Ancestral Northwestern Indians came from an ancient agricultural center called Sarazm in the northwest of what today is Tajikistan. The Prajapati Daksha gave his thirteen daughters in marriage to Kashyapa Rishi (Rishi = Same), son of Marichi (who was one of the 10 sons of the Creator/Brahma/Universe). Thus, Kashyapa is the father of the Devas, Asuras and Nagas. Vedic 'Asura' (meaning, demon) linguistically corresponds to Avestan's (Old Persian) 'Ahura' (meaning, lord), as in the name of A[h]uramazdā, while Vedic 'Deva' (meaning, god) corresponds to daiva/Avestan's (Old Persian) 'daēuua' (meaning, demon). During the early Vedic period they formed a warrior society, engaging in endemic warfare and cattle raids ("gaviṣṭi") among themselves and against, the Dasyu/Dasa meaning "The Enemy" or "those who hate devotion" or "prayer haters" (i.e. the non-belivers who are the enemy). It is unclear whether the Dasa and Dasyu are related. The main difference between the Aryas and the Dasas in the Rig Veda is a difference of religion. The original "Enemy" (later "the enemy" became the aboriginal people in India) were fellow Indo-Iranians of the Oxus civilization, who initially rejected Aryan religious practices but were later merged with them. Iran derives from the Persian word for Aryan. The Aryan Hittites and Mittani signed a treaty with the name of the Vedic Gods Indra, Mitra, Varuna and Nasatyas around 1400 BC. The Hittites have atreatise on chariot racing written in almost pure Sanskrit. The Indo - Europeans of the ancient Middle East thus spoke Indo-Aryan, not Indo-Iranian languages and thereby show a Vedic culture in that region of the world as well.
A fish-god avatar helped King Manu (Shraddhadeva) of the Dravida Kingdom saved people and the 7 great Vedic sages from the great flood by getting them on ships to safety. Manu is considered the progenitor of humanity. Kashyapa Rishi (Rishi = sage) is regarded as one of the progenitors of humanity. During pre-RigVeda period, India was ruled among the 10 Great Tribes of Manu (Shraddhadeva), out of which very little is known about 8 of these Great Tribes, which includes non-Aryan Yadu in the south-east and Turvasawere in the south-west of BharataPurus (both were almost always referred to as a pair). Further east and south of BharataPurus were the Austric and Dravidian language speaking people. One of the known Great Tribe was Ailas (Lunar) dynasty created by King Puru, the grandson of ChandraDeva (son of the last great Vedic sage, Atri). ChandraDeva's son had married the female-born son of Manu. According to Mahabharata, Pandavas and Kauravas were from the lineage of King Puru. The other known Great Tribe, to the east of BharataPurus, was the pre-Aryan Sun or Surya dynasty (King Ikshvaku was a direct descendent of Manu (Shraddhadeva), the protector of the 5 territories of Panchajanah). King Rama belonged to this dynasty. The first of the historical Shraddhadeva battles, even before the "Battle of the Ten Kings" (Dasharajna battle), was the Battle of Hariyupiya on the banks of Hariyupiya and Yavyavati sister tributaries. Shrikant G. Talageri identified the Drishadvati river with the Hariyupiya and Yavyavati sister tributaries. In the Mahabharata, Soma refers to the Moon so Soma dynasty = Lunar dynasty. https://archive.org/details/punjab-a-history-from-aurangzeb-to-mountbatten_202206 KAMBOJAS The Indian texts denounce the border people, the Kamboja, and the Avesta texts denounce the Indians of the Greater Punjab worshipping and their land of the "Seven Rivers" as too hot. The Indo-Aryan tribes mentioned in the Rigveda are described as semi-nomadic pastoralists; who were subdivided into temporary settlements. They were headed by a tribal chief (raja, rājan) assisted by a priestly caste. The size of a typical tribe was probably of the order of a few thousand people. References list a group of 11 Vedic Kings, including a number of figures of the 'Rig Veda', said to have conquered the region of India from 'sea to sea'. Lands of the Aryans are mentioned in them from Gandhara (Afganistan) in the west to Videha (Nepal) in the east, and south to Vidarbha (Maharashtra). Hence, the Vedic people were in these regions by the Krittika equinox or before 2400 BC. The account of the "Battle of the Ten Kings" (Dasharajna battle) in Mandala 7, hymn 18, mentions 6,666 casualties in a devastating defeat of a confederation of ten tribes, suggesting that a single tribe could muster a few thousand warriors on average, while the average size of a whole tribe may have been 3,000-6,000. Vedic and late Vedic texts itself also contain interesting astronomical lore. The Vedic calender was based upon astronomical sightings of the equinoxes and solstices. Such texts as 'Vedanga Jyotish' speak of a time when the vernal equinox was in the middle of the Nakshtra Aslesha (or about 23 degrees 20 minutes Cancer). This gives a date of 1300 BC. The 'Yajur Veda' and 'Atharva Veda'speak of the vernal equinox in the Krittikas (Pleiades; early Taurus) and the summer solstice (ayana) in Magha (early Leo). This gives a date about 2400 BC. There are many points in fact that prove the Vedic nature of the Indus Valley culture. Further excavation has shown that the great majority of the sites of the Indus Valley culture were east, not west of Indus. In fact, the largest concentration of sites appears in an area of Punjab and Rajesthan near the dry banks of ancient Saraswati and Drishadvati rivers. The Vedic culture was said to have been founded by the sage Manu between the banks of Saraswati and Drishadvati rivers. The Saraswati is lauded as the main river (naditama) in the 'Rig Veda' & is the most frequently mentioned in the text. It is said to be a great flood and to be wide, even endless in size. Saraswati is said to be "pure in course from the mountains to the sea". Hence the Vedic people were well acquainted with this river and regarded it as their immemorial homeland.The Saraswati, as modern land studies now reveal, was indeed one of the largest, if not the largest river in India. In early ancient and pre-historic times, it once drained the Sutlej, Yamuna and the Ganges, whose courses were much different than they are today. However, the Saraswati river went dry at the end of the Indus Valley culture and before the so-called Aryan invasion or before 1500 BC. In fact this may have caused the ending of the Indus culture. How could the Vedic Aryans know of this river and establish their culture on its banks if it dried up before they arrived? Indeed the Saraswati as described in the 'Rig Veda' appears to more accurately show it as it was prior to the Indus Valley culture as in the Indus era it was already in decline. Anthropologists have observed that the present population of Gujarat is composed of more or less the same ethnic groups as are noticed at Lothal in 2000 BC. Similarly, the present population of the Punjab is said to be ethnically the same as the population of Harappa and Rupar 4000 years ago. The Kambojas were a Warrior (kshatriya) tribe of Iron Age India, frequently mentioned in Sanskrit and Pali literature. They were an Indo-Iranian tribe cognate with the Indo-Scythians, and appear to have moved from the Iranian into the Indo-Aryan sphere over time. The Kambojas are also described as a royal clan of the Sakas. This seems to be confirmed by the Mathura lion capital inscriptions made by Rajuvula and by one of the Edicts of Asoka. The Kambojas entered into conflict with Alexander the Great as he invaded Central Asia. The Macedonian conqueror made short shrifts of the arrangements of Darius and after over-running the Achaemenid Empire he dashed into Afghanistan. There he encountered incredible resistance of the Kamboja Aspasioi and Assakenoi tribes. These Ashvayana and Ashvakayana clans fought the invader to a man. When worse came to worst, even the Ashvakayana Kamboj women took up arms and joined their fighting husbands. The Kambojas migrated into India during the Indo-Scythian invasion from the 2nd century BCE to 5th century CE. Their descendants controlled various principalities in Medieval India. During the 2nd and 1st centuries BCE, clans of the Kambojas from north Afghanistan in alliance the with Sakas, Pahlavas and the Yavanas entered India, spread into Sindhu, Saurashtra, Malwa, Rajasthan, Punjab and Surasena, and set up independent principalities in western and south-western India. Later, a branch of the same people took Gauda and Varendra territories from the Palas and established the Kamboja-Pala Dynasty of Bengal in Eastern India. To argue that the Kambojas were an Iranian group, recent historians have used: References to Zoroastrian customs References to Iranian linguistic forms used by KambojasReferences to Kamboja horsemanship. Bracketing with other non-Indic