Hans T. Bakker. The Alkhan: a Hunnic people in South Asia (2020)

Hans T. Bakker. The Alkhan: a Hunnic people in South Asia. Groningen: Barkhuis Publishing, 2020, XIII+128 p. ISBN 9789493194007

This book is the first fascicle in a series that is designed as a reader’s Companion to a Sourcebook that presents all written sources with regard to Hunnic Peoples in Central and South Asia from the 4th to the 6th centuries of the Common Era. Both these books are the outcome of an international research project, funded by the European Research Council, which aimed at collecting and exploring the texts regarding the Eastern, non-European Huns in more than a dozen original languages. The first fascicle of the Companion Series focuses on the history of Hunnic People in South Asia, where they are known as Hūṇa in Sanskrit literature or Alkhan according to their own coinage. These Alkhan entered the Subcontinent in the 4th century. The fascicle reconstructs the history of the Alkhan kings, Khiṅgila Toramāṇa, and Mihirakula, and the impact of their invasion and control of large parts of Northern and Western India on Indian history and culture, in particular on the Gupta Empire. This history is shown to be interrelated with historic developments within the Sasanian Empire and historic events to the north of the Hindu Kush. This first fascicle of the Companion and the Sourcebook (D. Balogh, ed.) are published simultaneously by Barkhuis, Groningen. In the coming years other fascicles in this series will appear, exploring the collected sources with a focus on the history of Hunnic Peoples in Central Asia.

Table of Contents

List of maps and figures … VII
Preface … XI
Introduction … 1

Chapter One The Sasanian and Gupta Empires and their Struggle against the Huns … 9
Preamble … 9
Iran’s Way … 10
The Kidara … 10
Synchronisms … 14
The replacement of the Kidara by the Hephthal … 15
India’s Way … 17
The Alkhan … 17
The Alkhan confederacy … 20
Two drinking vessels: the silver bowls from Swat and Chilek … 21
The Chilek Bowl … 22
The Swat Bowl … 24
The Schøyen Copper Scroll … 26
The Conquest of India … 28
Appendix 1 … 30
Timeline … 31

Chapter Two The Hūṇas in Early Sanskrit Sources … 37
The literary sources … 37
The Rājatarangiṇī … 39
The epigraphic sources … 40
List of inscriptions in Sanskrit related to the Hūṇas … 41

Chapter Three The Alkhan in the Northwest of the Subcontinent: Two Early Epigraphic Sources … 43
The inscription on the silver bowl from Swat … 43
The Schøyen Copper Scroll … 48
The donation formula (section 5) … 48
The location of Tālagāna … 50
The main actors and their roles … 51
The Princess of Sārada … 53
The concluding seven Kāvya verses (section 6) … 53
The land of Sārada and the place of Sāradīysa … 56
Sāradā Devī … 57

Chapter Four Toramāṇa’s Country … 59
The Khurā Stone Inscription … 59
The Kuvalayamālā … 61
The Country Parvata … 62
Akhnūr and surroundings … 63
Toramāṇa’s headquarters … 68
Toramāṇa’s chance … 68

Chapter Five The Hunnic Wars … 70
The First Hunnic War … 71
Preamble … 71
Toramāṇa’s conquest … 71
Toramāṇa’s ambition … 77
The access to the Arabian Sea … 79
A period of gloom … 80
The iconographic evidence … 82
The remains at Devanī Morī … 82
The remains at Sāmalājī … 82
A Buddhist Vision of the Kali Age … 85
Hope regained … 86
The Pāśupata Weapon … 87
Prakāśadharman’s victory over Toramāṇa … 90
The Second Hunnic War … 92
Mihirakula … 92
Mihirakula’s conversion to Saivism … 93
Yaśodharman’s victory … 93
The date of the victory pillars … 94
A monument of glory in Sondhni … 95
The Aftermath … 98
Fifty years that changed India (ad 484 – 534) … 98
The Śaiva turn … 99
A new dawn … 99
Closing remark … 99
Appendix 2
Sondhni Pillar Inscription of Yaśodharman … 101
Text … 101
Translation … 102

Bibliography … 105

Indexes … 119
Index of sources (SB) … 119
General index … 120