Dahir of Aror

Raja Dahir (Sindhi: राजा दाहिर, راجا ڏاھر), born 679 AD, died 712 AD, was the last Hindu ruler situated in Sindh and parts of Punjab in modern day Pakistan. During the beginning of the Muslim conquest in the Indian subcontinent his kingdom was conquered by Muhammad bin Qasim for the Umayyad Caliphate.

Reign as recounted in the Chach-Nama

The Chach Nama is the oldest chronicle of the Arab conquest of Sindh. It was translated into Persian by Muhammad Ali bin Hamid bin Abu Bakr Kufi in 1216 CE. from an earlier Arabic text believed to have been composed by the Sakifí family, the kinsmen of Muhammad bin Qasim. At one time it was considered to be a romance until Mountstuart Elphinstone's observations of its historical veracity.

It recounts Raja Dahir as a Brahmin king and son of Chach of Alor who ascended the throne upon the death of his uncle Chandar. His wife grew up at Brahmanabad with their elder brother Daharsiah who arranged her marriage to the King Sohan of Bhatia. She was then moved to reside at the capital Alor (Aror) with Dahir preceding the wedding. However in an attempt to circumvent a prophecy that declared that her husband would rule a strong kingdom from his capital at Aror, Dahir is reported to have married her instead and the event resulted in both severe criticism and a conflict with his brother Daharsiah. who immediately assembled and army and marched upon Dahir. His brother however died of disease during the siege of Aror. Dahir then marched to Brahmanabad where he subdued the area and consolidate his support base, by instating Daharsiah's son Chach as the ruler and marrying his brothers widow who was also the sister of Sarhand Lohanah, a powerful chieftain who commanded the allegiance of various Jat tribes to .

Eight years later his kingdom was invaded by Ramal or Kannauj. After initial losses the enemy advanced upon Aror so he allied hismself with one 'Alafi Arab. Alafi and his warriors, who were in exile from the Umayyad Caliph were recruited and led Dahir's armies in repelling the invading forces. They then stayed on as valued members of Dahirs court. In the later war with the Caliphate however Alafi served in the capacity of a military advisor but refused to take active part in the campaign; as a result of which he later secured a pardon from the Caliph.

Reign as recounted by Ferishta

Ferishta s account of the events leading to the invasion and after of Sindh and Raja Dahir are at considerable variance to the Chachnamah . He cites various sources other than the Chahnamah in

CHAPTER IX. THE HISTORY OF SIND AND THUTTA

MAHOMED KASIM.
IT is related in several histories, such as the Kholasut-ool-Hikayat, the Huj-Nama, and the his¬tory of Hajy Mahomed Kandahary, that the first establishment of the Mahomedan faith in the country of Sind occurred under the following circumstances: — Hijaj (the son of Yoosoof Shukfy), governor of Bussora at the time when Wuleed, the son of Abdool Mullik, was ruler of the provinces of both Iraks, resolved on invading India. Ac¬cordingly, in the year 87, he deputed Mahomed Haroon with a select force into Mikran, who subdued that country, and made converts of many of the inhabitants called Bulo-chies; and having there established a regular go¬vernment, the Mahomedan faith may be said to have prevailed in that country from the period alluded to.

We are told that in those days, also, the in¬habitants of the island of Selandeep (Ceylon) were accustomed to send vessels to the coast of Africa, to the Red Sea, and to the Persian Gulf, a practice prevailing from the earliest ages; and that Hindoo pilgrims resorted to Mecca and Egypt for the purpose of paying adoration to the idols, to which they looked with the utmost veneration.
It is related, also, that the people trading from Selan-deep became converts to the true faith at as early a period as the reign of the first caliphs, and that having thus had intercourse with Mahomedan na¬tions, the King of Selandeep despatched a vessel laden with various rare articles, the produce of his country, to the caliph Wuleed at Bagdad.*
On this vessel arriving at the entrance of the Persian Gulf it was attacked and captured by orders of the ruler of Deebul, * together with seven other boats, in which were some Mahomedan fami¬lies going on pilgrimage to Kurbula. Some of the captives making their escape carried their complaint to Hijaj, who addressed a letter to Raja Dahir, the son of Sasa, ruler of Sind, and sent it to be for¬warded from Mikran by Mahomed Haroon. Raja Dahir replied, that the act of hostility was com¬mitted by a powerful state, over which he had no control.

