Indian colonisation of Khotan

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The Kingdom of Khotan had various names reflecting its diverse heritage. Ancient Chinese called it Yutian, with variants like Yudun and Qudan, while Tibetans named it Li or Li-yul. Sanskrit texts referred to it as Godana, which evolved into Khotan. Xuanzang, a Chinese Buddhist monk, suggested the name Kustana, likely derived from the Tibetan Gosthana, meaning "land of cows," indicating its Indian origins.

Indian colonisation of Khotan (Li-yul)
Part of of Conquests of Mauryans
Date3rd century BC
Location
Li-yul (Khotan), East Turkestan
Result Mauryan victory
Territorial
changes
Belligerents
Mauryans Unknown
Commanders and leaders
Ashoka
Kunala (Kustana)		 Unknown

During the Indian colonisation of Khotan,[1][2][3] Indian colonies were established in the region, and Xuanzang linked Khotan to the legend of the prince Kunala, Ashoka's son, suggesting a forced Indian migration from Takshashila. Mauryan influence extended to Kashmir, Khotan and Turkestan, with evidence like Kharoshthi manuscripts and Stein's findings in Central Asia.

The ancient Chinese and Tibetan texts mentions the exiled Indians, including Ashoka's relatives, founded Khotan. The royal Kustana and the Vijaya or Vijita dynasties of Khotan ruled until the Uigur invasions. Indian migrants may have influenced Khotan's population. Also it is difficult to articulate but there are racial similarities between Khotanese and Indians such as sharing similar facial features.

Background

The kingdom of Khotan was given various names and transcriptions. The ancient Chinese called Khotan Yutian (于闐, its ancient pronunciation was gi̯wo-d'ien or ji̯u-d'ien)[4] also written as 于窴 and other similar-sounding names such as Yudun (于遁), Huodan (豁旦), and Qudan (屈丹). Sometimes they also used Jusadanna (瞿薩旦那), derived from Indo-Iranian Gostan and Gostana, the names of the town and region around it respectively. Others include Huanna (渙那).[5] To the Tibetans in the seventh and eighth centuries, the kingdom was called Li (or Li-yul) and the capital city Hu-ten, Hu-den, Hu-then and Yvu-then.[6][7]

The name as written by the locals changed over time; in about the third century AD, the local people wrote Khotana in Kharoṣṭhī script, and Hvatäna in the Brahmi script some time later. From this came Hvamna and Hvam in their latest texts, where Hvam kṣīra or 'the land of Khotan' was the name given. Khotan became known to the west while the –t- was still unchanged, as is frequent in early New Persian. The local people also used Gaustana (Gosthana, Gostana, Godana, Godaniya or Kustana) under the influence of Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit, and Yūttina in the ninth century, when it was allied with the Chinese kingdom of Șacū (Shazhou or Dunhuang).[6][8]

Hotan (or Khotan) and its surrounding area were originally known as Godana in ancient Sanskrit cosmological texts.[9] The Chinese transcribed the name as 于窴, pronounced Gudana in Middle Chinese (Yutian in modern Standard Chinese); the pronunciation eventually morphed into Khotan. In the 7th century, the Chinese Buddhist monk and scholar Xuanzang attempted to remedy this lexical change. Xuanzang, who was well-versed in Sanskrit, proposed that the traditional name was in fact Kustana (गौस्तन) and asserted it meant "breast of the earth". However, this was likely borrowed from the Tibetan name for the region, Gosthana, which means "land of cows". It is therefore most likely that the original name of Hotan was Sanskritic in origin, a consequence of ancient Indian settlement in the region.[10][11]