peoples. There are indications that the Kambojas spoke the Avestan language. Pali literature is concerned mainly with Theravada Buddhism (literally, "the Teaching of the Elders" or "the Ancient Teaching"), of which Pali is the traditional language. From the fifteenth century onwards, Pali literature has been dominated by Burma, though some has also been written in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, as well as Ceylon. Hindu society included another class (untouchables) of people without a position in any of the four caste and therefore associated with the lowest of the jobs. The upper classes came to regard them as untouchables. They were described by the Aryans as a dark-skinned , harsh-spoken people who worshiped the phallus. This allusion has persuaded many scholars that worship of the Hindu religious symbol, linga, originated with them; it may, however, have referred to their sexual practices. They lived in fortified places from which they sent out armies. The Enemy "Dasyu" is a member of an aboriginal people in India eho were encountered and embattled by the invading Aryans (c. 1500 bc). They may be considered the original Sudras, or labourers. The people of this "5th caste", formerly known as "untouchables" (Pariahs); now called "the oppressed" (Dalits) or Harijans. However, this last addition social strata is not a part of the religion of Hinduism. Hinduism only categorizes occupations into 4 categories. Manusmriti is often quoted in reference to the Caste system as an inherited social class system. However, the Hindu rightists usually point out that the Manusmti is a later work that does not form a part of Hindu Scriptures, so it is of questionable relevance. The Purusha Sukta in the Rig-Veda 10:90 refers to the 4 principal Caste (although the word varna i.e. caste, is not used). Reading this mantra within the entire context leads one to the conclusion that the entire Sukta is emphasizing the point that all these come from the original Cosmic Self or Universal Spirit or Pure Consciousness (Purusha). Thus, the hierarchical ordering of the varnas, is misread. Instead, the model implies the concept of interdependence and interchangeability of the varnas. Kanakadasa of the 15th century denounced inherited social status. He believed that Life in every human being is Divine, and that only the ignorant wrought injustice against their own brethren by this practice.
THE GUILDS The Indian society since pre-historic times had a complex, inter-dependent and cooperative political economy. In Indian society each guild (jāti) typically has an association with a traditional job function or tribe, but sometimes religious beliefs or linguistic groupings define some guild. A person's surname typically reflects a guild (jati) association: thus Gandhi = perfume seller, Dhobi = washerman, Srivastava = military scribe, etc. In any given location in India 500 or more guild may co-exist. Most castes and communities with a significant number of members are divided into sub-communities. People could originally change their occupation and thus get association with any Caste. Marriages would occur usually within one's community, or sometimes between communities. Later, however, it became a general rule with whom goldsmiths, carpenters and barbers form separate communities could, and can not intermingle. Along with this, members of the Guild were forbidden from changing from their caste, or community to another. A kula is basically a community of people following similar customs & traditions, often worshipping the same God. Cult (Kula) has nothing to do with lineage. As per the Pravara system, a man and a woman belonging to the same gotra are considered to be a brother and sister, and hence, a marriage within the same gotra ("ray"/lineage) is forbidden as it will cause anomalies in the progeny that come out of such a marriage. But this system created some problems. Enough eligible matches were not present. Clash for property was also increased. One non-sacred text, the Laws of Manu, codified the social relations between communities from the perspective of the Varna castes. Although this book was almost unknown in South India. North India has been the historical center of the Maurya, Gupta, Mughal and British Indian Empires. Two of India's major religions started from Magadha; two of India's greatest empires, the Maurya Empire and Gupta Empire, originated from Magadha. These empires saw advancements in ancient India's science, mathematics, astronomy, religion, and philosophy and were considered the Indian "Golden Age". The Magadha kingdom included republican communities such as the community of Rajakumara. Villages had their own assemblies under their local chiefs called Gramakas. Samudragupta (335 - 380 AD) succedded his father Chandragupta I. He was perhaps the greatest king of Gupta dynasty. Samudragupta enlarged the Gupta Kingdom by winning a series of battles till he was a master of northern India. Soon he defeated the kings of Vindhyan region (central India) and Deccan. He although made no attempt to incorporate the kingdoms of south of Narmada and Mahanadi rivers (southern India) into his empire. When he died his mighty empire bordered with Kushan of Western province (modern Afganistan and Pakistan) and Vakatakas in Deccan (modern southern Maharashtra). The greatest writer of the time was Kalidasa. Poetry in the Gupta age tended towards a few genres: religious and meditative poetry, lyric poetry, narrative histories (the most popular of the secular literatures), and drama. The greatest Mathematician of India Aryabhatta also belongs to this age. The Panchatantra and Kamasutra were written during this period. The Nalanda University in Bihar, came to fame during the Gupta rule. Because of extensive trade, the culture of India became the dominant culture around the Bay of Bengal, profoundly and deeply influencing the cultures of Burma, Cambodia, and Sri Lanka. the Shishunaga dynasty (a dynasty of 10 kings) founded the Magadha Empire in 684 BC, whose capital was Rajagriha, later Pataliputra, near the present day Patna in India. The kingdom had a particularly bloody succession. it is thought that a civil revolt led to the emergence of the Nanda dynasty. At its greatest extent, the Nandas extended from Bengal in the east, Punjab in the west and as far south as the Vindhya Range. The Nanda Empire was later conquered by Chandragupta Maurya, who founded the Maurya Empire. (The Achaemenid Empire or Persian Empire (550–330 BC) was the successor state of the Median Empire, ruling over significant portions of what would become Greater Iran. The Persian and the Median Empire taken together are also known as the Medo-Persian Empire, succeeding the Neo-Assyrian Empire. It was succeeded in turn by the Seleucid Empire. A year after Cyrus the Great's defeat of the Median Astyages, Parthia became one of the first provinces to acknowledge Cyrus as their ruler, "and this allegiance secured Cyrus' eastern flanks and enabled him to conduct the first of his imperial campaigns – against Sardis." ) In 327 BCE Alexander the Great began his foray into Punjab. Alexander left behind Greek forces which established themselves in the city of Taxila, now in Pakistan. Seleucus I Nicator founder of the Seleucid dynasty and one of Alexander's former generals. He invaded India (modern Punjab in northern India and Pakistan) in 305 BCE. Several generals, such as Eudemus and Peithon governed the newly established province until around 316 BCE. One of them, Sophytes (305-294 BCE), was an independent Greek prince in the Punjab. Following the death of Alexander, in the Partition of Babylon in 323 BCE, Parthia became a Seleucid governate under Nicanor. From their base in Parthia, the Arsacid dynasts eventually extended their dominion to include most of Greater Iran. From about 105 BCE onwards, the power and influence of this handful of Parthian noble families was such that they frequently opposed the monarch, and would eventually be a "contributory factor in the downfall" of the dynasty. the Arsacids sought to control the Silk trade by inhibiting Da Qin (the Roman presence in the Near East) contact with China. The king Qizjiujue (Kujula Kadphises) of Da Yuezhi of the Guishuang (Kushan) clan captured Gaofu (Kabul) from the Arsacids. The name "Scythian" has also been used to refer to various peoples seen as similar to the Scythians, or who lived anywhere in a vast area covering present-day Ukraine, Russia and Central Asia—known until medieval times as Scythia. The migrations in 175-125 BC of the Kushan/Yuezhi/Rouzhi tribes, who originally lived in eastern Tarim Basin before the Huns (Chinese: "Xiongnu") tribes dislodged them, displaced the Indo-Scythians from Central Asia. Led by their king Maues, they ultimately settled in