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47-845: The Xionites appear to be synonymous with the Huna peoples of the South Asian regions of classical/medieval India , and possibly also the Huns of European late antiquity , who were in turn connected onomastically to the Xiongnu in Chinese history. They were first described by the Roman historian, Ammianus Marcellinus , who was in Bactria during 356–357 CE; he described the Chionitæ as living with

94-640: A Han princess, even though they had sent presents to the Chinese court. In retaliation, they marched on Ban Chao in 90 CE with a force of 70,000 but were defeated by the smaller Chinese force. The Yuezhi retreated and paid tribute to the Chinese Empire. (Later, during the Yuanchu period, 114–120 CE, the Kushans sent a military force to install Chenpan, who had been a hostage among them, as king of Kashgar). In 91 CE, Ban Chao finally succeeded in pacifying

141-526: A Hunnic state, although its precise origins remain unclear. In Bana 's Harshacharita (7th century CE), the Gurjaras are associated with the Hunas. Some of the Hunas may also have contributed to the formation of the warlike Rajputs . The religious beliefs of the Hunas is unknown, and believed to be a combination of ancestor worship, totemism and animism . Songyun and Huisheng , who visited

188-735: A Huna army and their ruler Mihirakula in 528 CE and drove them out of India. The Guptas are thought to have played only a minor role in this campaign. The Hunas are thought to have included the Xionite and/or Hephthalite , the Kidarites , the Alchon Huns (also known as the Alxon, Alakhana, Walxon etc.) and the Nezak Huns . Such names, along with that of the Harahunas (also known as

235-659: A family of historians. His father was Ban Biao (3–54 CE) who started the History of the Western Han Dynasty ( Hanshu ; The Book of Han ) in 36, which was completed by his son Ban Gu (32–92) and his daughter Ban Zhao (Ban Chao's brother and sister). Ban Chao was probably the key source for the cultural and socio-economic data on the Western Regions contained in the Hanshu . Ban Chao's grandmother on

282-528: A preliminary embassy to the remote western regions. When the group arrived at the capital of Shanshan, King Guang also received an embassy from the Northern Xiongnu. Ban Chao and the small group of delegates slaughtered the Xiongnu envoys and sent their heads to the king. Shocked and overwhelmed by Han brutality, King Guang sent hostages to Han as a pact of non-aggression. This was just the start of

329-789: A treaty of alliance with the Chionites and the Gelani in 358 CE. In 460, Khingila I reportedly united a Hephthalite ruling élite with elements of the Uar and Xionites as Alchon (or Alχon ). when. At the end of the 5th century the Alchon invaded North India where they were known as the Huna . In India the Alchon were not distinguished from their immediate Hephthalite predecessors, and both are known as Sveta-Hunas there. Perhaps complimenting this term, Procopius (527–565) wrote that they were white skinned, had an organized kingship, and that their life

376-535: Is unlike that of their kinsmen, nor do they live a savage life as they do; but they are ruled by one king, and since they possess a lawful constitution, they observe right and justice in their dealings both with one another and with their neighbours, in no degree less than the Romans and the Persians The Kidarites , who invaded Bactria in the second half of the 4th century, are generally regarded as

423-607: The Eastern Han dynasty . He was born in Fufeng , now Xianyang , Shaanxi . Three of his family members—father Ban Biao , elder brother Ban Gu , younger sister Ban Zhao —were well known historians who wrote the historical text Book of Han , which recorded the history of the Western Han dynasty . As a Han general and cavalry commander, Ban Chao was in charge of administrating the " Western Regions " ( Central Asia ) while he

470-498: The Former Han , Ban Chao argued his case. When his brother was appointed to the imperial library, Ban Chao and his mother moved to the imperial capital Luoyang to accompany him. In 73 however, General Dou Gu embarked on an expedition to attack the Xiongnu, and Ban Chao was appointed as an assistant major. He distinguished himself in command against a Xiongnu detachment, and was appointed by Dou Gu to accompany Officer Guo Xun on

517-602: The Hephthalites ), around Khiva , and the "Red" or southern ( Kidarites and/or Alchon ), south of the Oxus . Artefacts found from the area they inhabited dating from their period indicate their totem animal seems to have been the (rein)deer. The Xionites are best documented in southern Central Asia from the late 4th century AD until the mid-5th century AD. Some Chionites are known to have ruled in Chach (modern Tashkent ), at

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564-615: The Iranian languages by names such as Karmir Xyon and Spet Xyon . The prefixes karmir ("red") and speta ("white") likely refer to Central Asian traditions in which particular colours symbolised the cardinal points . The Karmir Xyon were known in European sources as the Kermichiones or "Red Huns", and some scholars have identified them with the Kidarites and/or Alchon . The Spet Xyon or "White Huns" appear to have been

