Gakhars: Encyclopedia II - Gakhars - Earliest history of the Gakhars

Gakhars - Earliest history of the Gakhars

The Gakhar clans apical ancestor is Kaid of Isfahan, who was a son of Bahram V of Persia (also called "Bahram Gur"). In the Sassanid era, Isfahan was governed by "Espoohrans" or the members of seven noble Iranian families who had important royal positions. According to the Gakhar legends, these families went into exile, under the leadership of Feroozshah, in China, serving as an Imperial Guard to the emperor, then Tibet then Kashmir then Kabul where they joined up with Sabuktigin in his invasions of India.

Their legends are strikingly similar to the story of Pirooz recorded by Chinese historians. When the Sassanian dynasty fell in 651, many fled to China where the son of the last Sassanian ruler, Pirooz, (fleeing the Muslim invasion of Persia) became a Captain of the Chinese Imperial Guard and whose people were stationed in military garrisons in Chinese Central Asia including Kashmir and Kabul which were under Chinese control in the 740's. This were the Gakhars said they where. [1],[2]. After the Battle of Talas in 751 the Chinese lost control of Central Asia to the Muslim Arabs; many of the Persians living there left for other parts of China, others converted to Islam. This is similar to the Gakhars legends which say that they were converted to Islam before joining with Sabuktigin in his invasions of India.

There are also stories of Sassanian involvement in Tibet for instance Tiberius Lowang the Hellenized Sassanid General mentioned in Donyi-Polo mantras who led troops into southern Tibet at the request of tribal chieftains. He ultimately replaced the local authorities with his own brutal military dictatorship. Sassanid artifacts are found in Tibet and Sasanian impact on Tibetan court culture has been recognised in the adoption of Sasanian style robes by the Tibetan nobles. [3].

However, the earliest historical record of the Gakhars, is, according to Ferishta, the best regarded early indian historian; “In 682 AD. some disputes arising between the Gakhars and the Raja of Lahore, caused this race formed a treaty of alliance... with the Afghans, who compelled the Raja of Lahore to submit to terms from the Gakhars, to whom he could otherwise himself have dictated conditions. This treaty included the cession of certain territories in perpetuity to the Gakhars”. In 651, the Buddhist Chinese pilgram Xuanzang visited what was ancient Gandhara recording that the city of Taxila and the Salt Range were now vassals of the kingdom of Kashmir. Taxila, was recovering after the invasions of the Huna (White Huns or Hephthalite). The Huna themselves had been defeated in 565 during the reign of Khosrau I of Persia by a coalition of Sasanians (also Indo-Sassanian) and Western Turks (Oghuz Turks) which maintained weak control until the 10th C. Attemping to find a middle way between the historical record of Ferishta and the Gakhars Sassanian legends it could be suggested that this is when the Gakhars first entered India.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Earliest history of the Gakhars", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki