Ancient Sindh ; A History

When we talk about the history of Sindh, on the one hand, we have the Indus Valley Civilization and on the other, we have the history of Sindh after the coming of the Arabs. The period in between is not discussed much. So, in this video, we will talk about what happened in Sindh during this period. For historians, the job of constructing the history of ancient Sindh is a tough one. Because if we leave aside some forts or Buddhist stupas, there are no monuments, inscriptions or copper plate grants that tell us the history of Sindh before the coming of the Arabs. So, the only source which we have are the literary sources. And when we are talking about the literary sources, we are basically talking about the ancient Indian literary sources. In these ancient Indian sources, the region of Lower Indus Valley, which is now called Sindh, is called Sindhu. And the river Indus is also called Sindhu in Sanskrit. And interestingly, for river, the term which is used in Sanskrit is also Sindhu. But when we are talking about one of the earliest mentions of the term Sindhu, particularly in a geographical sense, we see that it appears in Mahabharata. And in Mahabharata, the term Sindhu appears alongside the term Sauvir. And we are told that Jaidrath was the king of Sindhu and Sauvir. And these Sindhu and Sauvirs fought alongside the Kauravas against the Pandavas in the Kurukshetra war. Now, there is a great debate about where this region of Sindhu and Sauvir is located in the present Indian subcontinent. There are some scholars who have argued that the region of Sindhu and Sauvir is basically the region of today's Sindh or the Lower Indus Valley. But there are other scholars who have argued that Sindhu and Sauvir was located somewhere in what is now the region of Punjab. If you ask me, I believe that Sindhu-Sauvir was located in the region of Lower Indus Valley. Now, since we have talked about the earliest literary mention, let's discuss the earliest inscriptional reference. This we find in the inscriptions of the Achaemenid Darius I. In his inscriptions, Darius has used the term Hindush, not Sindhu. This is mainly because of the fact that in older Persian, Sa is pronounced as Ha. That is why Sindhu becomes Hindush. Scholars also believe that it was Darius who for the first time in around 517 BC established the Achaemenid rule in Lower Indus Valley. At Naxerustam, a person from the Hindush region along with a person from Gandhar is depicted in the tombs of not only Darius but the later Achaemenid kings as well. These representations are depicted as wearing loincloths and sandals. And their upper bodies are also exposed. Later when Alexander conquered the Achaemenid empire, he too travelled in this region. In classical accounts, we hear of small kingdoms that ruled this region. Arian for instance mentions the kingdom of Mosicanos and Sambos that were conquered by Alexander. A city called Patala is also mentioned and we are told that it was situated on the mouth of river Indus. About Patala, Arian writes and I quote, Alexander constructed there a port comprising of docks and anchorage and also dry docks for the repair of ships. But Alexander's rule in this region did not last long. In classical accounts, we learn that around the end of Alexander's reign, this region was under the governorship of Porus. But Porus's control over this region was also in name only. We can safely assume that this region was more or less independent. With the establishment of the Mauryan power in the Gangetic plains, we find that they also expanded westwards. Beyond Indus lay the territory of the Seleucid emperor. And we learn that around 305 BC, there was some type of conflict between Chandragupta Maurya and Seleucus Nicator. The result of this conflict was that now the Mauryan realm extended westwards beyond the Sindhu or Indus. But the Mauryan control over this region too began to unravel in just three generations. Around the end of Ashoka's reign, we find that the Mauryan control over a great portion of northwestern Indian subcontinent had weakened. And it was a Bactrian Greek who took advantage of this Mauryan decline. He was Demetrius I. Under his leadership, the Indo-Bactrians for the first time entered the Indian subcontinent. This was also the beginning of the Indo-Greek rule in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent. Demetrius I was not just credited with entering the Indian subcontinent. If we are to believe William Woodthorpe Tan, Demetrius campaigned in Sindh and he established a city and a port in this region. There are also some scholars who have argued that the Shunga territory extended as far as river Indus. They point out that in Kalidasa's Malvika Agnimitram, we are told that the grandson of Pushyamitra Shunga Vasumitra defeated a Yavana army on the banks of river Sindhu. This they argue can be used as an evidence to suggest that the Shunga empire extended as far as river Indus. But there are other scholars who have argued that since this particular text of Kalidasa was written centuries after the supposed events took place, it is also possible that these episodes of Kalidasa preserves a memory of an older conflict that took place between a Greek and an Indian force. Particularly these historians are talking about the conflict between Chandragupta Maurya and Seleucus Nicator. Because we know from classical accounts that these two forces clashed on the banks of river Indus. So there is a possibility that these episodes of Kalidasa's in Malvika Agnimitram preserves