The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c29.191

c29.191

In later Sanskrit literature the term 'Hun' (*Hūna*) is employed in a very indeterminate sense to denote a foreigner from the north-west, in the same way as the word *Yavana* had been employed in ancient times, and as *Wilāyatī* is now understood. One of the thirty-six so-called 'royal' Rājpūt clans actually was given the name of Hūna.³ This vagueness of connotation raises some doubt as to the exact meaning of the term Hūna as applied to the clans on the north-western frontier against whom Harsha of Thānēsar and his father waged incessant war at the close of the sixth and the beginning of the seventh century. But it is unlikely that within fifty years of Mihiragula’s defeat the true meaning of Hūna should have been forgotten; and the opponents of Harsha may be regarded as having been outlying colonies of real Huns, who had settled among the hills on the frontier.