The Kidarites, or Kidara Huns,[1] 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 (from the Iranian names Xwn/Xyon), and may even be considered as identical to the Chionites.[2] The 5th century Byzantine historian Priscus called them Kidarite Huns, or "Huns who are Kidarites".[3][4] 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.[4]
The Kidarites were named after Kidara (Chinese: 寄多羅 Jiduoluo, ancient pronunciation: Kjie-ta-la)[5][6] one of their main rulers. The Kidarites appear to have been a part of a Huna horde known in Latin sources as the "Kermichiones" (from the Iranian Karmir Xyon) or "Red Huna". The Kidarites established the first of four major Xionite/Huna states in Central Asia, followed by the Alchon, the Hephthalites and the Nezak.
In 360–370 CE, a Kidarite kingdom was established in Central Asian regions previously ruled by the Sasanian Empire, replacing the Kushano-Sasanians in Bactria.[7][8] Thereafter, the Sasanian Empire roughly stopped at Merv.[8] Next, circa 390-410 CE, the Kidarites invaded northwestern India, where they replaced the remnants of the Kushan Empire in the area of Punjab.
Portrait of Kidara, king of the Kidarites, circa 350–386. The coinage of the Kidarites imitated Sasanian imperial coinage, with the exception that they displayed clean-shaven faces, instead of the beards of the Sasanians, a feature relating them to Altaic rather than Iranian lineage.
A nomadic people, the Kidarites appear to have originated in the Altai Mountains region. On Kidarite coins their rulers are depicted as beardless or clean-shaven – a feature of Altaic cultures at the time (as opposed, for example, to the Iranian cultures of South Central Asia).[9] They may have been Oghuric speakers originally, as may have been the Chionites and the Hephthalites, before adopting the Bactrian language.[10] The Kidarites were depicted as mounted archers on the reverse of coins.[11] They were also known to practice artificial cranial deformation.[12]
The Kidarites appear to have been synonymous with the Karmir Xyon ("Red Xionites" or, more controversially, "Red Huns"),[13][14] – a major subdivision of the Chionites (Xionites), alongside the Spet Xyon ("White Xionites"). In a recently discovered seal with the image of a ruler similar to those of the Kidarite coins, the ruler named himself in Bactrian "King of the Huns and Great Kushan Shah" (uonano shao o(a)zarko (k)oshanoshao). The discovery was reportedly made in Swat.[15][16]
Fire attendants with the kaftan tunic worn over trousers tucked into knee-high boots, and holding swords, on the coinage of Kidara
The name of their eponymous ruler Kidara (fl. 350–385) may be cognate with the Turkic word Kidirti meaning "west", suggesting that the Kidarites were originally the westernmost of the Xionites, and the first to migrate from Inner Asia.[17] Chinese sources suggest that when the Uar (滑 Huá) were driven westward by the Later Zhao state, circa 320, from the area around Pingyang (平陽; modern Linfen, Shanxi), it put pressure on Xionite-affiliated peoples, such as the Kidarites, to migrate. Another theory is that climate change in the Altai during the 4th century caused various tribes to migrate westward and southward.[17]
Contemporary Chinese and Roman sources suggest that, during the 4th century, the Kidarites began to encroach on the territory of Greater Khorasan and the Kushan Empire – migrating through Transoxiana into Bactria,[18] where they were initially vassals of the Kushans and adopted many elements of Kushano-Bactrian culture. The Kidarites also initially put pressure on the Sasanian Empire, but later served as mercenaries in the Sassanian army, under which they fought the Romans in Mesopotamia, led by a chief named Grumbates (fl. 353–358 CE). Some of the Kidarites apparently became a ruling dynasty of the Kushan Empire, leading to the epithet "Little Kushans".[19][20]
Kidarite kingdom
First appearance in literary sources
Inclusion of the Kidarite tamgha
Coin in the name of Kushano-Sasanian king Varahran, struck under Kidarite ruler Kirada, circa 340-345. The Kidarite tamga symbol () appears to the right of the standing king. Balkh mint.
