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Hephthalites
or "White Huns"
"Napki Malka" series
Silver Drachm 31mm (3.11 grams) circa 475-575 A.D.
Reference: M. 1509
Bust of Napki Malka right.
Fire altar flanked by two Hepthalite tankas.
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Napki Malka was a
Hephthalite
king of the 6th-7th century, and
possibly the founder of a dynasty bearing the same name. On his coins, his name
appears in
Pahlavi script
as "npky MLK". He was ruling in
the area of Kabul
, modern
Afghanistan
. His coins are rather numerous and
characteristic of the Kabul region, and have also been found in
Buddhist
stupas
and
monasteries
in
Taxila
.
His coins have been found in association with the Sasanian king
Khusrau I
in a hoard, suggesting possible
contemporaneity.
In 557, the Hephthalites were crushed by a coalition of Turks led by a
certain Sinbiju, or Sinzibul, and Sasanians, under their king
Khusrau I
. After their defeat, their land was
divided between the two victors along the line of the Oxus.
Later, during the Arab invasions of the 7th century, remaining communities of
Hephthalites, under a certain Tarkhan Nezak, are said to have staunchly resisted
the invaders. An alternative reading of Napki Malka's name on his coins has been
suggested by Harmatta, which would be Nycky MLK, Nycky being the
usual transcription of "Nezak", thereby suggesting a possible
identity between Napki Malka and Tarkhan Nezak, or the preservation of the "Napki
Malka" title down to the last Hephthalite rulers.
A temple appears on the back of the coins of Napki Malka, and has been
interpreted as a depiction of the temple of
Jabal Zur
for the worship of Shuna, a possible
instance of sun-worshipping before the arrival of Islam.
On his coins, Napki Malka wears a characteristic winged headdress, surmounted
by a bull's head.
The
Hephthalites (or Ephthalites), also known as the
White
Huns, were a
nomadic
confederation in
Central Asia
during the
late antiquity
period
. The stronghold of the Hephthalite power
was
Tokharistan
on the northern slopes of the
Hindukush
. By 479, the Hephthalites had conquered
Sogdiana
and driven the
Kidarites
westwards, and by 493 they had
captured areas of present-day northwestern
China
(Dzungaria
and the Tarim Basin
). By the end of the 5th century,
the Hephthalites overthrew the Indian
Gupta Empire
to their southeast and conquered
northern and central India
. But later they were defeated and driven
out of India by the Indian kings
Yasodharman
and Narasimhagupta in the 6th
century.
In
Chinese
chronicles, the Hephthalites are called
Yanda or Ye-ti-i-li-do, while older Chinese sources of c. 125 AD
call them Hoa or Hoa-tun and describe them as a tribe living
beyond the
Great Wall
in Dzungaria. Elsewhere they were
called the "White Huns
", known to the Greeks as Ephthalite,
Abdel or Avdel, to the Indians as Sveta Huna ("white
Huns"),
Chionite
or Turushka, to the
Armenians
as Haital, while their
Bactrian
name is ηβοδαλο (Ebodalo).
According to most specialist scholars, the spoken language of the Hephthalites
was different from the
Bactrian language that was utilized as the "official language" and minted on
coins. They may be the eponymous ancestors of the modern
Pashtun
tribal union of the
Abdali
, the largest tribal union in
Afghanistan
.
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