled the Sasanids from *c.* 420 to 557 A.D. In the struggles with these tribes Fīrūz I (459-484 A.D.) appears to have lost his life after a terrible battle in 484 A.D.⁴ It was probably soon after this disaster that a section of them pushed through the Hindukush into Afghanistan and India, exactly as the Yueh-chi had done before them about five centuries ago. For a time from their headquarters at Bāmiyān and Herat they appear to have ruled over a wide dominion which extended from the borders of Persia and Khotan to Central India. The capital of this Hun dominion was visited by the Chinese pilgrim, Song-Yun, ambassador of the Wei dynasty, who records that the Ye-tha (Epthalites) received tribute from the forty neighbouring countries.¹ Kan-t'o-lo (Gandhāra) which was also visited by Song-Yun (A.D. 520) was devastated by these Epthalites, who had set up a representative (*tch'e-k'in*=Turkish *tégin*) of theirs to rule over the country.² During this period the *Śāhi* princes who ruled in the South of the Hindukush must have bent before the storm and rendered homage to their Hun overlords. But fortunately the Hunic empire did not last long.

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It seems to have disappeared as a result of a series of defeats inflicted on them by the Western Turks (T'u-chüeh), the Sasanid king Khusrau I, surnamed Anōshirvān (531-79 A.D.), and the Indian kings Yaśodharman and Bālāditya in about the middle of the 6th century A.D.³ It is possible that after the downfall of the Huns, the Sasanids again established their power over the borders of India. According to Ṭabarī and Mīrkhond, Khusrau I, in his later years sent expeditions to India by sea and obtained territory from an Indian king. Gibbon includes Kābul and Zābulistān in the empire of Khusrau.⁴ But if this was so it must have been for a comparatively short period, for soon afterwards, the Sasanid power itself began to decline, and a new body of nomadic tribes, usually designated as ‘Turks’ (Chinese T'u-chüeh) spread over the Oxus valley from the borders of China.¹ Khusrau I had already formed a matrimonial alliance with them and was materially aided by them in his campaigns against the Epthalites, while Bahrām VI (590-91 A.D.) and Bistām (592-96 A.D.) both sought refuge and met with death amongst them.² The Turks thus displaced the Epthalites and occupied their position in Transoxania. In 620-28 A.D. they assisted Heraclius in his campaigns against Persia.³ When Yuan Chwang started on his Indian pilgrimage in 630 A.D.

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he found the whole region, roughly from Turfan to Merv and Lake Issykkul to the Hindukush, under the control of the *Khagan* (Khan) of the western branch of this Turkish horde. Their capital city was “the town of the Su-yeh river” which “may be the present Constantinovosk, or perhaps Belasagun,⁴ the capital of the Karakhitai, on the river Chu.”⁵ Yuan Chwang describes the countries and princes south of the Hindukush, and the Punjab. From Balkh, he passed through several small principalities, and after crossing the ‘Snowy Mountains’ (Hindukush), Bāmiyān and the Black Ridge (Kōh Bābā or Siyāh Kōh), arrived in the kingdom of Kia-pi-shi (Kāpiśa). This kingdom appears to have been a powerful one. It was 4,000 li in circuit, and was bounded on the north by the ‘Snowy Mountains.’ The king, who was selected from the *Kṣatriya* caste, was a clever and shrewd man and had brought under his control some ten kingdoms. The capital of this prince was probably situated not far from the “affluence of the Kabul river flowing through the Ghorband valley.” Toward the east his authority extended over Lan-po (Lamghān or mod. Laghman), Na-kie-lo-ho (Nagarahāra = mod. Jalalabad district), and Kan-t'o-lo (Gandhāra = mod. Peshawar, Charsadda and Und). On the borders of Ta-ch'a-shi-lo (Takṣaśilā = mod.

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Rawalpindi district) it touched the boundaries of the kingdom of Kashmir, which under the vigorous rule of the Kārkoṭa Durlabhavardhana (*c.* 631-33 A.D.) had extended its power up to the Salt Range (Sāng-ho-po-lo = Simhapura). In the south, the Kia-pi-shi kingdom included Fa-la-na (Varana = banks of river Gomal and Bannu district). It is also likely that it included Tsu-ku-cha (Tsaukūṭa? = Arachosia)¹ with its capital at Ho-si-na (Ghazna), for we find the king of Kia-pi-shi apparently accompanying Yuan Chwang on his homeward journey from the town of U-to-kia-han-ch'a (Uṭakhāṇḍa = Und), *via* Lan-po, Fa-la-na, O-po-kin, Tsau-ku-cha, Fo-li-shi to the frontiers of Kāpiśa.²