A very interesting excerpt from a BBC documentary. Can we infer that Pre Islamic Era Paktuns were hindos plus buddhist?
A very interesting excerpt from a BBC documentary. Can we infer that Pre Islamic Era Paktuns were hindos plus buddhist?
Last edited by Saad2016; 01-26-2019 at 12:34 AM.
poi (01-26-2019)
They're most likely khatris, just like Hindu balochs who are khatri.
AlluGobi (03-07-2021), Coldmountains (01-26-2019), Jatt1 (01-26-2019), karnalIroh (03-08-2021), Saad2016 (01-26-2019), vishankar (04-04-2021)
Pre-Islamic or even Pre-Pakhtunised populations of this region were Hindus, Buddhist as well as Zoroastrian. Modern Pakhtuns have roots in Indian, Eastern Iranian and Tajik populations.Originally Posted by Saad2016
I wouldn't characterise these as Pakhtuns.
An interesting question : If we assume that these were some Hindu migrants ( Khatris) living as minorities there then why the ancients remains in these areas are either Buddhist or hindu?
These may have been recent migrants, however way back in the past, a little over a thousand years ago, you had potentially Turkic, Hindushahis ruling over the stretch of land from the Kabul valley, this region and all the way up to Potohar, Kahuta and Kashmir.
And then prior to that, you had the Kushanas, who gave a lasting Buddhist character to the most prominent civilisation of the region, the Gandhara.
And then of course, you had the Gibaris, who converted to Islam and came to be known as the Shahmiris of Swat, they were Zoroastrian, Gebari being a derogatory Arabic reference to Zoros. And Zoroastrianism has traces in Gilgit Baltistan as well as the Wakhan, in the form of the surviving customs of the Atashparast. Nuristanis probably had conserved something richer, before they became Muslims during Amir Abdurrehman's times. So the evidence is all over the place, Saad.
These are recent migrants as Quetta isn't even that old. Likely from Sindh or punjab looking at faces.
How recent? the documentary says that they migrated during the partition.
Not that old, maybe few centuries. Ask them their qoum/kom and likely answer will be some arora shopkeeper in pashtun majority areas.
Last edited by bol_nat; 01-26-2019 at 02:09 AM.
In the absence of any historical record presented to support this idea, its difficult to reach a conclusion. But if its claim vs claim then please check this out :
King Jaypala was the last Hindu king of Kabul. Many Pathans left Afghanistan after this. They dont call themselves pathans but identify with the place where they stay. They dont even know that their ancestors were Pathans. In Mahabharata, Shakuni is an important character. He was a pathan. Similarly, a great Sanskrit writer Panini was also a Pathan. The people of Afghanistan were Hindus before 900 AD. Pathans are ancient race. For last 1000 years they are muslims. However, for the earlier 1000 + years they were Hindus.
They were converted. Many members of royal families of Afghanistan (both Pathans and non Pathans) accepted death but did not convert to Islam. Example, the royal family of Balkh.They were Buddhist and Hindus. When given a choice between Islam and Death, they choose Death. All Pathans were not slaves of musliums. Hwever, many could not migrate to Hindu majority areas. They had to accept islam.
Source : https://www.quora.com/Are-all-Pathans-Muslim
* this is not an academic souce but just opinion based.
Jatt1 (01-26-2019)
Do we have gedmatch on them?
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