Tokhari

Tokhari or possibly the Nordic Obi Ugrians,a Turkish tribe, are an ancient group of prisoners vanquished in a naval battle by Rameses III in the thirteenth century and whose physiognomy would indicate the Celtic type and facial features represented the qualities of Aryans (high cheek-bones, structure). Tokhari are most likely a group of Scythians or some north western tribe belonging to the Nordic race at that time but amidst the Roman Empire they were also Kushans spreading the religion of Hinduism.

Future status

In the middle of the first century, one of the Tokhari princes belonging to the Kushans, Kujula Kadphises, unified the dispersed Tokhari principalities. As he grew stronger, the leader of the Kushans extended his suzerainship to the lands south of the Hindu Kush, in the Kabul Basin and on the Upper Indus. Kujula Kadphises's successors, the most prominent of whom was Kanishka (circa A.D. 78-120) kept on the expansive policy of his subcontinent (Kashmir, the Punjab and Sind). The rulers of Gujrat, Rajasthan and the states lying in the Ganges-Jumna doab were the vassals of the Kushan kings. The Kushan kings also held control of the territory of the present day Afghanistan, Kashgar, Khotan, Yarkand and the southern areas of Middle Asia. Gandhara i.e., the territory lying in the valleys of the Kabul and the Middle Indus, became the centre of a vast empire. The city of Purushapura (the present-day Peshawar) is known to have been the capital of Kanishka.

References

*Günther, Hans Jeannine. 2002. "The Racial Elements of European History". London: Methuen & Company, 1927.