History of Punjab: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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The first known use of the word '''[[Punjab]]''' is in the book ''Tarikh-e-Sher Shah'' (1580), which mentions the construction of a fort by "Sher Khan of Punjab". The name is mentioned again in ''Ain-e-Akbari'' (part 1), written by [[Abul Fazal]], who also mentions that the territory of Punjab was divided into two provinces, [[Lahore]] and [[Multan]]. Similarly in the second volume of ''Ain-e-Akbari'', the title of a chapter includes the word ''Punjab'' in it. The [[Mughal]] King [[Jahangir]] also mentions the word ''Punjab'' in ''Tuzk-i-Janhageeri'' [Quraishee 73].

Human habitation of the Punjab, however, begins millennia before the arrival of the [[Mughal]]s. The upper basin of the [[Indus River]] and the [[Baluchistan]] Plateau hosted one of the earliest human civilizations, known as the [[Indus valley civilization]]. The earliest evidence of human settlements dates as far back as [[7000 BC]]. The [[Indus valley civilization]] grew from small village settlements to highly refined urban life. At its height, around [[3000 BC]]., it boasted the splendid cities of [[Harrapa]] (Near present Day [[Sahiwal]] in West Punjab) and [[Mohenjo Daro]] in the lower [[Indus valley]]. Archeological evidence indicates that the civilization declined rapidly after [[17th century BC|1700 BCEBC]], for reasons that are still unexplained.

==Aryan Migrations==

''Main article:'' [[Aryan invasion theory]]

Factors in the civilization's decline likely included a change in weather patterns and unsustainable urbanization (i.e., without any rural agricultural production base). Another factor is reported to be the series of small scale migrations along with raids by the [[Aryan]]s from the northwest ([[1500 BCEBC|1500]]-[[1000 BCEBC]]). The next one thousand years of the history of Punjab (or Arya-Varta, the land of Aryas, as Aryas called it) is dominated by the [[Aryan]]s and their interactions with the Natives of the Indus basin. The [[Rig-Veda]]s, some of the oldest books in human history, are thought to have been written in the Punjab. The Aryan tongue [[Sanskrit]] became a symbol of the Aryan domination of the area.

==Persian Domination==

The Punjab lay at the eastern edge of the great [[Persian Empire]], and came under their control for a time. The Persian king [[Darius I of Persia|Darius I]] ([[521 BCEBC]] - [[486 BCEBC]]) is reported to have attacked the Punjab and occupied some parts, establishing two provinces ([[satrap]]ies) in India, [[Gandara]] on the upper [[Indus]], and Hindush on the lower Indus. Punjab became the wealthiest province in the empire.

The ancient [[Greeks]] also had some knowledge of the area. Darius I appointed the Greek [[Scylax of Caryanda]] to explore the [[Indian Ocean]] from the mouth of the Indus to [[Suez]] for commercial expeditions. Scylax provided an account of his voyage in his book ''Peripulus''. [[Hecataeus]] ([[500 BC]]) and [[Herodotus]] ([[483 BC]] - [[431 BC]]) also wrote about the ''Indian Satrapy'' of the Persians. [[Alexander]]'s expeditions were documented in the works of [[Strabo]], [[Ptolemy]], [[Pliny the Elder]], [[Arrian]] and others. They described a region that had several mighty rivers and was divided into four kingdoms. In Greek maps we find the mention of the "mightiest of river of all the world", called the Indos ([[Indus River|Indus]]) and its tributaries of Hydaspes ([[Jhelum River|Jhelum]]), Akesines ([[Chenab River|Chenab]]), Hydroatis ([[Ravi River|Ravi]]), Hyphasis ([[Sutlej River|Sutlej]]) and Hesidros ([[Beas River|Beas]]).

==Alexander's Invasion and the Indo-Greek kingdoms==

After breaking the might of the Persians in [[331 BCEBC]], [[Alexander the Great]] entered their final satrapy of [[Gandhara]] in [[327 BCEBC]] with an army of 50,000. He invited all the chieftains of the satrapy to come to him and submit to his authority. [[Ambhi]], ruler of [[Taxila]], whose kingdom extended from the Indus to the Hydaspes ([[Jhelum]]), complied. Alexander confirmed him as satrap, and marched east to the Hydaspes, where [[Porus]], ruler of the kingdom between the Hydaspes and Akesines (Chenab) refused to submit to Alexander's authority and the two armies fought the historic [[Battle of the Hydaspes River]] on the riverbank outside the town of Nikaia (near the modern city of Jhelum).

