Hephthalite Principalities
Years: 557 - 670
The Hephthalites (or Ephthalites), also known as the White Huns, were a nomadic confederation in Central Asia during the late antiquity period.
Their precise origins and composition remain obscure.
According to Chinese chronicles, they were originally a tribe living to the north of the Great Wall in Dzungaria and were known as Hoa or Hoa-tun and later as Yanda or Ye-ti-i-li-do.
Elsewhere they are called the "White Huns", known to the Greeks as Ephthalite, Abdel or Avdel, to the Indians as Sveta Huna ("white Huns"), Chionite or Turushka, to the Armenians as Haital, and to the Persians and Arabs as Haytal or Hayatila.According to most specialist scholars, the spoken language of the Hephthalites was an East Iranian language but different from the Bactrian language that was utilized as the "official language" and minted on coins.By 479, the Hephthalites conquer Sogdiana and drive the Kidarites westwards, and by 493 they have capture dareas of present-day northwestern China (Dzungaria and the Tarim Basin).
By the end of the 5th century, the Hephthalites have overthrown the Indian Gupta Empire to their southeast and conquered northern and central India.
The Hephthalite Empire, at the height of its power in the first half of the 6th century, is located in the territories of present-day Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, India and China.
The stronghold of the Hephthalite power is Tokharistan on the northern slopes of the Hindukush, present-day northeastern Afghanistan.In the 6th century, the Hephthalites are defeated and driven out of India by the Indian kings Yasodharman and Narasimhagupta.They may be the eponymous ancestors of the modern Pashtun tribal union of the Abdali, the largest tribal union in Afghanistan.
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Upper South Asia (532–675 CE): Post-Gupta Fragmentation, Regional Dynasties, and Cultural Continuities
Fragmentation and Emergence of Regional Powers
The period from 532 to 675 CE was characterized by the continued political fragmentation following the decline of the Gupta Empire. In the resulting power vacuum, numerous regional dynasties emerged, each asserting autonomy over localized territories. Notable among these were the Later Guptas in Bihar, the Maukharis of Kannauj in Uttar Pradesh, and the rise of the Pushyabhuti (Vardhana) dynasty, centered in Thanesar (modern-day Haryana).
The Reign of Harsha
The most prominent figure of this era was Harsha Vardhana (606–647 CE), ruler of the Pushyabhuti dynasty. Harsha expanded his domain to cover much of North India, including regions of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Bihar, and Odisha. Harsha's reign is remembered for its administrative efficiency, patronage of arts and literature, and promotion of religious tolerance, blending Buddhist and Hindu traditions.
Flourishing of Buddhist and Hindu Cultures
Under Harsha's patronage, Buddhism experienced significant revival, exemplified by his generous support for monasteries and Buddhist learning centers like Nalanda University in Bihar. Nalanda became a renowned international center of learning, attracting scholars from across Asia, including the famous Chinese traveler and scholar, Xuanzang, who provided detailed accounts of contemporary India.
Simultaneously, Hinduism maintained its vitality, with the continuation of religious and philosophical developments initiated during the Gupta period. Hindu temples and pilgrimage sites expanded significantly, reinforcing the integration of diverse regional religious practices.
Literary and Scholarly Contributions
Harsha himself was an accomplished writer and patron of literature, famously authoring Sanskrit plays such as "Ratnavali" and "Nagananda." His court attracted prominent poets and scholars like Banabhatta, author of "Harshacharita," a detailed biographical work highlighting Harsha's rule and cultural achievements. These works significantly influenced later Indian literature.
Regional Dynasties and Cultural Vibrancy
Other regions witnessed the emergence of influential local dynasties such as the Gurjara-Pratiharas in western India, precursors to later Rajput states. In the Himalayan regions, small independent principalities in present-day Nepal, Bhutan, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Sikkim maintained distinct cultural identities and traditions, with limited yet meaningful interactions with lowland kingdoms.
Economic Stability and Trade
Despite political fragmentation, trade networks continued to flourish. Cities like Kannauj, Ujjain, and Mathura remained significant economic and cultural centers. Northern South Asia maintained active trade links with Central Asia, Persia, China, and Southeast Asia, fostering vibrant commercial and cultural exchanges.
Influence of Central Asian Groups
This period also saw intermittent incursions and influences from Central Asian groups, notably remnants of the Hunas. These incursions introduced cultural elements and occasionally disrupted regional stability, though their lasting impact was limited as indigenous cultures proved resilient.
Legacy of the Age
The age from 532 to 675 CE represented a transitional yet culturally vibrant period in Upper South Asia's history. Despite political decentralization, the era saw significant literary, religious, and economic achievements, which sustained cultural continuity and laid foundations for future regional developments.
The first and smaller of the two so-called Buddhas of Bamian is erected in central Afghanistan between 544 and 595; the larger is built between 591 and 644.
Procopius claims that the White Huns live in a prosperous territory, and that they are the only Huns with fair complexions.
According to him, they do not live as nomads, do acknowledge a single king, observe a well-regulated constitution, and behave justly towards neighboring states.
He also describes the burial of their nobles in tumuli, accompanied by their closest associates.
This practice contrasts with evidence of cremation among the Chionites in Ammianus and with remains found by excavators of the European Huns and remains in some deposits ascribed to the Chionites in Central Asia.
Scholars believe that the Hephthalites constituted a second "Hunnish" wave who entered Bactria early in the fifth century, and who seem to have driven the Kidarites into Gandhara.
