Hind (Sasanian province)

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Sasanian Hind
262–484 CE
Approximate location of Sasanian Hind and neighbouring polities in South Asia, circa 350 CE.[1]
Historical eraAntiquity
• Established
262
• Disestablished
484 CE
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
Paratarajas
Indo-Parthian Kingdom
Western Satraps
Rai dynasty
Kidarites
Today part ofIndia
Pakistan

Hind (also spelled Hindestan) was the name of a southeastern

Sasanian province lying near the Indus River. The boundaries of the province are obscure. The Austrian historian and numismatist Nikolaus Schindel has suggested that the province may have corresponded to the Sindh region, where the Sasanians notably minted unique gold coins of themselves.[2] According to the modern historian C. J. Brunner, the province possibly included—whenever jurisdiction was established—the areas of the Indus River, including the southern part of Punjab.[3]

Territorial claims

The Sasanians toppled the

Sakastan was seized around 233 CE by Ardashir in his Great Eastern Campaign, who then captures Herat, Nishapur and Merv.[4] These territories became the basis for further expansion into Central Asia and India.[4]

Sasanian rulers claimed control of vast areas of northwestern India in their inscriptions, starting with the reign of Shapur I and his inscription at Ka'ba-ye Zartosht:[4]

[I] am ruler of [...] Hind [India], and the Kushanshahr up to Peshawar/Pashkibur"

— Shapur I's inscription at the Ka'ba-ye Zartosht (c. 262 CE)
Sakastan
to Hind. Sakastan mint.

Shapur I installed his son

Paikuli testament of his father Shapur I:[6]

"husrav-nersah nām ēr mazdesn nersah šāh hind sagestān ud tūrestān dā (ō) drayā"
"Our son the Aryan, the Mazdayasnian Narsē, king of India, Sakestān and Turān to the seashore."

— Shapur I's inscription at the Ka'ba-ye Zartosht (c. 262 CE).[7][6]

Two inscriptions during the reign of Shapur II (ruled 309–379 CE) mention his control of the regions of Sindh, Sakastan and Turan.[8] Still, the exact term used by the Sasanian rulers in their inscription is Hndy, similar to Hindustan, which cannot be said for sure to mean "Sindh".[9]

Sakastan.[10][11] Several governors of the Sasanian Province of Sakastan are known, such as Shapur Sakanshah during the reign of Shapur II (r. 309–379), and as late as Aparviz
in the 7th century.

Expansion into Gandhara and Punjab (c. 350–358 CE)

Gold and silver coinage of Shapur II (309–379) from Mint IX (“Kabul”, Afghanistan).

Around 350 CE,

Chionites.[12]
The Kushano-Sasanians still ruled in the north.

Important finds of Sasanian coinage beyond the

Indus river in the city of Taxila only start with the reigns of Shapur II (r. 309-379) and Shapur III (r. 383-388), suggesting that the expansion of Sasanian control beyond the Indus was the result of the wars of Shapur II "with the Chionites and Kushans" from 350 to 358 CE as described by Ammianus Marcellinus.[13]

The Sasanians are known to have minted coinage south of the

Kidara around 360 CE,[15] and Kabulistan fell to the Alchon Huns circa 385 CE.[13][14]

Sasanian-type coinage of Sindh (325-480 CE)

Main article: Sasanian coinage of Sindh
Makuran and Hind in the early Sasanian era, and location map of the Sasanian coinage of Sindh, circa 400-425 CE.[16]
Gold coins of Sasanian Empire ruler Shapur III (r. 383-388), minted in Sindh, modern Pakistan. Obverse: Portrait of Shapur III, Brahmi script character Śrī ("Lord") in front of the King. Degraded Pahlavi legend around. Reverse: Fire altar with attendants.[9][17]

According to R.C. Senior, "the Province of Sind, the floodplain of the Indus river from its mouth to the city of Multan, was the furthest extent of Sassanian dominion in the south-east."

Kushano-Sasanians, these coins are often described as "Indo-Sasanian", and are part of Indo-Sasanian coinage.[19] They form an important part of Sasanian coinage
.

Besides Sindh, these coins have also been recovered from the areas of

Kushano-Sassanian coinage.[9] However, the time span of 150 years covered by the Sindh coins is much longer than the roughly 50 years time span of the Kushano-Sasanians, suggested about 1/6th of the Kushano-Sasanian output per time unit.[9]

The coins are not the usual Sasanian imperial type, and the legend around the portrait tends to be degraded

Arabic peninsula to the Sindh and the Kushan realm probably provided the Sasanians with a remarkable position in terms of maritime trade, giving them a sort of trade monopoly.[22]

The expansion of the Sasanians in northwestern India, which put an end to the remnants of

Satavahanas.[23]