modern-day Punjab and Kashmir from around 85 BC, where they replaced the kingdom of the Indo-Greeks by the time of Azes II (reigned circa 35 - 12 BC). The Sanskritic Aryan texts refer to the Scythians collectively as `Saka', the Mongoloids as `Naga' or `Kerait' and the Negroids as `Sudra'; a word related to the stem `Sud - ' in `Sudan'. Scythic are the Malavas, Arjunayanas, Yaudheyas, Sivis, Parthians, Kushans & Trigarttas. (After 155 BCE, the Wusun, in alliance with the Xiongnu and out of revenge from an earlier conflict, managed to disloge the Kushan/Yuezhi/Rouzhi, forcing them to move again southwards. they began to appear in the Oxus (the modern Amu Darya) Valley, to change the course of history in Bactria, Iran, and eventually India. The Kushan/Yuezhi/Rouzhi were visited by the Chinese, led by Zhang Qian in 126 BCE, seeking an offensive alliance with the Kushan/Yuezhi/Rouzhi to counter the Xiongnu threat to the north. the request for an alliance was denied by the son of the slain Kushan/Yuezhi/Rouzhi king, who preferred to maintain peace in Transoxiana rather than to seek revenge.) In 124 BCE the Kushan/Yuezhi/Rouzhi were apparently involved in a war against the Parthians, in which the Parthian king Artabanus I of Parthia was wounded and died. Some time after 124 BCE, possibly disturbed by further incursions of rivals from the north, and apparently vanquished by the Parthian king Mithridates II, successor to Artabanus, the Kushan/Yuezhi/Rouzhi moved south to Bactria. Bactria had been conquered by the Macedonians under Alexander the Great in 330 BCE, and since settled by the Hellenistic civilization of the Seleucids and the Greco-Bactrians for two centuries. The last Greco-Bactrian king Heliocles I retreated and moved his capital to the Kabul Valley. The eastern part of Bactria was occupied by Pashtun people. As they settled in Bactria from around 125 BCE, the Kushan/Yuezhi/Rouzhi became Hellenized to some degree, as suggested by their adoption of the Greek alphabet and by some remaining coins, minted in the style of the Greco-Bactrian kings, with the text in Greek. The area of Bactria they settled came to be known as Tokharistan, since the Kushan/Yuezhi/Rouzhi were called "Tocharians" by the Greeks. Commercial relations with China also flourished throughout the 1st century BCE and some Kushan/Yuezhi/Rouzhi had been converted by the Chinese to the Buddhist faith. The Seleucid Empire: The Seleucid Empire was a Hellenistic empire, and the eastern remnant of the former Achaemenid Persian Empire following its breakup after Alexander the Great's invasion. The Seleucid Empire was centered in the near East and at the height of its power included central Anatolia, the Levant, Mesopotamia, Persia, today's Turkmenistan, Pamir and parts of Pakistan. It was a major centre of Hellenistic culture which maintained the preeminence of Greek customs and where a Greek-speaking Macedonian élite dominated, mostly in the urban areas. Alexander had conquered the Achaemenid Empire within a short time-frame and died young, leaving an expansive empire of partly Hellenised culture without an adult heir. The empire was put under the authority of a regent in the person of Perdiccas in 323 BC, and the territories were divided between Alexander's generals, who thereby became satraps, at the Partition of Babylon in 323 BC. Seleucus went as far as India, where he reached an agreement with Chandragupta Maurya, in which he exchanged his eastern territories for a considerable force of 500 war elephants, which were to play a decisive role at Ipsus. Nevertheless, even before Seleucus' death, it was difficult to assert control over the vast eastern domains of the Seleucids. Seleucus invaded India (modern Punjab Pakistan) in 305 BC, confronting Chandragupta Maurya (Sandrokottos), founder of the Maurya empire. It is said that Chandragupta fielded an army of 600,000 men and 9,000 war elephants. Mainstream scholarship asserts that Chandragupta received vast territory, sealed in a treaty, west of the Indus, including the Hindu Kush, modern day Afghanistan, and the Balochistan province of Pakistan. Archaeologically, concrete indications of Mauryan rule, such as the inscriptions of the Edicts of Ashoka, are known as far as Kandhahar in southern Afghanistan.“ "He (Seleucus) crossed the Indus and waged war with Sandrocottus [Maurya], king of the Indians, who dwelt on the banks of that stream, until they came to an understanding with each other and contracted a marriage relationship." It is generally thought that Chandragupta married Seleucus's daughter, or a Greek Macedonian princess, a gift from Seleucus to formalize an alliance. In a return gesture, Chandragupta sent 500 war-elephants, a military asset which would play a decisive role at the Battle of Ipsus in 302 BC. In addition to this treaty, Seleucus dispatched an ambassador, Megasthenes, to Chandragupta, and later Deimakos to his son Bindusara, at the Mauryan court at Pataliputra (modern Patna in Bihar state). Later Ptolemy II Philadelphus, the ruler of Ptolemaic Egypt and contemporary of Ashoka the Great, is also recorded by Pliny the Elder as having sent an ambassador named Dionysius to the Mauryan court. Seleucus also sent an ambassador named Megasthenes to Chandragupta's court, who repeatedly visited Pataliputra (modern Patna in Bihar state), capital of Chandragupta. Megasthenes wrote detailed descriptions of India and Chandragupta's reign, which have been partly preserved to us through Diodorus Siculus. He also later sent Deimakos to the court of Chandragupta's son, Bindusara. Other territories lost before Seleucus' death were Gedrosia in the south-east of the Iranian plateau, and, to the north of this, Arachosia on the west bank of the Indus River. Diodotus, governor for the Bactrian territory, asserted independence in around 245 BC, although the exact date is far from certain, to form the Greco-Bactrian kingdom. This kingdom was characterized by a rich Hellenistic culture, and was to continue its domination of Bactria until around 125 BC, when it was overrun by the invasion of northern nomads. One of the Greco-Bactrian kings, Demetrius I of Bactria, invaded India around 180 BC to form the Greco-Indian kingdom, lasting until around AD 20. The Seleucid satrap of Parthia, named Andragoras, first claimed independence, in a parallel to the secession of his Bactrian neighbour. Soon after however, a Parthian tribal chief called Arsaces took over the Parthian territory around 238 BC to form the Arsacid Dynasty — the starting point of the powerful Parthian Empire. But a revival would begin when Seleucus II's younger son, Antiochus III the Great, took the throne in 223 BC. Although initially unsuccessful in the Fourth Syrian War against Egypt, which led to an embarrassing defeat at the Battle of Raphia (217 BC), Antiochus would prove himself to be the greatest of the Seleucid rulers after Seleucus I himself. Following his defeat at Raphia, he spent the next ten years on his Anabasis through the eastern parts of his domain — restoring rebellious vassals like Parthia and Greco-Bactria to at least nominal obedience, and even emulating Alexander with an expedition into India where he met with king Sophagasenus. The latter part of his reign saw the further disintegration of the Empire. The Eastern areas remained nearly uncontrollable, as Parthians began to take over the Persian lands; and Antiochus' aggressive Hellenizing (or de-Judaizing) activities led to armed rebellion in Judea—the Maccabean Revolt (see the story of Chanukah, Shabbat 21b, Babylonian Talmud). Efforts to deal with both the Parthians and the Jews proved fruitless, and Antiochus himself died during an expedition against the Parthians in 164 BC. As with many of the Hellenistic states that formed after the death of Alexander the Great, the Seleucid armies were professional, based on the Macedonian model. Its troops were primarily of Greek origin, supplemented by Eastern people, since the Seleucid realm covered much of the eastern portions of the former Persian Empire. When they fought other Diadochi, complete victories or the annihilation of opposing armies were generally avoided; it was easier to defeat and recruit enemy soldiers than to train more, especially because of recruitment cost. The aim of a battle was to convince the opponent that there was nothing more to gain by fighting on, and many battles were ended by negotiation. Very small factors, such as the amount paid to ransom prisoners, clearly demonstrated to the Seleucids, and other successor states of Alexander, who was winning. They relied on troops that used the Macedonian phalanx, archers from the Eastern peoples and cavalry, especially the heavy cataphracts ("covered" horsemen) and the famous Macedonian companion cavalry as the general's bodyguard