Sasanian Hind | |||||||||||||||
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262–484 CE | |||||||||||||||
Historical era | Antiquity | ||||||||||||||
• Established | 262 | ||||||||||||||
• Disestablished | 484 CE | ||||||||||||||
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Today part of | Pakistan |
Hind (also spelled Hindestan) was the name of a southeastern Sasanian province lying near the Indus River in modern-day southern Pakistan. 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]
The Sasanians toppled the Parthian Empire in 224 CE, and eastern Parthian territories were probably captured under Ardashir I (224-240 CE) and his son Shapur I (240-272 CE). [4] 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, and the Kushanshahr up to Peshawar/Pashkibur"
— Shapur I's inscription at the Ka'ba-ye Zartosht (c. 262 CE)
Shapur I installed his son Narseh as "King of the Sakas" in the areas of Eastern Iran as far as Sindh. [5] Narseh is named "King of Sind" in the Naqsh-e Rostam inscription as well as in the 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 Hind, Sakestān and Turān to the seashore."
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]
Al-Tabari mentioned that Shapur II built many cities in Sind and 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.
Around 350 CE, Shapur II gained the upper hand in his conflict against the Kushano-Sasanian Kingdom and took control of large territories in areas now known as Afghanistan and Pakistan, possibly as a consequence of the destruction of the Kushano-Sasanians by the 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 Hindu-Kush, particularly in the area of Kabulistan. [14] Local Sasanian coins were minted in this area during the last part of the reign of Shapur II, around 364-379 CE, with the probable intent of paying for local Sasanian troops fighting against the Kidarites. [14] The Sasanians probably maintained control until Bactria fell to the Kidarites under their ruler Kidara around 360 CE, [15] and Kabulistan fell to the Alchon Huns circa 385 CE. [13] [14]
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." [18] A series of Sasanian-style issues is known, minted from 325 to 480 CE in Sindh, from Multan to the mouth of the Indus river in the southern part of modern Pakistan, with the coin type of successive Sasanian Empire rulers, from Shapur II to Peroz I. [9] [5] Together with the coinage of the 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 Baluchistan and Kutch. [9] The coins are made of gold only, have a weight of around 7.20 grams, making them similar to the traditional "heavy" Sasanian dinars. [9] The number of coins so far discovered suggests a significant volume of coinage, equivalent to about half of the more famous 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 Middle Persian in the Pahlavi script, but they have the Brahmi script character Śrī ( "Lord") in front of the portrait of the King. [9] [20] The coins suggest some sort of Sasanian control of Sind during the 5th century, a recognition of Sasanian overlordship, [9] but the precise extent of the Sasanian presence or influence is unknown. [21] [20] The facts that these coins do not use the traditional Sasanian imperial titulature, that they do not use the Sasanian weight standards, and that the standard Sasanian silver monetary standard was not in circulation in the region, all suggest that the Sasanians were actually not ruling directly in Sindh. [9] Still, such vast influence from the 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 Kushan rule, may also have been done at the expense of the Western Satraps and the 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]
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. [24] A small number of scenes show foreigners drinking wine in Caves 1 and 2. In Cave 1, there are also four "foreign" bacchanalian groups (one now missing) at the middle of each quadrant of the elaborate ceiling painting. [26]
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 issues of the Peroz design abandon the degraded Palhavi legend altogether as well as the Sri mark, and instead used a Brahmi legend Rana Datasatya . [9] [29] [30] [28] These later imitations of Sasanian coins after 480 CE may have been made by the Hephthalites/ Alchon Huns, who added a Hunnic 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]
Peroz I was the Sasanian King of Kings of Iran from 459 to 484. A son of Yazdegerd II, he disputed the rule of his elder brother and incumbent king Hormizd III, eventually seizing the throne after a two-year struggle. His reign was marked by war and famine. Early in his reign, he successfully quelled a rebellion in Caucasian Albania in the west, and put an end to the Kidarites in the east, briefly expanding Sasanian rule into Tokharistan, where he issued gold coins with his likeness at Balkh. Simultaneously, Iran was suffering from a seven-year famine. He soon clashed with the former subjects of the Kidarites, the Hephthalites, who possibly had previously helped him to gain his throne. He was defeated and captured twice by the Hephthalites and lost his recently acquired possessions.
Bahram II was the fifth Sasanian King of Kings (shahanshah) of Iran, from 274 to 293. He was the son and successor of Bahram I. Bahram II, while still in his teens, ascended the throne with the aid of the powerful Zoroastrian priest Kartir, just like his father had done.
Shapur I was the second Sasanian King of Kings of Iran. The precise dating of his reign is disputed, but it is generally agreed that he ruled from 240 to 270, with his father Ardashir I as co-regent until the death of the latter in 242. During his co-regency, he helped his father with the conquest and destruction of the city of Hatra, whose fall was facilitated, according to Islamic tradition, by the actions of his future wife al-Nadirah. Shapur also consolidated and expanded the empire of Ardashir I, waged war against the Roman Empire, and seized its cities of Nisibis and Carrhae while he was advancing as far as Roman Syria. Although he was defeated at the Battle of Resaena in 243 by Roman emperor Gordian III, he was the following year able to win the Battle of Misiche and force the new Roman emperor Philip the Arab to sign a favorable peace treaty that was regarded by the Romans as "a most shameful treaty".