During ancient times, Indian colonies were founded in the region of Bactria and in the vicinity of the Taklamakan Desert within Chinese Central Asia, including locations like the Khotan Oasis, Kiya, Miran and etc.[12] In his narrative of Takshashila or Taxila, the pilgrim extensively recounts the legend of Prince Kunala, the eldest son of Ashoka, who, while governing the frontier province, was reputedly blinded due to the machinations of a malevolent stepmother. Hsüan-tsang, during his visit, was shown a Stupa near Shāh-ke-Dhēri, the ancient site of Takshashila, believed to commemorate this tragic event. Upon learning of his son’s fate, Ashoka purportedly executed or exiled the culpable ministers and advisors. The narrative suggests a connection to Khotan and its Indian settlement, possibly indicating a forced relocation from Takshashila to Khotan. While the tale of Kunala’s blinding may be regarded as folklore, the historical foundation of Ashoka’s son governing Takshashila lends credence to the possibility of genuine tradition regarding the forced migration to Khotan.[13][14][15][16][17]

The Takshashila Uprising

Ashoka too realized the ambitions of his son and encouraged him to fulfill it. As the Ashokavadana puts it:

"Then, understanding the ambition of the one he called his son, and realizing how he was bound by affection, the king ordered him to go on the expedition, while he himself stayed at home."

— Ashokavadana[18]

Kunala was sent by his father (Ashoka) as a viceroy of Takshashila to quell a revolt at Takshashila, in which he achieved success.[19]

Conquest and foundation of Khotan

Photograph of Aurel Stein, with his dog and research team, in the Tarim Basin

In the course of Ashoka's expansion, Indian civilization and artistic influences permeated Khotan and the neighboring regions of Chinese Turkistan, subsequently disseminating into the Far East.[20] The unearthing of evidence pointing to Indian cultural influence in distant Turkestan invokes an ancient belief documented by the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen-tsiang and echoed in Tibetan texts. According to this tradition, East Turkestan's and Khotan's territory was conquered, colonized and settled around the 2nd century B.C. by Indian migrants from Takshashila, which roughly corresponds to present-day Peshawar District and the Frontier Province. This tradition finds validation through the discovery of manuscripts in Kharoshthi script in the region, indicating the use of a Middle Indian dialect for everyday purposes. Stein's second expedition report (1906-1908) further corroborates this tradition, revealing from ruins located around 100 miles from the nearest potable water source, compelling evidence of the administrative use of the same Indian dialect reaching the farthest corners of Central Asia by the 1st century CE.[21][22][23][24]

In Tibetan literature, a long list of Indian kings is preserved. Sten Konow, the Norwegian Indologist who critically examined the different versions of the tradition concluded as follows:[25]

"Kustana, the son of Ashoka, is said to have founded the royal dynasty of Khotan. But Kustana's son Ye-u-la, who is said to have founded the capital of the kingdom is most probably identical with the king Yü-Lin mentioned in the Chinese chronicles as ruling over Khotan about the middle of the first century AD.

Ye-u-la was succeeded by his son Vijita Saṃbhava, with whom begins a long series of Khotan kings all begin with Vijita. If there is any truth in the Chinese statement that Wei-chi or Vijita was the family name of the kings, it is of interest to note that this 'Vijita' dynasty, according to the Tibetan tradition, begins where the Han annals place the foundation of the national Khotan kingdom.

Buddhism was introduced into Khotan in the fifth year of Vijita Saṃbhava. Eleven kings followed, and then came Vijita Dharma who was a powerful ruler and always engaged in war. Later, he became a Buddhist and retired to Kashgar. We know from Chinese sources that Kashgar had formerly developed great power, but it became dependent on Khotan during AD 220-264. It is then probable that this was the time of the powerful king Vijita-Dharma.

Vijita Dharma was followed on the throne by his son Vijita Siṃha, and the latter by his son Vijita-Kīrti. Vijita-Kīrti is said to have carried war into India and to have overthrown Saketa, together with king Kanika (or the king of Kanika) and the Guzan king (Guzan here evidently stands for Kushāṇa)."[25]

Kustana conquered beyond Li-yul (Khotan), quoting rgya gar chos ’byun as follows:

"The king became an adept in the magic spell of yakṣa-ratha and with this raised a four-divison army of the yakṣa-s—with horses as big as elephants and men as tall as the tāla trees, etc. He brought under his rule without bloodshed all the countries including those to the south of the Vindhya. And he conquered the northern Himalayas, the snowy ranges beyond Li-yul, the entire land of Jambudvīpa bounded by seas on east, south and west, and also fifty small islands."