and elite shock troops. Also, the Seleucids had a supply of Indian war elephants which was used to cause fear amongst their enemies and, like chariots, to disrupt cohesion. Like the Ptolemies with their wealth, the Seleucid kings had managed to recruit all kinds of people as mercenaries, from the Indians living on the Indus to the people of Crete and particularly Galatia. With their wars against Rome, the Seleucids attempted to create units of troops that copied the Roman legions. By 63 BC, the Seleucid Empire along with its army had disbanded. Many cataphracts are rumored to have joined the Roman armies in Asia. The area of the Hindu-Kush (Paropamisade) was ruled by the western Indo-Greek king until the reign of Hermaeus (reigned c. 90 BCE–70 BCE). after that date it was overtaken by the neighbouring Kushan/Yuezhi/Rouzhi. As they had done in Bactria with their copying of Greco-Bactrian coinage, the Kushan/Yuezhi/Rouzhi copied the coinage of Hermeaus on a vast scale, up to around 40 CE, when the design blends into the coinage of the Kushan/Yuezhi king Kujula Kadphises. By the end of the 1st century BCE, one of the five tribes of the Kushan/Yuezhi/Rouzhi, the Guishuang. From that point, the Kushan/Yuezhi/Rouzhi extended their control over the northwestern area of the Indian subcontinent, founding the Kushan Empire, which was to rule the region for several centuries. The Yuezhi/Rouzhicame to be known as Kushan among Western civilizations, however the Chinese kept calling them Yuezhi/Rouzhithroughout their historical records over a period of several centuries. note on Kushan/Yuezhi/Rouzhi: they are closely related to the Tocharians (Sanskrit literature refers to them as Tukhara) and it is said that Yuezhi are the same people who are called Rishikas and Kushanas/Kanishkas, Parama Kambojas, Lohas in the "Sabha Parva" in Mahabharata). The Kushan/Yuezhi/Rouzhi were organized into five major Caucasoid tribes, each led by a tribal chief. They were a nation of nomads, moving from place to place with their herds, and their customs were like those of the Xiongnu. The Kushan/Yuezhi/Rouzhi sometimes practiced the exchange of hostages with the Xiongnu. they lived near the Tarim Basin (today Xinjiang and western Gansu, in China) and traded jades with the Russians & Chinese. Around 177 BCE, led by one of Modu's tribal chiefs, the Xiongnu invaded Kushan/Yuezhi/Rouzhi territory in the Gansu region and achieved a crushing victory. a large part of the Kushan/Yuezhi/Rouzhi people therefore fell under the domination of the Xiongnu, and these may have been the ancestors of the Tocharian speakers attested in the 6th century CE (and are ancestors among the Uyghur Turks). A very small group of Kushan/Yuezhi/Rouzhi fled south and attacked the king of the Sai who then had to move further to the south and the Kushan/Yuezhi/Rouzhi then occupied his lands. (The Sai migrated to Kashmir after travelling through a "Suspended Crossing" which is probably the Khunjerab Pass between present-day Xinjiang and northern Pakistan. The Sakas ultimately established an Indo-Scythian kingdom in northern India.) The Indo-Sassanids, Kushano-Sassanids or Kushanshas (also Indo-Sassanians) were a branch of the Sassanid Persians who established their rule in the northwestern Indian subcontinent during the third and fourth centuries CE at the expense of the declining Kushans. (In the northwest of the Indian subcontinent, the Hephtalites or Hoa-tun (Chinese described them as originally a tribe of the Yuezhi, living in Dzungaria around AD 125, and subject to the Rouran/Jwen-Jwen/Tan Tan). But in India they were not distinguished from their immediate Chionite predecessors and are known by the same name as Sveta-Huna i.e. White Huns. The West know them as Epthalite. They probably stemmed from a combination of the Tarim basin peoples and the Yueh-chih. Some scholars suggested that they were possibly of Turkic stock, and it seems likely that at least some groups amongst the Hephthalites were Turkic-speakers. Toward the middle of the 5th century, they expanded westward probably because of the pressure from the Juan-juan, a powerful nomadic tribe in Mongolia. Within decades, they became a great power in the Oxus basin and the most serious enemy of the Persian empire.) TRIPARTITE STRUGGLE The Maurya Empire (founded by Chandragupta Maurya) stretched under the Emperor Ashoka from present-day east Afghanistan and Baluchistan to Assam and almost all South India. A few hours drive from Assam to a neighbouring Arunachal state, there is a one of the largest population of Mahayana Buddhists Tibetan refugees and across the burmese border people are Theravada Buddhists. After the downfall of the Gupta Empire in the middle of the sixth century CE, North India reverted to small republics and small monarchical states. Harsha united the small republics. At the height of his power his kingdom spanned the Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Bengal, Orissa and the entire Indo-Gangetic plain North of the Narmada River. Vatsraja sought to capture Kannauj, which had been the capital of the seventh-century empire of Harsha. Vatsraja unsuccessfully challenged the Pala ruler Dharmapala (c. 775–810) for control of Kannauj. Kannuaj remained a focal point for the three powerful dynasties, namely the Gurjara Pratiharas, Palas and Rashtrakutas, between the 8th and 10th centuries. The conflict between the three dynasties has been referred to as the Tripartite Struggle by many historians. PRATIHARA EMPIRE Pratihara Empire, was an imperial Indian dynasty that ruled much of Northern India from the 6th to the 11th centuries. Kannauj was the capital of imperial Gurjara Pratiharas. The Rashtrakuta records, as well as the Arab writers like Abu Zaid and Al-Masudi, indicate the Gurjara origin of the Pratiharas Mahayana and Tantric Buddhist Dynasty (750–1174 CE) The Pāla Empire, low-born Brahma-Kshatriyas of Surya lineage ("Mihirasya vamsa"), was one of the major middle kingdoms of India existed from 750–1174 CE. It was ruled by a Mahayana and Tantric Buddhist dynasty from Bengal in the eastern region of the Indian subcontinent. These Tantric secret cultic rituals are comparable to the ancient worshipping of the sacred and supernatural “Female Spirit”. I wonder the ideas about this spirit which seemed to have divine and supernatural powers of sense and reproduction. A time when health, prosperity and fertility were all in high risks, the Spirit must have been both respected and feared. And no doubt some women became extremely more powerful then the rest. This is not only found in tribal rituals but also in prominent civilizations like the Greeks, Romans etc Tara is supposed to hold the second position next to Buddha which is similar to that of Durga of the Hindu pantheon. She is a tantric meditation deity whose practice is used by practitioners of Tibetan branch of Vajrayana Buddhism to develop certain inner qualities. The earliest, solidly identifiable image of Tara is found today at Cave 6 in the Ellora rock-cut complex in Maharashtra which dates back to the 7th century CE. Tara became a popular deity of the Vajrayana Buddhism with the rise of Tantric Buddhism in the 8th century Pala India and with the movement of Indian Buddhism into Tibet. According to a Pala copperplate inscription Devapala conquered the Pragjyotisha (Assam). After Mahipala I the Pala dynasty again saw its decline until Ramapala, the last great ruler of the dynasty, managed to retrieve the position of the dynasty to some extent. He crushed the Varendra rebellion and extended his empire farther to Kamarupa (Assam), Orissa and Northern India. Being a riverine land and swarthy climate Bengal was not good enough for breeding quality war-horses. So the Palas had to depend upon their vassal kings for war horses. Pala copperplate inscriptions reveal that mercenary forces were recruited from the Kamboja, Khasa, Huna, Malwa, Gujarat, and Karnata. The Kamboja cavalry were the cream of the Pala army who would later become as powerful as the Janissary army of the Ottoman Empire. The Palas supported the Universities of Vikramashila and Nalanda which became the premier seats of learning in Asia. The Nalanda University which is considered one of the first great universities in recorded history, reached its height under the patronage of the Palas. Palas were responsible for the introduction of Mahayana Buddhism in Tibet, Bhutan and Myanmar. The Palas had extensive trade as well as influence in south-east Asia. This can be seen in the sculptures and architectural style of the Sailendra Empire (present-day Malaya, Java, Sumatra). The Sena Empire was a Hindu dynasty that ruled from Bengal through the 11th and 12th centuries. They were called Brahma-Kshatriyas. The dynasty's founder was Hemanta Sen, who was