Shapur II, also known as Shapur the Great, was the tenth Sasanian King of Kings (Shahanshah) of Iran. He took the title at birth and held it until his death at age 70, making him the longest-reigning monarch in Iranian history. He was the son of Hormizd II.
The Kidarites, or Kidara Huns, were a dynasty that ruled Bactria and adjoining parts of Central Asia and South Asia in the 4th and 5th centuries. The Kidarites belonged to a complex of peoples known collectively in India as the Huna, and in Europe as the Chionites, and may even be considered as identical to the Chionites. The 5th century Byzantine historian Priscus called them Kidarite Huns, or "Huns who are Kidarites". The Huna/Xionite tribes are often linked, albeit controversially, to the Huns who invaded Eastern Europe during a similar period. They are entirely different from the Hephthalites, who replaced them about a century later.
The Rai dynasty was a dynasty that ruled the Sindh region. All that is known about the dynasty comes from the Chachnama, a 13th-century Persian work about Sindhi history.
The Kushano-Sasanian Kingdom was a polity established by the Sasanian Empire in Bactria during the 3rd and 4th centuries. The Sasanian Empire captured the provinces of Sogdia, Bactria and Gandhara from the declining Kushan Empire following a series of wars in 225 CE. The local Sasanian governors then went on to take the title of Kushanshah or "King of the Kushans", and to mint coins. They are sometimes considered as forming a "sub-kingdom" inside the Sasanian Empire.
The Pāratarājas or Pāradarājas was a Hindu dynasty of Parthian kings in the territory of modern-day western Pakistan from circa 125 CE to circa 300 CE. It appears to have been a Hindu tribal polity of Western Indo-Iranic heritage.
Kipunada, also Kipanadha, was probably the last ruler of the Kushan Empire around 335-350 CE. He is known for his gold coinage. He succeeded Shaka I. Kipunada was probably only a local ruler in the area of Taxila, in western Punjab, and he may have been a subject of Gupta Emperor Samudragupta.
Kushanshah was the title of the rulers of the Kushano-Sasanian Kingdom, the parts of the former Kushan Empire in the areas of Sogdiana, Bactria and Gandhara, named Kushanshahr and held by the Sasanian Empire, during the 3rd and 4th centuries CE. They are collectively known as Kushano-Sasanians, or Indo-Sasanians.
Peroz I Kushanshah was Kushanshah of the Kushano-Sasanian Kingdom from 245 to 275. He was the successor of Ardashir I Kushanshah. He was an energetic ruler, who minted coins in Balkh, Herat, and Gandhara. Under him, the Kushano-Sasanians further expanded their domains into the west, pushing the weakened Kushan Empire to Mathura in North India.
Hormizd I Kushanshah was Kushanshah of the Kushano-Sasanian Kingdom from 275 to 300. His reign was marked by his rebellion against his brother and suzerain the Sasanian King of Kings Bahram II.
BahramKushanshah, was the last Kushanshah of the Kushano-Sasanian Kingdom from 330 to 365. He was the successor of Peroz II Kushanshah.
Peroz II Kushanshah was the penultimate Kushanshah of the Kushano-Sasanian Kingdom from 303 to 330. He was the successor of Hormizd II Kushanshah.
Peroz, was according to modern scholarship an early Kidarite ruler in Gandhara, right after the end of Kushano-Sasanians.
Sasanian coinage was produced within the domains of the Iranian Sasanian Empire (224–651). Together with the Roman Empire, the Sasanian Empire was the most important money-issuing polity in Late Antiquity. Sasanian coinage had a significant influence on coinage of other polities. Sasanian coins are a pivotal primary source for the study of the Sasanian period, and of major importance in history and art history in general. The Sylloge nummorum Sasanidarum is the most important primary work of reference for Sasanian coins.
The Sasanian coinage of Sindh refers to a series of Sasanian-style issues, minted from 325 to 480 CE in Sindh, in the southern part of modern Pakistan, with the coin type of successive Sasanian Empire rulers, from Shapur II to Peroz I. Together with the coinage of the Kushano-Sasanians, these coins are often described as "Indo-Sasanian". They form an important part of Sasanian coinage.
Rāṇāditya Satya, was probably a ruler in the area of Sindh, modern-day Pakistan, probably c. 480 CE.
The Sasanian–Kushan Wars were a series of wars between the newly established Persian Sasanian empire, under Ardashir I and later his successor Shapur I, against the declining Kushan empire. These wars resulted in the eastward expansion of the Sasanians who conquered much of the Kushan territory including Bactria, Gandhara and Sogdia. The Sassanids, shortly after victory over the declining Parthian empire, extended their dominion to most of former Parthian lands, including Bactria, during the reign of Ardashir I around 230 CE, then they further expanded to the eastern parts of their empire in what is now western Pakistan, at the expense of warring against the declining Kushan empire, during the reign of his son Shapur I (240–270). Thus the Kushans lost their western territory to the rule of Sassanid nobles, who eventually established their own states and were collectively referred to as Kushanshahs or "Kings of the Kushans". At their greatest extent, these Kushano-Sasanians also seem to have expanded eastwards all the way to Gandhara, however do not seem to have crossed the Indus River, since almost none of their coinage has been found in the city of Taxila, just beyond the Indus.
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