HISTORY OF HINDKO

Introduction

The Civilization of the Hindko Homeland is over five thousand years old. This is neither a slogan nor a sentimental statement. This fact is based on the strong and solid historical,archaeological, literary and linguistic evidence. I am sure that the readers would have been convinced of the truth of the statement after finishing reading this write-up. However, before I talk about the antiquity of Hindko civilization, it is important to delimit its geographical boundaries. Though many writers and scholars have stated its boundaries but have not substantiated them. Once ancient boundaries are established, it will become easy to talk about the land, its people, civilization, culture and language. Having a clear picture of the extent of the land that we talk about is a prerequisite to trace the history of the people and chronological development that happened with the passage of time.

A gross misunderstanding and a historic myth that has defaced the history of Hind must be destroyed first. I have intentionally used the word Hind here instead of its English equivalent (India). I’ll explain the reason later.

The myth is that Aryans brought civilization to this part of the world. This implies that there was no civilization in the subcontinent before the arrival of the Aryans. The indigenous people were deaf and dumb. They had no language. They did not have any customs. They lived either in open jungles or caves and so on and so forth.

This misstatement of facts started with the Rig Veda and was picked up by orientalists of Europe. It was only very recently that some of them realized the mistake and tried to restate the cultural history of Hind. However, there is still a group of European scholars that is still walking on the beaten path.

With them are some others so-called oriental scholars who have vested interest in keeping the weather misty. One of the modern European scholars Armoury de Riencourt[i] rightly writes “A mental fog has concealed until very recently the remote history of this part of the world; even now, it is partially dispelled.”

Dr A.H. Dani[ii] writes at page 377 of his book ‘Ancient India’ 1964 “ The (Vedic) literature has probably exaggerated the Aryans to the exclusion of others who also found India.”

The fact of the matter is that the Aryans who invaded this land were ruthless, barbarous warbands who had no civilization of their own and destroyed the great civilization of Hindkoland as they occupied it. Armoury de Riencourt further says about the Aryan invaders “Nomadic Aryans invaded India in 1500 BC destroying the Indus Valley civilization and exterminating the Indus inhabitants, thus ended the most brilliant civilization of the ancient world. Subsequent to this invasion [iii], India was plunged into 2000 years of the Vedic Dark Ages.

According to Thomas William, “In Tamil Literature 1500 BC is the year of the mythical destruction of Tamil Civilization. This coincides with the Aryans invasion and fall of the Indus Empire [iv].”

“The un-intellectual forces of the wilds, with the unbroken will and exuberant vitality, thirsting for power and plunder hurled themselves on the civilized men of the plain.”

“With the arrival of the Aryan warbands, all historical evidence vanished, script disappeared and the wooden structures of the Aryans rotted away without leaving any traces. From the very first, the invaders manifested the most remarkable trait of their psychology: a complete, instinctive indifference to history and preservation of historical records. Instead of historical treatise such as the Chinese have left to posterity, the Aryans left us myths – the transmutation of time-bound historical events into timeless tales in which facts and fancy are almost inextricably mixed so that we are left with the Aryans, first great literary work the Rig Veda, as a unique source of information for this dark period of India’s history.”

Dr. (Mrs.) Sushama Arura[v] admits that before the arrival of Aryans the region contained all the features of urban life. Some of the salient features listed by her are reproduced below:

 

‘‘Town planning, with a citadel (fort)–dwelling place for ruling class with strong fortifications, below that houses for common people, then a marketplace, kilns & furnaces to manufacture burnt bricks were found outside the city along with the city’s drain water getting released into the fields, thus keeping the city clean.

Sufficient water supply, a well for every house, public baths, both in working condition

 

The good underground drainage system, made possible due to the knowledge of the arch, confirming geometrical knowledge of the people.

Decent houses with amenities of the bath, lavatory, water supply & a courtyard for pounding, grinding, laundry, etc.

Good roads cut each other at right angles dividing the city into blocks. The roads were so arranged that the wind would work as a suction pump, cleaning the area automatically

The lamp posts lit the roads at night.

Granary is another special feature of this civilization, used as a storage for future use or for the collection of tax collected in kind,

Highly standardized weights also an important characteristic of this urban civilization.’’

Aryans in Rig Veda

Now let us see what Rig Veda has to say about Aryans.

The Mantras of Rig Veda tell us the condition of different periods. It is learnt from these Mantras that earlier Aryans were not born intelligent. Like others, they survived on hunting and game.

Later they raised cattle and learnt how to till the soil and to cultivate. The Rishis amongst them were advanced and it can be said that they transformed Hindu Samaj (community) into Hindu religious Samaj (society).

Earlier Aryans lived in Goth (villages). Goth stands for Gosht, a Sanskrit word that means a place to keep cows in (cow barn, stable). The Aryans would build their houses adjacent to stable. This came to be known as Goth.