part of the Pala dynasty until their empire began to weaken. During this period Buddhism that had dominated Bengal for centuries was in decline due to the loss of its institutions at Nalanda University and Vikramshila University. The Huna (also known as Indo-Hephthalites, Chionites or Alchon), as they were known in South Asia, seem to have been part of the Hephthalite group, who established themselves in Afghanistan and Pakistan by the first half of the fifth century, with their capital at Bamiyan. Their connection also include Eastern Iranian ethno-linguistic group Pashtuns. They sometimes call themselves "Hono" on their coins, but it seems that they are similar to the Huns who invaded the Western world. They were accompanied by a number of other tribes including Gurjaras. They started coming in wave after wave from the middle of the 5th century A.D. and very soon became rulers of Pakistan. The Huna had already established themselves in Afghanistan (after a series of wars in the period 503-513AD their polity like the Oghuz (Tiele) Turk branch came under the Gokturks) and the modern North-West Frontier Province of present day Pakistan by the first half of the fifth century, and the Gupta emperor Skandagupta had repelled a Sveta-Huna/White Huns invasion in 455 before the Hephthal clan came along. The Hephthalites with their capital at Bamiyan continued the pressure on ancient India's northwest frontier and broke east by the end of the fifth century, hastening the disintegration of the Gupta Empire. They made their capital at the city of Sakala, modern Sialkot under their Emperor Mihirakula. The Huna were further defeated around 565 by a coalition of Sassanians and Western Turks. After the sixth century, little is recorded in ancient India about the Hephthalites, and what happened to them is unclear. Some historians surmise that the remaining Hephthalites were assimilated into the population of northwest India and Pakistan. Hephthalites are among the ancestors of modern-day Pashtuns. The Gurjara clan appeared in northern India about the time of the Huna invasions of northern India, and later established a number of ruling dynasties in northern India, including the Pratiharas of Kanauj. Gurjara origins and their relationship to the Hephthalites are not well documented, and subject to considerable debate. However, Huna is one of the prominent gotras among Gurjars and many Huna (Gurjar) villages can still be found in Ghaziabad and Bulandshahr. Some Rajput sub-castes like Huna Jat and Barnwal may be of Huna ancestory. Mercileessly attacked on two sides, the Hephthalites were completely broken and disappeared by 565 that only small number of them survived. Some surviving groups living south of Oxus escaped Chosroes' grasp later fell to Arab invaders in the 7th century. One of the surviving groups fled to the west and may have been the ancestors of the later Avars in the Danube region. Another era was opening in Central Asia. For the allies of Chosroes were Western Turks, a new power was to dominate the steppe for next few centuries. {note on Gokturks (a powerful nomadic confederation that originated from the Ashina clan): The Turks rise to power began in 546 when Bumin Khan made a pre-emptive strike against the Uyghur and Tiele tribes who were planning a revolt against their overlords, the Rouran. For this service he expected to be rewarded with a Rouran princess, i.e. marry into the royal family. Disappointed in his hopes, Bumin allied with the Wei state against Rouran, their common enemy. In 552, Bumin defeated the last Rouran Khan, Yujiulü Anagui. He also subdued the Yenisei Kyrgyz and the Khitans of Western Manchuria, was formally recognized by China, and married the Wei princess Changle.} The so-called "scribe" community of Hindus (Sanskrit: Kayeth/Kayastha) belong to different regions and ethnic groups within India claim different caste (varna). Kayasthas, in reality, were tax-collectors and financiers under several Kashmiri kings (recorded first in 8th century AD). In 4th century AD, the Gupta Empire brought over Kayasthas and Brahmins, to help manage the affairs of state in Bengal, and systematic and large-scale influx first took place. Prior to the 13th century AD, during the rule of Hindu kings, Kayasthas dominated public service and had a near-monopoly on appointments to government positions. With the Muslim conquest of India, the community learned and adapted to Persian, Turkic, Arabic and later Urdu. In Bengal, Kayasthas attained very high administrative positions under Mughal rule, serving as governors, prime ministers and treasury officials. According to Abu al-Fazl, Emperor Akbar's prime minister, Kayasthas were rulers of the Pala Empire, one of the major Middle Kingdoms of India that originated in Bengal. One of the most notable Kayasthas of the period was Raja Todar Mal, Akbar's finance minister and one of the 9 extraordinary people (Navaratnas) in court , who is credited with establishing the Mughal revenue system. He also translated the Bhagwat Purana into Persian. During the subsequent British Raj, Kayasthas continued to proliferate in public administration, qualifying for the highest executive and judicial offices open to Indians. Many Kayasthas were the first to learn English and become civil servants, tax officers, junior administrators, teachers, legal helpers and barristers. Bengali Kayasthas also took on the role occupied by merchant castes in other parts of India and directly profited from business contacts with the British. In 1911, for example, Kayasthas and Brahmins owned 40% of all the Indian-owned mills, mines and factories in Bengal. During this period, Kayasthas were more likely than members of other communities to undertake academic training in England and often rose to the highest positions accessible to Indians. As a consequence of their relatively large proportion amongst Indian students abroad, and because many hit ceilings of progression because of racial status, community members played pivotal roles in the early political groups that questioned British rule in India. The Jujhautiya Brahmin are an endogamous Brahmin community found the Chambal and Yamuna river valleys in the north, and the Narbada valley in the south. Chhatarpur District in Madhya Pradesh is the centra and cultural focus of this community. They are a sub-group of the Kanyakubja Brahmins. The Sarvarya or Saryupariya or Saryupareen Brahmins, are North Indian Brahmins residing on the eastern plain of the Sarayu near Ayodhya. These families did not perform 'pujas for benefactors and did not take dakshinas or donations against such prayers. Hence they were considered to be solely devoted to the quest of learning about the Vedas and spreading knowledge rather than benefiting in any way through benefactors. They are one of the most orthodox Brahmins of Northern India. The community has influenced in professions related to civil services, medical, technology,defense and academic fields. There is also, Bhumihars (karm kandi pandi). The Brahmins and Kshatriyas look down upon the Bhumihars whom they claim to have descended from Brahmin men and Kshatriya women. Only those Brahmins who perform all six duties are reckoned perfectly orthodox. The Bhumihar Brahmins for instance are tri-karmas. Bhumihars are landowning Brahmins who came to own land in different periods of history through land grants by kings or during the rule of Brahmin kings. The Kingdom of Kashi was an independent Bhumihar Brahmin state until 1194. Why couldn't China with its rich literary and philosophical tradition have given rise to Ch’an or Zen or Thien or Son Buddhism? Bodhidharma's teachings evoked hostility in China is evident from the fact that after his death, his disciple felt it necessary to hide for a period. The great monk-historian Dao Xuan wrote of Bodhidharma that “everywhere he traveled people were enlightened.” Bodhidharma did not like emperors perhaps which is why he didn't appear in any official imperial records that were created while he lived. However, there are local records and stone monuments. A famous story of Bodhidharma is his meeting and rejecting “Emperor Wu” of the Liang Dynasty. Rajputs rose to prominence during the 9th to 11th centuries. Other Rajput dynasties of importance in Northern India were the Chohans, Chandelaa and the Kalachuris of Chedi. The Kachwahas were the first to extend matrimonial alliances with Akbar; they pioneered a trend that soon turned pervasive and played no small role in extending Rajput influence across the Indian sub-continent. Indeed, two successive Mughal emperors, Jehangir and Shah Jehan, were born to Rajput mothers. The boundaries of Gandhara varied throughout history. Sometimes the Peshawar valley and Taxila were collectively referred to as Gandhara, and sometimes