an older memory of conflict between Chandragupta Maurya and Seleucus Nicator. Now whatever the case may be, whether the Shungas really controlled this region or not, or the Greeks had control over this region, we can say that around the start of the common era, it was the Indo-Scythians or the Shukas of the Indian sources that had established their rule in the lower Indus valley. Now the rule of the Indo-Scythians also did not last long and we find that soon the Indo-Parthians had replaced them. This replacement of the Indo-Scythians by the Indo-Parthians can be observed in a western text. This is the famous Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. The text is dated to around mid first century AD and it is a guidebook of sorts for merchants that mentions ports alongside the coast of the Red Sea, Horn of Africa, Persian Gulf, Arabian Sea, and the Indian Ocean. When talking about the Indus delta, Periplus mentions a port called Berkery Cone. At present, it is nearly impossible to identify the exact location where this port was located as the coastline has changed significantly in these 2000 years. But scholars believe that it was somewhere close to Banbhor. At present, the site of Banbhor is located some 65 kilometers east of Karachi. Interestingly, this text Periplus tells us that the port of Berkery Cone was located within Scythia. Now why Periplus is identifying this region as Scythia can be explained when we look at the works of a 2nd century Greek geographer Ptolemy. In his famous book which is titled Geography, Ptolemy also talks about Berkery Cone and he mentions that the port of Berkery Cone was located in Indo-Scythia. So we can see that these Greek sources preserve the memory of the Indo-Scythian rule over this region. But by mid 1st century AD, that is the time when Periplus of the Erythraean Sea was being written, the Indo-Parthians had replaced the Indo-Scythians. This can be seen from the fact that Periplus of the Aetherian Sea tells us that this region is in the hands of Parthians who are constantly chasing each other of it. This phrase probably depicts the political situation of this region after the death of the great Indo-Parthian ruler Gondo Ferris. It was Gondo Ferris who had established the Indo-Parthian control over a large part of North India. After his death, we know from other sources that the whole Indo-Parthian territory was unstable because the various Indo-Parthian princes were fighting over each other for the control of the throne. In Scythia, probably an Indo-Parthian ruler Sepidanus ruled because we have found two silver coins from Tando Mohammed Khan which is located some 180 kilometers west of Karachi. The lucrative trade that happened through the port of Berkery Cone may have certainly a great role to play in this internecine conflict between the various Indo-Parthian princes. The result of this conflict was that no Indo-Parthians were able to successfully establish his rule over the entire territory and soon we find that in particularly the region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, western Punjab and parts of Afghanistan, it was the Kushanas under the leadership of Kajula Kadphises who were able to successfully replace the Indo-Parthian rule. In Sindh, the Kushan control was not established by Kajula Kadphises, it was established by his grandson Vima Kadphises and in this conquest of Sindh, the port of Berkery Cone was certainly the target of the Kushanas because most of the trade that happened in Berkery Cone was in luxury and exotic items like silk and precious stones. Initially, the Kushanas certainly benefited from the conquest of Lower Sindh but when the Kushanas expanded east deep into India, we see that the port of Berkery Cone experienced a gradual decline. This decline was also due to the fact that the is located in modern Broach had become the premier port for inland trade during this time. Unlike Berkery Cone where only goods were traded, the added advantage with Bharukach was that here manufacturing or industrial centres were also present. Apart from the rise of Bharukach, we see that in this period, there was a general shift in the pattern of trade towards the ports of southern India, particularly Malabar coast. Thus, the shift in the pattern of trade led to the decline of the port of Berkery Cone. But still, the lower Indus valley or the region of Sindh was strategically important, particularly for a power that had its base in Gujarat. I am here talking about western Kshatrap. The famous western Kshatrap ruler Rudradaman in his famous Junagadh inscription tells us that he is the lord of the whole of eastern and western Akaravand, the Anupra country, Anarth, Saurashtra, Swabhra, Maru, Kachchha, Sindhu-Sauveer and on Thus, based on this Rudradaman's inscription, we can clearly say that the region of Sindhu-Sauveer was the region of modern Sindh. And if we are to believe Rudradaman, the western Kshatraps around mid 2nd century AD had control over this region. In the subsequent centuries, we know very little about who controlled this region. It is only in 7th century AD, because of two sources, we know that who controlled this region. These two sources are first the writings of the famous Chinese traveller Wen Sang who visited India in the 7th century AD. The second source is the famous Chachnama. About this part of Sindh's history, we will talk in a later video. But you can watch this video where I have talked about the ancient history of Gandhar region. 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