Alchon

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Alchon (also called Alkhon ) is the name of a late antique Central Asian tribal group that was able to establish local rule in what is now Afghanistan in the Kabul region around 400 and conquered parts of northwest India in the 6th century. The name Alchon is only recorded on coins; written sources do not report them directly.

The Alchon are a group of the so-called Iranian Huns , which, however, very probably had no direct relationship with the Huns in Europe. The concept of the Iranian Huns goes back to the numismatic research of Robert Göbl . Göbl assumed four groups (based on the evaluation of the coinage): The Kidarites , the Alchon group, the Nezak group and finally the Hephthalites .

The Alchon appear to have crossed the Hindu Kush towards the end of the 4th century . They ousted the Kidarites and were able to establish local rule; still in the time of Shapur III. the Persian coinage stopped in Kabul. The mint there was apparently taken over by the Alchon; the loss was a severe blow to the Sassanids , as it was a central mint.

The details for the following period are unclear. After the middle of the 5th century, however, the Alchon apparently succeeded in ousting the Kidarites from Gandhara and also taking control there; the last Kidarite embassy to North China to the T'o-pa is recorded for the year 477. Around the middle of the 5th century, the Alchonkönig Khingila (died approx. 490) is documented by coinage. After there were conflicts with Indian rulers in the peripheral area in the late 5th century (apparently the influence of the Alchon reached as far as Taxila at this time ), the Alchon largely relocated their domain to northwestern India in the early 6th century.

Alchon coin depicting King Khingila

In recent research, the Alchon group is often equated with the attackers referred to in Indian sources as the Hunas (Huns) who advanced to northern India around 500. The problem is that the Indian sources report little differentiation and it is therefore not entirely clear which groups of the Iranian Huns these attackers were. There seems to have been a difference between the Alchon group and the "actual" Hephthalites, which Prokopios of Caesarea reported in his histories and which consolidated their rule in Bactria and Sogdia around 500 . It is partly assumed (most recently by Frantz Grenet) that these Hunas were the said hephthalites, but this is not the common doctrine. The numismatic findings, however, point quite clearly to the alchon.

The Hunas advanced into the Gupta Empire under their ruler Toramana in the early 6th century . The rule of the Guptas actually collapsed under the attacks of the Hunas , the devastation is described in detail in Indian reports. On Toramana followed (probably around 515), his son as the new ruler of the deceased to 540/50 Mihirakula . Mihirakula, who apparently was a follower of Shiva , cracked down on followers of Buddhism and is portrayed extremely negatively in the Indian sources; he is even considered the " Attila of India". However, archaeological finds show that the Hunas also founded various sanctuaries and did not act exclusively as destroyers. Mihirakula suffered some setbacks and was defeated in 528 by Yasodharman, the ruler of Malwa , and by the gupta ruler Baladitya of Magadha . Mihirakula shifted the main focus of rule to Kashmir , where the Alchon could hold out for some time. Sakala in Punjab functioned as its capital . After the subsequent collapse of the Alchon rule in India, possibly remaining parts migrated back to Bactria; this is supported by a group of Alchon-Nezak mixed coinages, which at least indicate a certain merging of the two groups. Otherwise their tracks will be lost.

Indian sources document the advance of the Hunas as far as central India. Toramana inscriptions were placed in Eran (Malwa) and Mihirakula inscriptions in Gwalior . The accounts of the Chinese pilgrim Song Yun paint a gloomy picture of Mihirakula's rule. For Indian history, the rule of the Hunas meant only a brief but brutal interlude. The destruction of the Gupta Empire in this context created a power vacuum on the Indian subcontinent. Numerous Buddhist communities perished, further groups from Central Asia advanced south and the "classical age" of India came to an end.

The Alchon documented their claim to power with coinage, especially of silver coins. They imitated Sasanian coins and apparently also used Sasanian mint dies, adding the Bactrian term alxanno . The exact meaning of the term (whether rulership or tribal name) is unclear; only in the next stage does the ruler's name Khingila appear on alkhon coins . A total of five drachma coins based on the Sasanid model are known, which were minted by the Alchon group. After their advance to India, they also minted their own coins there, following the example of the Gupta rulers.

literature

  • Michael Alram et al. a. (Ed.): The face of the stranger. The coinage of the Huns and Western Turks in Central Asia and India. Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 2016.
  • Michael Alram: Alchon and Nēzak. On the history of the Iranian Huns in Central Asia. In: La Persia e l'Asia centrale da Alessandro al X secolo. Rome 1996, pp. 517-554.
  • Michael Alram: The history of Eastern Iran from the Greek kings in Bactria and India to the Iranian Huns (250 BC-700 AD). In: Wilfried Seipel (Hrsg.): Weihrauch und Silk. Ancient cultures on the Silk Road. Vienna 1996, ISBN 3-900325-53-7 , pp. 119-140.
  • Robert Göbl: Documents on the history of the Iranian Huns in Bactria and India. 4 volumes. Wiesbaden 1967.
  • Matthias Pfisterer: Huns in India. The coins of the Kidarites and Alkhan from the Bern Historical Museum and the Jean-Pierre Righetti Collection. Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 2014.
  • Khodadad Rezakhani: ReOrienting the Sasanians. East Iran in Late Antiquity. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 2017, pp. 104ff.
  • Upendra Thakur: The Hunas in India. Varanasi 1967.
  • Klaus Vondrovec: The Anonymous Clan Chiefs. The beginning of the Alchon coinage. In: Numismatic Journal 113/114, 2005, pp. 176–191.
  • Klaus Vondrovec: Numismatic Evidence of the Alchon Huns reconsidered. In: Contributions to the prehistory and early history of Central Europe 50, 2008, pp. 25–56.

