Taank Kingdom (also known as Takka or Taki) was a kingdom based in the

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

from 6th to 10th century CE. The kingdom was located south of

Kashmir Kashmir ( or ) is the Northwestern Indian subcontinent, northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term ''Kashmir'' denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir P ...

, north of

Sindh Sindh ( ; ; , ; abbr. SD, historically romanized as Sind (caliphal province), Sind or Scinde) is a Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Pakistan. Located in the Geography of Pakistan, southeastern region of the country, Sindh is t ...

and east of Zunbil dynasty, extending from the

Indus The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans- Himalayan river of South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in the Western Tibet region of China, flows northwest through the dis ...

in the west to the Beas river in the east, centered around modern day

Sialkot Sialkot (Punjabi language, Punjabi, ) is a city located in Punjab, Pakistan. It is the capital of the Sialkot District and the List of most populous cities in Pakistan, 12th most populous city in Pakistan. The boundaries of Sialkot are joined ...

.Li Rongxi (1996), ''The Great Tang Dynasty Record of the Western Regions'', Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai and Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, Berkeley, pp. 97–100

History

A "''Tseh-kia''" kingdom is mentioned by

Hiuen-Tsang Xuanzang (; ; 6 April 6025 February 664), born Chen Hui or Chen Yi (), also known by his Sanskrit Dharma name Mokṣadeva, was a 7th-century Chinese Buddhist monk, scholar, traveller, and translator. He is known for the epoch-making contribu ...

(631-643 A.D.). It is mentioned by him as situated towards east of

Gandhara Gandhara () was an ancient Indo-Aryan people, Indo-Aryan civilization in present-day northwest Pakistan and northeast Afghanistan. The core of the region of Gandhara was the Peshawar valley, Peshawar (Pushkalawati) and Swat valleys extending ...

. The

Chach Nama ''Chach Nama'' (; ; "Story of the Chach"), also known as the ''Fateh nama Sindh'' (; "Story of the Conquest of Sindh"), and as ''Tareekh al-Hind wa a's-Sind'' (; "History of Hind and Sind"), is a historical source for the history of Sindh. The ...

(history of Sindh) mentions it as ''Tak''. The earliest

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

author who mentions the kingdom is a merchant named Sulaiman. He visited the area before 851 AD, when his account was written. In his account, the kingdom is mentioned as ''Táfak'' (). In 915 AD, the Arab historian

Al-Masudi al-Masʿūdī (full name , ), –956, was a historian, geographer and traveler. He is sometimes referred to as the "Herodotus of the Arabs". A polymath and prolific author of over twenty works on theology, history (Islamic and universal), geo ...

mentions it as ''at-Tákin'', referring to the hills of the Punjab region. The name is read ''Tákin'' () by Sir Henry Elliott, and ''Táfan'' () by Gildemeister, in his extracts from Masudi. ''Takin, Tafan, Tafak, Taffa, Takas, and Takishar'', are various readings of the original form which is Taki or Takin. M. Reinaud gives another spelling, ''Tában'' (). The account of Sulaimān the merchant calls its king ''malik at-taqa'' and further notes that he was in good terms with the Arabs and the

Rashtrakuta Empire The Rashtrakuta Empire was a royal Indian polity ruling large parts of the Indian subcontinent between the 6th and 10th centuries. The earliest known Rashtrakuta inscription is a 7th-century copper plate grant detailing their rule from Manapu ...

Deccan The Deccan is a plateau extending over an area of and occupies the majority of the Indian peninsula. It stretches from the Satpura and Vindhya Ranges in the north to the northern fringes of Tamil Nadu in the south. It is bound by the mount ...

Ibn Khordadbeh Abu'l-Qasim Ubaydallah ibn Abdallah ibn Khordadbeh (; 820/825–913), commonly known as Ibn Khordadbeh (also spelled Ibn Khurradadhbih; ), was a high-ranking bureaucrat and geographer of Persian descent in the Abbasid Caliphate. He is the aut ...

, who died in 912 AD, mentions the king of the confederacy as next in eminence to the Balhara, whereas Kazwini mentions a fort named Taifand, the location of the fort agrees with the account of the hill of Sangala (near modern Sialkot). Several scholars have identified Takka kingdom with the kingdom of ''al-Usaifan'', whose king is reported by

al-Biladhuri ʾAḥmad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Jābir al-Balādhurī () was a 9th-century West Asian historian. One of the eminent Middle Eastern historians of his age, he spent most of his life in Baghdad and enjoyed great influence at the court of the caliph al-M ...

to have converted to Islam during the reign of Caliph

al-Mu'tasim Abū Isḥāq Muḥammad ibn Hārūn al-Rashīd (; October 796 – 5 January 842), better known by his laqab, regnal name al-Muʿtaṣim biʾllāh (, ), was the eighth Abbasid Caliphate, Abbasid caliph, ruling from 833 until his death in 842. ...

