Huna people
Hunas | |
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Hunas or Huna (Middle
The Hunas are thought to have included the
In its farthest geographical extent in India, the territories controlled by the Hunas covered the region up to Malwa in central India.[5] Their repeated invasions and war losses were the main reason for the decline of the Gupta Empire.[6]
History
Chinese sources link the
The 6th-century
The Ephthalitae Huns, who are called White Huns [...] The Ephthalitae are of the stock of the Huns in fact as well as in name, however they do not mingle with any of the Huns known to us, for they occupy a land neither adjoining nor even very near to them; but their territory lies immediately to the north of Persia [...] They are not nomads like the other Hunnic peoples, but for a long period have been established in a goodly land... They are the only ones among the Huns who have white bodies and countenances which are not ugly. It is also true that their manner of living is unlike that of their kinsmen, nor do they live a savage life as they do; but they are ruled by one king, and since they possess a lawful constitution, they observe right and justice in their dealings both with one another and with their neighbours, in no degree less than the Romans and the Persians[13]
The Kidarites, who invaded Bactria in the second half of the 4th century,[14] are generally regarded as the first wave of Hunas to enter Indian Subcontinent.
The Gupta empire under Skandagupta in the 5th century had successfully repulsed one Hun attack in the northwest in 460 CE. However, over the period of the next several years, the Hunas under successive kings were able to make inroads into the subcontinent.
They were initially based in the
In 528 CE, another campaign led by a coalition of Indian kings finally defeated king Mihirakula and his Huna army. The victory was inscribed on a stone pillar and erected in honor of (and in praise for) one of the leaders of the coalition, king Yashodharman, in Mandasaur in Central India. Huna kings in this inscription are described as 'rude and cruel'. They were also responsible for the destruction of Buddhist monasteries and centers of learning in the Northwest regions of the country.
The Mongolian-Tibetan historian
Gurjara-Pratiharas
The
Religion
The religious beliefs of the Hunas is unknown, and believed to be a combination of ancestor worship, totemism and animism.[24]
Gallery
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Victory pillar of Yashodharman at Sondani, Mandsaur claiming victory over the Huns.
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Asia in 500 CE, showing the Huna domain at its greatest extent.
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Khingila.[26]
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Napki Malka.
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The "
See also
- Kushan Empire
- Gurjaras
- Gurjara pratihara dynasty
- 36 royal races
- Ancient India and Central Asia
- Alchon Huns
Notes
- Hans Bakker 24th Gonda lecture
- ^ India: A History by John Keay p.158
- ^ ISBN 0-7607-1973-X.
- ISBN 9788120815407.
- ^ Kurbanov, Aydogdy (2010). "The Hephthalites: Archaeological and Historical Analysis" (PDF). p. 24. Retrieved 17 January 2013.
The Hūnas controlled an area that extended from Malwa in central India to Kashmir.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4384-1014-2.
- ^ Tewari, S.P.; Ramesh, K.V. (1983). JOURNAL OF THE EPIGRAPHICAL SOCIETY OF INDIA VOL 10. THE EPIGRAPHICAL SOCIETY OF INDIA, DHARWAR. pp. 98-99.
- ^ Hyun Jin Kim, The Huns, Abingdon, Routledge, passim.
- ISBN 978-1-136-87597-7.
- ^ British Museum notice
- ^ Procopius of Caesarea: Tyranny, History, and Philosophy at the End of Antiquity, Anthony Kaldellis, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012, p.70
- ^ Staying Roman: Conquest and Identity in Africa and the Mediterranean, 439–700, Jonathan Conant Cambridge University Press, 2012 p.259
- ^ Procopius, History of the Wars. Book I, Ch. III, "The Persian War"
- Unesco p.119 sq
- ISBN 9780883863015.
- ^ Upendra Thakur (1967). The Hūṇas in India. Chowkhamba Prakashan. pp. 52–55.
- ^ Sumpa Yeshe Peljor's 18th century work Dpag-bsam-ljon-bzah (Tibetan title) may be translated as "The Excellent Kalpavriksha"): "Tho-gar yul dań yabana dań Kambodza dań Khasa [sic] dań Huna dań Darta dań..."
- H. W. Bailey.
- ^ Smith, Vincent Arthur; Edwardes, S. M. (Stephen Meredyth) (1924). The early history of India : from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan conquest, including the invasion of Alexander the Great. Oxford : Clarendon Press. p. Plate 2.
- ISBN 9781000227932.
- ^ Puri 1957, p. 2.
- White Hunnicelement. The Gurjara Pratiharas who were likely created from a fusion of White Hunnic and native Indian elements, ruled a vast Empire in northern India, and they also halted Arab Muslim expansion in India through Sind for centuries...
- ISBN 978-90-04-09249-5.
- ISBN 978-0-02-909750-2.
- ^ "The White Huns – The Hephthalites". Silkroad Foundation. Retrieved 11 January 2013.
- ^ CNG Coins
- ^ Iaroslav Lebedynsky, "Les Nomades", p172.
References
- ISBN 978-2-87772-346-6
- Puri, Baij Nath (1957), The history of the Gurjara-Pratihāras, Munshiram Manoharlal