Kabul was the capital of the great Hindu Shahi kings. Afghanistan was a great center of Vedic culture. There were many Hindu temples in Afghanistan. Some temples in Kabul have survived the recent turmoil.
Kabul was the capital of the great Hindu Shahi kings. Afghanistan was a great center of Vedic culture. There were many Hindu temples in Afghanistan. Some temples in Kabul have survived the recent turmoil.
In Kabul, there are several Hindu temples:
In Kandahar, there were Hindu temples in Shikarpuri Bazaar, Kabuli Bazaar and Jhampeer Sahib (near Sarpooza) and Devi-dwara (near Dand).
There have also been Hindu temples and Gurudwaras at Chasma Sahib, Sultanpur, Jalalabad, Ghazni, Helmand (Lashkerga).
The main Hindu residents of Afghanistan have been Mohyals, [2] Khatris and Aroras, some other communities like Bhatias, and Brahmins other than Mohyals have also been present there.
The ancient history of Afghanistan, also referred to as the pre-Islamic period of Afghanistan, dates back to the prehistoric era and the Indus Valley civilization around 3300–1300 BCE. Archaeological exploration began in Afghanistan in earnest after World War II and proceeded until the late 1970s during the Soviet–Afghan War. Archaeologists and historians suggest that humans were living in Afghanistan at least 50,000 years ago, and that farming communities of the region were among the earliest in the world. Urbanized culture has existed in the land from between 3000 and 2000 BC. Artifacts typical of the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze, and Iron ages have been found inside Afghanistan.
Ganesh Chaturthi, also known as Vinayak Chaturthi or Ganeshotsav, is a Hindu festival that tributes Hindu deity Ganesha. The festival is marked with the installation of Ganesha's clay murtis privately in homes and publicly on elaborate pandals. Observances include chanting of Vedic hymns and Hindu texts, such as prayers and vrata (fasting). Offerings and prasada from the daily prayers, that are distributed from the pandal to the community, include sweets such as modak as it is believed to be a favourite of Lord Ganesha. The festival ends on the tenth day after start, when the Murti is carried in a public procession with music and group chanting, then immersed in a nearby body of water such as a river or sea, called visarjana on the day of Ananta Chaturdashi. In Mumbai alone, around 150,000 Murtis are immersed annually. Thereafter the clay Murti dissolves and Ganesha is believed to return to his celestial abode.
Zamindawar is a historical region of Afghanistan. It is a very large and fertile valley the main sources for irrigation is the Helmand River. Zamindawar is located in the greater territory of northern Helmand and encompasses the approximate area of modern-day Baghran, Musa Qala, Naw Zad, Kajaki and Sangin districts. It was a district of hills, and of wide, well populated, and fertile valleys watered by important tributaries of the Helmand. The principal town was Musa Qala, which stands on the banks of a river of the same name, about 60 km north of the city of Grishk.
Zabulistan, was a historical region in southern Afghanistan roughly corresponding to the modern provinces of Zabul and Ghazni. Following the Ghaznavid rule (977–1186), "Zabul" became largely synonymous with the name of its capital and main city, Ghazni.
Hinduism in Afghanistan is practiced by a tiny minority of Afghans, believed to be about 30-40 individuals as of 2021, who live mostly in the cities of Kabul and Jalalabad. Afghan Hindus are ethnically Pashtun, Hindkowan (Hindki), Punjabi, or Sindhi and primarily speak Pashto, Hindko, Punjabi, Sindhi, Dari, and Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu).
The history of Peshawar is intertwined with the history of the broader Indian subcontinent. The region was known as Puruṣapura in Sanskrit, literally meaning "city of men". Being among the most ancient cities of the Indian subcontinent, Peshawar has for centuries been a center of trade between West Asia, Central Asia, and the Indian subcontinent.
The Ganesha Purana is a Sanskrit text that deals with the Hindu deity Ganesha. It is an upapurāṇa that includes mythology, cosmogony, genealogy, metaphors, yoga, theology and philosophy relating to Ganesha.
India and Hinduism has influenced many countries in other parts South Asia, East Asia and Southeast Asia as a result of commercial and cultural contacts. Ganesha is one of many Hindu deities who reached foreign lands as a result.
The Śāradā, Sarada or Sharada script is an abugida writing system of the Brahmic family of scripts. The script was widespread between the 8th and 12th centuries in the northwestern parts of Indian Subcontinent, for writing Sanskrit and Kashmiri. Although originally a signature Brahminical script created in the valley, it was more widespread throughout northwestern Indian subcontinent, although became later restricted to Kashmir, and it is now rarely used, except by the Kashmiri Pandit community for religious purposes.
Ganesha, also spelled Ganesh, and also known as Ganapati, Vinayaka, and Pillaiyar, is one of the best-known and most worshipped deities in the Hindu pantheon and is the Supreme God in the Ganapatya sect. His depictions are found throughout India. Hindu denominations worship him regardless of affiliations. Devotion to Ganesha is widely diffused and extends to Jains and Buddhists and beyond India.
Zunbil, also written as Zhunbil, or Rutbils of Zabulistan, was a royal dynasty south of the Hindu Kush region, in Afghanistan. A remnant of Hephthalite Empire, they ruled from circa 680 AD until the Saffarid conquest in 870 AD. The Zunbil dynasty was founded by Rutbil, the elder brother of the Turk Shahi ruler, who ruled over Hephthalite kingdom from his capital in Kabul. The Zunbils are described as having Turkish troops in their service by Arabic sources like Tarikh al-Tabari and Tarikh-i Sistan.
Shri Mayureshwar Mandir or Shri Moreshwar Temple is a Hindu temple (mandir) dedicated to Ganesha, god of wisdom. It is located in Moragaon in Pune District, about 65 km away from Pune city in the Indian state of Maharashtra. The temple is the starting and ending point of a pilgrimage of eight revered Ganesha temples called Ashtavinayaka.
Afghanistan possesses a rich linguistic legacy of pre-Islamic scripts, which existed before being displaced by the Arabic alphabet, after the Islamic conquest of Afghanistan. Among these scripts are Sharada, Kharosthi, Greek, and Brāhmī. For thousands of years, Afghanistan was inhabited by Indo-Aryan and Iranian peoples and thus all ancient documents, tracts, monuments and remains are of Hindu and Iranian origins. Later, Buddhism became the major force in Afghanistan and brought with it its own liturgical languages.
The Hindu Shahis were a dynasty that held sway over the Kabulistan, Gandhara and western Punjab during the early medieval period in the Indian subcontinent. Details regarding past rulers can only be assembled from disparate chronicles, coins and stone inscriptions.
The Vigneshwara Temple or Vighnahar Ganapati Temple of Ozar is a Hindu temple dedicated to Ganesha, the elephant-headed god of wisdom. The temple is one of the Ashtavinayaka, the eight revered shrines of Ganesha in Maharashtra, India. The Ganesha form worshipped here is called Vigneshwara or Vignahar and is associated with the legend of Ganesha defeating Vignasura, the demon of obstacles.
Sajāwand is a village in Baraki Barak district, Logar province, Afghanistan.
The Gardez Ganesha is a statue of the Hindu god Ganesha, discovered in Gardez, near Kabul in Afghanistan. It is considered as "a typical product of the Indo-Afghan school". It was dedicated by a king named Khingal.
Khingala, also transliterated Khinkhil, Khinjil or Khinjal, was a ruler of the Turk Shahis. He is only known in name from the accounts of the Muslim historian Ya'qubi and from an epigraphical source, the Gardez Ganesha. The identification of his coinage remains conjectural.
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