The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c5.s1.t15: 10. Opokien, or Afghanistan?
The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c5.s1.t15
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10. Opokien, or Afghanistan?
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O-po-kien is mentioned only once by Hwen Thsang in a brief paragraph, which places it between Falana and Ghazni, to the north-west of the former, and to the south-east of the latter. From this description it would appear to be the same as the Lo-i of Fa-Hian, and the Roh of the Indian historians. Perhaps the name of Opokien may have some connection with Vorgun or Verghin, which Wilford’s surveyor, Mogal Beg, places near the source of the Tunchí, or Tochi branch of the Kuram river. In the map attached to Burnes’s Travels by Arrowsmith the name is written Borghoon. I am, however, inclined to identify Opokien, or Avakan, as it is rendered by M. Julien, with the name of Afghan, as I find that the Chinese syllable kien represents ghan in the word Ghanta. From the cursory notice of the district by Hwen Thsang, I infer that it must have formed part of the province of Falana. It was certainly a part of the mountainous district called Roh by Abul Fazl and Ferishta,[*] or south-eastern Afghanistan, which would appear to have been one of the original seats of the Afghan people. Major Raverty* describes Roh as "the mountainous district of Afghanistan and part of Biluchistan," or "the country between Ghazni and Kandahar and the Indus." The people of this province are called Rohilas, or Rohila Afghans, to distinguish them from other Afghans, such as the Ghori Afghans of Ghor, between Balkh and Merv. There is, however, a slight chronological difficulty about this identification, as the Afghans of Khilij, Ghor, and Kabul are stated by Ferishta to have subdued the province of Roh so late as A.H. 63, or A.D. 682, that is about thirty years later than the period of Hwen Thsang's visit. But I think that there are good grounds for doubting the accuracy of this statement, as Hwen Thsang describes the language of Falana as having but little resemblance to that of Central India. The inhabitants of Roh could not, therefore, have been Indians; and if not Indians, they must almost certainly have been Afghans. Ferishta† begins his account by saying that the Muhammadan Afghans of the mountains "invaded and laid waste the inhabited countries, such as Kirmân, Shivarân, and Peshâwar;" and that several battles took place between the Indians and Afghans "on a plain between Kirmân and Peshâwar." The Kirmán here mentioned is not the great province of Kirman, or Karmania, on the shore of the Indian Ocean, but the Kirmán, or Kirmásh, of Timur's historians, which is the valley of the Kuram river. The difficulty may be explained if we limit the part of Kirmân that was invaded to the lower valley, or plains of the Kuram river, and extend the limits of the Afghan country beyond Ghazni and Kabul, so as to embrace the upper valley, or mountain region of the Kuram river. Politically the ruler of Peshâwar has always been the ruler of Kohât and Banu, and the ruler of Kabul has been the lord of the upper Kuram valley. This latter district is now called Khost; but it is the Iryâb of Timur’s historians, and of Wilford’s surveyor, Mogul Beg, and the Haryûb of Elphinstone. Now the Sulimân-Khel of the Burán division of the Ghiljis number about three-fourths of the whole horde. I infer, therefore, that the original seat of the Ghiljis must have included the upper valleys of the Kuram and Gomal rivers on the east, with Ghazni and Kelât-i-Ghilji on the west. Haryûb would thus have formed part of the Afghan district of Khilij, or Ghilji, from which the southern territories of Peshâwar were easily accessible.
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∗ Briggs’s ‘Ferishta,’ i. p. 8.
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∗ Pushtu Dictionary, in voce. † Briggs's Translation, i. 7.
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But whether this explanation of Ferishta’s statement be correct or not, I feel almost certain that Hwen Thsang’s O-po-kien must be intended for Afghán. Its exact equivalent would be Avaghan, which is the nearest transcript of Afghan that the Chinese syllables are capable of making. If this rendering is correct, it is the earliest mention of the Afghans that I am aware of under that name.