On the receipt of this letter Hijaj obtained the consent of Wuleed, the son of Abdool Mullik, to invade India, for the purpose of propagating the faith; and at the same time deputed a chief of the name of Budmeen, with three hundred cavalry, to join Haroon in Mikran, who was directed to reinforce the party with one thousand good soldiers more to attack Deebul. Budmeen failed in his expedition, and lost his life in the first action. Hijaj, not deterred by this defeat, resolved to follow up the enterprise by another. In consequence, in the year 93, he de¬puted his cousin and son-in-law, Imad-ood-Deen Mahomed Kasim, the son of Akil Shukhfy, then only seventeen years of age, with six thousand soldiers, chiefly Assyrians, with the necessary imple¬ments for taking forts, to attack Deebul. This army proceeded by the route of Shiraz and Mikran. On reaching the towns of Deboon and Dursila, on the confines of the Sind territory, Mahomed Kasim halted; and having taken the necessary steps for advancing he marched on to Deebul, situated on the banks of the Indus, which town is now called Tutta.

Lead up to war with the Umayyads

The primary reason noted in the Chach Nama for the expedition by the governor of Basra Al-Hajjaj bin Yousef against Raja Dahir, was the raid by pirates off the coast of Debal. resulting in the capturing both gifts to the caliph from the King of Serendib (modern Sri Lanka) as well as the female pilgrims on board who were captured. The Chach nama reports that upon hearing of the matter Hajjaj wrote a letter to the Raja and upon unsuccessful resolution being reached, launched of a military expedition. Other reasons attributed to the Umayyad interest in gaining a foothold in the Makran, Balochistan and Sindh regions in addition to protecting their maritime interests, are the participation of armies from Sindh alongside Persians in various battles such as those at Nahawand, Salasal and Qādisiyyah and the granting of refuge to fleeing rebel chieftains.

Ethnography of Raja Dahir's Sindh

Some writers call Raja Dahir a ruler of a predominantly Buddhist state However it is possible that the Buddhism of Sindh was actually just Buddhistic Hinduism as it was in Bengal under the Pala Dynasty and Andhra under the Satavahanas. It is also pointed out by some scholars such as Ikram that only southern Sindh was Buddhist in majority.

The Chinese Buddhist ambassador to Sindh in A.D. 641, Hiuen Tsiang reported many temples of Lord Shiva of Neelkanth Mahadev, especially along the banks of the Sindhu River this gives credence to presence of Bargujar Kings in this area as they were the worshipers of Neelkanth Mahadev and made many temples as in Sariska ,Alwar,Kalinjar ,Baroli etc.. It is believed that even Zoroastrians (or at least Magis) had lived in Sindh during the reign of Raja Dahir.

War with the Umayyads

First Campaign

The first force was led by Badil bin Tuhfa and landed at Nerun Kot (modern Hyderabad), where it was supported by Abdullah bin Nahban the governor of Makran. They were, however, defeated at Debal (modern Karachi)Elliot places it at Thatta.

Second Campaign

Hajaj's next campaign was launched under the aegis of Muhammad bin Qasim. In 711 A.D Qasim assaulted Debal and upon the express orders of Al-Hajjaj exacted a bloody retribution on Debal in the freeing of both the earlier captives as well as prisoners from the previous failed campaign. Other than this instance the policy adopted is seen as generally being one of enlisting and co-opting support from both defectors as well as the defeated lords and forces. From Debal he then moved on to Nerun for supplies, where the city's Buddhist governor had acknowledged itself as a tributary of the Caliphate after the first campaign and opened the gates to the forces of the second. Qasim's armies then moved on to capture Siwistan (Sehwan) and received the alliance of various tribal chiefs and secured the surrounding regions, With whom he captured the fort at Sisam and thereby secured the regions to the west of the Indus River.

