Hindu and Buddhist heritage of Pakistan

While Pakistan as an Islamic country was created in 1947 it has a rich Hindu and Buddhist past, the region has a long history of settlement and civilisation including the Indus Valley Civilisation. A brief Historical background of the region is an important backdrop to appreciate the non-Muslim religious, cultural and architectural heritage of the region .

The Indus Valley civilisation collapsed in the middle of the second millennium BCE and was followed by the Vedic Civilisation, which extended over much of northern India and Pakistan .

The Indus Valley Civilization (c. 3300 – 1300 BC, flowered 2600 – 1900 BC) was a civilization thriving along the Indus River and the Ghaggar-Hakra River in what is now Pakistan and north-western India. Among other names for this civilization is the Harappan Civilization, in reference to its first excavated city of Harappa.

The Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) was discovered in the 1920s and is known only from archaeological excavations, except, possibly, for Sumerian references to "Meluhha", which has been proposed to correspond to the IVC.

An alternative term for the culture is Saraswati-Sindhu Civilization, based on the popular identification of the Ghaggar-Hakra River with the Sarasvati River. “…Suddenly it became apparent that the “Indus” Civilization was a misnomer – although the Indus had played a major role in the development of the civilization, the “lost Saraswati” River, judging by the density of settlement along its banks, had contributed an equal or greater part to its prosperity. Many people today refer to this early state as the “Indus-Saraswati Civilization” and continuing references to the “Indus Civilization” should be seen as an abbreviation in which the “Saraswati” is implied.”

[
right|thumb|380px|Conception_of_ancient_Harappahttp://www.harappa.com/3D/7.html] ] Harappa (Urdu: ہڑپا) is a city in Punjab, northeast Pakistan, located beside a former course of the Ravi River; about 35km (22 miles) southwest of Sahiwal.

Vedic period

The time period in the history of India known as the Vedic period or Vedic age is the period of the composition of the sacred texts called Vedas and other such texts in Vedic Sanskrit. The associated culture sometimes referred to as Vedic civilization was centered on the Punjab (modern Pakistan) and the Gangetic plain (modern India). Scholarship places the Vedic period into the 2nd and 1st millennia BCE, continuing up to the 6th century BCE when it began to be transformed into classical forms of Hinduism. Early medieval Hindu authors [e.g. Aryabhata (5th c.)Fact|date=February 2007] suggest dates as early as the 4th millennium BCE.

Its early phase saw the formation of various kingdoms of ancient India. In its late phase (from ca. 700 BCE), it saw the rise of the Mahajanapadas, and was succeeded by the golden age of Hinduism and classical Sanskrit literature, the Maurya Empire (from ca. 320 BCE) and the Middle kingdoms of India.

Gandhāra (Sanskrit गन्धार, Persian Gandara, Waihind) (Urdu: گندھارا) is the name of an ancient Indian Mahajanapada, currently in northern Pakistan (the North-West Frontier Province and parts of northern Punjab and Kashmir) and eastern Afghanistan. Gandhara was located mainly in the vale of Peshawar, the Potohar plateau (see Taxila) and on the northern side of the Kabul River. Its main cities were Peshawar and Taxila. [http://concise.britannica.com/ebc/article-9035986/Gandhara]

The Kingdom of Gandhara lasted from the 6th century BC to the 11th century AD. It attained its height from the 1st century to the 5th century AD under Buddhist Kushan Kings. After it was conquered by Mahmood of Ghazni in 1021 AD, the name Gandhara disappeared. During the Muslim period the area was administered from Lahore or from Kabul. During Mughal time the area was part of Kabul province.

History of Sindh

Sindh has been known by various names in the past, the name Sindh comes from the Indo-Aryans whose legends claimed that the Indus River flowed from the mouth of a lion or "Sinh-ka-bab". In Sanskrit, the province was dubbed "Sindhu" meaning an ocean. The Assyrians (as early as the seventh century BCE) knew the region as Sinda, the Persians Abisind, the Greeks Sinthus, the Romans Sindus, the Chinese Sintow, while the Arabs dubbed it Sind.

In ancient times, the territory of the modern Sindh province was sometimes known as Sovira (or Souveera) and also as Sindhudesh, Sindhu being the original name for Indus river and the suffix 'desh' roughly corresponding to country or territory.

The first known village settlements date as far back as 7000 BCE. Permanent settlements at Mehrgarh to the west expanded into Sindh. The original inhabitants of ancient Sindh, and other regions of Pakistan, were the aborigine tribes speaking languages related to Munda languages. The Dravidians invaded from the Iranian plateau and settled in the Indus valley around 4000 BCE. The Dravidian culture blossomed over the centuries and gave rise to the Indus Valley Civilization of Pakistan around 3000 BCE. The Indus Valley Civilization rivalled the contemporary civilizations of Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia in both size and scope numbering nearly half a million inhabitants at its height with well-planned grid cities and sewer systems. Speculation remains as to how and why the civilization declined and may have been a combination of natural disasters such as flooding and internecine conflicts. The Indus Valley Civilization spanned much of what is today Pakistan, but suddenly went into decline just prior to the invasion of Indo-Iranians. A branch of these tribes called the Indo-Aryans are believed to have founded the Vedic Civilization that have existed between Sarasvati River and Ganges river around 1500 BCE and also influenced Indus Valley Civilization. This civilization helped shape subsequent cultures in South Asia.