— Rgya gar chos ’byun[26]
The Prakrit name Jambudīpasi (Sanskrit "Jambudvīpa") for "India" in the Sahasram Minor Rock Edict of Ashoka, circa 250 BCE (Brahmi script)[27][28]

According to the oldest detailed Chinese and Tibetan texts (including a Tibetan text which may be contemporary), which we cannot distrust, the colonizing groups of exiled Indians (including the son and ministers of Emperor Ashoka) founded the Kingdom of Khotan.[a][30][31][32][33] The establishment of Khotan is documented in various historical sources, including Hsüan-tsang account Hsi yũ chỉ, Buddhist prophecy in the Gośrńgavyākaraṇa, and the Tibetan chronicle Li-yul. Common among these accounts is the narrative of the establishment and colonization of Khotan led by Ashoka's son Kunala, later known as Kustana.[34] Kustana (Kunala) founded the Kustana dynasty in Turkestan and the first king of Li Yul, from whose name was derived the name Khoten. Kustana's son, Ye-u-la (Ye-u la–Chin) was succeeded by Vijita Sambhava (Vijaya Sambhava I), who founded the Vijita (Vijaya) dynasty, the veneration of Vaishravana (Kubera) was prevalent, and the ruling elite in Khotan traced their lineage to India, maintaining their prominence until the Uigur Turkic invasions of the eighth and ninth centuries, consequently, the term "Turkistan" during the initial seven centuries of the Common Era is considered anachronistic.[35][36][37][38]

Racial traces of Indian immigration

A settlement of migrants from the far north-western regions of India, as suggested by Khotan tradition, would likely have influenced the racial makeup of the population. However, two factors hinder our ability to discern this influence in contemporary anthropological data. Firstly, there is limited knowledge regarding the racial characteristics of the inhabitants of Taxila and its surrounding areas during the early period in question. Secondly, the numerous anthropological similarities between the Galchas and present-day Indian populations closest to Khotan, such as the Dards and Kashmiris, suggest that if the presumed immigrants resembled the latter, their integration would have had minimal impact on the prevailing Aomo Alpinus racial type predominant among the contemporary Khotanese population. Nonetheless, it is worth mentioning the occasional striking resemblance in facial features observed between the Khotanese and Kashmiris, a similarity that is challenging to articulate but noteworthy given the distinctive nature of the Kashmiri phenotype.[39]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "In the case of one Iranian settlement in Central Asia that attained great fame in the first millennium A.D., we have several versions of the circumstances attending its foundation. But despite the prominence of the Iranian inhabitants of Khotan in this period, we have no information concerning their arrival. According to the Chinese and Tibetan accounts, which there is no reason to distrust, at any rate with regard to the broad outline of their accounts, the foundation of Khotan was effected by a compromise between exiled groups of Indians on the one hand and of Chinese on the other. All four of the accounts we have connect the Indian colonizing party with the son and ministers of the emperor Aśoka. This would place the foundation of Khotan firmly in the 3rd century B.C. The four accounts we have are found in two Chinese sources and in two Tibetan sources. The earliest is the account given by the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim Hsüan-tsang in his Hsi-yū-chi, dated to the 7th century A.D. With this the account in the Tibetan text known as the Gośrṅgavyakaraṇa may be contemporary. Later are the accounts in the "Life of Hsüan-tsang" by his pupils Hui-li and Yen-ts'ung and in the Tibetan "Prophecy of the Li Country". Thus, even the earliest of them can only reflect the tradition current in Khotan in the 7th century concerning events a thousand years earlier. When Hsüan-tsang was in Khotan, the city was subservient to Chinese rule as it had lately been to that of the western Turks. Indian influence was everywhere present, and he duly recorded the use in Khotan of an Indian type of script and the large number of monasteries and adherents of the Mahāyāna."[29]

