The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v1.c12.46

v1.c12.46

All lovers of Indian History will regret that al-Bīrūnī could not acquaint himself with the pedigree of the family preserved at Nagarkot. For the account he supplies us, being necessarily based on defective historical information of the Hindus, which he so rightly condemns, assumes at places a rather fictitious character.² But that the kings mentioned by him really belonged to the Kuṣān group is rendered probable by the proposed identification of the Kanik of al-Bīrūnī with the great Kaniṣka, on the ground of the common tradition of their building a *vihāra* at Peshawar.³ It is, however, by no means certain that the number of kings who ruled in Kābul from the foundation of the dynasty of Barhatakīn down to its extinction in the reign of Lagatūrmān was sixty, nor can we definitely state that they all belonged to one dynasty. But it appears to be clear that the whole period was covered by the rule of the Hinduised Yueh-chi rulers, and Stein is probably right when he suggests that the error of al-Bīrūnī in mentioning a continuous reign of sixty generations must be ascribed to the "continued use of the title *Sāhi*, a title applied by al-Bīrūnī even to the last dynasty conquered by Mahmūd of Ghazna.''⁴