(). The

Lawik dynasty The Lawīk dynasty was the last native dynasty which ruled Ghazni prior to the Ghaznavids, Ghaznavid conquest in the present-day Afghanistan. Lawiks were originally Hindus, but later became Muslims. They were closely related to the Hindu Shahis, ...

Ghazni Ghazni (, ), historically known as Ghaznayn () or Ghazna (), also transliterated as Ghuznee, and anciently known as Alexandria in Opiana (), is a city in southeastern Afghanistan with a population of around 190,000 people. The city is strategica ...

is also believed to have belonged to the Takka people.

was the capital of the kingdom. Monarchs of Sialkot in the

Punjabi folklore Punjabi folklore (more particularly its folksongs) is a core part of the Punjabi culture. Other important components of Punjabi folklore are farces, anecdotes, idioms, folktales, and sayings. Research Origin Richard Carnac Temple argued in ...

such as

Raja Sálbán Raja Sálbán (also known as Salivahan) was a legendary Indian monarch who is said to have lived in the first century CE, and is said to have founded the city of Sialkot and the Sialkot Fort in Punjab. He is said to have also conquered territ ...

and

Raja Rasalu Raja Rasalu is a legendary prince and protagonist of the ''Adventures of Raja Rasalu'', a Punjabi folktale. According to the story, he is son of Raja Sálbán, the king of Sialkot, and a younger brother of Puran Bhagat. Monarchs of Sialkot in ...

may have belonged to the Takka kingdom.

Xuanzang's visit

During Xuanzang's visit, the neighboring state of Bofadou was a vassal (or province) of Taank. He also noted

Mihirakula Mihirakula (Gupta script: , ''Mi-hi-ra-ku-la'', Chinese: 摩酰逻矩罗 ''Mo-hi-lo-kiu-lo''), sometimes referred to as Mihiragula or Mahiragula, was the second and last Alchon Huns, Alchon Hun king of northwestern region of the Indian subcont ...

's capital to have been at

Sagala Sagala, Sakala (), or Sangala () was a city in ancient India, which is generally identified as the predecessor of the modern city of Sialkot that is located in what is now Pakistan's northern Punjab province. The city was the capital of the Ma ...

within Taank. Despite having an illustrious Buddhist heritage as evident from three colossal stupas, Buddhism had declined in the region (Punjab) after the

Gupta period The Gupta Empire was an Indian empire during the classical period of the Indian subcontinent which existed from the mid 3rd century to mid 6th century CE. At its zenith, the dynasty ruled over an empire that spanned much of the northern Indian ...

due to preference give to the propagation of

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Hypernymy and hyponymy, umbrella term for a range of Indian religions, Indian List of religions and spiritual traditions#Indian religions, religious and spiritual traditions (Sampradaya, ''sampradaya''s) that are unified ...

, and later collapsed after the

Alchon Hun The Alchon Huns, (Bactrian language, Bactrian: ''Alkhon(n)o'' or ''Alkhan(n)o'') also known as the Alkhan, Alchono, Alxon, Alkhon, Alakhana, and Walxon, were a nomadic people who established states in Central Asia and South Asia during the 4t ...

persecution, resulting in it being sparsely practiced in only about ten monasteries. On the contrary,

Brahminical Hinduism The historical Vedic religion, also called Vedism or Brahmanism, and sometimes ancient Hinduism or Vedic Hinduism, constituted the religious ideas and practices prevalent amongst some of the Indo-Aryan peoples of the northwest Indian subcontin ...

rose as the primary religion in the region and there were several hundreds of Hindu ''Deva'' shrines. He visited

Lahore Lahore ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, second-largest city in Pakistan, after Karachi, and ...

in 630 AD during Taank rule. According to him: "The country of Takka is south of Kashmira, extending from the Indus river to its west and Vipasha river to its east. They produce abundant quantities of non-sticky rice and wheat, also gold, brass, iron and other metals. They do not believe in Buddhism, and pray in several hundred deva temples. This country has ten Buddhist monasteries left." There were many more before, states Xuanzang.Foreign Influence on Ancient India by Krishna Chandra Saga
p.216
/ref>

References

Bibliography

*{{cite book , last=Cunningham , first=Alexander , title=The Ancient Geography of India: I. The Buddhist Period, Including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang , publisher= Munshiram Manoharlal, year=1871 , isbn=9788121510646 , location= , pages=150–154 History of Punjab History of Sialkot Medieval Indian monarchies Dynasties of India Former monarchies in Pakistani history Dynasties of Pakistan Hindu dynasties

History

Xuanzang's visit

See also

References

Bibliography