References

  1. ^ Nilakanta K. A. Sastri (November 1988). Age of the Nandas and Mauryas. Internet Archive. Motilal Banarsidass Pub. p. 319. ISBN 978-81-208-0465-4.
  2. ^ Gian Chand Mahajan (1937). New Text Book Of Indian History To 1526. p. 225.
  3. ^ Kundra, D. N. (1982). A New Textbook of History of India from the earliest times to 1526 A.D. Gur Das Kapur & Sons. p. 225. Indian colonisation of Khotan continued till the Mauryan Period.
  4. ^ Mallory, J. P.; Mair, Victor H. (2000), The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West, London: Thames & Hudson, pp. 77–81
  5. ^ Theobald, Ulrich (16 October 2011). "City-states Along the Silk Road". ChinaKnowledge.de. Retrieved 2 September 2016.
  6. ^ a b H.W. Bailey (31 October 1979). Khotanese Texts (reprint ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 1. ISBN 978-0-521-04080-8.
  7. ^ "藏文文献中"李域"(li-yul,于阗)的不同称谓". qkzz.net. Archived from the original on 29 December 2013. Retrieved 29 December 2013.
  8. ^ "神秘消失的古国（十）：于阗". 华夏地理互动社区. Archived from the original on 6 February 2008.
  9. ^ Higgins, Benjamin (November 1962). "The Philippines. Public Policy and National Economic Development. By Frank Golay. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1961. Xviii, 455. Map, Tables, Index, Bibliographic Essay". The Journal of Asian Studies. 22 (1): 114–116. doi:10.2307/2049929. JSTOR 2049929.
  10. ^ Wang, Bangwei; Sen, Tansen (2011). India and China: Interactions through Buddhism and Diplomacy: A Collection of Essays by Professor Prabodh Chandra Bagchi. Anthem Press. p. 186. ISBN 9780857288219.
  11. ^ Puri, Baij Nath (1987), Buddhism in Central Asia, Motilal Banarsidass, p. 52, ISBN 978-81-208-0372-5
  12. ^ S P Gupta, Shashi Prabha Asthana (2002). 2002 -Elements Of Indian Art Including Temple Architecture, Iconography And Iconometry. p. 79.
  13. ^ Stein, Aurel (1907). Ancient Khotan : detailed report of archaeological explorations in Chinese Turkestan. Smithsonian Libraries and Archives. Oxford : Clarendon Press. p. 164.
  14. ^ Chakravarty, Chandra. Literary history of ancient India, in relation to its racial and linguistic affiliations. Robarts - University of Toronto. p. 156. Kustana ( Kunala according to Tibetan traditions), a son of Devanampriya Maurya Asoka, founded Kustana Dynasty in Turkestan. Kustana's son Ye-u-la Chin, Yu lin Ye-u-la was succeeded by Vigita Sambhava who founded the Vigita (Vijaya) dynasty. Vijita Dharma's son was Vijita Simha, his son Vijita Kirti. A Kharosthi inscription refers to Khotanese (Khotamna) king Maharaja Rajatiraja Deva Vigita Simha. About 40 coins bearing Chinese legends on the obverse and Prakrita in Kharosthi character on the reverse have been found there.
  15. ^ D P Singhal. India And World Civilization. p. 309. ISBN 978-81-291-3092-1. According to ancient Khotanese traditions, a son of Asoka named Kustana founded the kingdom about 240 в.с., 234 years after the Nirvana, and it was Vijayasambhava, the grandson of Kustana, who introduced Buddhism into Khotan.
  16. ^ P. N. Chopra (2016). India Early History. Public Resource. New Delhi : Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India. p. 86. ISBN 978-81-230-2077-8. There was an Indian kingdom in Khotan alleged to have been founded by a son of emperor Aśoka. The names of the early kings all begin with Vijita.
  17. ^ Konow, Sten. Kharoshthi Inscriptions With The Exception Of Those Of Asoka. pp. XIV. It is true that numerous Kharoshthi documents have been found in Chinese Turkestan, notably in the eastern oases to the south of the desert, and that the only known Kharoshthi manuscript comes from the Khotan country. The alphabet is, however, everywhere used for writing an Indian language, and we should a priori be inclined to think that it was brought to Turkestan by Indian immigrants...In India, on the other hand, the use of Kharoshthi can be traced back to the third century B.C.