Remarks

  1. ^ Robert Göbl: Documents on the history of the Iranian Huns in Bactria and India. 4 volumes. Wiesbaden 1967.
  2. ↑ Klaus Vondrovec: The Anonymous Clan Chiefs. The beginning of the Alchon coinage. In: Numismatic Journal 113/114, 2005, p. 185.
  3. ^ Nikolaus Schindel: The Sasanian Eastern Wars in the 5th Century. The Numismatic Evidence. In: A. Panaino, A. Piras (Ed.): Proceedings of the 5th Conference of the Societas Iranologica Europaea. Volume I. Milan 2006, pp. 675-689, here p. 677.
  4. ↑ See Boris A. Litvinsky: The Hephthalite Empire. In: Boris A. Litvinsky (Ed.): The crossroads of civilizations. AD 250 to 750. Paris 1996, pp. 135ff., Here p. 141; AK Narain: Indo-Europeans in Inner Asia. In: Denis Sinor (Ed.): Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia. Cambridge 1990, pp. 151-176, here p. 172.
  5. ↑ Cf. Matthias Pfisterer: Huns in India. Vienna 2014, p. 59ff.
  6. ↑ Michael Alram: The history of Eastern Iran from the Greek kings in Bactria and India to the Iranian Huns (250 BC-700 AD). In: Wilfried Seipel (Hrsg.): Weihrauch und Silk. Ancient cultures on the Silk Road. Vienna 1996, here p. 138.
  7. ↑ Prokopios, Historien 1,3ff.
  8. ↑ Overview with Klaus Vondrovec: Die Anonymous Clanchefs. The beginning of the Alchon coinage. In: Numismatic Journal 113/114, 2005, here p. 185 and in Klaus Vondrovec: Numismatic Evidence of the Alchon Huns reconsidered. In: Contributions to the prehistory and early history of Central Europe 50, 2008, here p. 30f.
  9. ↑ On the Alchon coinage see now also Matthias Pfisterer: Huns in India. Vienna 2014, p. 29ff. (who refers to the Alkhon as Alkhan ).
  10. ↑ Cf. Matthias Pfisterer: Huns in India. Vienna 2014, pp. 145ff.
  11. ↑ Cf. Matthias Pfisterer: Huns in India. Vienna 2014, p. 160ff.
  12. ^ Robert Göbl: Documents on the history of the Iranian Huns in Bactria and India. Volume 2. Wiesbaden 1967, p. 68.
  13. ^ Cf. AH Dani, BA Litvinsky, MH Zamir Safi: Eastern Kushans, Kidarites in Gandhara and Kashmir, and Later Hephthalites. In: Boris A. Litvinsky (Ed.): The crossroads of civilizations. AD 250 to 750. Paris 1996, p. 163ff., Here p. 175; Hermann Kulke , Dietmar Rothermund : History of India. From the Indus culture to today. Updated new edition. Munich 2006, p. 122.
  14. ^ Klaus Vondrovec: Coinage of the Nezak. In: M. Alram, D. Klimburg-Salter, M. Inaba, M. Pfisterer (Eds.): Coins, Art and Chronology II. The First Millennium CE in the Indo-Iranian Borderlands. Vienna 2010, pp. 169–190, here p. 174 and p. 182ff.
  15. ↑ See Boris A. Litvinsky: The Hephthalite Empire. In: Boris A. Litvinsky (Ed.): The crossroads of civilizations. AD 250 to 750. Paris 1996, p. 135ff., Here p. 142f.
  16. ↑ Cf. in summary Hermann Kulke, Dietmar Rothermund: Geschichte Indiens. From the Indus culture to today. Updated new edition. Munich 2006, pp. 120–123.
  17. ↑ Cf. Klaus Vondrovec: Die Anonymous Clanchefs. The beginning of the Alchon coinage. In: Numismatic Journal 113/114, 2005, p. 179.
  18. ↑ Cf. Klaus Vondrovec: Die Anonymous Clanchefs. The beginning of the Alchon coinage. In: Numismatic Journal 113/114, 2005, p. 178 and p. 184.
  19. ↑ Cf. Klaus Vondrovec: Die Anonymous Clanchefs. The beginning of the Alchon coinage. In: Numismatic Journal 113/114, 2005, pp. 184f.