The Rai dynasty (c. 489–632 CE) was a polity of ancient Sindh.[2] All that is known about the dynasty comes from the Chachnama; no epigraphic or archaeological or numismatic evidence corroborate the dynasty.
Rai dynasty | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 489–632 | |||||||||
Map of Sindh (Rais), c. 550–600 CE.[1] | |||||||||
| Government | Monarchy | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
• Established | 489 | ||||||||
• Disestablished | 632 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Today part of | Sindh, Pakistan | ||||||||
Nothing particular is known about the first three kings—Rai Diwaji, Rai Sahiras I, and Rai Sahasi I. The fourth king, Rai Sahiras II, is said to have ruled over a vast prosperous area, including the seaport of Debal, divided into four provinces; he was killed in an conflict with the Sassanian King of Nimroz and lost territories around Makran.
Rai Sahiras II was succeeded by Rai Sahasi II whose secretary, Chach, a Brahmin, usurped the throne after his death in connivance with Sohan Devi, the King's widow, and established the Brahmin dynasty. Sahasi II's relatives—Rai Mahrit, ruler of Chittor and Bachhera, the governor of Multan province—took on Chach, individually, but in vain.
Scholarship
editPre-Islamic Sindh, particularly the period just before the Arab conquest, has been the subject of voluminous scholarship. Under the British Raj, as colonial bureaucrats mined the Chachnama to justify their invasion of Khairpur by drawing from historical precedents, the Rai dynasty received some attention.[3] In modern scholarship, the dynasty has attracted sparse scholarship except from a few numismatists.[4]
Background
editCoinage attests to the indirect influence of the Sasanians over Sindh from the reign of Shapur II.[5][a] The last Sassanian mints discovered from the region are of Peroz I (r. 459–484); they are inscribed with the name of one "Ranaditya Satya", who is assumed to be the eponymous local ruler/governor.[5][b]
With Peroz I suffering an overwhelming defeat in his war with the Hephthalites, the Sassanians were no more a force to reckon with in their frontier territories and new dynasties arose in many of these places including Sindh and Zabulistan.[5] The Rai dynasty's origin probably laid in this power vacuum.[4]
Sources
editSindh, as a region, had no extant written histories until the late-medieval era and our sole source of knowledge about the dynasty remains Chach Nama, purportedly, a literal Persian translation (c. 13th-century) of an undated Arabic text that is no longer extant.[2][3][6] No epigraphic or archaeological or numismatic evidence, pertaining to the dynasty, exists.[6][c]
Chachnama's narrative about the Rais has since penetrated into the regional historiography in Persian—Tarikh i Sind (17th c.), Tuhfatul karaam (18th c.), etc.—and histories authored by colonial bureaucrats, especially the British Gazetteers.[6] However, some scholars view the Chachnama as an original work—that claimed to be a translation only for political expediency—and doubt the accuracy of the historical narratives contained within the text.[3][d]
Rulers
editThe Rais reigned for a period of 144 years c. 489 – 632 A.D. They allegedly had familial ties with other rulers of South Asia including Kashmir, Kabul, Rajasthan, Gujarat etc.[12] However, their origins remain unknown.[e]
Rai Diwaji, Rai Sahiras I, and Rai Sahasi I
editNothing particular is known about the first three kings; their names are mentioned in a single line in the Chachnama, where Wazir Buddhiman (lit. Learned) informs Chach about the territorial expanses and administrative structure of Rais under Rai Sahiras II.[2][13]
Rai Sahiras II
editThe Chachnama, in its opening verses, notes Rai Sahiras II to be famed for his justice and generosity; his coffers overflowed with wealth.[12] The kingdom was divided into four units, each under a governor or a vassal.[14] The southern unit extended from the coasts of the Arabian Sea to Lohana and Samona—including Nerun and Debal port—and had its capital at Brahmanabad.[14] The central unit spanned around Jankan and Rujaban to the Makran frontier; it had Sewistan as its capital.[14] The western unit extended over a vast area—Batia, Chachpur and Dehrpur—of western Sindh; Iskalanda was the capital.[14] The northern unit, adjoining Kashmir, was centred around Multan.[14]
Sahiras II met his death while attempting to ward off an invasion by the Sassanian King of Nimroz into Kirman; despite much of his forces deserting the battle, he battled until he was killed. Makran and other unknown territories were lost in the conflict.[2][14][13]