  18. ^ Strong, John S. (1989). The Legend of King Aśoka: A Study and Translation of the Aśokāvadāna. Motilal Banarsidass Publ. p. 271. ISBN 978-81-208-0616-0.
  19. ^ The Indian History And Bhartiya Itihas Parishad. A Comprehensive History Of India Vol. 2 By The Mauryas And Satavahanas Ed. By K. A Sastri 1957 The Indian History And Bhartiya Itihas Parishad. p. 765.
  20. ^ Smith, Vincent Arthur; Edwardes, Stephen Meredyth (1919). The Oxford history of India, from the earliest times to the end of 1911. Robarts - University of Toronto. Oxford, Clarendon Press. p. 178.
  21. ^ Sukhankar, V. s (1945). Sukhtankar Memorial Edition Vol Ii. p. 317.
  22. ^ D.R. Bhandarkar. Indian Culture Volume 5. The Indian Research Institute, Calcutta. p. 307. There are very strong reasons to believe that a large part of Central Asia, including Khotan, formed part of the Mauryan Empire, and the traditions both of Aśoka's visit to Khotan and of his son being the founder of the early dynasty of Khotan kings are historically correct. Even independent Chinese tradition corroborates the last fact. Hiuen Tsang in the accounts of his travel said that the kingdom of Khotan was jointly founded by Chinese and some Indians, who were banished by Aśoka from Takshashila, and that a son of the king of China was the first king of Khotan.
  23. ^ Thapar, Romila (1966). A history of India. Internet Archive. [Harmondsworth] Penguin Books. p. 74. Khotan in Central Asia was also supposed to have come under Mauryan sway. Tibetan sources maintain that the kingdom of Khotan was jointly founded by Indian and Chinese political exiles, and that Ashoka actually visited Khotan.
  24. ^ Thapar, Romila (1998). Aśoka and the decline of the Mauryas : with new afterword, bibliography and index. Internet Archive. Delhi ; Oxford : Oxford University Press. p. 304. ISBN 978-0-19-564445-6. A recent translation and study of the Tibetan text, the Li-yul Gyi lo rgyus, establishes that Aśoka was believed to have visited Khotan where in this version a son was born to him during the visit who was destined to rule Khotan helped by the minister of the Dharmashoka (Dharm-Ashoka , The righteous Ashoka).
  25. ^ a b Majumdar, Ramesh Chandra (1990). The History and Culture of the Indian People: the age of imperial unity. vol. [2]. Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. p. 641.
  26. ^ Taranatha's History Of Buddhism In India. p. 60.
  27. ^ Inscriptions of Asoka. New Edition by E. Hultzsch (in Sanskrit). 1925. pp. 169–171.
  28. ^ Lahiri, Nayanjot (2015). Ashoka in Ancient India. Harvard University Press. p. 37. ISBN 9780674057777.
  29. ^ William Bayne Fisher,Ehsan Yarshater, p. [1] 263.
  30. ^ Asthana, Shashi. History And Archaeology Of Indias Contacts With Other Countires. pp. 211–212. According to tradition as also Kharoshth documents of the Khotan region, the city was known as Kustana, Khodana, and Khotan. According to the Tibetan sources, it was known as Li-Yul or 'the country of Li'. Varying accounts are preserved in ancient literature about the growth of Khotan. Most of them support the theory of Indian colonization....They attribute it to a son of Aśoka...Che-Houang Ti was a contemporary of Aśoka and he established contacts with Khotan, a very important Indian colony, in Central Asia.
