Khingala
The supreme lord, the great King, the King of Kings, the Majestic Sovereign
Name and titles of Khingala (Khimgaala, Sharada script khiṃ-gā-la) in the Gardez Ganesha inscription, in proto-Sharada script:[1]
Mahārājadhirāja
śrī ṣāhi Khiṃgālau
"The great king, the king of kings
Sri Shahi Khimgala"[2]
Turk Shahi King
Reigncirca 775-785 CE
PredecessorPossibly Bo Fuzhun
SuccessorPossibly Langaturman
Khingala is located in West and Central Asia
TURK
SHAHIS
Approximate location of the Turk Shahis

Khingala,[3] also transliterated Khinkhil, Khinjil or Khinjal, (Sharada script: Khimgaala, Sharada script khiṃ-gā-la, ruled circa 775-785 CE) was a ruler of the Turk Shahis. He is only known in name from the accounts of the Muslim historian Ya'qubi and from an epigraphical source, the Gardez Ganesha. The identification of his coinage remains conjectural.

Arabic accounts

The Muslim historian Ya'qubi (died 897/8) in his Ta'rikh ("History"), recounts that the third Abbasid Caliph Al-Mahdi (ruled 775-785 CE) asked for, and apparently obtained, the submission of various Central Asian rulers, including that of the Kabul Shah.[4] Al-yaqubi seems to give the name of the Kabul Shah as "Ḥanḥal", but the reading is uncertain.[5][6] But a later handwritten copy of the book is known to transcribe the name as "Khanjal".[6] The original account by Ya'qubi reads:

Al-Mahdī sent messengers to the kings, calling on them to submit, and most of them submitted to him. Among them were the king of Kābul Shāh, whose name was Ḥanḥal; the king of Ṭabaristān, the Iṣbahbadh; the king of Soghdia, the Ikhshīd; the king of Tukhāristān, Sharwin; the king of Bamiyan, the Shīr; the king of Farghana, ------ ; the king of Usrūshana, Afshīn; the king of the Kharlukhiyya, Jabghūya; the king of Sijistān, Zunbīl; the king of Turks, Tarkhan; the king of Tibet, Ḥ-h-w-r-n; the king of Sind, al-Rāy; the king of China, Baghbür; the king of India and Atrāḥ, Wahūfūr; and the king of the Tughuz-ghuz, Khāqān.

— Ya'qubi (died 897/8), Ta'rikh ("History")[5][7]

The name "Khanjal" has been variously reconstructed as "Khinkhil", "Khinjil" or "Khinjal", and is very similar to the name of an earlier Alchon Hun ruler named Khingila (5th century CE).[6][8] According to historian Rezakhani, the name mentioned by Ya'qubi is "obviously a namesake" of Khingila.[9]

Epigraphy

Main article: Gardez Ganesha
The Gardez Ganesha from Gardez, Afghanistan, was dedicated by Khiṃgāla.

The Gardez Ganesha is a statue of the Hindu god Ganesha, discovered in Gardez, near Kabul in Afghanistan. It is considered as "a typical product of the Indo-Afghan school".[10] A dedicatory inscription appears on the base of the statue. It is written in the Siddhamatrika script, a development of the Brahmi script.[11] An analysis of the writing suggests a date from the 6th or 8th century CE.[12]

1. sarṃvatsare aṣṭatame saṃ 8 jyeṣṭha-māsa-śukla-pakṣa-tithau ttrayodaśyāṃ śu di 10-3 rikṣe viśākhe śubhe siṃhe[citra-]
2. [-ke] mahat pratiṣṭhāpitam idaṃ māha-vināyaka paramabhaṭṭeraka mahārājādhirāja-śri-ṣāhi-khiṃgālauḍyāna-ṣāhi-pādaiḥ.

On the thirteenth day of the bright half of the month of yestha, the [lunar] mansion being the Visakha, at the auspicious time when the zodiacal sign Lion was bright on the horizon (lagna), in the year eight, this great [image] of the Mahavinayaka was consecrated by the supreme lord, the great king, the king of the kings, the Sri Shahi Khiṃgāla, the king of Odyana..