The Chachnama provides accounts of the rule by successors of the Rai Dynasty as one marked by persecution of Buddhists, Jats and Meds from the time of Chach as well as of a prophecy on the fall of Raja Dahir being a factor in swaying many defections to Qasim's army.

However, sociologist U.T Thakur suggest a more complex dynamic, suggesting that Hinduism (being the religion of the dominant castes) and Buddhism (being the religion of the recessive castes) existed side by side. The king was a Brahmin, but a majority of his advisers were Buddhists. The ruler of Brahmanabad, a Jatt, also had professed Buddhism as his spiritual guide. Nonetheless, there was a strong sense of "ideological dualism" between them, which he wrote was the inherent weakness that the Arabs exploited in their favor when they invaded the region.

By enlisting the support of various local tribes, such as the Jats, Meds, Bhuttos and Buddhist rulers of Nerun, Bajhra, Kaka Kolak and Siwistan, as infantry to his predominantly cavalry army Muhammad bin Qasim defeated Dahir and captured his eastern territories for the Umayyad Caliphate.

Dahir then attempted to prevent Qasim from crossing the Indus river and so moved his forces to its eastern banks in an attempt prevent Qasim from furthering the campaign. Eventually however, Qasim successfully completed the crossing and defeated an attempt to repel them at Jitor led by Jaisiah, the son of Dahir. Qasim then advanced onwards to give Dahir battle at Raor near modern day Nawabshah (712 A.D.) where Dahir died in battle.

King Dahir died in battle and the sister Dahar had married for the sake of his kingship burned herself to death with other women of her household. The historian Mada'ini preserves a short poem of triumph said to have been uttered by the Arab who killed him:

The horses at the battle of Dahir and the spears
And Muhammad b. Qasim b. Muhammad
Bear witness that I fearlessly scattered the host of them''
Until I came upon their chief with my sword.
And left him rolled in the dirt.
Dust on his unpillowed cheek

When Dahir's severed head was presented to Hajjaj, a courtier sang: ``we have conquered Sindh after enormous trouble.... Betrayed is Dahir by Mohammed Bin Qasim's masterly strategy. Rejoice, the evil doers are disgraced. Their wealth has been brought away . . . They are now solitary and brittle as eggs and their women, fair and fragrant as musk-deer, are now asleep in our harems.''

Lineage

He was the son of the Rani Suhanadi and Chach of Alor. Chach was initially the Munshi (Chamberlain) of Raja Sahasi Rai II of the Rai Dynasty then later ruler of Sindh.

Modern Legacy

In modern times, Raja Dahir is admired by many, including a countable part of Sindhi Muslims (Sunni and Shiites) for defending both Sindh and Muhammad Bin Allafi, Hindus for defending India and the Hindus, and Zoroastrians for defending Sindh for them.

Even though the Sindhi Muslims admit Raja Dahir as their king, the Muslims elsewhere in the country publish slander about the raja. In a Pakistan textbook of Social Studies for Class VI (Sindh Textbook Board, 1997) Raja Dahir is described as a cruel king. On the other hand, textbooks of Sindh and Sindhis themselves refuse to classify Raja Dahir as an enemy and see his as their fatherly-figure.

Ayaz Latif Palijo, referred to by Sindhis as “Quid-e-Inqilab” (Leader of Revolution), admired by Sindhi nationalists criticized the invader and praised Raja Dahir.

See also

• Alor

Sources

• Mirza Kalichbeg Fredunbeg: The Chachnamah, An Ancient History of Sind, Giving the Hindu period down to the Arab Conquest. Translated by from the Persian by, Commissioners Press 1900[4]
• Thakur Deshraj: Jat Itihas, Delhi, 1934
• R.C. Majumdar, H.C. Roychandra and Kalikinkar Ditta : An Advanced History of India, Part II,
• Tareekh-Sind, By Mavlana Syed Abu Zafar Nadvi
• Wink, Andre, Al Hind the Making of the Indo Islamic World, Brill Academic Publishers, Jan 1, 1996, ISBN 90-04-09249-8

See also

• Cheema