611-815: The Kushans . Ammianus indicates that the Xionites had previously lived in Transoxiana and, after entering Bactria, became vassals of the Kushans , were influenced culturally by them and had adopted the Bactrian language . They had attacked the Sassanid Empire , but later (led by a chief named Grumbates ), served as mercenaries in the Persian Sassanian army. Within the Xionites, there seem to have been two main subgroups, which were known in

658-605: The Sassanids and invaded northwestern India , stating that they were of the same stock, "in fact as well as in name", although he contrasted the Huns with the Hephthalites, in that the Hephthalites were sedentary, white-skinned, and possessed "not ugly" features: The Ephthalitae Huns, who are called White Huns [...] The Ephthalitae are of the stock of the Huns in fact as well as in name, however they do not mingle with any of

705-619: The Spet Xyon (and therefore possibly to the Sveta Huna ). More controversially, the names Karmir Xyon and Spet Xyon are often rendered as "Red Huns" and "White Huns", reflecting speculation that the Xyon were linked to Huns recorded simultaneously in Europe. Huna people Hunas or Huna (Middle Brahmi script: [REDACTED] [REDACTED] Hūṇā ) was the name given by

752-655: The ancient Indians to a group of Central Asian tribes who, via the Khyber Pass , entered the Indian subcontinent at the end of the 5th or early 6th century. The Hunas occupied areas as far south as Eran and Kausambi , greatly weakening the Gupta Empire . The Hunas were ultimately defeated by a coalition of Indian princes that included an Indian king Yasodharman and the Gupta emperor, Narasimhagupta . They defeated

799-712: The nspk , napki or Nezak tribes that remained. Bailey argues that the Pahlavi name Xyon may be read as the Indian Huna owing to the similarity of sound. In the Avestan tradition (Yts. 9.30-31, 19.87) the Xiiaona were characterized as enemies of Vishtaspa , the patron of Zoroaster . In the later Pahlavi tradition, the Karmir Xyon ("Red Xyon") and Spet Xyon ("White Xyon") are mentioned. The Red Xyon of

846-658: The 18th century) lists the Hunas alongside other peoples found in Central Asia since antiquity, including the Yavanas (Greeks), Kambojas , Tukharas , Khasas and Daradas . The Gurjara-Pratiharas suddenly emerged as a political power in north India around sixth century CE, shortly after the Hunas invasion of that region. The Gujara-Pratihara were "likely" formed from a fusion of the Alchon Huns ("White Huns") and native Indian elements, and can probably be considered as

893-590: The Halahunas or Harahuras) mentioned in Hindu texts, have sometimes been used for the Hunas in general; while these groups (and the Iranian Huns ) appear to have been a component of the Hunas, such names were not necessarily synonymous. Some authors suggest that the Hunas were Hephthalite Huns from Central Asia. The relationship, if any, of the Hunas to the Huns , a Central Asian people who invaded Europe during

940-663: The Han dynasty. In 97 CE, Ban Chao sent an envoy, Gan Ying , who reached the Persian Gulf or the Black Sea and left the first recorded Chinese account of Europe. Some modern authors have claimed that Ban Chao advanced to the Caspian Sea , however, this interpretation has been criticized as a misreading. In 102 CE, Ban Chao was retired as Protector General of the Western Regions due to age and ill health, and returned to

987-430: The Hunas were a Turkic - Mongolian grouping from Central Asia. The works of Ptolemy (2nd century) are among the first European texts to mention the Huns, followed by the texts by Marcellinus and Priscus. They too suggest that the Huns were an inner Asian people. The 6th-century Roman historian Procopius of Caesarea (Book I. ch. 3), related the Huns of Europe with the Hephthalites or "White Huns" who subjugated

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1034-412: The Huns known to us, for they occupy a land neither adjoining nor even very near to them; but their territory lies immediately to the north of Persia [...] They are not nomads like the other Hunnic peoples, but for a long period have been established in a goodly land... They are the only ones among the Huns who have white bodies and countenances which are not ugly. It is also true that their manner of living

1081-711: The Huns that appeared shortly afterwards in Europe. The Huns appear to have attacked and conquered the Alans , then living between the Urals and the Volga about 360 AD, and the first mention of the Chyon was in 356 AD. At least some Turkic tribes were involved in the formation of the Xionites, despite their later character as an Eastern Iranian people , according to Richard Nelson Frye (1991): "Just as later nomadic empires were confederations of many peoples, we may tentatively propose that