Sindh was conquered by the Persian Achaemenid Empire in the 6th century BCE, and became part of the Persian satrapy (province) of Hindush centred in the Punjab to the north. Persian speech had a tendency to replace 'S' with an 'H' resulting in 'Sindu' being pronounced and written as 'Hindu'. They introduced the Kharoshti script and links to the west in the region. Subsequently conquered by Greeks led by Alexander the Great, the region came under loose Greek control for a few decades until Alexander's death and brief Seleucid rule and then was conquered by the Mauryans led by Chandragupta in 305 BCE. Later, during the reign of the Buddhist king Ashoka the region would solidly become a Buddhist domain. Following a century of Mauryan rule which ended by 232 BCE, the region came under the Greco-Bactrians based in what is today Afghanistan and these rulers would also convert to and proliferate Buddhism in the region. The Scythians shattered the Greco-Bactrians fledgling empire and then the Tocharian Kushan Empire annexed Sindh by the 1st century CE. The Kushans were tolerant of the local Buddhist tradition and sponsored many building projects for local beliefs. The Huns and remnants of the Kushans, Scythians, and the Sassanids all exercised some degree of control in Sindh until the coming of the Muslim Arabs in 711.

The Buddhist city of Siraj-ji-Takri is located along the western limestone terraces of the Rohri Hills in the Khairpur district of Upper Sindh, along the road that leads to Sorah. Its ruins are still visible on the top of three different mesas, in the form of stone and mud-brick walls and small mounds, whilst other architectural remains were observed along the slopes of the hills in the 1980’s. This city is not mentioned from any text dealing with the history of the Buddhist period of Sindh.

Medieval era

Conquered by Syrian Arabs led by Muhammad bin Qasim, Sindh became the easternmost province of the Umayyad Caliphate. The Arab province of "Sindh" is modern Pakistan. While the lands of modern India further east were known to the Arabs as "Hind". The ruler of Sindh at the time was Dahir . The Arabs redefined the region and adopted the term "budd" to refer to the numerous Buddhist idols they encountered, a word that remains in use today. The city of Mansura was established as a regional capital and Arab rule lasted for nearly 3 centuries and a fusion of cultures produced much of what is today modern Sindhi society. Arab geographers, historians and travellers also sometimes called the entire area from the Arabian Sea to the Hindu Kush, Sindh. The meaning of the word Sindhu being water (or ocean) appears to refer to the Indus river. In addition, there is a mythological belief among Muslims that four rivers had sprung from Heaven: Neel (Nile), Furat (Euphrates), Jehoon (Jaxartes) and Sehoon (Sind or in modern times the Indus).

Arab rule ended with the ascension of the Soomro dynasty, who were local Sindhi Muslims and who controlled the province directly and as vassals from 1058 to 1249. Turkic invaders conquered the area by 977 CE and the region loosely became part of the Ghaznavid Empire and then the Delhi Sultanate which lasted until 1524. The Mughals seized the region and their rule lasted for another two centuries, while another local Sindhi Muslim group the Samma challenged Mughal rule from their base at Thatta. Sindh, though part of larger empires, continued to enjoy certain autonomy as a loyal Muslim domain and came under the rule of the Arghun Dynasty and Turkhan or Tarkhan dynasty from 1519 to 1625. Sind became a vassal-state of the Afghan Durrani Empire by 1747. It was then ruled by Kalhora rulers and later the Baluchi Talpurs [http://www.talpurs.com Unofficial website on the Talpurs] , retrieved 2006-03-04] from 1783.

Punjab

The Punjabis were predominantly Hindu with minorities of Buddhists like the rest of South Asia, when Umayyad Muslim Arab army led by Muhammad bin Qasim attacked Sindh and lower Punjab, in 713. This started the process of Islamic conversion among the population of Punjab, as well as India, facilitated by the activities of Sufi missionaries. This process continued for the next 10 centuries however a very significant proportion of the population continued to be non-Muslim including Hindus and later Sikhs .