— Inscription of the Ganesh Ganesha (Translation: Hideaki Nakatani).[13][10][11]

The identity of this Khingala is uncertain.[10] A famous Khingila is known from the dynasty of the Alchon Huns, and one of his coins has the legend "Deva Shahi Khingila" ( "God-King Khingila"), but he is dated quite earlier, to the 5th century CE.[10]

Given the stylistically probable mid-8th century date for the Ganesha, the Śrī Ṣāhi Khiṃgāla of the inscription may have been identical with the Turk Shahi ruler of Kabul known in Arab sources as Khinkhil or Khinjil, who, according to Ya'qubi, gave his submission to Al-Mahdi in 775-785.[4]

Relation with Bo Fuzhun

Turk Shahi rulers
665-822 CE Turk Shahi tamgha
Barha Tegin(665–680 CE)
Tegin Shah(680–739 CE)
Fromo Kesaro(739–745 CE)
Bo Fuzhun (745–? CE)
Khingala(780–785 CE)
Pati Dumi (?–815 CE)
Lagaturman(815–822 CE)

There is a possibility that the Khinkhil of the Arabs is identical with the Turk Shahi Bo Fuzhun (勃匐準) of the Chinese sources, which mention that he was the son of Fromo Kesaro and acceded to the throne precisely in 745 CE.[4][14][15][16][17]

References

  1. ^ Khan, M. Nasim (1 January 1999). "A Proto-Sharada Inscription from Hund - Pakistan". Indo-Koko-Kenkyu (20): 81–82.
  2. ^ Kuwayama, Shoshin (1999). "Historical Notes on Kapisi and Kabul in the Sixth-Eighth Centuries" (PDF). ZINBUN. 34: 71.
  3. ^ Alram, Michael (1 February 2021). Sasanian Iran in the Context of Late Antiquity: The Bahari Lecture Series at the University of Oxford. BRILL. p. 19. ISBN 978-90-04-46066-9.
  4. ^ a b c Kuwayama, Shoshin (1999). "Historical Notes on Kapisi and Kabul in the Sixth-Eighth Centuries" (PDF). ZINBUN. 34: 44.
  5. ^ a b Gordon, Mathew S. and al. (2018). The Works Of Ibn Wāḍiḥ Al Yaʿqūbī. Brill. pp. 1138–1139, note 2959. ISBN 9789004364165.
  6. ^ a b c Habibi, Abdul Hai (1971). "Afghanistan at the end of the Koshan period". Afghanistan Magazine. 1971 (4): 51–56, reproduced in the Kabul Times. Retrieved 29 November 2021.
  7. ^ Rahman, A. (2002). "New Light on the Khingal, Turk and the Hindu Sahis" (PDF). Ancient Pakistan: 41.
  8. ^ Rahman, A. (2002). "New Light on the Khingal, Turk and the Hindu Sahis" (PDF). Ancient Pakistan.
  9. ^ Rezakhani, Khodadad (15 March 2017). ReOrienting the Sasanians: East Iran in Late Antiquity. Edinburgh University Press. p. 109, note 9. ISBN 978-1-4744-0030-5.
  10. ^ a b c d Dhavalikar, M. K. (1971). "A Note on Two Gaṇeśa Statues from Afghanistan" (PDF). East and West. 21 (3/4): 331–336. ISSN 0012-8376. JSTOR 29755703.
  11. ^ a b Sircar, D.C. (1966). Epigraphia-indica 35. Archeological Survey of India. pp. 44–60.
  12. ^ KUWAYAMA, Shoshin (1999). "Historical Notes on Kapisa and Kabul in the Sixth-Eighth Centuries" (PDF). ZINBUN. 34: 69-72.
  13. ^ KUWAYAMA, Shoshin (1999). "Historical Notes on Kapisa and Kabul in the Sixth-Eighth Centuries" (PDF). ZINBUN. 34: 71.
  14. ^ "The Countenance of the other (The Coins of the Huns and Western Turks in Central Asia and India) 2012-2013 exhibit: 15. The Rutbils of Zabulistan and the "Emperor of Rome"". Pro.geo.univie.ac.at. Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna. Archived from the original on August 2, 2017. Retrieved July 22, 2017.
  15. ^ Inaba, Minoru. "From Kesar the Kābulšāh and Central Asia": 446. ((cite journal)): Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  16. ^ 天寶四年,又冊其子勃匐準為襲罽賓及烏萇國王,仍授左驍衞將軍。"Kesar's son Bo Fuzhun succeed him on the throne as the king of Jibin and Oddiyana. He was conferred the title General of the Left Stalwart Guard" in Balogh, Dániel (12 March 2020). Hunnic Peoples in Central and South Asia: Sources for their Origin and History. Barkhuis. p. 104. ISBN 978-94-93194-01-4.
  17. ^ Rezakhani, Khodadad (15 March 2017). ReOrienting the Sasanians: East Iran in Late Antiquity. Edinburgh University Press. p. 171. ISBN 978-1-4744-0031-2.

Notes

Sources

Preceded byPossiblyBo Fuzhun Turk Shahis 665-680 CE Succeeded byPossiblyLangaturman
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