1128-460: The Kidarite Hun successors to the Kushans. In particular the Alchon style imitates the coins of Kidarite Varhran I (syn. Kushan Varhran IV). The earliest coins of the Alchon have several distinctive features: 1) the king's head is presented in an elongated form to reflect the Alchon practice of head binding; 2) The characteristic bull/lunar tamgha of the Alchon is represented on the obverse of

1175-746: The Pahlavi tradition (7th century) have been identified by Bailey as the Kermichiones or Ermechiones . According to Bailey, the Hara Huna of Indian sources are to be identified with the Karmir Xyon of the Avesta. Similarly he identifies the Sveta Huna of Indian sources with the Spet Xyon of the Avesta . While the Hephthalite are not mentioned in Indian sources, they are sometimes also linked to

1222-488: The Western Regions and was awarded the title of Protector General and stationed at Qiuci ( Kucha ). A Wuji Colonel was re-established and, commanding five hundred soldiers, stationed in the Kingdom of Nearer Jushi, within the walls of Gaochang , 29 kilometres southeast of Turfan . In 94 CE, Chao proceeded to again attack and defeat Yanqi [Karashahr]. Subsequently, more than fifty kingdoms presented hostages, as submission to

1269-574: The Xiongnu in 89 CE by Han dynasty forces at the Battle of Ikh Bayan and subsequent Han campaigns against them, led by Ban Chao may have been a factor in the ethnogenesis of the Xionites and their migration into Central Asia. Xionite tribes reportedly organised themselves into four main hordes: "Black" or northern (beyond the Jaxartes ), "Blue" or eastern (in Tianshan), "White" or western (possibly

1316-727: The Xionites probably originated as an Iranian tribe was put forward by Wolfgang Felix in Encyclopedia Iranica (1992). In 2005, As-Shahbazi suggested that they were originally a Hunnish people who had mixed with Iranian tribes in Transoxiana and Bactria, where they adopted the Kushan-Bactrian language . Likewise, Peter B. Golden wrote that the Chionite confederation included earlier Iranian nomads as well as Proto-Mongolic and Turkic elements. The defeat of

1363-451: The Xionites, the Huns who invaded Europe in the 4th century, and the Turks were emphasised by Carlile Aylmer Macartney (1944), who suggested that the name "Chyon", originally that of an unrelated people, was "transferred later to the Huns owing to the similarity of sound". The Chyon who appeared in the 4th century, in the steppes on the northeastern frontier of Persia were probably a branch of

1410-542: The capital Luoyang at the age of 70, but the following month died there in the 9th month of the 14th Yongyuan year (30 Sept. to 28 Oct. 102). See: Hou Hanshu , chap 77 (sometimes given as chap. 107). Following his death, the power of the Xiongnu in the Western Territories increased again, and subsequent Chinese emperors did not reach so far to the west again until the Tang dynasty . Ban Chao also belonged to

1457-585: The chief of the Hephthalite nomads at his summer residence in Badakshan and later in Gandhara , observed that they had no belief in the Buddhist law and served a large number of divinities." Ban Chao Ban Chao ( Chinese : 班超 ; pinyin : Bān Chāo ; Wade–Giles : Pan Ch'ao ; 32–102 CE), courtesy name Zhongsheng , was a Chinese diplomat, explorer, and military general of

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1504-451: The coins. The Hephthalites, or White Huns, were a nomadic tribe who conquered large parts of the eastern middle-east and may have originally been part of the Xionites. Although the power of the Huna in Bactria was shattered in the 560s by a combination of Sassanid and Turkic forces, the last Hephthalite king Narana/Narendra managed to maintain some kind of rule between 570 and 600 AD over

1551-425: The first wave of Hunas to enter Indian Subcontinent. The Gupta empire under Skandagupta in the 5th century had successfully repulsed one Hun attack in the northwest in 460 CE. However, over the period of the next several years, the Hunas under successive kings were able to make inroads into the subcontinent. They were initially based in the Oxus basin in Central Asia and established their control over Gandhara in

1598-559: The foot of the Altai Range , between the middle of the 4th century CE to the 6th century CE. A special type of coinage has been attributed to them, where they appear in portraits as diademed kings, facing right, with a tamgha in the shape of an X, and a circular Sogdian legend. They also often appear with a crescent over the head. It has been suggested that the facial characteristics and the hairstyle of these Chionite rulers as they appear on their coinage, are similar to those appearing on

1645-425: The known in South Asia by the cognate name Sveta-huna , and are often identified, controversially, with the Hephtalites . The original culture of the Xionites and their geographical urheimat are uncertain. They appear to have originally followed animist religious beliefs, which mixed later with varieties of Buddhism and Shaivism . It is difficult to determine their ethnic composition. Differences between