The first evidence are gold coins discovered in Balkh dating from the mid-4th century. The Kushano-Sasanian ruler Varahran during the second phase of his reign, had to introduce the Kidarite tamga () in his coinage minted at Balkh in Bactria, circa 340-345.[21] The tamgha replaced the nandipada symbol which had been in use since Vasudeva I,[21] suggesting that the Kidarites had now taken control, first under their ruler Kirada.[22] Then ram horns were added to the effigy of Varahran on his coinage for a brief period under the Kidarite ruler Peroz, and raised ribbons were added around the crown ball under the Kidarite ruler Kidara.[23][24][21][22] In effect, Varahran has been described as a "puppet" of the Kidarites.[25] By 365, the Kidarite ruler Kidara I was placing his name on the coinage of the region, and assumed the title of Kushanshah.[22] In Gandhara too, the Kidarites minted silver coins in the name of Varahran, until Kidara also introduced his own name there.[22]
Archaeological, numismatic, and sigillographic evidence demonstrates the Kidarites ruled a realm just as refined as that of the Sasanians. They swiftly adopted Iranian imperial symbolism and titulature, as demonstrated by a seal; "Lord Ularg, the king of the Huns, the great Kushan-shah, the Samarkandian, of the Afrigan (?) family."[26]
Most other data we currently have on the Kidarite kingdom are from Chinese and Byzantine sources from the middle of the 5th century. The Kidarites were the first Huna to bother India. Indian records note that the Hūna had established themselves in modern Afghanistan and the North-West Frontier Province by the first half of the 5th century, and the Gupta emperor Skandagupta had repelled a Hūna invasion in 455. The Kidarites are the last dynasty to regard themselves (on the legend of their coins) as the inheritors of the Kushan empire, which had disappeared as an independent entity two centuries earlier.[original research?]
Migration into Bactria
Kidara, circa 425–457. AR Drachm (29mm, 3.76 g, 3h). Mint C in Gandhara. Crowned bust facing slightly right. Brahmi legend around the head: Ki-da-ra Ku-ṣa-ṇa-ṣa/ Fire altar flanked by attendants. The use of the 3/4 portrait is sometimes attributed to the influence of the coinage of Byzantine Empire ruler Arcadius (377–408 CE).
South Asian polities circa 350 CE, and location of the Kidarites in Bactria, on the eve of their expansion into the Indian subcontinent.[29]
Around 350, the Sasanian Emperor Shapur II (ruled 309 to 379) had to interrupt his conflict with the Romans, and abandon the siege of Nisibis,[17] in order to face nomadic threats in the east: he was attacked in the east by ScythianMassagetae and other Central Asian tribes.[30] Around this time, Xionite/Huna tribes, most likely the Kidarites, whose king was Grumbates, make an appearance as an encroaching threat upon Sasanian territory as well as a menace to the Gupta Empire (320–500).[6]
After a prolonged struggle (353–358) they were forced to conclude an alliance, and their king Grumbates accompanied Shapur II in the war against the Romans, agreeing to enlist his light cavalrymen into the Persian army and accompanying Shapur II. The presence of "Grumbates, king of the Chionitae" and his Xionites with Shapur II during campaigns in the Western Caspian lands, in the area of Corduene, is described by the contemporary eyewitness Ammianus Marcellinus:[31]
Grumbates Chionitarum rex novus aetate quidem media rugosisque membris sed mente quadam grandifica multisque victoriarum insignibus nobilis. "Grumbates, the new king of the Xionites, while he was middle aged, and his limbs were wrinkled, he was endowed with a mind that acted grandly, and was famous for his many, significant victories."