Rai Sahasi II
editUnder his regime too, the kingdom exhibited socioeconomic prosperity; Chachnama praises Sahasi II as a benevolent ruler who always chose to abide by his counsel.[13] He was married to Sohman Devi.[12]
During his regime, Chach, a poor, learned Brahmin, was inducted under minister/chamberlain Ram into the epistolary office.[12] He impressed Sahasi II with his expertise and rose through the ranks quickly, eventually becoming his secretary after Ram's death.[12][13] Meanwhile, as Chach gained access to the interiors of the palace, Devi began to grow enamoured of him and, one day, proposed to marry him.[12][13] While Chach did not consent to marriage, fearing incurring the King's wrath and also swerving further away from the scriptural ideals of a Brahminical life, he acceded to her request to provide company, and their relationship continued to blossom.[12][13]
Sahasi II, ignorant of Chach's ways, allowed him gain unprecedented control in the affairs of the state.[12]
Usurpation
editOn Sahasi II's death by natural causes, Devi proposed that Chach usurp the throne.[12] He conceded to Devi's plan, albeit unwillingly, and the news of Sahasi II's death was decided to be withheld from the public; meanwhile, she incited the familial claimants to the throne against each other in a fatal internecine warfare.[12][f] Then Devi proclaimed that Sahasi II, though recovering, could not hold court and, hence, had appointed Chach as the caretaker ruler for his lifetime.[12][13] The elites were lured into supporting the coverup, and Chach ruled as the de facto King for about six months.[13]
However, the news of the King's death had somehow made way to Sahasi II's brother—Rai Mahrit, ruler of Chittor—who claimed the throne and mounted a military offensive against Chach.[12][13] Chachnama portrays Chach as ambiguous about the morality of taking on a legitimate successor before being coaxed by Devi; he went on to secure a freak victory.[2][12][g] Chach commissioned triumphal arches to commemorate his win and held public feasts, winning over the masses.[12][13] Soon, Devi had him declared as the heir to the throne, being a man of unsurmountable intellect and bravery, and would marry him with the approval of the court.[2][12][13]
Thus, the Brahman dynasty, as portrayed in Chachnama, was established out of the intrigues of a femme fatale working in conjunction with a willing yet ethical apprentice.[2][12] Chach would subdue protracted resistance from Bachhera, a relative of Sahasi II and the erstwhile governor / vassal of Multan province, but was never dislodged.[13]
Notes
edit- ^ Abundant Sasanian mints but with significant variations —in typology, style, and especially, denomination— have been excavated from Sind.[5] Literary sources do not record Sasanian activity and details thereof in these frontier regions.
- ^ Two series of Peroz's coin (first crown and third crown) are observed in Sindh. Only in the second, does this legend appear replacing the two attendants of the fire temple![5]
- ^ Alexander M. Fishman and Ian Todd speculate a series of gold dinars and silver dammas found in the region — similar to the Ranaditya Satya mints, in deriving from Sassanian coinage but bearing different legends and different crown patterns — to have been minted by the Rais.[4] The legends might be read as Sri Shahi Rasra(…), Sri Jayataka, Sri Harsharuka, and Sri Bharharsha some of which match, albeit roughly, with speculative reconstructions obtainable from the Chachnama — Diwaj > Diwaditya > Devaditya alias Ranaditya (?), Sahiras I > Shahi Rasra(…) (?), Sahsi I > ?, Sahiras II > Sri Harsha (?), and Sahsi II > ?.[4][7] Pankaj Tandon does not find the attribution convincing.[8]
- ^ Manan Ahmed Asif, upon a critical reading of the text, hypothesizes it to be an original work that drew on then-extant histories to imagine a romantic-nationalist past of Sindh with little fidelity to accuracy. In contrast, Irfan Habib and Jaakko Hämeen-Anttila emphasizes on unique features of the text that would have been impossible without a literal translation and rejects Asif's doubts on the veracity of the events described in Chachnama,[9][10] as does André Wink criticizing his intensely source-critical approach.[11]
- ^ Chintaman Vinayak Vaidya held the Rais to be descendants of Mauryas and hence, Shudra, by caste.[6] This descent was proposed on the basis of Rai Mahrit, then ruler of Chittor claiming to be Sahasi II's brother. Rulers of pre-Sisodia Rajasthan usually claimed a descent from Mauryas and this identification went perfectly with Xuanzang's noting the King of Sin-tu to be a Sudra.
