The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v1.c12.22.1

v1.c12.22.1

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.