The middle-class Aryans lived in circular houses (huts) made of straw and dried leaves. The wealthy ones lived in houses made of mud and clay.

The writing was introduced relatively late to India, and it did not immediately become important since oral learning was the primary means of transmitting knowledge. Rhys David[vi]suggests that writing may have been introduced from the Middle East by traders, but Sanskrit, which had been used exclusively in sacred contexts, remained a purely oral language until well into India’s classical age.’

In the light of the facts enunciated in the above-cited quote, the following points become evident.

1

a) There was a fully developed civilization in Hindkoland prior to the invasion of Aryans.

b) They lived in cities built of fire-baked bricks.

c) Their cities had a sophisticated system of supply of water and drainage.

d) They were literate and had developed a system of writing.

2

a) Aryans were barbaric warriors.

b) They were the uncivilized nomad and were not used to urban life.

c) They destroyed almost all exponents of the local civilization.

d) After destroying building made of fire-baked bricks they made huts of straws and mud and lived in such structures for centuries.

e) They had no script & no writing system.

Antiquity of Hindko Civilization

Wikipedia[vii] narrates:

“The Indus Valley civilization [viii] was one of the four civilizations of the ancient world, the other being the Mesopotamian, Egyptian, and the Chinese civilizations. The major cities of the Indus Valley civilization, such as Harappa and Mohenjo Daro, date back to around 3000 BC, and represent some of the largest human habitations of the ancient world.”(please see endnote 1 as well)

According to Radha Kumud Mukharjee[ix]

‘the Indian (Hindko)[x] civilization dates back to 3200 B.C. He says that remnants of this civilization have been found in Mohenjo Daro and Harappa, both in present-day Pakistan. Later excavations revealed that the similar culture extended to Northeast which covered parts of Jammu, Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Sindh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra.

Romila Thapar[xi] writes:

“The pre-historic site of Kot Diji in the Sindh province has provided information of high significance for the reconstruction of a connected story which pushes back the origin of this civilization by 300 by 500 years, from about 2500 B.C. to at least 2800 B.C. Evidence of a new cultural element of pre-Harappan era has been traced here.” Dr A.H. Dani writes at P-387. ‘There is one site which may provide the evidence needed to fill the gap. Shanghao is located not very far north of the city of Peshawar. The cave contains 3 period of Middle Stone Age material.’ (Stone Age dates back to nearly 800 B.C.).

I regretfully say that this region has been neglected as far as archaeological excavation is concerned. If more excavation is carried out, I am sure further layers of sites can be discovered where cultural development prior to a much older period than 2800 B.C. can be found.

From the ruins of Mohenjo Daro Harappa and later in and around Peshawar, it is clear that this civilization is at least 5,200 years old.

Extent of Hindkoland

Now that is has been established without a shadow of a doubt that the region I referred to as Hindko in the opening paragraph of my write-up at the time of Aryans invasion in the around 1500 B.C had one of the best civilizations of the world. It has further been revealed from the archaeological findings that antiquity of this civilization goes back as far as 5,200 years. So the people of Hind or I may call them Hindko people have a long and enviable cultural history. It has a marvellous record of civilization. It only needs the dust and the mist of the time to be removed from its brilliant face and provide missing links of history destroyed by the Aryans.

We can now move forward to the second important questions of the geographical and historic delimitation of the Hindkoland.

The political and administrative boundaries of this region like any other part of the world have been changing a lot during the past so many centuries. Some new divisions have come into existence and some new administrative sub-regions have been created from time to time. Many a time adjustments have been made to the existing political and administrative divisions. Sometimes it happened that some divisions and their names merged into others or disappeared altogether. Sometimes, new names were given to the old regions or the name themselves underwent linguistic changes.

These linguistic changes were sometimes natural and sometimes deliberate. The nomenclature was changed to meet specific needs or desires of the ruling class or powerful groups. It has also happened that in certain cases these changes have stood the test of time and in other cases, they didn’t. This is the natural way that things happen in this ever-changing universe. There are wear and tear. Some things are lost in the waves of time and some new things emerge. Some changes are beneficial to a group of people but not to another group. The physical landscape changed to a certain extent.

All this has happened to the Hindkoland and its people. I would like to establish its boundaries as existed at the time of Aryans invasion nearly 3,500 years ago.

Hind in Avesta

As stated earlier the Aryan invaders destroyed the Hindko culture and left no evidence in the land that could establish the reality that existed on the ground at that time. We have to look for the evidence somewhere else. The oldest written record giving information about Hind is Avesta. It may be pointed out that Avesta is much older than the Vedas.

Let us see what Avesta, one of the oldest written sacred scripture of Zoroaster, tells us about the origin of the word Hind.