the Swat valley (Sanskrit: Suvāstu) was also included. The heart of Gandhara however was always the Peshawar valley. Gandhara was located on the northern trunk road (Uttarapatha) and was a centre of international commercial activities. It was an important channel of communication with ancient Iran and Central Asia. The Hindu Shahi, a term used by history writer Al-Biruni to refer to the ruling Hindu dynasty that took over from the Turki Shahi and ruled the region during the period prior to Muslim conquests of the tenth and eleventh centuries. After it was conquered by Mahmud of Ghazni in 1021 CE, the name Gandhara disappeared. During the Muslim period, the area was administered from Lahore or from Kabul. During Mughal times, the area was part of Kabul province. (Daud Khan arrived in 1705 in South Asia along with a band of his tribe namely Barech a Pushtoon tribe. He was succeeded in 1721 by Ali Mohammed Khan, who became so powerful that he refused to send tax revenues to the central government. Safdar Jang, the Nawab of Oudh, warned Mughal emperor Mohammed Shah of the growing power of the Rohillas.) Before the British came, 25% of the world trade originated in India. For 200 years, India dwindled and dwindled into almost nothing. By the time they left, it was less than 1%. The opium trade directly damage India by the disruption of the agricultural timetable. The idea of exporting opium to China started with Warren Hastings (the first governor general of British India) in 1780. There was a huge balance of payments problem in relation to China. China was exporting enormous amounts, but wasn't interested in importing any European goods. That was when Hastings came up with the idea that the only way of balancing trade was to export opium to China. In the period that Hastings started exporting opium in the 1780s until about 1809-1810, most of the opium in India was grown in the Bengal presidency (in eastern India). The Indian government's opium policy was a workable compromise between its need to protect its production monopoly in Bengal, its desire to collect excise revenues, and its aim of lowering consumption. Smuggling and illegal sales took place. After that, the Malwa region in western India began growing opium. Finally, twice as much opium was growing in western India and there was a huge export from that region. The major princely states lived off the opium production. The Ghazipur opium factory continues to be one of the single largest opium producers in the world. In fact, it is without a doubt the largest legitimate opium factory in the world. (the attack on Indian opium use by the British and American Protestant missionaries was seen as a form of cultural imperialism. Opium was a self-administered household remedy in India, and the opiate habit was far preferable to alcoholism. To most Indian's alcohol was a western drug that the colonial relationship was forcing upon them. Observant Muslims and Hindus deplored the use of alcohol and avoided it on religious grounds.) In Gujarat, Rajasthan and Central India, ceremonial use of opium was common. Offering opium water marked religious festivals, births and funerals and was used to signify the reconciliation of enemies. One of the ways was to eat it in a bowl. This was somehow the commonest way of taking opium in India - either eating it or dissolving it in water. East of India and eastwards through China, there was a different way of consuming it, which was by smoking it. That was very much more addictive. It was not traditionally the case that people smoked opium in India. However, this ceremonial use was dying out, in part due to increasing consumption of alcohol and the rising price of opium. Under the new Liberal Parliament of 1905, a motion before the House of Commons declared once again that the "Indo-Chinese opium trade is morally indefensible" and called for "bringing it to a speedy close". Much of the impetus for ending the trade came from a new, militant form of Chinese nationalism. The damage that was done to China by the opium trade was incalculable. The self-strengthening movement viewed opium as both symbol and cause of Chinese weakness before the West. India continued to produce and export opium to Southeast Asia, but for shrinking markets in the period before World War II. In fact, opium trade allowed the British to rule India and with it gone, they soon left India. However, Indian domestic use of opium under the excise system continued without further challenge until independence in 1947.) Contrary to popular belief, Islam came to South Asia prior to Muslim invasions of India. Islamic influence first came to be felt in the early 7th century with the advent of Arab traders. Trade relations between Arabia and the subcontinent are very ancient. The next contact of Muslims with India, was the Arab attack on a nest of pirates near modern-day Bombay, to safeguard their trade in the Arabian Sea. Around the same time, many Arabs settled at Indian ports, giving rise to small Muslim communities. The growth of these communities was not only due to conversion, but also the fact that many Hindu kings of south India (such as those from Cholas) hired Muslims as mercenaries. Throughout its history the Indian subcontinent has been frequently subject to invasion, from the North-West by Central Asian nomadic tribes and the Persian Empire. With the fall of the Sassanids and the arrival of the Caliphates, these regions were integrated into Muslim dynasties of Central Asian heritage; initially Turkic people and later Mongol and Turco-Mongol people. Unlike earlier conquerors who assimilated into prevalent social systems, Muslim conquerors retained their Islamic identity and created legal and administrative systems that challenged and destroyed existing systems of social conduct, culture, religious practices, lifestyle and ethics. After Harga's death in 647 A.D. India broke up into a number of independent states, always fighting against one another. Most of these were founded by Break-up of Rajput chief s who were distinguished for their valour and devotion to the military art. Among these warring states Kanauj rose to the position of a premier state, but even her pre-eminence was not universally acknowledged in the country. Kashmir was not included in Harsa's empire, though the local ruler was compelled by him to yield a valuable relic of Buddha. It became a powerful state Kashmir. The first foray by the new Muslim successor states of the Sassanid Empire occurred around 664 CE during the Umayyad Caliphate, led by Al Muhallab ibn Abi Suffrah towards Multan in Southern Punjab, in modern day Pakistan. Al Muhallab's expeditions were not aimed at conquest, though they penetrated only as far as the capital of the Maili, he returned with wealth and prisoners of war. This was an Arab incursion and part of the early Umayyad push onwards from the Islamic conquest of Persia into Central Asia, and within the limits of the eastern borders of previous Persian empires. The last Arab push in the region would be towards the end of Umayyad reign under Muhammad bin Qasim, after whom the Arabs would be defeated by the Rajputs at the Battle of Rajasthan in 738, and Muslim incursions would only be resumed under later Turkic and Afghan dynasties with more local capitals, who supplanted the Caliphate and expanded their domains both northwards and eastwards. In the early 11th century, Mahmud of Ghazni launched seventeen expeditions into the Indian sub-continent. In 1001, he defeated Raja Jayapala of the Hindu Shahi Dynasty of Gandhara and marched further into Peshawar and, in 1005, made it the center for his forces. The Ghaznavid conquests were initially directed against the Ismaili Fatimids in on-going struggle of the Abbassid Caliphate elsewhere. However, once this aim was accomplished, he moved onto richness of the loot of wealthy temples and monasteries. Muhammad Ghori was a Turkic-Afghan who invaded year after year 17 times but was defeated every time and freed after pleading for mercy. But the 18th time, Muhammad assembled 120,000 horsemen and once again invaded the Kingdom of Ajmer. Muhammad's army met Prithviraj's army again at Tarain, and this time Muhammad attacked at night when Prithviraj's army thought he had retreated so taking advantage of surprise he won the battle; Govinda-Raja was slain, Prithviraj captured and Muhammad advanced onto Delhi. Muhammad's successors established the first dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate, while the Mamluk (Sunni Muslim) or Ghulam dynasty in 1211 (however, the Delhi Sultanate is traditionally held to have been founded in 1206) seized the reins of the empire. Mamluk means "slave" and referred to the Turkic slave soldiers who became rulers. The territory under control of the Muslim rulers