Bactria once a part of India
About 5,000 years back India was a very big piece of land under
the control of a Soma Clan (Chandra Vamsha). After the emergence of Kaliyuga. Parishit
and Janamejaya also ruled the country with the same length and breadth.
Gradually the rulers of the vast empire started becoming independent duly detaching themselves from the empire. As per
Ramayana the Ithihasa Sri Rama was the only Sarvabhouma meaning the sole
emperor of the entire Globe. There after all the other rulers were emperors of
partial pieces of the undecided earth.
History, an English word, is a combination of ‘He/His and
Story’. It says only about a particular person his abilities, battles, his
conquests and demise. Itihasa is that which says about all the main people
involved in the total happening. The very meaning of Itihasa is ‘Yes, this had
occurred’. Ithihasa involves invariably the characters of those persons who are
the personifications of Chaturvidha Purshaartha viz. Dharma Artha Kama and Moksha. Here in this
article The Author brings about the historical facts of, as to how once,
Bactria belonged to India.
This is an article published by Bhakthi Vedanta Ashram and
nothing of my own. I wholeheartedly thank them for their in depth research and
presentation.
Mazar-i-Sharif will probably be familiar to those who are old
enough to remember the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. It was the first
Taliban city to fall to the US army, and subsequently became famous for a
prison uprising in which a CIA officer was killed and an American named John
Walker Lindh was found fighting with the Taliban.
While many know about this recent history of the place and have
heard it mentioned in the news, probably few will know about its ancient
history and its somewhat indirect connection to the Bhagavad Gita, which is
what I would like to discuss here.
Mazar-i-Sharif is the capital of the Balkh province in
Afghanistan. It is located at the extreme north of Afghanistan, on the border
with Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. This location will be important
because it will show how vast the ancient Hindu kingdom of Bharata was.
Balkh is the slightly modified Persian version of the Sanskrit
word Bahlika, which referred both to a kingdom (a region) as well as the king
who founded that kingdom. King Bahlika was the brother of the great Maharaja
Shantanu, and is mentioned throughout the Puranas and Mahabharata. He, along
with his sons and grandsons, fought on the side of the Kauravas in the
Kurukshetra war.
To be continued.....
2.
The Bhagavata Purana describes his lineage as follows:
devāpiḥ śāntanus tasya
bāhlīka iti cātmajāḥ
pitṛ-rājyaṁ parityajya
devāpis tu vanaṁ gataḥ
abhavac chāntanū rājā
prāṅ mahābhiṣa-saṁjñitaḥ
yaṁ yaṁ karābhyāṁ spṛśati
jīrṇaṁ yauvanam eti saḥ
“The sons of Pratīpa were
Devāpi, Śāntanu and Bāhlīka. Devāpi left the kingdom of his father and went to the forest, and
therefore Śāntanu became the king. Śāntanu, who in his previous birth was known as Mahābhiṣa, had the ability to
transform anyone from old age to youth simply by touching that person with his
hands.” – Bhagavata Purana 9.22.12-13
soma-vaṁśe kalau naṣṭe
kṛtādau sthāpayiṣyati
bāhlīkāt somadatto ’bhūd
bhūrir bhūriśravās tataḥ
śalaś ca śāntanor āsīd
gaṅgāyāṁ bhīṣma ātmavān
sarva-dharma-vidāṁ śreṣṭho
mahā-bhāgavataḥ kaviḥ
“After the dynasty of the moon-god comes to an end in this age
of Kali, Devāpi, in the beginning of
the next Satya-yuga, will reestablish the Soma dynasty in this world. From Bāhlīka [the brother of Śāntanu] came a son named Somadatta, who had three sons, named Bhūri, Bhūriśravā and Śala. From Śāntanu, through the womb
of his wife named Gaṅgā, came Bhīṣma, the exalted,
self-realized devotee and learned scholar.” – Bhagavata Purana 9.22.18-19
The first thing to note is that King Bahlika was a Vedic king
belonging to the Soma Vamsha (moon
dynasty), and was also a descendant of Kuru, just as the Pandavas and Kauravas
were. He was the brother of Maharaja Shantanu, who is a central character in
the Mahabharata. Bahlika’s son was named Somadatta, and he was also a great
king who participated in the battle of Kurukshetra. Somadatta’s son was
Bhurishrava, a great warrior general who commanded one akshauhini of soldiers,
or around 10% of the Kaurava’s entire army.
The Mahabharata states the following:
tathā bhūriśravāḥ śūraḥ śalyaś ca kurunandana
duryodhanam upāyātāv akṣauhiṇyā pṛthak pṛthak
“And so the valiant Bhurisravas, and Salya, O son of Kuru, came
to Duryodhana, with an akshauhini of soldiers each.” – Mahabharata, Udyoga
Parva 19.16
An akshauhini is a military unit said to have been comprised of
21,870 chariots, 21,870 elephants, 109,350 infantry and 65,610 cavalry. Thus
Bhurishrava’s contribution towards the Kaurava’s army, along with his father’s
(Somadatta) and grandfather’s (Bahlika), played a major role in the Kurukshetra
war.
In the first canto of the Bhagavata Purana, both Bhurishrava and
Bahlika are mentioned as being amongst the great generals who led the Kaurava
side in the Kurukshetra war. Arjuna says:
yad-doḥṣu mā praṇihitaṁ guru-bhīṣma-karṇa-
naptṛ-trigarta-śalya-saindhava-bāhlikādyaiḥ
astrāṇy amogha-mahimāni nirūpitāni
nopaspṛśur nṛhari-dāsam ivāsurāṇi
“Great generals like Bhīṣma, Droṇa, Karṇa, Bhūriśravā, Suśarmā, Śalya, Jayadratha and Bāhlika all directed their invincible weapons against me. But by
His [Lord Krishna’s] grace they could not even touch a hair on my head.