The presence of Grumbates alongside Shapur II is also recorded at the successful Siege of Amida in 359, in which Grumbates lost his son:[17]
"Grumbates, king of the Chionitae, went boldly up to the walls to effect that mission, with a brave body of guards; and when a skilful reconnoitrer had noticed him coming within shot, he let fly his balista, and struck down his son in the flower of his youth, who was at his father's side, piercing through his breastplate, breast and all; and he was a prince who in stature and beauty was superior to all his comrades. "
Later the alliance fell apart, and by the time of Bahram IV (388–399) the Sasanians had lost numerous battles against the Kidarites.[17] The migrating Kidarites then settled in Bactria, where they replaced the Kushano-Sasanids, a branch of the Sasanids that had displaced the weakening Kushans in the area two centuries before.[7] It is thought that they were in firm possession of the region of Bactria by 360.[17] Since this area corresponds roughly to Kushanshahr, the former western territories of the Kushans, Kidarite ruler Kidara called himself "Kidara King of the Kushans" on his coins.[34]
According to Priscus, the Sasanian Empire was forced to pay tribute to the Kidarites, until the rule of Yazdgird II (ruled 438–457), who refused payment.[35]
The Kidarites based their capital in Samarkand, where they were at the center of Central Asian trade networks, in close relation with the Sogdians.[8] The Kidarites had a powerful administration and raised taxes, rather efficiently managing their territories, in contrast to the image of barbarians bent on destruction given by Persian accounts.[8]
Kafir-kala is an ancient fortress 12 kilometers south of the city center of Samarkand in Uzbekistan, protecting the southern border of the Samarkand oasis.[37] It consists in a central citadel built in mud-bricks and measuring 75 × 75 meters at its base has six towers and is surrounded by a moat, still visible today.[37] Living quarters were located outside the citadel.[37] The citadel was first occupied by the Kidarites in the 4th-5th century, whose coinage and bullae have been found.[38][39]
Expansion to northwest India
Kidara gold coin, circa 350–385, derived from the Kushans. Vertical Brahmi legends from right to left: Kushana (Ku-shā-ṇa) Kidara (Ki-da-ra) Kushana (Ku-shā-ṇa). Enthroned goddess Ardoxsho on the back.
The Kidarites consolidated their power in Northern Afghanistan before conquering Peshawar and parts of northwest India including Gandhara probably sometime between 390 and 410,[40] around the end of the rule of Gupta Emperor Chandragupta II or beginning of the rule of Kumaragupta I.[41] It is probably the rise of the Hephthalites and the defeats against the Sasanians which pushed the Kidarites into northern India.
Economy
The Kidarites issued gold coins on the model of Kushan coinage, inscribing their own names but still claiming the Kushan heritage by using the title "Kushan".[42] The volume of Kidarite gold coinage was nevertheless much smaller than that of the Great Kushans, probably owing to a decline of commerce and the loss of major international trade routes.[43]
Coins with the title or name Gadahara seem to be the first coins issued by the invading Kidarites in the Kushan realm in India.[44][45] The additional presence of the names of foreign rulers such as the Kushano-SassanianPiroz or the Gupta EmpireSamudragupta on the coins may suggest some kind of suzerainty at a time when the remnants of Kushan power were torn between these two powers.[44][45] The "Gadahara" issues seem to come chronologically just before the issues of the famous Kidarite ruler Kidara.[46][45][42]
Religion
The Miracle of Sravasti from Paitava, possibly belongs to the Kidarite period.
It seems Buddhism was rather unaffected by Kidarite rule, as the religion continued to prosper.[43] The Chinese pilgrim Fa-hsien visited the region c.400 CE, and described a wealthy Buddhist culture.[43] Some aspects of the Buddhist art of Gandhara seem to have incorporated Zoroastrian elements conveyed by the Kidarites at that time, such as the depiction of fire altars on the bases of numerous Buddhist sculptures.[43]
It has been argued that the spread of Indian culture and religions as far as Sogdia corresponded to the rule of the Kidarites over the regions from Sogdia to Gandhara.[5]
Some Buddhist works of art, in a style marking some evolution compared to the art of Gandhara, have been suggested as belonging to the Kidarite period, such as the sculptures of Paitava.[48]
Devotees around Maitreya, the Buddha of the future (center). Paitava. The sculptures of Paitava may belong to the period of the Kidarites.
Conflicts with the Gupta Empire
The Buddhist paintings of Ajanta, dated to c.460–480, are contemporary of the end of the Kidarite invasion of northwestern India, and some scenes probably received the influence of the Kidarites or the Hephthalites after them.
The Kidarites may have confronted the Gupta Empire during the rule of Kumaragupta I (414–c.455) as the latter recounts some conflicts, although very vaguely, in his Mandsaur inscription.[52] The Bhitari pillar inscription of Skandagupta, inscribed by his son Skandagupta (c.455– c.467), recalls much more dramatically the near-annihilation of the Gupta Empire, and recovery though military victories against the attacks of the Pushyamitras and the Hunas.[17] The Kidarites are the only Hunas who could have attacked India at the time, as the Hephthalites were still trying to set foot in Bactria in the middle of the 5th century.[18] In the Bhitari inscription, Skandagupta clearly mentions conflagrations with the Hunas, even though some portions of the inscription have disappeared:
"(Skandagupta), by whose two arms the earth was shaken, when he, the creator (of a disturbance like that) of a terrible whirlpool, joined in close conflict with the Hûnas; . . . . . . among enemies . . . . . . arrows . . . . . . . . . . . . proclaimed . . . . . . . . . . . . just as if it were the roaring of (the river) Ganga, making itself noticed in (their) ears."