Classic Cities of the Punjab Region

* Peshawar(Purushapur), North West Frontier Province: Capital of Kanishka, the Kushan ruler and the site of the tallest stupa in Jambudvipa.
* Kandahar, Afghanistan: capital of the ancient kingdom of Gandhara. In the Mahabharata, its ruler was the evil and scheming Sakuni, brother of Gandhari, wife of Dhritarashtra and mother of the Kauravas.
* Pushkalavati (Charsadda), North West Frontier Province: Founded by a son of Bharata, brother of Sri Rama, according to the Ramayana
* Takshashila (Taxila), Punjab(Pakistan): Also founded by a son of Bharata.
* Multan(Mulasthan), Punjab(Pakistan): Pilgrimage site of the legendary Sun temple.
* Rawalpindi, Punjab(Pakistan): city named after the Rawal jogis who settled in the area.
* Sialkot, Punjab(Pakistan): city founded by Sul (Shalya), emperor of Madradesa and brother of Madri, second wife of emperor Pandu and mother to Nakul and Sahadeva
* Kasur, Punjab(Pakistan): city founded by Kusha, son of Sri Rama according to the Bichitra Natak written by Guru Gobind Singh.Currently dominated by Meo Rajputs.
* Lahore,Punjab(Pakistan): city founded by Lava(Loh), son of Sri Rama according to the Bichitra Natak.
* Katasraj temple, Punjab(Pakistan): Classic temple complex in the Chakwal district, site of the 'enchanted pool' episode in the Mahabharata, where Yudhishtira is tested by his father Lord Yama/Dharma.
* Gujrat is an ancient city in Punjab (Pakistan) which was founded by Raja Bachhan Pal in 460 BC,

Festivals

Basant

North-West Frontier Province

Since ancient times the NWFP region has been invaded by numerous groups including the Persians, Greeks, Scythians, Kushans, Huns, Arabs, Turks, Mongols, Mughals, Sikhs, and the British. Between 2000 and 1500 BC Aryans split off into an Iranian branch, represented by the Pakhtuns who dominated most of the region, and various Dardic peoples which came to populate much of the north.

The Vale of Peshawar was home to the Kingdom of Gandhara starting around the 6th century BC and later ancient Peshawar became a capital of the Kushan Empire. The region was visited by such notable historical figures as Darius II, Alexander the Great, Marco Polo, Mountstuart Elphinstone, and Winston Churchill among others.

The region was, in ancient times, a major centre of Buddhism as attested by recent archaeological and hermeneutic evidence. Kanishka, a prominent Kushan ruler was one of the prominent Buddhist kings.

"The region of Gandhara has long been known as a major centre of Buddhist art and culture around the beginning of the Christian era. But until recently, the Buddhist literature of this region was almost entirely lost. Now, within the last decade, a large corpus of Gandharan manuscripts dating from as early as the 1st century A.D. has come to light and is being studied and published by scholars at the University of Washington. These scrolls, written on birch-bark in the Gandharan language and the Kharosthi script, are the oldest surviving Buddhist literature, which has hitherto been known to us only from later and modern Buddhist canons. They also institute a missing link between original South Asian Buddhism and the Buddhism of East Asia, which was exported primarily from Gandhara along the Silk Roads through Central Asia and thence to China".:Lecture: " Rediscovering the lost Buddhist literature of Gandhara" by Prof. Richard Salomon, University of Washington, Seattle at Stanford University (2005)

The Hindu Shahi Kings

Up until the advent of Islam, portions of eastern Afghanistan were ruled by the Hindu Shahi kings. When Hsüan-tsang visited the region early in the 7th century CE, the Kabul valley region was ruled by a Hindu Kshatriya king, who is identified as the Shahi Khingal, and whose name has been found in an inscription found in Gardez.

The Hindu Shahi kings of Kabul and Gandhara may have had links to some ruling families in neighboring Kashmir and other areas to the east. The Shahis, though Hindu, were rulers of a predominantly Buddhist and Zoroastrian population and were thus patrons of numerous faiths, and various artifacts and coins from their rule have been found that display their multicultural domain. The Last Shahi rulers Jayapal, Anandapal and Trilochanpal fought invading Muslim Turks from Central Asia and were gradually defeated. They then retreated to the Punjab

ee also

* Indus Valley Civilization
* Gandhara
* History of Sindh
* Punjab (Pakistan)
* Hinduism in Punjab
* North-West Frontier Province
* Shahi
* List of Khatri last names
* Muslim Rajputs
* Rajput
* History of Buddhism in India
* [http://mairrajputs.tripod.com/gothras.html Gothras of the Mair Rajputs]
* [http://www.khyber.org/pashtohistory/hindurajputs.shtml Are the Pathans Hindu Rajputs ?]
* Buddhism and Hinduism
* [http://www.berzinarchives.com/islam/history afghanistan buddhism.html Historical Sketch of Buddhism and Islam in Afghanistan]
* [http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/arth/meister/pakistan.html Salt Range Temples, Pakistan]
* List of Pakistani family names
* Sauvira Kingdom
* Sindhu Kingdom
* Sillanwali
* Rai Dynasty
* Negationism in India - Concealing the Record of Islam
* The History of India, as Told by Its Own Historians. The Muhammadan Period (Book)
* History of Pakistan

Places in Pakistan with Hindu and Sikh Populations before 1947

References