e March of Time
Every rock, every hill has its story.
re this crossroad of the East and West became prominent in Western annals through the work of the Greek geographer andof Miletus writing in 500 B.C., the historian Herodotus (485 B.C-425 B.C.), and the campaigns of Alexander, a long history of ciamongst the ageless contours of theThat man roamed these parts since Palaeolithic times has been confirmed by evidence scattered aProvince. In the Sanghao cave, Mardan, early Stone Age implements, flakes, core tools, blade flahammer tools and scrapers of various shapes with a sharpened edge for scraping materials such awood have been discovered. Similarly in Lewan, Bannu district, core tools, blade flakes, end scrapetools, hand-axes, knife blades of hard stone give evidence of a culture that thrived between 3,500 BB.C. Remains from the later Stone Age or Neolithic period, when animals were first domesticagriculture introduced, have been found at Jhandi Balar in the Dera Ismail Khan district. Theseterracotta toys, human and animal figures, painted pottery shards and beads.Apart from the pre-historic sites, the Province was home to the developed, Harappan culture (2,700 BB.C.) which was not a natural continuum of the earlier settlements but comparable in urbaniMesopotamia and Egypt. Pottery decorated with fish motifs, geometric designs and horizontal barfigures and animal shapes have been found at Rehman Dheri, Dera Ismail Khan. These link it to tknown sites of Moenjo Daro in Sindh and Harappa in Punjab. The spread of the Indus Valley Civilthese more northerly areas brought with it the same repertoire of subjects and symbols: female figelaborate headdresses, mothers holding babies (a subject that was to find its finest expression inRenaissance painting and sculpture), snake goddesses, humped bulls, dogs, bird-toys, toy carts andengraved with animal and insect symbols. The Rehman Dheri site shows that the Indus Valley Ctradition of square seals that matured with its climax. One Rehman Dheri seal depicts two mountain-goats and another two scorpie seals point to trade connexions with Mesopotamia. Remains from the mature Harappan period discovered at Maru, Dera Ismail Khated ware, bangles, jewellery, buttons, gems, cornelian beads and shell ladles.
semi-nomadic people of Central Asia, whose main occupation was cattle-raising, came to South Asia betweent ,800 B.C.- t ,200ong the Indus. Their legends are incorporated in
Mahabharata,
an ancient Sanskrit epic, reflective of centuries of collective belief ipture this region and people are mentioned: Panjkora watershed appears as Gauri in the sixth book2 and the tribe of Asvaka as inhaThe latter probably refers to the people of Swat, Kunar and Bajaur.3 The
Rg Veda,
another book of the Aryans, mentions the Puand Paktium because of their affiliations with Paktia, a province of AfgPart of the Achaemenian empire founded by Cyrus the Great, this area remained a Persian dominiotwo centuries. At a date after 516 B.C., Darius Hystaspes sent Skylax, a Greek seaman, to explore tof the Indus4. The inscriptions of Darius recorded on rocks or dressed stone list Gandhara - presentValley - and India5 as one of the fourteen countries he ruled. In 331 B.C. this mighty empire fell tothe Macedonian, who invaded the mountains and valleys of the present NWFP and fought his way to Pthe spring of 327 B.C. Alexander's armies were ready for the Indus Valley. At the Nawagai Pass, wAfghanistan to the present Bajaur Agency, Alexander divided his army. One section marchedCharsadda, while the other, led by him, entered this region through Swat. Here he met stiff resistancKamboja clans: the Aspasios of Kunarj Alishang valleys, the Guraeans of the GuraeusjPanjkora Valleis of the Swat and Buner valleys. It was during this march that he received an arrow wound on his shin. He captured Ora, identifiedhe early twentieth century with a place now called Raja Giras Kasal, in the Swat Valley above Birkot. When the Massaga chief washer, known as Cleophis in Western annals, took over the command of the army and mounted a stubborn defence. The role of Cleoprched, but it is indicative of the mettle of the women of the NWFP. Alexander left his garrisons and went to join his General andHephaestion in the Peshawar plains where he accepted the surrender of Peucelaotis, modern CGandhara has been identified as the Greek Paktuike6. "Darius, Herodotus, Alexander, Pompey, Horacwould certainly have thought of India in the geographical terms of what is now...