Even after these encounters, the Kidarites seem to have retained the western part of the Gupta Empire, particularly central and western Punjab, until they were displaced by the invasion of the Alchon Huns at the end of the 5th century.[53][17] While they still ruled in Gandhara, the Kidarites are known to have sent an embassy to China in 477.[54]
The Huna invasion are said to have seriously damaged Indo-Roman trade relations, which the Gupta Empire had greatly benefited from. The Guptas had been exporting numerous luxury products such as silk, leather goods, fur, iron products, ivory, pearl or pepper from centers such as Nasik, Paithan, Pataliputra or Benares etc. The Huna invasion probably disrupted these trade relations and the tax revenues that came with it.[55] These conflicts exhausted the Gupta Empire: the gold coinage of Skandagupta is much fewer and of a lesser quality than that of his predecessors.[53]
The Kidarites were cut from their Bactrian nomadic roots by the rise of the Hephthalites in the 450s. The Kidarites also seem to have been defeated by the Sasanian emperor Peroz in 467 CE, with Peroz reconquering Balkh and issuing coinage there as "Peroz King of Kings".[8]
Conflict with Sasanian emperor Peroz I and the Hephthalites
Seal of "lord Uglarg, the King of the Huns, the great Kushanshah, the Afshiyan of Samarkand" (Bactrian: βαγο ογλαρ(γ)ο – υονανο þ(α)ο οα(ζ)-αρκο κο(þανοþ)[αοσαµαρ] /-κανδο – αφþιιανο). This ruler has "characteristic features identifying him as a Kidarite". Private collection of Aman ur Rahman.Kidarites ruler "King B", late 4th–early 5th century. A vase has been placed to the right of the Zoroastrian fire altar, the Indian/Hindu purnaghata, or "Vase of plenty".
Since the foundation of the Sasanian Empire, its rulers had demonstrated the sovereignty and power of their realm through collection of tribute, particularly from the Romans.[61] However, the Sasanian efforts were disrupted in the early 5th century by the Kidarites, who forced Yazdegerd I (r.399–420), Bahram V (r.420–438), and/or Yazdegerd II (r.438–457) to pay them tribute.[61][62] Although this did not trouble the Sasanian treasury, it was nevertheless humiliating.[63] Yazdegerd II eventually refused to pay tribute, which would later be used as the casus belli of the Kidarites, who declared war against the ruling Sasanian king Peroz I in c. 464.[64][62] Peroz lacked manpower to fight, and therefore asked for financial aid by the Byzantine Empire, who declined his request.[65] He then offered peace to the king of the Kidarites, Kunkhas, and offered him his sister in marriage, but sent a woman of low status instead. After some time Kunkhas found about Peroz's false promise, and then in turn tried to trick him, by requesting him to send military experts to strengthen his army.[65]
When a group of 300 military experts arrived to the court of Kunkhas at Balaam (possibly Balkh), they were either killed or disfigured and sent back to Iran, with the information that Kunkhas did this due to Peroz's false promise.[65] Around this time, Peroz allied himself with the Hephthalites or the Alchon Huns of Mehama, the ruler of Kadag in eastern Bactria.[66] With their help, he finally vanquished Kidarites in 466, and brought Bactria briefly under Sasanian control, where he issued gold coins of himself at Balkh.[67][26] The style of the gold coin was largely based on the Kidarite coins, and displayed Peroz wearing his second crown.[22][68] The following year (467), a Sasanian embassy arrived to the Byzantine capital of Constantinople, where the victory over the Kidarites was announced. The Sasanian embassy sent to the Northern Wei in 468 may have likewise done the same.[69]
A coin of the late ruler Goboziko, imitating Sasanian king Bahram IV, in the Bactrian script. Crowned bust right; tamgha before. Fire altar with attendants. Circa mid 5th century CE.
