Book Title: Indian Antiquary Vol 34
Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Previous | Next

Page 87
________________ APRIL, 1905.] WHITE HUNS AND KINDRED TRIBES, As a striking illustration of his power Kosmas records a story current among the people. At one time, when the Han king was besieging a city situated in Central India, he was unable to take it on account of the moats full of water by which it was protected. Thereupon he made his elephants, horses, and myriads of soldiers drink the moat dry during the protracted siege so that he was able to march dry-foot into the town. We can now with certainty identify Kosmas' Han king with the ruler who is known to us in Indian tradition as Mihirakula. This identification enables us to form a clear idea as to various important features of the part played by the White Huns in India. We owe this result to certain recently discovered Indian inscriptions which have made it possible to fix with certainty the time and nationality of Mihirakula.13 The fullest account of Mihirakula is supplied to us by Higen-Teiang, the famous Chinese pilgrim, who visited the Buddhist sanctuaries of India during the second quarter of the seventh century and who has left us in the record of his travels, the Si-yu-ki, a rich storehouse of important information on Indian history, antiquities, etc. From his lengthy story concerning Mihirakula, which is clearly founded on popular tradition of Buddhist complexion, we gather the following main points.14 A long time before the journey of Hiuen-Tsiang, Mihirakula was the powerful king of Såkals, the ancient capital of the Punjab plains. The site of this city is probably to be looked for somewhere in the region of Lahore. Through his bravery and cleverness Mihirakula reduced the neighbouring princes, so that in the end be acquired supremacy over the Five Indies. His persecution of the Buddhists and divers other cruel acts goaded Bālāditya, one of the rulers of Eastern India, into insurrection. Against bim Mihirakula marched at the head of a mighty host. The rebel was compelled to retire into a marshy tract, but later he lured his adversary into an ambuscade and took him prisoner. The intervention of his mother induced Balāditya to spare the young king's life and afterwards he even set him at liberty. Mihirakula returned to his capital, but there he found his throne usurped by his younger brother and was himself reduced to & wandering existence. Having songht refuge in Kashmir, he, after some years, succeeded by intrigue in obtaining the sceptre himself. From his newly-won dominions he then marched victoriously westwards to the Indus. According to Hiten-Tsiang's story, the cruel king razed sixteen hundred Buddhist monasteries to the ground in those parts, and had nine hundred thousand men slain or sold into slavery on the banks of the Indus. Shortly afterwards he died amid various manifestations of the divine wrath. In spite of its legendary details Hiuen-Tsiang's tale rests on historie foundations as we can clearly see from the Sanskrit Chronicle of Kashmir. There, too, Mihirakula figures as a potent ruler of Kashmir, though in a chronological position which is wholly erroneous. The Chronicle also tells of his victorious campaigns extending over all India. Of his brave but pitiless nature we receive legendary details which quite tally with the description of the Chinese traveller. One of these is perhaps worth mentioning if only because, as I have shown in a paper dealing with the ancient geography of Kashmir, it still survives to the present day in local folklore. When Mihirakula, on his return from his conquests, reached the summit of the pass that leads into Kashmir, one of his war-elephants fell over a high precipice. The screams of the agonised brate gave the hard-hearted monarch such delight that he had a hundred more elephants hurled over the cliffs at the same place. While on one of my archeological tours in Kashmir I ascertained that this story relates to a particular point of the route which traverses 11 It is the merit of Mr. J. F. Flest, late Epigraphist to the Indian Government, to have first oritically elucidated the data referring to the reigns of Mihirakula and his father Torsmāps; Nee his monographs, Indian Antiquary, Vol. XV. pp. 2, 45999., and in the Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, III. pp. 10.99. 4 See Si-yu-ki or Mémoires sur les Contrées Occidentales, trans. Stan. Julien, I. Pp. 190 699. See my Notes on the Ancient Topography of the Pir Pantaal Route, in the Journal of the Anato Society of Bengal, 1891, pp. 876 99., also my translation of the Rājatarangins, I. p. 44; II. p. 894.

Loading...

Page Navigation
1 ... 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 420 421 422 423 424 425 426 427 428 429 430 431 432 433 434 435 436 437 438 439 440 441 442 443 444 445 446 447 448 449 450 451 452 453 454 455 456 457 458 459 460 461 462 463 464 465 466 467 468 469 470 471 472 473 474 475 476 477 478 479 480 481 482 483 484 485 486 487 488 489 490 491 492 493 494 495 496 497 498 499 500 501 502 503 504 505 506 507 508 509 510 511 512 513 514 515 516 517 518 519 520 521 522 523 524 525 526 527 528 529 530 531 532 533 534 535 536 537 538 539 540 541 542 543 544 545 546 547 548