Alchon Huns
The Alchon Huns, ο Alkhono or αλχανο ''Alkhan also known as the Alkhan, Alchono, Alxon, Alkhon, Alakhana, and Walxon, were a nomadic people who established states in Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent during the 4th and 6th centuries CE. They were first mentioned as being located in Paropamisus, and later expanded south-east, into the Punjab and Central India, going as far as Eran and Kausambi. The Alchon invasion of the Indian subcontinent eradicated the Kidarite Huns who had preceded them by about a century, and contributed to the fall of the Gupta Empire, in a sense bringing an end to Classical India.
The invasion of India by the Huna peoples follows invasions of the subcontinent in the preceding centuries by the Yavana, the Saka, the Pahlava, and the Kushana. The Alchon Empire was the second of four major Huna states established in Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent. The Alchon were preceded by the Kidarites and succeeded by the Hephthalites and Nezak Huns in Bactria and the Hindu Kush respectively. The names of the Alchon kings are known from their extensive coinage, Buddhist accounts, and a number of commemorative inscriptions throughout the Indian subcontinent.
The Alchons have long been considered a part or a sub-division of the Hephthalites, or as their eastern branch, but are now regarded as a separate entity.
Identity
Name
The etymology of "Alchon" is disputed. It is only attested on the script of their coins and seals, where it appears as alkhono or alkhano in Bactrian script or lakhāna in Sanskrit. Frantz Grenet, pointing to the Middle Persian apocalyptic book Zand-i Wahman yasn, argued that a name attested there, Karmīr Xyōn could represent a translation of Alkhonno, with the first element, al being a Turkic word for red and the second element representing the ethnic name "Hun". An older suggestion, by H. Humbach, also connects the second element to "Hun", but argues that al- comes from the ethnic name Alan.File:Alchono legend with coin.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.2|The word "Alchono" in Greek, on a coin of Khingila.
Hans Bakker argues that the second spelling -khan- makes it unlikely that the term contains the ethnic name "Hun", as the Bactrian word for "Hun" is *uono. Likewise, Khodadad Rezakhani argues that the name Alkhana is attested for a ruler in Western Kashmir, meaning it was probably initially a personal name. Bakker instead argues that the ethnic name has been used as a personal name. Furthermore, the “Red Huns” theory requires that the Alchon spoke a Turkic language, which is highly disputed. Agustí Alemanny similarly disputes Humbach's etymology as relying on insufficient evidence of an Alan-Hun ethnic group.
Because the name "Alchon" is only attested on coins and seals, there is some debate about whether the Alchon were a separate entity from the Hephthalites. To contemporaneous observers in India, the Alchon were one of the Hūṇa peoples. A seal from Kausambi associated with Toramana, bears the title Hūnarāja, although the authenticity of this seal is questionable. Toramana is also described as a Huna in the Rīsthal inscription.
The Hunas appear to have been the peoples known in contemporaneous Iranian sources as Xwn, Xiyon and similar names, which were later Romanised as Xionites or Chionites. The Hunas are often linked to the Huns that invaded Europe from Central Asia during the same period. Consequently, the word Hun has three slightly different meanings, depending on the context in which it is used: 1) the Huns of Europe; 2) groups associated with the Huna people who invaded northern India; 3) a vague term for Hun-like people. The Alchon have also been labelled "Huns", with essentially the second meaning, as well as elements of the third.
Visual appearance
The Alchons are generally recognised by their elongated skull, a result of artificial skull deformation, which may have represented their "corporate identity". The elongated skulls appear clearly in most of the portraits of rulers in the coinage of the Alkhon Huns, and most visibly on the coinage of Khingila. These elongated skulls, which they obviously displayed with pride, distinguished them from other peoples, such as their predecessors the Kidarites. On their coins, the spectacular skulls came to replace the Sasanian-type crowns which had been current in the coinage of the region. This practice is also known among other peoples of the steppes, particularly the Huns, and as far as Europe, where it was introduced by the Huns themselves.In another ethnic custom, the Alchons were represented beardless, often wearing a moustache, in clear contrast with the Sasanian Empire prototype which was generally bearded.
The emblematic look of the Alchons seems to have become rather fashionable in the area, as shown by the depiction of the Iranian hero Rostam, mythical king of Zabulistan, with an elongated skull in his 7th century CE mural at Panjikent.
