Indian Antiquary Vol 48

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 70

66
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(May, 1919
These Huns seem to have made their appearance first on the eastern frontier of Persia about the year 350 in the reign of the Persian King, Shapur the Great, and, according to Persian historians, Shapur defeated them and made them enter into a treaty with him so far successfully that, when he had to go to war against Rome a few years after, he was supported by an army of these Huns; but soon after the year A.D. 425, when they crossed the Oxus, Bahram Gur defeated them completely and made them cross the Oxus back again for the time being. Though defeated for the while, the White Huns hung like a cload on the eastern frontier of Persia and constituted the principal pre-oocupation of the Persian monarchs that succeded him. After a prolonged series of operations, Shah Firuz of Persia suffered in A.D. 483 a crushing defeat from the "Khush-Nowaz", the Highminded, and he himself fell in the battle. What was worse for Persia, the White Hun monarch imposed a tribute on the Great King who succeeded Firuz, which was paid for two years. It was left to a son of this valiant Firuz, Kobad by name, to destroy the power of these Huns. After a war which lasted from A.D. 503, to 513 he defeated them, and the White Hun peril which had threatened Iran for so long had passed away.
The Huns in India. . It is these Ephthalites or the White Huns that figure prominently in the History of India of the same period. Their first appearance so far as is known to us at present was in the reign of the early Gupta En peror, Kumâragupta, whose death took place in A.D. 455. He suffered a defeat at the hands of the Huns, serious enough to shake the foundations of the empire; but the disaster was averted by the energy of his son Skandagupta, who inflicted a crushing defeat on the Barbarians and averted the danger for the time, about the year A.D. 455. The Huns appeared again barely ten years after, about A.D. 465, occupying Gand håra, the North-Western Punjab. Five years after this they advanced further into the interior and Skandagupta's exertions to stem the tide of the invasion were not uniformiy successful. Onder his weaker succ038ors, they continued their advance till they ware completely defeated some years before A.D. 533, either by a combination of Narasimha Gupta Bâlâditya, the Gupta ruler, and Yasodharman of Malva (either as a subordinato, or more likely as an independent ruler); or each of these inflicted a separate defeat upout these Huns. We have records of two Hun rulers in India, father and son, by namo Toramana and Mihiragala. Mihiragula, the Gollas of Cosmos Indikoploustes. is described by Hiuen-Tsang as "a bold intrepid man of great ability and all the neighbouring states were his vassals." He wished to study Buddhism and the Buddhists put up a talkative servant to discuss the Buddha's teachings with the king. Enraged at the insult he ordered the utter extermination of the Buddhist Church in his dominions. When he recovered from the defeat at the hands of Baladitya, he found that his place was not available to him. His younger brother having taken poesession of the throne, he took refuge in Kashmir, and here he repaid hospitality by treachery and having murdered the king he made himself ruler. Then he renowed his project of exterminating Buddhism, and with this view he caused the demolition of 1600 topes and monasteries, and put to death nine lôtis of lay adherents of Buddhism. His career R&B out short by his sudden death, and the air was darkened, and the earth quciod, and fierce winds rushed forth as he went down to the Hell of unceasing torment.
What the Hindu and Jain sources have to say of him is no lons gruesome, and he was taken away to the relief of suffering humanity.
• Watters, Yuan Chuang, Vol. , pp. 288-9.