History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c14.49

v1.c14.49

We know very little of the ancient history of Kabul and we are in fact not concerned with it in our work. At the commencement of our history *i. e.* about the beginning of the 7th century A. D. it was certainly governed by a Kshatriya king who was a Buddhist. Hiuen Tsang who visited it in 630 A. D. (see his itirinery Appendix p. 563 Cunningham's Ancient Geography of India) states so and further adds that Lampāk, Nagar, (Jallalabad) and Gāndhāra were subject to it. It was thus an extensive kingdom. Its king undoubtedly bore the title of Shah, a title which it must have borrowed from the Persians under whose empire this country frequently was. The king was thus a Buddhist, a Kshatriya and a Shah, a combination of three traditions and civilisations viz. Chinese, Indian and Persian. This title Shah of the Kabul king is frequently mentioned both by the Arabs and the Rājatarangiṇī as we shall notice further on. The subjects of these kingdoms were generally Buddhists though in Lampāka and Gāndhāra, the majority were of the Hindu faith (Hiuen Tsang). The inhabitants of Lampāka, the Chinese traveller states, were ignorant and ugly and thus do not appear to be fair Aryans like the rest of the Aryans whose fair complexion, not blackened by the fierce heat of the Indian plains but rather preserved by the cold climate of the land, had given the country the title of "White India." What race the people belonged to and what family of Kshatriyas the kings claimed to be born in is not yet traceable. The Arab writers who hereafter came into contact with Kabul call the king Kabul Shah Zantbil which Raverty says may have been really Ranapāl, the Persian letters r and j and b and p being undistinguishable. It is indeed impossible to guess what this name really was though some support may be found for this guess in the references in the Tarangiṇī, very meagre though they are. The Arab historical references are continuous from 640 A. D. down to the Turkish conquest about the 11th century. It is probable that during these three hundred years or more there must have been more than one dynasty. But the Arabs use the same word Kabul Shah Zantbil throughout.