Similarly, Prahlāda Mahārāja, the supreme devotee
of Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva, was unaffected by the weapons the demons used against
him.” – Bhagavata Purana 1.15.16
Finally, we come to the Bhagavad Gita, where in the first
chapter Duryodhana approaches his general Bhishma and says the following:
bhavān bhīṣmaś ca karṇaś ca
kṛpaś ca samitiṁ-jayaḥ
aśvatthāmā vikarṇaś ca
saumadattis tathaiva ca
“There are personalities like you, Bhīṣma, Karṇa, Kṛpa, Aśvatthāmā, Vikarṇa and the son of Somadatta called Bhūriśravā, who are always victorious in battle.”
Here we have Duryodhana specifically pointing out Bhurishrava,
the son of Somadatta and grandson of Bahlika, and saying he is samitim-jayah,
always victorious in battle.
Thus all three of these great Vedic kings were unconquearable
heroes, and all three of them ruled from the kingdom of “Bahlika”, which was
centered around the present day district of Balkh in Afghanistan.
There are many archaeological sites in Balkh, as you can see in
the following photographs, though due to various wars and conflicts, there is
no interest or effort to excavate the historical treasures that lie beneath the
soil. We are left with only the fleeting and meaningless news stories of modern
times, such as the invasion of Mazar-i-Sharif by the US forces, or the prison
revolt in which a CIA officer died, which are nothing but coverings of the true
priceless history of this region recorded in the Mahabharata and the Puranas.
3.
If we look at a map we can see how far north this district is
located. We must understand that once upon a time this was one of the Kuru
kingdoms of Bharata, stretching into modern Turkmenistan, Tajikistan,
Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. This was all Bharata, and all ruled by Kuru kings of
the moon dynasty.
One may ask, “What happened to this once great empire, and why
don’t we hear more about it?” The Mahabharata tells us the stories of how the
three great kings of the empire (Bahlika, Somadatta and Bhurishrava) died in
the battle of Kurukshetra, as did most of the great kings of that time. With
the loss of their rulers and the onset of the Kali Yuga, everything in general
decayed and became corrupted. Subsequently the region became subjected to
various invasions from other cultures, such as the Greeks, Persians, Turks and
Arabs, with each new invasion adding to the cultural dilution.
The Bahlika empire latter came to be known as Balkh, which was
again morphed by the Greeks into Baktriani, and today is known as the Bactrian
empire. We should remember this was simply the remnants of the Vedic Bahlikas,
after thousands of years had passed, after they had been conquered by the
Greeks and also after they had their culture diluted. Yet still we find so many
archaeological artifacts from the Bactrian empire showing Hindu Gods such as
Krishna, Vishnu, Balarama, Shiva, etc. The following photos of Bactrian coins
and seals, show clearly the Hindu Gods whom their forefathers worshipped. These
items are more than 2,000 years old.
The capital city, Bactra/Balkh, was situated on the ancient
“silk road” trade route and was one of the major commerce points linking China,
India and the West. When Arab invaders finally conquered the region, they
called the capital city of Balkh as “Umm-al-belad” or “the mother of cities”,
indicating how large and wealthy the city was.
In 1220 AD Genghis Khan sent 100,000 horsemen to loot and
destroy the city of Balkh, killing all residents, and razing all buildings to
the ground. Though the people had surrendered without a fight, the entire
population was marched away and massacred. Again in the 14th century, Timur
looted and killed the remaining population.
The famous explorer, Marco Polo, had visited this city around
the end of the 13th century. He wrote the following about this empire:
“Balkh is a great and noble city, though it was much greater in
former days. But the Tartars and other nations have greatly ravaged and
destroyed it. There were formerly many fine palaces and buildings of marble,
and the ruins of them still remain. The people of the city tell that it was
here that Alexander the Great took as a wife the daughter of king Darius.”
It should be noted that Alexander the Great had married a
Bactrian/Bahlika princess from this region named Roxana, which is the Greek
version of the Sanskrit name Rochana, meaning “radiant, charming, and bright”.
This Sanskrit name has even entered into the English language as Roxanne, and
is still used today.
4
Marco Polo further wrote:
“When you have left the city of which I have been speaking, you
ride some 12 days between north-east and east, without finding any human
habitation, for the people have all taken refuge in fastnesses among the
mountains, on account of the bandits and armies that harassed them. There is
plenty of water on the road, and abundance of game; there are lions too. You
can get no provisions on the road, and must carry with you all that you require
for these 12 days.”
Ever since, this great region has been ravaged by wars one after
another, leaving all of its ancient history hidden under layers of ruins and
sediment. In 1998 the Taliban conquered Mazar-i-Sharif, which was then followed
by the U.S invasion of Afghanistan, which continues till the present times.
The next time you hear about these places in the news, remember
the great kings Bahlika, Somadatta and Bhurishrava, and their central role in
the Kurukshetra war, which ultimately brought us the priceless treasure of the
Bhagavad Gita.
This is the hidden history which modern academics do not want us
to dig deeper into. They do not want the people to know that Bharata, or what
we call today as India, extended throughout the world, and was the center of
civilization in times that predate known history. The Kuru kings of the moon
dynasty ruled vast lands that touched even to the borders of Russia, and for
this reason all the world’s cultures have traces of Vedic elements present
within them.
Swasthi.