The word Hind occurs four times at the following places in Avesta:

1. Vanidad Chapter 1 number 19

2. Yesna (Sarosh-e-Yesht) 57 number 29

3. Mehrisht number 104

4. Teerisht number 32

Among these, Vanidad is the oldest.

Avesta says:

“I, Ahur Muzda, created the fifteenth nice country. This is one of the best countries (its name is) Hapta Hindu, river Hindu (flows through it from) East to West.”

An Iranian historian[xii] writes:

1. (Previously) the name of Hind was Hapta Hindu.

2. Hind was the fifteenth country that was created by Ahur Muzda. This land is known to Iranian since olden times.

3. It (Hind) contained a land that was irrigated by river Indu. It spread to both sides (of the river). Iranian named (this region) as Hind.

4. This way the Iranian named it Hind and they called the residents of this land Hindu instead of Sindu. Greeks adopted the name Hindu from Iranians. This name then was adopted by Romans and thereafter all the world has known this country as Hind.

Name Hind also occurs in Tora, the sacred book of Jews. [xiii]

Hind was also a part of Darius Empire.

Herodotus says that Hind was the richest region of Darius Empire. Purpose of Darius was not only to capture the old known world but he wanted to enter Hind and thereafter through Kashmir wanted to enter the river Sind[xiv] and then to Oman and the Persian Gulf.

After Avesta inscription in the Khatte Mekhi, it is illustrated that Hind was one of the parts of Hakhmanshi Empire. It is also revealed by the inscription of Takht-e-Jamshed and Naqsh-e-Rustam that one of the captured regions was Hindush (Indush).

The region that was known to Iranians as Hind had its eastern boundary along the mountain range now known as Hindukush Mountains and went down to the plans on both sides of river presently known as Sindh. However, a few centuries later it was renamed as Hept Hindu meaning “seven Hindkos”. This region has also been described as haft Hindu Aqlim(seven states). These seven rivers are Sindh, Jehlum, Sutluj, Ravi, Chanab, Beyas and Sarawati. In other words, it was a united state of Hindko consisting of these seven states.

The Hindukush is a mountain system nearly 1000 miles long and 200 miles wide, running northeast to southwest, and dividing the Amu Darya (River) Valley and Hindkoland. It stretches from the Pamir Plateau near Gilgit to Iran. The Hindukush ranges mainly run through Afghanistan and Pakistan. It has over two dozen summits of more than 23,000 ft in height. Below the snowy peaks, the mountains of Hindu Kush appear bare, stony and poor in vegetation. Historically, the passes across the Hindukush have been of great military significance, providing access to the northern plains of India. The Khyber Pass constitutes an important strategic gateway and offers a comparatively easy route to the plains of Punjab. Most foreign invaders, starting from Alexander the Great in 327 B.C to Taimur Lang in 1398 A.D, and from Mahmud of Ghazni, in 1001 A.D, to Nader Shah in 1739 A.D. attacked Hindustan via the Khyber Pass and other passes in the Hindukush.

Aryan and post-Aryan period

According to Diwan Bherumal Advani[xv]

“The boundaries during the Rig Veda period remained almost unchanged for a long time. That is from Hindukush to land of seven rivers. It was during Yajar Ved [xvi] period that Hindkoland was divided into the following 3 provinces:-

1. Kekya. – This province was named after Kekya, son of Shavi Oshener. It expanded between River Kabul and Vyash, now called Beas. Dera Ismail Khan and Dera Ghazi Khan were part of Kekya province. Raja Ashopat, father of Savatri, the ruler of Kekya, would say with pride that there were no misers, drunkards, thieves and profiteers in his kingdom.

2. Sindhu, which comprised of most of the Sindh valley.

3. Sauver. – Sauver was also son of Shavi Oshener. Third province was named after him, which included Multan and Jharwad.[xvii]

Gandhara

It is stated in Raghu Vansh (1587) that Bharat, Shree Ramachandra’s brother, inherited province of Sindh (Sindh Desh). Bharat’s two sons, Takash and Pushkar, expanded Sindh border to Gandhara, Peshawar and its surroundings.

Located towards that area was Pushkar with its capital named Pushkarvati and Taksha with its capital Taksha-sila which historians have called Taxila. Around year 6 B.C., a university was established at Taxila, ruins of which still exist.

Although the other parts of Hindko developed financially, politically and majestically, the Gandhara region regenerated its lost glory of knowledge and became the center of knowledge not for the whole of Hindkoland but also for the rest of the subcontinent.

According to Amaury de Reincourt[xviii] ‘Magadha state was the most prosperous empire, conscious by their cultural inferiority, many young men from Magadha were sent out of the state to far away Takshasila in the North Western State of Gandhara for their education very much as young Romans went to Athens to complete their studies.