Although the Kidarites still controlled some places such as Gandhara and Punjab, they would never be an issue for the Sasanians again.[7] But in India itself, the Kidarites may also have been losing territory to the Gupta Empire, following the 455 victories of Skandagupta.[70] This created a power vacuum, which the Alchon Huns were able to fill, allowing them to reclaim the lost territories of the Kidarites.[70]
Continental synchronism of Hunnic wars
There is an astounding synchronism between, on the one hand, the conflicts between the Kidarite Huns and the Sasanian Empire and the Gupta Empire, and, on the other hand, the campaigns of the Huns under Attila in Europe, leading to their defeat at the Catalaunian Plains in 451.[71] It is almost as if the imperialist empire in the east and west had combined their response to a simultaneous Hunnic threat across Eurasia.[71] In the end, Europe succeeded in repelling the Huns, and their power there quickly vanished, but in the east, both the Sasanian Empire and the Gupta Empire were left much weakened.[71]
A few gold coins of the Kidarites were also found as far as Hungary and Poland in Europe, as a result of Asiatic migrations.[68]
Kidarite successors
Coin of king Yinayaditya (also Vinayaditya), one of the "Kidarite successors", late 5th century, Jammu and Kashmir.
Many small Kidarite kingdoms seem to have survived in northwest India, and are known through their coinage. They were particularly present in Jammu and Kashmir, such as king Vinayaditya, but their coinage was much debased. They were then conquered by the Alchon Huns, sometimes considered as a branch of the Hephthalites, during the last quarter of the 5th century.[72][31] The Alchon Huns followed the Kidarites into India circa 500, invading Indian territory as far as Eran and Kausambi.
The numismatic evidence as well as the so-called "Hephthalite bowl" from Gandhara, now in the British Museum, suggests a period of peaceful coexistence between the Kidarites and the Alchons, as it features two Kidarite noble hunters wearing their characteristic crowns, together with two Alchon hunters and one of the Alchons inside a medallion.[73] At one point, the Kidarites withdrew from Gandhara, and the Alchons took over their mints from the time of Khingila.[73] By 520, Gandhara was definitely under Hephthalite (Alchon Huns) control, according to Chinese pilgrims.[17]
The so-called "Hephthalite bowl" from Gandhara, features two Kidarite royal hunters wearing their characteristic horned crowns (right), similar to those in Kidarite coins (see Peroz), as well as two Alchon hunters (one of them shown here (left), with skull deformation), suggesting a period of peaceful coexistence between the two entities.[73]Swat District, Pakistan, 460–479. British Museum.[74][75][76]
Anania Shirakatsi states in his Ashkharatsuyts, written in 7th century, that one of the Bulgar tribes, known as the Kidar were part of the Kidarites. The Kidar took part in Bulgar migrations across the Volga into Europe.[77]
Remnants of the Kidarites in Eastern Sogdiana may have been associated with the Principality of Ushrusana.[78][79] The Kidarites may have survived and possibly established a Kidarite kingdom in Usrushana.[78] This connection may be apparent from the analysis of the coinage,[78] and in the names of some Ushrusana rulers such as Khaydhar ibn Kawus al-Afshin, whose personal name is attested as "Khydhar", and was sometimes written wrongly as "Haydar" in Arabic. In effect, the name "Kydr" was quite popular in Usrushana, and is attested in many contemporary sources.[79] The title Afshin used by the rulers of Usrushana is also attested in the Kidarite ruler of Samarkand of the 5th century named Ularg, who bore the similar title "Afshiyan" (Bactrian script: αφϸιιανο).[80]
1 2 3 4 5 6 The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Attila, Michael Maas, Cambridge University Press, 2014 p.284sq
1 2 Encyclopaedia Iranica, article Kidarites: "On Gandhāran coins bearing their name the ruler is always clean-shaven, a fashion more typical of Altaic people than of Iranians" in "KIDARITES – Encyclopaedia Iranica". www.iranicaonline.org.
1 2 History of Civilizations of Central Asia, Ahmad Hasan Dani, B. A. Litvinsky, Unescop.119 sq
↑ Cunningham, A. (1889). "Coins of the Tochari, Kushâns, or Yue-Ti". The Numismatic Chronicle and Journal of the Numismatic Society. 9: 268–311. JSTOR42680025.
