Hindu Shahis
Also called: Hindu Shahiya dynasty · Topic: Turkic Invasions and the Delhi Sultanate · NCERT: Class 7, Ch 4 "Turning Tides: The 11th and 12th Centuries"
Meaning
The Hindu Shahis were a powerful dynasty of the 9th–10th centuries. They ruled lands in present-day Afghanistan and northern Pakistan, up to Punjab. They controlled the Khyber Pass through the Hindu Kush. Invaders came through this pass, but it was also a 2,500-year-old trade route and the road Buddhist monks took to Central Asia. For many years, with help from other Indian rulers, the Shahis held back invasions from the north-west. When they fell in the early 11th century, the Indus plains lay open to invaders.
Example
Mahmud of Ghazni first defeated King Jayapala. Then in 1008, in northern Punjab, he defeated Jayapala's son Anandapala, even though Anandapala led a coalition (a joining together) of north Indian rulers. Al-Biruni, who was in Mahmud's own camp, still called the Shahi kings "men of noble sentiment and noble bearing".
Don't confuse with
- Ghaznavids: they were the Turkic dynasty from Ghazni that destroyed the Hindu Shahis. They were not part of the Shahi line.