History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c23.16

v1.c23.16

The meagre details we have recorded regarding the three kingdoms of Tekka, Jālandhara and Multan raise the question why in the Panjab which is the undoubted home of the Indo Aryans and which has always been warlike, no flourishing Hindu kingdoms are found in this mediaeval period of Indian history. The fact appears to be that since the invasion of Alexander that province has usually been under the rule of foreign races. Indeed the Panjab has been the buffer province of India, always trampled down by conquering hordes from the north-west. When Alexander came he found here many kingdoms and peoples, more warlike than those he had met with in Asia thitherto. About 70 peoples are mentioned in the Panjab by Arrian as having opposed Alexander. The ancient Purāṇas and the Mahābhārata too mention many kingdoms in the Panjab; some names still surviving to the mediaeval period. Gāndhāra, Takshaśilā, Kekaya, Madra, Trigarta, Mālava Kshudraka, Śibi, Amba-shtha, Yaudheya, and many other warlike Kshatriya tribes had thus kingdoms in the Panjab when Alexander invaded India. Most of them were conquered and many Kshatriya warriors were massacred. Invasion after invasion followed Alexander's conquest. For a few years only the Panjab wus subject to Chandragupta and Aśoka but since 200 B. C. Bactrian Greeks (200-100 B. C.) Sakas (100 B. C.—100 A. D.) Kushans (100-300 A. D.) and finally Huns 400 A. D.) invaded India and ruled in the Panjab. Thus while Alexander had almost destroyed all Kshatriya kingly families, the Panjab was devoid of native rule from 200 B. C. to about 500 A. D. When the Hun power was overthrown native rule again established itself; but there were no powerful Kshatriya kingly families to assert themselves again and the province was therefore chiefly divided between Kashmir and Sind, while Gāndhāra to the west of the Indus and a seat of Hun power was, as we have seen, taken possession of by the powerful Kshatriya family of Kabul. Taxila and Sinhapur were in the possession of Kashmir; and Multan and Poḷato were in that of Sind their boundaries being conterminous. In eastern Panjab there were as stated above the two kingdoms of the Tekka which had seized the Hun kingdom of Sākala or Sailkot and Jālandhara.