Kingdom of Kapisa

The Kingdom of Kapisa was a state located in what is now Afghanistan during the late 1st millennium CE. Its capital was the city of Kapisa. The kingdom stretched from the Hindu Kush in the north to Bamiyan and Kandahar in the south and west, out as far as the modern Jalalabad District in the east.[1]

The name Kapisa appears to be a Sanskritized form of an older name for the area, from prehistory.[2] Following its conquest in 329 BCE by Alexander the Great, the area was known in the Hellenic world as Alexandria on the Caucasus, although the older name appears to have survived.

In around 600 CE, the Chinese Buddhist monk Xuanzang made a pilgrimage to Kapisa, and described there the cultivation of rice and wheat, and a king of the Suli tribe. In his chronicle, he relates that in Kapisa were over 6,000 monks of the Mahayana school of Buddhism.[3] In a 7th-century Chinese chronicle, the Book of Sui, Kapisa appears to be known as the kingdom of Cao.[4]

Between the 7th and 9th centuries, the kingdom was ruled by the Turk Shahi house.[5] At one point, Bagram was the capital of the kingdom, though in the 7th century, the center of power of Kapisa shifted to Kabul.[6]

See also

References
  1. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Pakistan, Volumes 4-6. Asiatic Society of Pakistan, 1959.
  2. Dr S. Chattopadhyaya 1974: 58; India as Known to Panini, 1953, p. 71, Dr V. S. Aggarwala; Foreign Elements in Ancient Indian Society, 2nd Century BC to 7th Century AD, 1979, p. 86, Dr Uma Prasad Thapliyal.
  3. Dust in the wind: retracing Dharma Master Xuanzang's Western pilgrimage. Rhythms Monthly, 2006. ISBN 986-81419-8-2, ISBN 978-986-81419-8-8
  4. Gandhāran Buddhism: archaeology, art, texts. Asian religions and society series. Pia Brancaccio, Kurt A. Behrendt. UBC Press, 2006. ISBN 0-7748-1080-7, ISBN 978-0-7748-1080-7
  5. Buddha Prakash . Glimpses of ancient Panjab. Sita Ram Kohli memorial lectures. Punjabi University, Dept. of Punjab Historical Studies, 1966
  6. Giovanni Verardi, Elio Paparatti. Buddhist caves of Jāghūrī and Qarabāgh-e Ghaznī, Afghanistan. Volume 2 of Reports and. IsIAO, 2004. ISBN 88-85320-22-8, ISBN 978-88-85320-22-2


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