Istämi, who bears the title yabghu of the western part of the Gökturk Khaganate, collaborates with the Persian Sassanids to defeat and destroy the Hephthalites, who had been allies of the defunct Rouran Khaganate.
After a series of wars in the period 503–513, the Hephthalites are driven out of Persia and completely defeated in 557 by Khosrau I.
Their polity will hereafter come under the Göktürks and subsequent Western Turkic Khaganate.
This war tightens the grip of the Gökturks’ ruling Ashina clan on the Silk Road.
Persia’s King Khosrau—called in Eastern sources Khosrow Anushirvan, “of the immortal soul,” because of his fame (called Chosroes in the West)—has conquered areas as distant as Yemen and the Caucasus, crushed the nomadic Hephthalites, and established Sassanian hegemony over present Afghanistan.
Ctesiphon, capital of the Sassanid Empire, is during this era the largest city of the world, edging past Constantinople.
The site is famous for the remains of a gigantic vaulted hall, the Taq Kisra, which is traditionally regarded as Khosrau’s palace, although Shapur I (reigned CE 241–272) also undertook work on the site.
The hall has one of the largest single-span brick arches in the world.
The so-called Spring of Khosrau Carpet made for the Ctesiphon palace, possibly the most costly and magnificent of all time, is described in the historical annals of the Muslim scholar al-Tabari.
The model for subsequent garden carpets, it is called the Spring of Khosrau because it represents, in silk, gold, silver, and jewels, the splendor of flowering spring.
It is also called the Winter Carpet because it is used in bad weather, when real gardens are unavailable.
As such, it symbolizes the king's power to command the return of the seasons.
Its design is a formalized paradise with streams, paths, rectangular plots of flowers, and flowering trees.
Water is represented by crystals, soil by gold, and fruits and flowers by precious stones.
A combination of Sassanid and proto-Turkic forces have shattered Hepthalite power in Bactria.
The First Perso-Turkic War, fought during 588-589 between the Sassanid Persians and Hephthalite principalities and its suzerain, the Göktürks, starts with the invasion of the Persian Empire by the Turks and ends with a decisive Sassanid victory and the conquest of the Eastern Turks.
Khosrau I, Shah of Sassanid Persia, had in 558 allied with the Göktürks to defeat the Hephthalites.
The campaign was successful and the region north of the Oxus had gone to the Turks and the south had come under Sassanid rule.
However, in the 580's, the Turks had once again commenced their raids on the Silk Road and in 588, the Hephthalites, who are now part of the Western Turkic Khaganate, invade the empire once more.
Bahram Chobin, descended from the House of Mihran, one of the Seven Parthian clans, is chosen to lead an army against them.
According to Shahbazi, Bahram's army consisted of twelve thousand hand picked Savaran, Persia's elite soldiers.
His army ambushes a large army of Turks and Hephthalites in April 588, at the battle of Hyrcanian rock in Herat in 589, over a large Göktürk army reported to have outnumbered his troops five to one.
Relying on the discipline and superior training of his Persian cataphract cavalry, Bahram traps and defeats the Turks.
Bahram Chobin defeats the Turks and Hephthalites again in 589, capturing Balkh.
He proceeds to cross the Oxus River and manages to repulse the Turkic Invasion and take over Hephthalite territory that had been occupied by the Turks.
It is reported that an arrow shot by Bahram killed the Eastern Turkic Khagan, Bagha Qaghan, known as Ch'u-lo-hou by the Chinese.
Smbat is first mentioned some time in the 580s, when the emperor Maurice requested the Armenian nobles to raise cavalry for service in his wars against the Avars.
Smbat and Sahak Mamikonian led a thousand-strong unit each to Constantinople, where they were richly rewarded and sent home.
Sebeos also adds that Maurice supposedly adopted Smbat at this occasion.
In 589, however, Smbat led a rebellion against the Empire, was captured and sent to Constantinople, where he was condemned to death and was thrown to be devoured by the beasts in the Hippodrome of Constantinople.
He was pardoned at the last minute by Maurice, who then banished him to some "distant islands" and later to Africa.
Smbat returned from exile some time after, and entered the service of the Sasanian shah Khosrow II, who in 595 had appointed him marzban (military governor) of Hyrcania (the southern coastlands of the Caspian Sea).
Smbat had served in this post until 602, but was initially employed in suppressing the rebellion of Vistahm in Khorasan, before being recalled to reside at the royal court in Ctesiphon.
There he had received further honors, and been appointed Lesser Minister of Finance.
In about 607 ("the eighteenth year of Khosrow's reign") he is sent back to Armenia with extensive powers as "Commander of the army of the lords of houses".
His tenure in Armenia is short but productive.
Smbat receives the honorific title Khosrow Shun ("the Joy or Satisfaction of Khosrow") in the next year, and leads a campaign around this time on behalf of Khosrow against the Hephthalites.
The Western Turks, having lost the first war against Persia thirty years earlier, seek to change their fortunes while Persia is engaged fighting the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire.
They invade eastern Persia with a large number of men, but are defeated in the first battle near the fort of Tus in Khorasan by a force of two thousand Savaran (elite heavy cavalry).
Having lost this battle, the Turks and Hephthalites request reinforcements from the Khagan.
Sebeos exaggerates that three hundred thousand troops were sent to reinforce the invading army.
This force soon overruns Khorasan, as well as the fort of Tus, with its three hundred defenders under prince Datoyan.
However, the Turks withdraw after their raids, which go as far as Isfahan.