Porus's army fought strongly, but was no match for Alexander's. When the defiant Raja (though wounded and haviing lost his sons) was brought before Alexander, a legendary conversation took place in which Alexander inquired of Porus, "How should I treat you?", the brave Porus shot back, "The way a king treats another king." Alexander was struck by his genius and not only returned the Kingdom to Porus, but added the land lying between Akesines and Hydraotis (Ravi), whose ruler had fled. Alexander's army crossed the Hydraotis and marched east to the Hesidros (Beas), but there his troops refused to march further east, and Alexander turned back, following the Jhelum and the Indus to the Arabian Sea, and returning to Babylon.

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As he had done in other lands that he occupied, Alexander established two cities in the Punjab, where he settled people from his multi-national armies, which included a majority of Greeks and Macedonians. These Indo-Greek cities and their associated kingdoms thrived long after Alexander's departure.

After Alexander's death, the eastern portion of his empire (from [[Syria]] to Punjab) was inherited by [[Seleucus I Nicator]], the founder of the [[Seleucid]] dynasty. However the Greek empire in the east was disrupted by the ascendancy of the [[Bactria]]ns. The Bactrian King Demetrius I added the Punjab to his Kingdom in the second[[2nd century BCEBC]]. Many of the Indo-Greeks were [[Buddhist]]s. The best known of the Indo-Greek kings was [[Menander I]], known in India as Milinda, who established an independent kingdom centered at Taxila in [[170 BCEBC]]. He later moved his capital to Sagala (modern [[Sialkot]]). Menander and his army captured territories east of his kingdom and grew to rival the power of the Bactrians. Menander died in a vain attempt to conquer Bactria in [[130 BCEBC]]. His successors ruled the Punjab until [[55 BCEBC]] when the region was disrupted by events on the wider stage of Euro-Asia.

==Sakas, Kushanas, and Hephthalites==

In the middle of the second[[2nd century BCEBC]], the [[Yuezhi]] tribe of modern China moved westward into Central Asia, which, in turn, caused the [[Saka]]s (Scythians) to move west and south. The Northern Sakas, also known as the [[Indo-Scythian]]s, moved first into Bactria, and later crossed the [[Hindu Kush]] into India, successfully wresting power from the Indo-Greeks. They were followed by the Yuezhi, who were known in India as the [[Kushan]]s or Kushanas. The Kushans founded a kingdom in the first century that lasted for several centuries. Both the Indo-Scythians and the Kushans embraced Buddhism, and absorbed elements of Indo-Greek art and culture into their own. Another Central Asiatic people to make Punjab their home were the [[Hephthalite]]s (White Huns), who engaged in continuous campaigns from across the Hindu Kush, finally establishing their rule in India in the fifth[[5th century]].

==Muslim invasions and the Shahi Kingdom==

Following the birth of [[Islam]] in [[Arabia]] in [[6th century]], the [[Muslim]]s rose to power, replacing [[Persia]] as the major power to the west of India. In [[711]]-[[713|13]] Muslim armies conquered [[Sind]] and advanced into the southern Punjab, occupying [[Multan]]. Multan became a center of the [[Ismaili]] sect of Islam. The northern Punjab was divided into small Hindu kingdoms.

The Hindu [[Shahi]] dynasty ruled much of the Punjab, as well as western Afghanistan, from the mid-ninth to the early eleventh centuries. The Shahi Kingdom was originally based in [[Kabul]], and later spread across the Punjab. Kabul was lost to [[Turkic]] Muslims in the tenth century, and the Shahi capital shifted to [[Ohind]], near [[Attock]].

In [[977]], the Turkic ruler [[Sabuktigin]] acceded to the throne of the small kingdom of [[Ghazni]] in central Afghanistan. In the 980's[[980s]], Subuktigin conquered the Shahis, extending his rule from the [[Khyber Pass]], to the Indus. After his death in [[997]], his son [[Mahmud of Ghazni|Mahmud]] assumed power in Ghazni. He expanded his father's kingdom far to the west and east through military conquest. He attacked the Punjab and northern India seventeen times during his reign, conquering the Shahi kingdom and extending his rule across the Punjab as far as the upper [[Yamuna]]. Mahmud demolished Hindu temples wherever his campaigns took him, and he also attacked the Ismailis, whom he viewed as heretics.

Mahmud's successors, known as the [[Ghaznavid]]s, ruled for 157 years. Their kingdom gradually shrank in size, and was racked by bitter succession struggles. The Ghaznavids lost the western part of their kingdom (Persia) to the expanding [[Seljuk]] Turks. The [[Rajput]] kingdoms of western India reconquered the eastern Punjab and by the 1160's line of demarcation between the Ghaznavids and the Hindu kingdoms was extended to the present-day India-Pakistan boundary. The [[Ghorid]]s of central Afghanistan occupied Ghazni around 1150. [[Muhammad Ghori]] conquered the Ghaznavid kingdom, occupying [[Lahore]] in [[1186]]-[[1187|7]], and later extending his kingdom past [[Delhi]] into the [[Ganges]]-Yamuna [[Doab]].