Indian Antiquary Vol 48

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

Page 73

MAY, 19191
THE HUN PROBLEM IN INDIAN HISTORY
69
are two. Wakshab and Akshab, between which lay Khuttal, as it is called by Arab geographers, but Haytal by the ancient Persians, from which the name Ephthalites was given to the later Huns. The Wakshab of the Arabs is apparently the Vajkşu referred to by Kalidasa, by far the greatest tributary of the Oxus.
Immediately to the east of this and enclosed in a huge semi-circular bend of the Oxus is the division known by the name Badakshan, 'a country in wbich rivers carried down gold sands.' To the east of this again and reaching almost to the very source of the Oxus lay Wakh-Khan, which brings us to the very frontiers of Kashmir, but on the farther side of the Karakoram branch of the Himalaya mountains. There is but a narrow strip of country at the foot of the Pamir between the upper course of the Indus, the sources of the Oxus and those of the Yarkhand river, which in medieval times formed the road of communication between Turkistan and Tibet. The junction of the Wakshab is reached from Balkh by & road going into the territory of Khuttal, a little to the east of the junction,' and if Kaļidasa had any roadway in this region in his mind, Raghu's march must have taken the road that Alexander took, up to Balkh and then turned north-eastward from Balkh, through Badakshan and Wakh-Khan to the frontier of Kamboja, instend of the slightly north-western road which led into Sugd, the Sogdiana of the Greeks. There is then another point for remark in this connection. This itinerary for Raghu seems to mark the outer boundary in the west and north-west of India from the Achæmenian times onwards almost up to the middle of the 3rd century A.D., if not even up to the time of Yuan Chwang (Hiuen-Tsiang).
Raghu marched eastwards from the Vankņu apparently till he reached the frontiers of the Kambojas who submitted without a fight. After this it is that he began his ascent of the Himalayas. There is a well-known route for commerce through Ladak and eastern Kashmere into Tibet, but the region was occupied by the warlike Daradas (Dards). Raghu's route according to Kalidasa, must have lain further east as there is no mention of these Daradas, and as bloka 73 states that his army was refreshed, on its la borious moun. tain journey, by the breezes from the Ganges. There is the further reference (in kloka 80) to the Kailasa being perhaps in view. He then descended the Himalayas probably by the passes of Gangotri and Kedarnath into the Doab between the Ganges and the Jumna. Here ends this part of his victorious progress, Kalidasa transferring him to the banks of tho Lauhitya (Brahmaputra) imiaediately on his eastern conquests.
The real question requiring explanation. This detailed investigation makes it clear that at the period of time referred to by Kalidasa in this connection, the Huns were in that particular region on the northern banks of the Oxus, which became characteristically their own in the centuries of their active domination both over Asia and Europe, that is, in the 4th and 5th centuries A.D. When they aotually did come in there, and whether those that were in occupation of that region before them could by any means be known to the Indians of their days by the name Hun or Häņa are points on which light would be welcome.
The Man in Chinese History. The name Hâng can be traced back in Chinese history to the very beginnings of the history of that country. These were a people who occupied the north-wesiern corner
1 Vide The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate by Le Strange, Chap. 'The Oxus.' * For the position of the Dards and Kambojas see Pargiter's Map JRAS., 1908, p. 332.