in Delhi expanded rapidly. By mid-century, Bengal and much of central India was under the Delhi Sultanate. (The Mamluk Dynasty or Ghulam Dynasty, directed into India by Qutb-ud-din Aybak, a Turkic general of Central Asian birth, was the first of five unrelated dynasties to rule). India's Delhi Sultanate (from 1206 to 1290) During the Delhi Sultanate, several Turkic and Afghan dynasties ruled from Delhi, including the Mamluk dynasty (1206-90), the Khilji dynasty (1290-1320), the Tughlaq dynasty (1320-1413), the Sayyid dynasty (1414-51), and the Lodi dynasty (1451-1526). In 1526 the Delhi Sultanate was absorbed by the emerging Mughal Empire. The Sultanate ushered in a period of cultural renaissance. The resulting "Indo-Muslim" fusion left lasting monuments in architecture, music, literature, and religion. Due to the sacking of Delhi in 1398 by Timur (Tamerlane), other independent Sultanates were established in Awadh, Bengal, Jaunpur, Gujarat and Malwa. The Mamluk Dynasty or Ghulam Dynasty, directed into India by Qutb-ud-din Aybak, a Turkic general of Central Asian birth, was the first of five unrelated dynasties to rule India's Delhi Sultanate from 1206 to 1290. Aibak's tenure as a Ghorid administrator ranged between 1192 to 1206, a period during which he led invasions into the Gangetic heartland of India and established control over some of the new areas. Aibak rose to power when a Ghorid superior was assassinated. However, his reign as the sultan of Delhi was short lived as he expired in 1210 and his son Aram Shah rose to the throne, only to be assassinated by Iltutmish in 1211. The Sultanate under Iltutmish established cordial diplomatic contact with the Abbasid Caliphate between 1228–29 and had managed to keep India unaffected by the invasions of Genghis Khan and his successors. Following the death of Iltutmish in 1236 a series of weak rulers remained in power and a number of the noblemen gained autonomy over the provinces of the Sultanate. Power shifted hands from Rukn ud din Firuz to Razia Sultana till Ghiyas ud din Balban rose to the throne and successfully repelled both external and internal threats to the Sultanate. The Khalji dynasty came into being when Jalal ud din Firuz Khilji overthrew the last of the Slave dynasty rulers, Muiz ud din Qaiqabad, the grandson of Balban, and assumed the throne at Delhi. The architectural legacy of the dynasty includes the Qutb Minar, Mehrauli by Qutb-ud-din Aybak, Sultan Ghari near Vasant Kunj, the first Islamic Mausoleum (tomb) built in 1231 AD for Prince Nasir ud din Mahmud, eldest son of Iltumish, and Balban's tomb, also in Mehrauli Archaeological Park. Not all Muslim invaders were simply raiders. Later rulers fought on to win kingdoms and stayed to create new ruling dynasties. The practices of these new rulers and their subsequent heirs (some of whom were borne of Hindu wives) varied considerably. While some were uniformly hated, others developed a popular following. The resulting "Indo-Muslim" fusion left lasting monuments in architecture, music, literature, and religion. In addition it is surmised that the language of Urdu (literally meaning "horde" or "camp" in various Turkic dialects) was born during the Delhi Sultanate period as a result of the mingling of Sanskritic Hindi and the Persian, Turkish, Arabic. Tīmūr bin Taraghay Barlas, known in the West as Tamerlane, was a 14th century warlord of Turco-Mongol descent, conqueror of much of western and central Asia, and founder of the Timurid Empire and Timurid dynasty (1370–1405) in Central Asia, which survived until 1857 as the Mughal dynasty of India. Informed about civil war in the Indian subcontinent, Timur began a trek starting in 1398 to invade the reigning Sultan Nasir-u Din Mehmud of the Tughlaq Dynasty in the north Indian city of Delhi. His campaign was politically pretexted that the Muslim Delhi Sultanate was too tolerant toward its Hindu subjects, but that could not mask the real reason being to amass the wealth of the Delhi Sultanate. Timur crossed the Indus River at Attock (now Pakistan) on September 24. The capture of towns and villages was often followed by the looting, massacre of their inhabitants and raping of their women, as well as pillaging to support his massive army. Timur wrote many times in his memoirs of his specific disdain for the 'idolatrous' Hindus, although he also waged war against Muslim Indians during his campaign. Timur's invasion did not go unopposed and he did meet some resistance during his march to Delhi, most notably with the Sarv Khap coalition in northern India, and the Governor of Meerut. Although impressed and momentarily stalled by the valour of Ilyaas Awan, Timur was able to continue his relentless approach to Delhi, arriving in 1398 to combat the armies of Sultan Mehmud, already weakened by an internal battle for ascension within the royal family. The Sultan's army was easily defeated on December 17, 1398. Timur entered Delhi and the city was sacked, destroyed, and left in ruins. Before the battle for Delhi, Timur executed more than 100,000 captives. Immense quantities of spoils were taken from India. According to Ruy Gonzáles de Clavijo, 90 captured elephants were employed merely to carry precious stones looted from his conquest, so as to erect a mosque at Samarkand. The circumnavigation of Africa by the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama in 1498 allowed Europeans to challenge Arab control of the trading routes between Europe and Asia. In Central Asia and Afghanistan, shifts in power pushed Babur of Ferghana (in present-day Uzbekistan) southward, first to Kabul and then to India. Claiming descent from both Genghis Khan and Timur, Babur combined strength and courage with a love of beauty, and military ability with cultivation. He concentrated on gaining control of Northwestern India, doing so in 1526 by defeating the last Lodhi Sultan at the First battle of Panipat, a town north of Delhi. Babur then turned to the tasks of persuading his Central Asian followers to stay on in India and of overcoming other contenders for power, mainly the Rajputs and the Afghans. The dynasty he founded endured for more than three centuries. Mughal rulers such as Akbar were known for their religious tolerance and administrative genius, where as Aurangzeb (who also deposed his father Shah Jahan) advocated orthodox Islam and aggressively persecuted Hindus and Sikhs. Later, the mansabdari system gave way to the zamindari system, in which high-ranking officials took on the appearance of hereditary landed aristocracy with powers of collecting rents. As Delhi's control waned, other contenders for power emerged and clashed, thus preparing the way for the eventual British takeover.
Sufism: It grew historically as a reaction against the rigid legalism of the orthodox religious leadership and as a counterweight to the growing worldliness of the expanding Muslim empire. Muhammad is regarded as the first Sufi master who passed his esoteric teachings orally to his successors who also received his special grace (barakah). An unbroken chain of transmission of divine authority is supposed to exist from Muhammad to his successor 'Ali and from him down to generations of Sufi masters (Sheikhs, Pirs). Each order has its own Silsilah (chain) that links it with Muhammad and 'Ali. One source of Sufism is to be found in the twofold presentation of God in the Qur'an: on the one hand he is described as the almighty creator, lord and judge, and on the other hand he is seen as abiding in the believer's heart and nearer to man than his own jugular vein. Sufism is found amongst both Sunnis and Shi'a, being a movement within orthodox Islam. However it has many links with Isma'ilism and other extreme Shi'a sects (Ghulat) as it developed in similar times and circumstances. The first Sufis were ascetics who meditated on the Day of Judgement. They were called "those who always weep" and "those who see this world as a hut of sorrows." They kept the external rules of Shari'a, but at the same time developed their own mystical ideas and techniques. "Little food, little talk, little sleep," was a popular proverb amongst them. Mortification of the flesh, self denial, poverty and abstinence were seen as the means of drawing near to God, and this included fasting and long nights of prayer. Sufism searches for a direct mystical knowledge of God and of his Love. Its goal was to progress beyond mere intellectual knowledge to a mystical (existential) experience that submerged limited man in the infinity of God. It used Jewish, Christian, Gnostic, Hellenistic, Zoroastrian and Hindu traditions that were brought into Islam by converts from the many conquered populations. The name Sufi is derived from the Arabic word Suf which means wool. Early Sufis wore simple coarse woollen garments