History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c14.s1.4

v1.c14.s1.4

To return, we are concerned here with the question was the first dynasty which the Brahmin minister supplanted Turki in origin? Alberuni's information is plainly based on vulgar tradition which he himself remarked was clearly absurd. Now Hiuen Tsang distinctly says that the king of Kabul was a Kshatriya (this was in 630 A.D.). Hiuen Tsang knew well enough what a Turk was for he had come to Kabul through their country and he knew the difference between a Turk and a Kshatriya. As against the contemporary evidence of Hiuen Tsang, therefore, an absurd tradition related by Alberuni after 400 years and with evident reluctance and disbelief in it cannot be taken for history. And we can very easily show the absurdity of the tradition. Firstly, a dynasty cannot last in history for 60 generations or 1200 years. Secondly, Kanishka may have been a Turk but he lived nearly a thousand or 900 years before Alberuni. His descendants cannot have ruled in Kabul so long. We know that Kanishka ruled not in Kabul but in Peshawar or Purushapura of Gāndhāra. Thirdly, history tells that after Kanishka several incursions of foreigners occurred notably that of the Huns under Mihirakula. If any descendants of Kanishka had remained, they must have been swept off by the Huns. The Huns themselves were overthrown in India and in Persia and hence we believe that in 630 A. D. when Hiuen Tsang visited Kabul there was an Aryan Kshatriya king ruling there. The kings called themselves Shahis because they copied the title from the Persians as the most powerful of their neighbours. After 630 A. D. down to Mahmud's time, the Turan people, Turks or Huns, did not invade India as we know it from history and Kabul had a tranquil rule for about 400 years. They were no doubt threatened by the Arabs in the beginning; but the internal dissensions of the Arabs soon stopped their progress beyond Sind. In short we do not believe there was any Turki dynasty of Kanik ruling in Kabul in 630 A. D. Kabul according to Hiuen Tsang had just conquered Gāndhāra where some Huna king must have been supplanted. Udabhāndapura so frequently mentioned in Kashmir history was hence under Kabul. Stein has rightly identified this town with Wahind of the Mahomedan historians. The Prakrit of Udabhānda would be properly (da being dropped and bha being changed to ha) Uahind; but it does not appear that Kabul was given up and the latter made their capital by the Brahmin Shāhi kings.