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EASTERN CENTRAL ASIA the Early History of Central Asia Is Gleaned

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EASTERN CENTRAL ASIA the Early History of Central Asia Is Gleaned CHAPTER FOUR EASTERN CENTRAL ASIA KASHGAR TO KHOTAN I. INTRODUCTION The early history of Central Asia is gleaned primarily from three major sources: the Chinese historical writings, usually governmental records or the diaries of the Bud­ dhist pilgrims; documents written in Kharosthl-an Indian script also adopted by the Kushans-(and some in an Iranian dialect using technical terms in Sanskrit and Prakrit) that reveal aspects of the local life; and later Muslim, Arab, Persian, and Turkish writings. 1 From these is painstakingly emerging a tentative history that pro­ vides a framework, admittedly still fragmentary, for beginning to understand this vital area and prime player between China, India, and the West during the period from the 1st to 5th century A.D. Previously, we have encountered the Hsiung-nu, particularly the northern branch, who dominated eastern Central Asia during much of the Han period (206 B.C.-220 A.D.), and the Yiieh-chih, a branch of which migrated from Kansu to northwest India and formed the powerful and influential Kushan empire of ca. lst-3rd century A.D. By ca. mid-3rd century the unified Kushan empire had ceased and the main line of kings from Kani~ka had ended. Another branch (the Eastern Kushans) ruled in Gandhara and the Indus Valley, and the northernpart of the former Kushan em­ pire came under the rule of Sasanian governors. However, after the death of the Sasanian ruler Shapur II in 379, the so-called Kidarites, named from Kidara, the founder of this "new" or Little Kushan Dynasty (known as the Little Yiieh-chih by the Chinese), appear to have unified the area north and south of the Hindu Kush between around 380-430 (likely before 410). Mter ca. 468 Sasanian inroads eroded the power of the Kidarites and by the end of the 5th to beginning of the 6th cen­ tury (rather than ca. 400 as previously thought) Hepthalite invasions from the north appear to have destroyed the Kidarite kingdom.2 1 H. W. Bailey, The Culture of the Sakas in Ancient Iranian Khotan, the columbia Lectures on Iranian Studies, No.1, Delmar (New York), 1982, p. 7. 2 During the period of Shapur I (241-271) Sasanian power in the east reached as far as Merv and EASTERN CENTRAL ASIA: KASHGAR TO KHOTAN 241 It is now considered that peoples mainly of Tokharian stock, including possibly the Yiieh-chih, dominated the northern route in eastern Central Asia and another stock-the Iranian Saka-inhabited the western parts of the southern route and the region of the Upper Ili. The states of Kashgar, Yarkand and Khotan on the south­ ern route are believed to have been of Saka origin, although this is not specifically mentioned in Chinese sources. The ancient (pre-1000 A.D.) languages of Kashgar and Tumshuk were related to those ofYarkand and Khotan, all of which belong to the Iranian family of Indo-Europeans. 3 A. History of the Region: Han-early 5th Century A.D. Chinese imperial political relations with Central Asia-the "Western Regions" of the Chinese histories-seriously began in the Former (Early or Western) Han period (206 B.C.-8 A.D.).4 Following Chang Ch'ien's first mission to Central Asia, Emperor Wu-ti (r. 141-87 B.C.) consolidated the central and western parts of Kansu ca. 121 B.C. by moving against the Hsiung-nu in that area and extending the Great Wall further than Tun-huang. Trade with Ferghana and other Central Asian states in­ creased and diplomatic missions were frequent. In order to ward off harassment by the Hsiung-nu and insure safe passage for trade, Chao P'o-nu was sent in 108 B.C. to pacify the region around Lob nor (then known as the kingdom of Lou-Ian liM) and Turfan. At this time the Yii-men gate, which came to symbolize entrance to the west and the frontier of China, was estab­ lished west of Tun-huang (Fig. 1.1a). By 101-100 B.C. Han had made a successful military conquest of Central Asia up to Ferghana in western Central Asia. In 77 B.C. Seistan. According to J. Harmatta, at this time, the western part of the Kushan empire became a vassal kingdom under the Sasanians and later a province governed by Sasanian prince-governors, who issued coins as "Kushanshahs". On the basis of coins, the following Kushano-Sasanian kings are known: Ar­ dashir I and II, Peroz I, Hormizd I, Peroz II, Hormizd II, Varahran I and II. A. H . Dani and B. A. Litvinsky, "The Kushano-Sasanian Kingdom", in HCCA, III, pp. 104-106. The earliest report of the Kidarites (who may be identified with the Chionites) dates around 350 A.D. They achieved some conquests in Sogdiana and had some short-lived alliances with Shapur II (309-379). The Kidarites, probably formed into a kingdom ca. 390-430 (before 410), apparently con­ tinued to advance into Gandhara and may have been repulsed by Skandagupta's army on the Sutlej. The kingdom probably came to an end from the Hepthalite invasion from the north. E.V. Zeimal, "The Kidarite Kingdom in Central Asia", in HCCA, III, pp. 120-124. Also see Narain (1990), p . 172. 3 Ibid., p. 173. 4 References consulted for the history of the eastern Central Asian states of the southern and cen­ tral routes include: CHC, chapter 6, Yii Ying-shih, "Han Foreign Relations", pp. 377-446; Hulsewe (1979); Bailey (198); M. Aurel Stein, Ancient Khotan, 2 vols., Oxford, 1907; M. Aurel Stein, Scrindia, 5 vols., Oxford, 1921; and Narain (1990) , pp. 377-381. .
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