similar to those of Christian monks. Its cultural contribution was a rich poetry in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Urdu, Sindi, Pashto and Punjabi, which spread its mystical ideas all over the Muslim world and enriched local literature and identity. Several techniques were developed to achieve the goal of a blissful union with Ultimate Reality. They were known as Dhikr (remembrance, mention of God) and Sama' (hearing). In the Dhikr Sufis would recite the many names of God and sing hymns of praise. Special forms of breathing were supposed to aid concentration and help them attain to an ecstatic state in which they actually felt they had reached union with God. During the Sama', poetry, music and dance were used as an aid to reaching the ecstatic state. These informal groups later crystalized into Sufi brotherhoods gathered around famous leaders. A charismatic hypnotist, carpet trader, Russian spy and mystic extraordinaire, George Gurdjieff was the son of a Greek-Armenian bard and was deeply impressed by his father’s songs concerning the great spiritual luminaries of a vanished past. The boy apparently began his search for the lost wisdom of the ancients at the early age of fifteen, and maintained it at huge cost to his health and material resources until he emerged, nearly thirty years later, a magus of mysterious yet undeniably charismatic authority. Possessed of enormous personal courage, during World War I Gurdjieff led a large posse of Russian followers across Eastern Europe to safety, through the raging battle lines of Bolsheviks and Cossacks in turn, eventually establishing a school in Fontainbleu, outside Paris, for the study and practice of methods of spiritual self-transformation. These methods, revolutionary in their day, are believed to have included the sacred dance and music exercises of the shamanistic Yesevi dervishes of Kurdistan, a community in which Gurdjieff seems to have received his initial training in Sufi techniques of “soul-making.” The Yezidis, a secretive Kurdish religious sect from which the Sufi Bektashi order has sprung, live to this day in the foothills north of Mosul in Iraqi Kurdistan pursuing a cult of angels. According to the British baroness E.S. Drower, who in 1940 published a detailed paper on the sect, the chief Yezidi angel is Malek Taus, the Peacock Angel who has some likeness to Lucifer, the fallen angel of Christian fame. A black serpent is also held in special reverence in the Yezidi religion as a symbol of magical potency – no doubt ultimately a symbol of kundalini and the spinal system of energies elaborated in spiritual physiology. While paying lip service to the Muslim faith, the Yezidi have their own unique cosmogony, mythology and ritual practices, which have more commonality with the Magian or Gnostic belief-systems than with either Islam or Christianity. Ceaselessly persecuted and destroyed by Kurdish Muslims and Ottoman Turks as well as Islamic armies of both Iraq and Iran, the once powerful Yezidi tribes have been almost wiped out as heretics of the first order. Only isolated groups are now left. These include small pockets in Central Kurdistan, the Russian Caucasus and in satellite communities in Syria, Lebanon, Anatolia and Iran. With the Mongol invasions, however, came difficult days for European civilisation as many sources of Sufi wisdom withdrew. The Sufi Masters of Wisdom known in Central Asia as the Khwajagan lineage withdrew at this time to the Trans-Himalayas, where their schools still persist. The Khwajagan were neither savants nor mystical ecstatics. They were practical men who assiduously practiced the breathing and mantric exercise of the zikr, fought their own weaknesses by means of trials based on humiliation and abasement, and during the Mongol depredations of the conquered western cities built new schools, hospitals and mosques. Some say these Masters, who may be synonymous with the Sarmouni, have continued to this day to head the Sufi hierarchy – which Bennett has called the Hidden Directorate – from its hidden Trans-Himalayan headquarters. Meanwhile, the Sufi orders left behind continued to strengthen their ties with other esoteric systems, such as the Magian secret societies in Persia and the Copts in Egypt, and to extend their formidable influence across the world into South-East Asia. In the Sunda Islands they amalgamated successfully with the indigenous shamans, Hindu-Buddhists and Taoists and were instrumental in establishing in Java one of the most influential schools of Tibetan Kalachakra Tantra in the world. The result was a chain of hybrid secret societies around the globe whose roots were buried deep in a freedom-loving soil compounded of Sufism, Magian wisdom and the Solomonic and Hermetic wisdom of the Egyptian Essenes. It was these pan-religious amalgamations that produced over the centuries initiatic schools like the Templars, the Chartres masters, the Rosicrucians, the Illuminati, the Freemasons and the Theosophists, all dedicated to working for the religious and scientific dawning of a new age free from religious intolerance. Throughout the long Sufi saga, the West had been unaware of intervention in its affairs, or indeed of the very existence of a powerful organisation in its midst that was monitoring the course of history and at the same time maintaining its own hierarchy, objectives and worldview independently of the visible political and religious structures of society. But the Sufi masters knew that this unconscious condition, mainly imposed on the people by repressive forces outside their control, must end, and that the time of awakening was drawing near. In India, the outbreak of the Seven Years War in Europe renewed the long-running conflict between the French and the British trading companies for influence on the subcontinent. The French allied themselves with the Mughal Empire to resist British expansion. The war began in Southern India but spread into Bengal, where British forces under Robert Clive recaptured Calcutta from the Nawab Siraj ud-Daulah, a French ally, and ousted him from his throne at the Battle of Plassey in 1757. In the same year, the British also captured Chandernagar, the French settlement in Bengal. The French capital in India, Pondicherry, fell to the British in 1761; together with the fall of the lesser French settlements of Karikal and Mahé this effectively eliminated French power in India. In a rather strange juxtaposition of Hindu-Muslim culture, members of nearly 94 families of the Maulesalam community living in four villages of Banaskantha district have men with Muslim names like Sarfaraz, Karim, Yusuf, Nasir, Rasheed, Sherkhan or Yakubkhan, while the women have Hindu names like Vaktuben, Savitaben or Ramilaben. These Khans take pride in their surname but are worshippers of goddess 'Chamunda', get married according to Hindu tradition and rituals, but bury their dead as Muslims do. "Originally we are from Mulli in Surendranagar district, and it is said that our ancestors ruled over the Mulli state. Mohammad Begda the ruler of Gujarat (in 15th and early 16th century) married a Rajput woman, and we are his descendants," The Khudabadi Sindhi Swarankar (alternately Khudabadi Sonara Community) is a cultural group of India, historically associated with the Sindh region of modern Pakistan prior to the Partition of India, and the city of Khudabad as well as city of Hyderabad. It is said to date as far back as the Vedic Age, and is associated in legend with Satya and Treta Yug. The Sonara community (sunar or goldsmith) is affiliated with the Lohana faction of the warrior Kshatriya caste of Hindu society. Historically associated with military professions, many Lohana groups, including the Sonaras, turned to peactime occupations including bricklaying, agriculture, and shopkeeping. The Sonaras became involved in goldsmithing, a trait still associated with that community. In 1783 the Kalhora were defeated by Baloch tribes, marking the beginning of the Talpur dynasty. After the flooding of the River Sindhu, the Talpur king Mir Fateh Ali Khan left Khudabad in 1789 and made Hyderabad his capital. A portion of the population of Khudabad migrated to the new capital, including Sonaras, Amils and Bhaibands. Those groups retained the term Khudabadi in the names of their communities as an identifier of origin. By the year 1800, the majority of Sonarans living in Sindh had migrated to Hyderabad. The Khudabadi Sonara community consists of about 2000 families, out of which 600 families live in Jaipur. About 1000 families live in other cities of India whereas about 400 families live overseas. Additionally, about 1000 individuals live outside of India, though their families or parents may still live in India.
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