P
The impact of Alexander's presence was short but pervasive. His total stay in the Frontier was less thmonths and during all this time he faced very spirited opposition by the inhabitants. As succontinuously engaged either in capturing fortresses or fighting his wayThings fell apart on Alexander's death. The empire fragmented. His General Seleucus took over the eabut the vigorous resistance of Chandra Gupta, founder of the Maurya dynasty (323-190 B.C.), sattempts to expand southward. Under Asoka (264-227 B.C.), one of the great Mauryan monarchs,. Many rock edicts propagating Buddhist ideals were erected across the empire and several were installed in thiA.D. the Kushan of Indo-Scythian stock established another great empire. During the intervening period dynasties of the Graeco-and the Indo-Parthians, all from Central Asia, ruled Gandhara. The Graeco-Bactriankingdom of Taxila and Sakal a fell to Saka invasound 97 B.C. These nomadic invaders entered a kingdom which had been absorbing Persian, Indian, as well as Hellenic influences.dhara for about a century upto 5 A.D. The Parthians who succeeded the Sakas were also nomads and extended their authority do19 A.D. Gondophares (d.48 A.D.) was ruling over Gandhara and northern Punjab. The magnificent Parthians were celebrated in thHorace (b. 65 B.C.) as fine horsemen:The Kushans were replaced by the Sassanians, also from Central Asia. Gandhara, the Derajaat, Sindhparts of Afghanistan fell to them. By 365 A.D. these provinces temporarily collapsed under the invadHuns. The third invasion of the fifth century was so devastating that it destroyed all memory of previoBy the end of the sixth century A.D. a group of tribes with Irani band language settled in Gandhara, ushering in the return of Persian influence.
ilgrims, Fa-Hien (399-414 A.D.) and Hiuen-Tsang (629-645 A.D.), through their historical records shed light on Gandhara and its ms. Fa-Hien found five hundred monasteries devoted to the flourishing Buddhist faith. But Hiuen-Tsang visiting Peshawar and Swd that Buddhism was suffering at the hands of Hinduism which was in the ascent. Almost a hundred years later, U-K'ong (757-764 A.hundred Buddhist monasteries. The last monarchs of the Kushan dynasty had submitted to relentless Hinduism which soon elimiuddhism from this entire area. Deserted were the enlightened centres of learning like Taxila. Gone was the glory of n hold was beginning to weaken because of the challenges of Generals who had begun to act like independent satraps and Persia'nts in the west to meet the march of Muslims. With swift victories in the Middle East and Persian defeats in the plains of Nihawand, the Muslims established themselves in Persia. During this period and till the arrival of Muslims in the Indus area, the Hindu ShatheDuring the last decades of the first millennium, Sabuktagin, (d.997), established at Ghazni, turnedto Peshawar, Punjab and Upper Sindh. By the time his valiant son Mahmud (d. 1030) succeededSultanate consisted of a sizeable area of modern Iran, Punjab and the valleys of the present NFrontier Province. Then for the first time in the annals appears the name "Afghan" for the people livhills between Ghazni and the Sulaiman Range.9 Between 999 A.D. and 1026 A.D. Mahmud undertocampaigns. These met with repeated success. He defeated Raja Jaipal in the decisive battle foPeshawar in 1000 A.D. The next battle fought with his son Anandpal, in 1008 A.D. was the last nail inof Hindu Shahimud Islam began to cast its pervasive, transforming light. A great flowering of Muslim culture began. A man of refined taste, manyufi and poet, including the great Persian poet, author of the epic
S
hahnama,
Firdausi (940- 1 020), gravitated to his court and migraquered areas. The unifying call of Islam which negated the caste system - perpetrated and perpetuated by Hinduism - struck a chhe populace. The Pathan began to embrace Islam
en mass
thus cementing military force with religious unity. This dynamic coa "tide of Pathan infiltration into every part of the Indian peninsula reached by Muslimhtened Ghaznavid dynasty ruled for almost a hundred years before it was succeeded by the Ghorids. Muhammad Ghori ruled tillas assassinated in his tent on the banks of the Indus River. Several dynasties such as the Khiljis (1290- 1321) followed. Frontier-to their banner for suddenly the whole of South Asia lay open. In the early thirteenth century Mongols under Chengiz Khan (r. 1 1reat turmoil. One of the armies penetrated as far south as Lahore and destroyed it in 1240 A.D. Timur (1369-1405) or Tamerlane, celthe English playwright Christopher Marlowe (1564- 1593), subdued Kator, now Chitral and made his "devastating inroad into thvia Bannu in March, 1399."11 He pushed as far as the Ganges at Hardwar upsetting the Tughlaq dynasty which had succeeded theasties such as the Lodhis (1451-1526) and the Surs (1539-1555) also exercised periodic control.dawns with the coming of Babur (1482-1530).
Babur-namah,
his memoir, is an incisive record of the Frontier region. Foundernd long-enduring empire, he was a renaissance man: a man of sword and the pen. Of keen sensibility and not without poetic and chments, he invented a new form of writing which unfortunately did not acquire pble to marshal the Frontier tribes for his several forays into India. The most prominent were the Yusafzais who marched in his ars too depended on Pathan prowess to expand their empire. It was not surprising that Khushhal Khan Khattak should declare:
owed his place to thehear the story of Bahlol and
S
her in days gone by Pathans were Kings in Hind; For seven generations theirs was the Kingdom, And all wondered at And After him was Babur King of Delhi,
Babur's account lists tribes spread from Swat to the Daman. Like Alexander, he endeavoured to secbase for the conquest of India. As such his administrative control was flexible. Following the deathKamran his younger son, proclaimed himself ruler of the region as far as the Indus. But conflict withbrother, Humayun (1508-1556), led to the weakening of the Mughal power and afforded Sher Sha1545), a Pathan, the opportunity to capture the empire
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