THE CHACHNAMAH, AN ANCIENT HISTORY OF SIND,
Chronicle Hindu period down to the Arab Invasion and fall of Last Hindu king Dahir
“The Last Hindu King Dahir of Sind died on 712 CE. His Kingdom was attacked by Ummayed Arabian Kalif (of Damascus) to kill the sons of Imam Hussain, the grandson of Prophet Muhammad. Brahmin King Dahir, the Son of Chach, the father of Jaisingh sacrificed his life for the protection of the holy blood of Prophet Muhammad”.
It is evident that the place of Sind was the birth place of several Vedic verses and elegant Vedic civilisation was in place and continued through the ages , down to the advent of the Goutama the Buddha and the rule of Mouryan dynasty untill the fall of last sovereign king Dahir due to his allegiance to the family of holy prophet of Islam. Now we know that the Holy prophet had several Brahmins as his friend in east and he was admirer of ‘ wind from east’. The prophet had great respect for the eastern philosophy and knowledge. Therefore the prophet never send any messenger to the east to deliver his paigam of peace. Even after untimely demise of prophet , his immediate family through her daughter Fatima, had trusted relationship with the father of King Dahir. That is why after the bloody massacre of Karbala and betrayal of the Khufian the family of Prophet took shelter in a Hindu kingdom under the protection of Brahmins. We know that a great number of ‘Hussain Brahmins’ went karbala from sind and neighbors to fight Imam Hussain and sacrificed their life to protect the real heritage of Holy prophet.
Whenever we mention Arab invasion through bloody Kashim, we must remember that the attack on Sind was not for loot of the wealth of sind or to establish Islamic rule(political) over Kafers, but is was unfortunately, with single motive to kill the sons and daughters of Imam Hassan-Hussain and other family members of Holy prophet.
The battle of Sind was an unfortunate example and blot to the Islamic ummah, where fraudulent people took oath in the name of Holy prophet and massacred his great grandsons and daughters. What witness the people of faith could expect from the Holy prophet when they shall meet with him?
No w comeback to the ancient history of Sind, which consists of the Hindú period down to the Arab invasion, we could only find three books of some importance on the subject, viz.,—the Chachnámah, the Táríkh Maasúmí, and the Tuhfatulkirám. As the last two books were written after the first book and were partly based on it.
It is evident that the Chachnámah is a Persian translation of an Arabic book on the invasion of Sind by Arabs, written by Alí son of Muhammad Kúfí, originally of Kúfah (in Syria), but subsequently a resident of Uch, in 613 A. H. (1216 A. D.) About the year 991 A. H. (1583 CE), Mír Muhammad Maasúmsháh, a Sayad of Bakhar, wrote a history of Sind in Persian and called it the Táríkh Maasúmí. It gives the Hindú as well as the Mussalman period down to his own time.
The Chachnámah could be a valuable record for various reasons. It shows us, in the first place, that Buddhism was the second dominant religion in Sind, in the 7th century. The word Samání (originally Shráman) occurs several times, and we are told of Buddha temples, Buddha monasteries, and even of Buddha extremists, who considered it against their religion to take up arms in their own defence against the Mussalmans. We can see also that the Buddhists and the Brahmans lived in amity in a composite culture.
The Buddhistic records now available to us show that Asóká did not make Buddhism a State Religion. “There never was such a thing as a State Religion in India. Asóká certainly extended his patronage, formerly confined to Brahmans only, to the new brotherhood founded by Buddha, but there was nothing in India corresponding to a Defender of the Faith.” (Vide “The Six Systems of Indian Philosophy” by Max Muller p. 34). The testimony of Megasthenes, who visited India in the third century BCE.—that is the century in which Asóká lived—points to the same conclusion. (Vide “Ancient India” by J. W. Mc Crindle 1877, p. 97, et seq.)
The Chinese pilgrim Fa-hian was in India from 399 to 414 A. D., and the celebrated Hiouen-thsang was there from 629 to 645 A. D. The fourth century of the Christian era has been called by Max Muller the century of the Renaissance of Sanskrit Literature, under Buddhist kings. The 7th was the century which saw the decay of Buddhism. But even in that century, Shiládtya Harshavardhana, (called also Harsha) of Kanyakubja, was a patron—according to Hiouen-thsang—alike of those who adhered to the Vedas and of those who worshipped Buddha; and his religious assemblies were attended not only by Shrámans but also by Brahmans.
Hiouen-thsang is corroborated by the Harsha-charita of Baná Bhatta who was not a Buddhist, and by the original author of the Chachnámah, who was an Arab. We have thus Brahman, Buddhist, Greek, and Arab testimony as to the amicable relations subsisting between the followers of the two religions, upto the 7th century; and the testimony of the Arab, now given to the English-knowing world, for the first time, is, to my mind, of the greatest value.