Around 5 years B.C. renowned Panini Mani who wrote famous Sanskrit Grammar “Ashta Dhiyaie”, was also born there.

Romila Thaper says “The discovery of Gandhara grave culture in Dir and Swat will go a long way in throwing light on the period of Pakistan’s cultural history between the end of the Indus culture in 1500 B.C. and the beginning of the historic period under the Achaemenians in the sixth century B.C. The Gandhara grave culture has opened up two periods in the cultural heritage of Pakistan a peculiar pattern of living in hilly zones of the Gandhara region as evidenced in the graves.”

Gandhara was attacked and destroyed many a time by Parthians and Huns, etc.

Besides Taxila, there are many sites in and around Peshawar, which show that the entire valley of Peshawar and the surrounding areas of the Hindkoland regenerated itself after destruction by foreign invaders. Dr M.H Dhani[xix] has enlisted at least 10 such sites where evidence of highly developed culture going as back as 2800 B.C. has been found. He writes ‘There is one site which may provide the evidence needed to fill the gap. Shanghao cave is located not very far North of the City of Peshawar………… The cave contains 3 periods of Middle Stone Age material.

I regretfully say that this region has been neglected as far as archaeological excavation is concerned. If more excavation is carried out I am sure further layers of sites can be found where cultural development prior to a much older period than 2800 B.C. can be found.

Changes to administrative units of Hindkoland continued during Muslim and British Period and thereafter. However, it stood united linguistically.

Name of Hindkoland

The Aryans instead of adopting the local name of Hindko used the Avestan name Hindu for the land and people of the region. The early Aryan literature shows that they changed the H of Hindu and Hapt Hindu to S and pronounced them as Sindu and Sapt Sindu, respectively. Many orientalists and even some oriental scholars have claimed that the S has been changed to H. But the fact of the matter is that the change has occurred the other way round. I have historical evidence to prove my point of view, which I am going to present hereunder now.

Term Hindu wrongly used to designate Brahmanism.

It seems appropriate that a misunderstanding about the term Hindu be removed first. The term Hindu is generally associated with the religion contained in Vedas and the people who believe in that religion are often and more commonly called Hindu. The term has nothing to do with so-called Hindu religion. It simply means anything or anyone relating to Hind. Even Hindu scholars themselves object to the term being applied to their religion. Their objections and reasons for not using the term being applied to their religion are enunciated hereunder:

1. Stephen Knapp [xx] says that ‘We must remember that the term “Hindu” is not even Sanskrit. Numerous scholars say it is not found in any of the Vedic literature, so how can such a name truly represent the Vedic path or culture?

2. R.N. Survanarayan[xxi] writes:

“The name Hindu shows the confusing nature it causes for understanding the true essence of the spiritual paths of India. “The political situation of our country from centuries past, say 20-25 centuries has made it very difficult to understand the nature of this nation and its religion. The Western scholars, and historians, too, have failed to trace the true name of this Brahman land, a vast continent-like country and therefore, they have contented themselves by calling it by that meaningless term Hindu.”

3. This word, which is a foreign innovation, is not used by any of our Sanskrit writers and revered Acharyas in their works. It seems that political power was responsible for insisting upon the continuous use of the word Hindu. The word Hindu is found, of course, in Persian literature. Hindu-e-falak means ‘The black of the sky’, and ‘Saturn’. In the Arabic Language Hind, not Hindu, means nation. It is shameful and ridiculous to have read all along in history that the name Hindu was given by the Persians to the people of our country when they landed on the sacred soil of Sindhu.”

4. Maharishi Shiri Devanad[xxii] in the introduction to his book Saraswati11 says: “Another view of the source of the name Hindu is based on a derogatory meaning. It is said that, “Moreover, it is correct that this name (Hindu) has been given to the original Aryan race of the region by Muslim invaders to humiliate them. In Persian, says our author, the word mean slave, and according to Islam, all those who did not embrace Islam were termed as a slave.”

5. So, basically, Hindu is merely a continuation of a Muslim term that became popular only within the last 1300 years. In this way, we can understand that it is not a valid Sanskrit term, nor does it have anything to do with the true Vedic culture or the Vedic spiritual path.

6. No religion ever existed that was called “Hinduism” until the Indian people in general placed value on that name and accepted its use. So is it any wonder that some Indian Archaryas and Vedic organizations do not care to use the term?

7. Another Hindu scholar Pandit Mohan Lal[xxiii] in his book Ancient History of India writes that the real confusion started when the name “Hinduism” was used to indicate the religion of the Indian people. The words “Hindu” and “Hinduism” were used frequently by the British with the effect of focusing on the religious differences between the Muslims and the people who became known as “Hindus”. This was done with the rather successful intention of creating friction among the people of India. This was in accord with the British policy of divide and rule to make it easier for their continued dominion over the country

Source 

Gandhara Hindko Board