  31. ^ Radhakamal Mukerjee (1964). The Flowering Indian Art. Internet Archive. p. 79. The genesis of the state of Khotan is attributed to a visit of Emperor Asoka and the birth on that occasion of his son, Kustana. Kustana, after the foundation of the city of Khotan (about 224 B.C.), visited China and returned with a Chinese army and in association with an Indian minister Yasa, settled in the country. This minister seems to have come from Kashmir which had intimate intercourse with the countries beyond the Hindukush as well as with China from very early times. From Kustana the name of Khotan was derived. Kustana's grandson Vijaya Sambhava introduced Buddhism to Khotan under the inspiration of a Buddhist monk-scholar Arya Vairochana who came from Kashmir. The first Buddhist monastery was established in Khotan in 211 B.c. For 56 generations an Indian dynasty.
  32. ^ Konow, Sten. Kharoshthi Inscriptions With The Exception Of Those Of Asoka. pp. XIV. It is true that numerous Kharoshthi documents have been found in Chinese Turkestan, notably in the eastern oases to the south of the desert, and that the only known Kharoshthi manuscript comes from the Khotan country. The alphabet is, however, everywhere used for writing an Indian language, and we should a priori be inclined to think that it was brought to Turkestan by Indian immigrants...In India, on the other hand, the use of Kharoshthi can be traced back to the third century B.C.
  33. ^ D P Singhal. India And World Civilization. p. 309. ISBN 978-81-291-3092-1. According to ancient Khotanese traditions, a son of Asoka named Kustana founded the kingdom about 240 в.с., 234 years after the Nirvana, and it was Vijayasambhava, the grandson of Kustana, who introduced Buddhism into Khotan.
  34. ^ Étienne Lamotte (1988-01-01). History of Indian Buddhism: From the Origins to the Saka Era. Institut Orientaliste Louvain-la-neuve. pp. 257–258.
  35. ^ Coomaraswamy, Ananda Kentish (1965). History of Indian and Indonesian Art. Dover Publications. p. 148. ISBN 978-0-486-21436-8.
  36. ^ K. M. Munshi, R. C. Majumdar (1960). The Age of Imperial Unity (History of India). S. Ramakrishnan, Executive Secretary Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. p. 640. Kustana, the son of Aśoka, is said to have founded the royal dynasty at Khotan.....the colonisation of Khotan is connected with the well-known story of Kuņāla, son of Aśoka and viceroy of Taxila, who, disgusted with the machinations of his step-mother, left the country, went to Khotän and set himself up there as king.
  37. ^ Chakravarty, Chandra. Literary history of ancient India, in relation to its racial and linguistic affiliations. Robarts - University of Toronto. p. 156. Kustana ( Kunala according to Tibetan traditions), a son of Devanampriya Maurya Asoka, founded Kustana Dynasty in Turkestan. Kustana's son Ye-u-la Chin, Yu lin Ye-u-la was succeeded by Vigita Sambhava who founded the Vigita (Vijaya) dynasty. Vijita Dharma's son was Vijita Simha, his son Vijita Kirti. A Kharosthi inscription refers to Khotanese (Khotamna) king Maharaja Rajatiraja Deva Vigita Simha. About 40 coins bearing Chinese legends on the obverse and Prakrita in Kharosthi character on the reverse have been found there.
  38. ^ P. N. Chopra (2016). India Early History. Public Resource. New Delhi : Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India. p. 86. ISBN 978-81-230-2077-8. There was an Indian kingdom in Khotan alleged to have been founded by a son of emperor Aśoka. The names of the early kings all begin with Vijita.
  39. ^ Stein, Aurel (1907). Ancient Khotan : detailed report of archaeological explorations in Chinese Turkestan. Smithsonian Libraries and Archives. Oxford : Clarendon Press. p. 165.
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