1692-411: The many exploits Ban Chao accomplished in the western regions. Ban Chao, like his predecessors Huo Qubing and Wei Qing from the Former Han dynasty before him, was effective at expelling the Xiongnu from the Tarim Basin , and brought the various people of the Western Regions under Chinese rule during the second half of the 1st century CE, helping to open and secure the trade routes to the west. He

1739-418: The murals of Balalyk Tepe further south. Sometime between 194 and 214, according to the Armenian historian Moses of Khorene (5th century), Hunni (probably the Kidarites) captured the city of Balkh (Armenian name: Kush ) . According to Armenian sources, Balkh became the capital of the Hunni. At the end of the 4th century AD, the Kidarites were pushed into Gandhara , after a new wave of invaders from

1786-473: The new emperor Han Zhang Di . He obtained the military help of the Kushan Empire in 84 in repelling the Kangju who were trying to support the rebellion of the king of Kashgar, and the next year in his attack on Turpan , in the eastern Tarim Basin. Ban Chao ultimately brought the whole of the Tarim Basin under Chinese control. In recognition for their support to the Chinese, the Kushans (referred to as Da Yuezhi in Chinese sources) requested, but were denied,

1833-417: The north, the Alchon, entered Bactria. Early confrontations between the Sasanian Empire of Shapur II with the Xionites were described by Ammianus Marcellinus : he reports that in 356 CE, Shapur II was taking his winter quarters on his eastern borders, "repelling the hostilities of the bordering tribes" of the Xionites and the Euseni , a name often amended to Cuseni (meaning the Kushans ). Shapur made

1880-416: The northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent by about 465 CE. From there, they fanned out into various parts of northern, western, and central India . The Hūṇas are mentioned in several ancient texts such as the Rāmāyaṇa , Mahābhārata , Purāṇas , and Kalidasa’s Raghuvaṃśa . In 528 CE, another campaign led by a coalition of Indian kings finally defeated king Mihirakula and his Huna army. The victory

1927-402: The ruling groups of these invaders were, or at least included, Turkic-speaking tribesmen from the east and north, although most probably the bulk of the people in the confederation of Chionites... spoke an Iranian language.... This was the last time in the history of Central Asia that Iranian-speaking nomads played any role; hereafter all nomads would speak Turkic languages". The proposition that

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1974-482: The same period, is also unclear. In its farthest geographical extent in India, the territories controlled by the Hunas covered the region up to Malwa in central India . Their repeated invasions and war losses were the main reason for the decline of the Gupta Empire. Chinese sources link the Central Asian tribes comprising the Hunas to both the Xiongnu of north east Asia and the Huns who later invaded and settled in Europe. Similarly, Gerald Larson suggests that

2021-405: Was generally outnumbered, but skillfully played on the divisions among his opponents. The kingdoms of Khotan and Kashgar came under Chinese rule by 74 CE. "Pan Ch'ao crushed fresh rebellions in Kashgar (80, 87) and Yarkand (88), and made the Wusun of the Ili his allies." Ban Chao was recalled to Luoyang , but then sent again to the Western Region area four years later, during the reign of

2068-425: Was in service. He also led Han forces for over 30 years in the war against the Xiongnu and re-established Han control over the Tarim Basin region. He was made Protector General of the Western Regions by the Han government for his efforts in protecting and governing the regions. Ban Chao is depicted in the Wu Shuang Pu (無雙譜, Table of Peerless Heroes) by Jin Guliang. As a well-known historian, Ban Chao's family

2115-433: Was inscribed on a stone pillar and erected in honor of (and in praise for) one of the leaders of the coalition, king Yashodharman, in Mandasaur in Central India. Huna kings in this inscription are described as 'rude and cruel'. They were also responsible for the destruction of Buddhist monasteries and centers of learning in the Northwest regions of the country. The Mongolian-Tibetan historian Sumpa Yeshe Peljor (writing in

2162-419: Was not wild/nomadic and they lived in cities. The Alchon were noted for their distinctive coins, minted in Bactria in the 5th and 6th centuries. The name Khigi , inscribed in Bactrian script on one of the coins, and Narendra on another, have led some scholars to believe that the Hephthalite kings Khingila and Narana were of the AlChoNo tribe. They imitated the earlier style of their Hephthalite predecessors,

2209-416: Was poor and he worked as a copy-clerk for the government. Emperor Ming himself thought highly of him, and appointed him to be a clerk in the orchid terrace, but Ban Chao was too ambitious to be satisfied with a position like that, and was dismissed later. He was said to be a strong willed young adult with complete disregard for formal conduct. After his brother Ban Gu was removed from his post for his works on

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