↑ Samolin, William (1956). "A Note on Kidara and the Kidarites". Central Asiatic Journal. 2 (4): 295–297. JSTOR41926398. The Yueh-chih origin of Kidara is clearly established...
↑ "The Kidarites in Bactria". pro.geo.univie.ac.at. Coin Cabinet of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna. Archived from the original on 18 October 2020. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
↑ "The entry of the Kidarites into India may firmly be placed some time round about the end of rule of Candragupta II or beginning of the rule of Kumaragupta I (circa 410-420 a.d.)" in Gupta, Parmeshwari Lal; Kulashreshtha, Sarojini (1994). Kuṣāṇa Coins and History. D.K. Printworld. p.122. ISBN9788124600177.
1 2 3 "Gadahara. The last branch, in course of time, yielded to Samudragupta, as is borne out by certain coins of this branch having the name Samudra. There is a good deal of similarity between the coins of the Gadaharas and the Kidara Kushanas." in Bajpai, K. D. (2004). Indian Numismatic Studies. Abhinav Publications. p.112. ISBN9788170170358.
↑ Lerner, Judith A.; Sims-Williams, Nicholas (2011). Seals, sealings and tokens from Bactria to Gandhara: 4th to 8th century CE. Wien: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. pp.72–75. ISBN978-3700168973.
↑ Lang, David Marshall (1976). The Bulgarians: From Pagan Times to the Ottoman Conquest. pp.31 and 204. ISBN9780891585305. Armenian geographer states that the principal tribes of Bulgars were called Kuphi-Bulgars, Duchi-Bulgars, Oghkhundur-Bulgars, and Kidar-Bulgars, by the last-named of which he meant the Kidarites, a branch of the Huns.
1 2 Rezakhani, Khodadad (15 March 2017b). ReOrienting the Sasanians: East Iran in Late Antiquity. Edinburgh University Press. p.101. ISBN978-1-4744-0031-2. However, we should not assume that the Kidarite presence in eastern Sogdiana disappeared quickly after their demise in Tokharistan. Indeed, centuries later, in the early ninth century, the local king of Ustrushana and the Abbasid general Al-Afshin bore the personal name of Khydhar...
Alram, Michael (2014). "From the Sasanians to the Huns New Numismatic Evidence from the Hindu Kush". The Numismatic Chronicle. 174: 261–291. JSTOR44710198.(registration required)
Bonner, Michael (2020). The Last Empire of Iran. New York: Gorgias Press. pp.1–406. ISBN978-1463206161.
Payne, Richard (2015). "The Reinvention of Iran: The Sasanian Empire and the Huns". In Maas, Michael (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Attila. Cambridge University Press. pp.282–299. ISBN978-1-107-63388-9.
Payne, Richard (2016). "The Making of Turan: The Fall and Transformation of the Iranian East in Late Antiquity". Journal of Late Antiquity. 9. Johns Hopkins University Press: 4–41. doi:10.1353/jla.2016.0011. S2CID156673274.
ENOKI, K., «On the Date of the Kidarites (I)», Memoirs of the Research Department of the Toyo Bunko, 27, 1969, p.1–26.
GRENET, F. «Regional Interaction in Central Asia and North-West India in the Kidarite and Hephtalite Period», in SIMS-WILLIAMS, N. (ed.), Indo-Iranian Languages and Peoples, (Proceedings of the British Academy), London, 2002, p.203–224.
The Hephthalites, sometimes called the White Huns, were a people who lived in Central Asia during the 5th to 8th centuries CE, part of the larger group of the Iranian Huns. They formed an empire, the Imperial Hephthalites, and were militarily important from 450 CE, when they defeated the Kidarites, to 560 CE, when combined forces from the First Turkic Khaganate and the Sasanian Empire defeated them. After 560 CE, they established "principalities" in the area of Tokharistan, under the suzerainty of the Western Turks and of the Sasanian Empire, before the Tokhara Yabghus took over in 625.
The Kushan Empire was a syncretic empire formed by the Yuezhi in the Bactrian territories in the early 1st century. It spread to encompass much of what is now Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Northern India, at least as far as Saketa and Sarnath, near Varanasi, where inscriptions have been found dating to the era of the Kushan emperor Kanishka the Great.
Xionites, Chionites, or Chionitae were a nomadic people in the Central Asian regions of Transoxiana and Bactria.
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.
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.