Sindh coinage of Sasanian Empire rulers from Shapur II down to Peroz I are known, covering approximately the period from 325 to 480 CE.[5] The last coins of the series, those copied on Peroz I (r. 459–484), deviate from the series as they introduce a Brahmi legend, often with the title "Rana Datasatya".[9] Paradoxically, several of the Sasanians kings have more dinar gold coins known from the Sindh mints than from the regular Sasanian mints: this is the case of Shapur III and Bahram V, both of whom only have about five regular Sasanian dinar gold coins known, compared to nine and thirteen respectively for the Sindh mints as of 2016.[9] To explain this, R.C. Senior has suggested that Shapur III, who had a very troubled reign and suffered defeats at the hand of the Kushans, had been unable to issue gold coinage and had to take refuge in Sindh where he was able to strike his beautiful coins, some with the Sri symbol, and some without.[17]

Sasanians at Ajanta

A foreigner in Sasanian dress drinking wine, on the ceiling of the central hall of Cave 1, likely a generic scene from an object imported from Central Asia (460–480 CE)[24][25]

The Buddhist caves of Ajanta have several frescos with characters with foreigners' faces or dresses, dating to circa 480 CE. While scholars generally agree that these murals confirm trade and cultural connections between India and Sassanian west, their specific significance and interpretation varies.[24][26]

Such murals suggest a prosperous and multicultural society in 5th-century India active in international trade.[24] These also suggest that this trade was economically important enough to the Deccan region that the artists chose to include it with precision.[24]

Additional evidence of international trade includes the use of the blue lapis lazuli pigment to depict foreigners in the Ajanta paintings, which must have been imported from Afghanistan or Iran. It also suggests, states Branacaccio, that the Buddhist monastic world was closely connected with trading guilds and the court culture in this period.

bacchanalian groups (one now missing) at the middle of each quadrant of the elaborate ceiling painting.[26]

Defeat against the Hephthalites (484 CE)

In 484 CE, the Sasanian Emperor Peroz I was defeated by the Hephthalites, and had to ceede the area to Bactria to them.[27] Around the same time, the Sasanian Empire probably also had to ceede the territory of Zabulistan to the Nezak Huns.[27]

Later coinage of Sindh

tamgha in front of the ruler.[9][28]
Main article: Sasanian coinage of Sindh

Later issues of the Peroz design abandon the degraded Palhavi legend altogether as well as the Sri mark, and instead used a Brahmi legend

tamgha to the design, after they took over the northwestern Indian provinces.[5] The quality of the coins also becomes very much degraded by that time, and the actual gold content becomes quite low.[9]

References

  1. ISBN 0226742210
    .
  2. ^ Schindel 2016, p. 127.
  3. ^ Brunner 2004, pp. 326–336.
  4. ^
    ISBN 978-90-04-46066-9
    .
  5. ^ a b c d Senior, R.C. (1991). "The Coinage of Sind from 250 AD up to the Arab Conquest" (PDF). Oriental Numismatic Society Newsletter. 129 (June–July 1991): 3–4.
  6. ^
    ISBN 978-1-4744-2068-6
    .
  7. ^ "The trilingual inscription of Šābuhr at “Kaaba i Zardušt” (ŠKZ)" (transcription of full text with English translation)
  8. ISBN 9780857716668
    .
  9. ^
    ISBN 9781785702105
    .
  10. ISBN 9780857716668
    .
  11. ISBN 9781474400305
    .
  12. ISBN 9781474400305
    .
  13. ^ a b Ghosh 1965, pp. 790–791.
  14. ^
    ISBN 978-90-04-46066-9
    .
  15. ^ The Huns, Hyun Jin Kim, Routledge, 2015 p.50 sq
  16. ^ Senior, R.C. (1991). "The Coinage of Sind from 250 AD up to the Arab Conquest" (PDF). Oriental Numismatic Society. 129 (June–July 1991): 3–4.
  17. ^ a b Senior, R.C. (2012). "Some unpublished ancient coins" (PDF). Oriental Numismatic Society Newsletter. 170 (Winter): 17.
  18. ^ Senior, R.C. (2012). "The Coinage of Sind from 250 AD up to the Arab Conquest" (PDF). Oriental Numismatic Society Newsletter. 129 (Winter): 17.
  19. ISBN 9781000227932
    .
  20. ^
    JSTOR 44710198
    .
  21. ISBN 9780857716668
    .
  22. ISBN 9781107101944
    .
  23. ISBN 9789352531325
    .
  24. ^
    ISBN 978-9004185258
    .
  25. ISBN 9780241326244
    .
  26. ^ a b Spink 2007, p. 27.
  27. ^
    ISBN 978-90-04-46066-9
    .
  28. ^ a b Senior, R.C. (1991). "The Coinage of Sind from 250 AD up to the Arab Conquest" (PDF). Oriental Numismatic Society (129): 4.
  29. ^ Senior, R.C. (1991). "The Coinage of Sind from 250 AD up to the Arab Conquest" (PDF). Oriental Numismatic Society Newsletter. 129: 3–4.
  30. ^ Senior, R.C. (1996). "Some new coins from Sind" (PDF). Oriental Numismatic Society Newsletter. 149: 6.

Sources

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