- ^ The claimants were asked to meet the frail King one by one. In reality, Devi had each of them imprisoned and claimed that the King had them imprisoned out of a quarrel with some other claimant. Thus, she suggested killing the other claimant to pacify the King and regain their freedom.
- ^ Chach challenged Mahrit to a one-on-one combat, claiming his Brahmin origins had precluded learning the skills of cavalry. However, in the combat, Chach mounted a horse and beheaded Mahrit. Mahrit's forces went into a disarray receiving the news of his death.
References
edit- ^ Schwartzberg, Joseph E. (1978). A Historical atlas of South Asia. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp. 26, 145 map XIV.1 (i). ISBN 0226742210.
- ^ a b c d e f g Wink, Andre (1996). Al Hind: The Making of the Indo-Islamic World. BRILL. pp. 133, 152–153. ISBN 90-04-09249-8.
- ^ a b c Asif 2016.
- ^ a b c d Fishman, A. M.; Todd, I. J.; Pieper, W. (2021). "Recently Discovered Gold, Silver and Copper Coins of pre-Islamic Sindh and the Yashaditya Series". Numismatische Zeitschrift. 127: 389–392.
- ^ a b c d e Schindel, Nikolaus; Alram, Michael; Daryaee, Touraj; Pendleton, Elizabeth (2016). The Parthian and Early Sasanian Empires: adaptation and expansion. Oxbow Books. pp. 126–130. ISBN 9781785702105.
- ^ a b c d Mirchandani, B. D. (1985). Glimpses of Ancient Sind: A Collection of Historical Papers. Sindh: Saraswati M. Gulrajani. pp. 25, 53–56.
- ^ Habib, Irfan (2012). "Linguistic Materials from Eighth-century Sind: An Exploration of the Chachnama". In Jafri, S.Z.H (ed.). Recording the Progress of Indian History: Symposia Papers of the Indian History Congress, 1992–2010. Delhi: Primus Books. pp. 80–81, 86.
- ^ Tandon, Pankaj (2022). "Research on the Guptas and (Iranian) Huns, 2014–2020" (PDF). In Alram, Michael; Bodzek, Jaroslaw; Bursche, Aleksander (eds.). The Survey of Numismatic Research 2014–2020. Vol. II. International Numismatic Council.
- ^ Habib, Irfan (June 2017). "Book Review: Manan Ahmad Asif, A Book of Conquest: The Chachnåma and Muslim Origins in South Asia". Studies in People's History. 4 (1): 105–109. doi:10.1177/2348448917694235. ISSN 2348-4489. S2CID 165517641.
- ^ Hämeen-Anttila, Jaakko (2018-10-02). "A Book of Conquest: The Chachnama and Muslim Origins in South Asia". Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations. 29 (4): 536–538. doi:10.1080/09596410.2018.1522158. hdl:20.500.11820/0c6e731b-6baf-4caa-a86b-d6b626bc2f1c. ISSN 0959-6410. S2CID 150269490.
- ^ Andre Wink. Review of Asif, Manan Ahmed, A Book of Conquest: The Chachnama and Muslim Origins in South Asia. H-Asia, H-Net Reviews. May, 2017.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Asif, Manan Ahmed (2016). A Book of Conquest: The Chachnama and Muslim Origins in South Asia. Harvard University Press. pp. 65, 81–82, 131–134. ISBN 9780674660113.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Baloch, N. A., ed. (1983). Fathnamah I-Sind: Being the Original Record of the Arab Conquest of The Sind. Islamabad, Pakistan: Institute of Islamic History, Culture and Civilization: Islamic University.
- ^ a b c d e f Siddiqi, Iqtidar Husain (2013). Indo-Persian Historiography Up to the Thirteenth Century. Primus Books. p. 31.