Symbolism
Another way for the Alchon Huns to affirm their identity and to differentiate themselves from their predecessors the Kidarites, was the use of a specific symbol, or tamgha, which regularly appears on their coinage and seals.History
Invasion of Bactria (370 CE)
During the reign of Shapur II, the Sasanian Empire and the Kushano-Sasanians gradually lost the control of Bactria to these invaders from Central Asia, first the Kidarites from around 335 CE, then the Alchon Huns from around 370 CE, who would follow up with the invasion of India a century later, and lastly the Hephthalites from around 450 CE.Early confrontations between the Sasanian Empire of Shapur II with the nomadic hordes from Central Asia called the "Chionites" 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 Chionites and the Euseni, finally making a treaty of alliance with the Chionites and the Gelani, "the most warlike and indefatigable of all tribes", in 358 CE. After concluding this alliance, the Chionites under their King Grumbates accompanied Shapur II in the war against the Romans, especially at the siege of Amida in 359 CE. Victories of the Xionites during their campaigns in the Eastern Caspian lands were also witnessed and described by Ammianus Marcellinus.
The Alchon Huns occupied Bactria circa 370 CE, chasing the Kidarites in the direction of India, and started minting coins in the style of Shapur II but bearing their name "Alchono".
Invasion of Kabulistan (c.385 CE)
Around 380-385 CE, the Alchons emerged in Kapisa, taking over Kabulistan from the Sassanian Persians, while at the same time the Kidarites ruled in Gandhara. The Alchons are known to have reused the mint and the coin dies of Shapur II south of the Hindu Kush, again simply adding their name "Alchono" to Sasanian coinage. The Alchon Huns are sometimes said to have taken control of Kabul in 388.Coinage
The Alchon Huns initially issued anonymous coins based on Sasanian designs. Several types of these coins are known, usually minted in Bactria, using Sasanian coinage designs with busts imitating Sasanian kings Shapur II and Shapur III, adding the Alchon Tamgha and the name "Alchono" in Bactrian script on the obverse, and with attendants to a fire altar, a standard Sasanian design, on the reverse. It is thought the Alchons took over the Sasanian mints in Kabulistan after 385 CE, reusing dies of Shapur II and Shapur III, to which they added the name "Alchono".Gandhara (460 CE)
Around 430 King Khingila, the most notable Alchon ruler, and the first one to be named and represented on his coins with the legend "χιγγιλο" in Bactrian, emerged and took control of the routes across the Hindu Kush from the Kidarites. Coins of the Alchons rulers Khingila and Mehama were found at the Buddhist monastery of Mes Aynak, southeast of Kabul, confirming the Alchon presence in this area around 450-500 CE. Khingila seems to have been a contemporary of the Sassanian ruler Bahram V. As the Alchons took control, diplomatic missions were established in 457 with China. Khingila, under the name Shengil, was called "King of India" in the Shahnameh of Ferdowsi.Alchon ruler Mehama was elevated to the position of Governor for Sasanian Emperor Peroz I, and described himself as "King of the people of Kadag and governor of the famous and prosperous King of Kings Peroz" in a 462-463 letter. He allied with Peroz I in his victory over the Kidarites in 466 CE, and may also have helped him take the throne against his brother Hormizd III. But he was later able to wrestle autonomy or even independence.
Between 460 and 470 CE, the Alchons took over Gandhara and the Punjab which also had remained under the control of the Kidarites, while the Gupta Empire remained further east. The Alkhon Huns may simply have filled the power vacuum created by the decline of the Kidarites, following their defeat in India against the Gupta Empire of Skandagupta in 455 CE, and their subsequent defeat in 467 CE against the Sasanian Empire of Peroz I, with Hephthalite and Alchon aid under Mehama, which put an end to Kidarite rule in Transoxiana once and for all.
The numismatic evidence as well as the so-called "Hephthalite bowl" from Gandhara, now in the British Museum, suggests a period of peaceful coexistence between the Kidarites and the Alchons, as it features two Kidarite noble hunters wearing their characteristic crowns, together with two Alchon hunters and one of the Alchons inside a medallion. At one point, the Kidarites withdrew from Gandhara, and the Alchons took over their mints from the time of Khingila.
The Alchons apparently undertook the mass destruction of Buddhist monasteries and stupas at Taxila, a high center of learning, which never recovered from the destruction. Virtually all of the Alchon coins found in the area of Taxila were found in the ruins of burned down monasteries, where apparently some of the invaders died alongside local defenders during the wave of destructions. It is thought that the Kanishka stupa, one of the most famous and tallest buildings in antiquity, was destroyed by them during their invasion of the area in the 460s CE. The Mankiala stupa was also vandalised during their invasions.
The rest of the 5th century marks a period of territorial expansion and eponymous kings, several of which appear to have overlapped and ruled jointly. The Alchon Huns invaded parts of northwestern India from the second half of the 5th century. According to the Bhitari pillar inscription, the Gupta ruler Skandagupta already confronted and defeated an unnamed Huna ruler.