Hunas or Huna was the name given by the ancient Indians to a group of Central Asian tribes who, via the Khyber Pass, entered the Indian subcontinent at the end of the 5th or early 6th century. The Hunas occupied areas as far south as Eran and Kausambi, greatly weakening the Gupta Empire. The Hunas were ultimately defeated by a coalition of Indian princes that included an Indian king Yasodharman and the Gupta emperor, Narasimhagupta. They defeated a Huna army and their ruler Mihirakula in 528 CE and drove them out of India. The Guptas are thought to have played only a minor role in this campaign.
Dilberjin Tepe, also Dilberjin or Delbarjin, is the modern name for the remains of an ancient town in modern (northern) Afghanistan. The town was perhaps founded in the time of the Achaemenid Empire. Under the Kushan Empire it became a major local centre. After the Kushano-Sassanids the town was abandoned.
The Alchon Huns, also known as the Alkhan, Alchono, Alxon, Alkhon, Alakhana, and Walxon, were a nomadic people who established states in Central Asia and South Asia during the 4th and 6th centuries CE. They were first mentioned as being located in Paropamisus, and later expanded south-east, into the Punjab and Central India, as far as Eran and Kausambi. The Alchon invasion of the Indian subcontinent eradicated the Kidarite Huns who had preceded them by about a century, and contributed to the fall of the Gupta Empire, in a sense bringing an end to Classical India.
Kidara I fl. 350-390 CE) was the first major ruler of the Kidarite Kingdom, which replaced the Indo-Sasanians in northwestern India, in the areas of Kushanshahr, Gandhara, Kashmir and Punjab.
BahramKushanshah, was the last Kushanshah of the Kushano-Sasanian Kingdom from 330 to 365. He was the successor of Peroz II Kushanshah.
The term Iranian Huns is sometimes used for a group of different tribes that lived in Central Asia, in the historical regions of Transoxiana, Bactria, Tokharistan, Kabul Valley, and Gandhara, overlapping with the modern-day Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzebekistan, Eastern Iran, Pakistan, and Northwest India, between the fourth and seventh centuries. They also threatened the Northeast borders of Sasanian Iran and forced the Shahs to lead many ill-documented campaigns against them.
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.
Gadahara, sometimes Gadakhara, is a name appearing on numerous coins at the end of the Kushan Empire or the beginning of the rule of the Kidarite Huns in the area of Central and Western Punjab in India, in the period circa 350-375 CE.
Kirada, is considered by modern scholarship as the first known ruler of the Kidarite Huns in the area of Gandhara in northwestern India, possibly at the same time as another Kidarite ruler named Yosada.
The Hephthalite silver bowl is a bowl discovered in the Swat region of Gandhara, Pakistan, and now in the British Museum. It dates from 460 to 479 CE, and the images represent two different Huna tribes, suggesting a period of peaceful coexistence between the Kidarites and the Alchons.
Hind 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. 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.
Tobazini, Gobazini or Goboziko was a ruler of southern Central Asia. He is only known from his coinage, found in Bactria and Northern Afghanistan. The legends on his coins are in Bactrian, but they are often difficult to read: a typical legend reads t/gobazini/o šauo "King Tobazini". Tobazini is often considered one of the last rulers of the Kidarites, circa 450 CE.
Toramana of Kashmir, was a ruler of Kashmir in the 6-7th century CE. This ruler has often been called "Toramana II" in numismatic studies, but this name now tends to be used for an earlier Alchon Hun ruler of Kabulistan: Toramana II.
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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![Seal of "lord Uglarg, the King of the Huns, the great Kushanshah, the Afshiyan of Samarkand" (Bactrian: bago oglar(g)o - uonano th(a)o oa(z)-arko ko(thanoth)[aosauar] /-kando - aphthiiano). This ruler has "characteristic features identifying him as a Kidarite". Private collection of Aman ur Rahman. Seal of lord Uglarg, the King of the Huns, the great Kushanshah, the Afshiyan of Samarkand.jpg](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/97/Seal_of_lord_Uglarg%2C_the_King_of_the_Huns%2C_the_great_Kushanshah%2C_the_Afshiyan_of_Samarkand.jpg/220px-Seal_of_lord_Uglarg%2C_the_King_of_the_Huns%2C_the_great_Kushanshah%2C_the_Afshiyan_of_Samarkand.jpg)
