2. Roh Desh or Afganistan, The Original Home of Rohillas:
The original home of the Rohilla Kshatriyas was Afghanist an called Roh in the Middle Ages. The political boundries of Bharat have varied in different ages; and a study of races, language and civilization, points to the fact that Afghanistan was once a part of India. This view is supported by the French School of Archaelogy and researches of Sir Aurel Stein. In ancient times it was called Pakth Kambhoj Desh. In the north of Kabul River was Kapisa and Gandhar, Pamir and Badkhshan can both be considered to have been parts of Kambhoj. This is verifed from a study of MahaBharat for Balkh and Kambhoj are mentioned therein together, from which it can be inferred that Balkh was situated on the boundary of Kambhoj. In his Drama, Kalt Das has made a mention of the fact that in the course of his conquest of the north Arjun received a present of jewels from Kambhoj Desh. Even today in the town of Munjan, there is a mine of precious stones. Kalhan in his “Raj Tarangni” refers to Kambhoj and Tukhar separately: and the Chinese historians tell us that Tahia people lived on the western boundary of the Kann Province. The Tahias have also been called Tokhars who had reached there in second century B.C. and the country in which these people were found was called Tokhar Desh or Turkistan. Under the Maurays, Kamboli was apart of the Mauraya Empire. In the SabhaPary of the Mahabharat, we also read of the conquest of the north by Arjun and it appears that in the first and second centuries A. D. Afganistan was also called Lohit, because we read that Arjun conquered Balkh, and he could have reached that place only through Roh or Afganistan. Thetribes over whom Arjun had won a victory were Dard, Kambhoj and Turushk. They were all hardy and fierce warriors and Arjun had to overcome them. The eastern Afganistan was called Roh. We are tempted to quote here from “Ancient Geography of India” by Cunningham, edited with its introduction and notes by S. N. Majumdhar Shastri, M.A. On Pages 100-101, we read: “Opokien or Afghanistan is mentioned only once by Hiuen Tsang in a brief paragraphy which places it between Falana and Ghazni, to the west of former and to the southeast of the latter”. From this descriptionit would appear to be the same as the Loi of Fahiene and the Roh of the Indian historians. Perhaps the name Opokien may have some connection with Vorgun or Verghin, which Wilfords Surveyor Moghal Beg, placed near the source of Tunchi or Tochi branch of the Kurram River. In the map attached to “Burne’s Travel” by Arrow Smith, the name is written Borghoon. I am, however, inclined to identify Opokien, or Avakan as it is rendered by M. Julian, with the name of Afghan, as I find the Chinese syllable Kien represents Ghan in word Ghanta. From the cursory notice of the district by H. Tsang, I infer that it must have formed part of the Province of Falana. It was certainly a part of the mountainous district of Roh called so by Abdul Fazal and Ferishta (Briggs’s Ferishta-Volume 1, page 8)or southeastern Afganisthan and part of Biluchistan or cou ntry between Ghazni and Khandar and the Indus. The people of this province are called Rohillas to distinguish them from the Ghori Afgans between Balkh and Mery. There is, however, a slight chronological difficulty about this identification, as the Afghans of Khalij, Ghor and Kabul are stated to have subduded the province of Roh as late as A.H. 63 or A.D. 682, that is about 30 years later than the period of H. Tsang’s visit.”
From the above it can be concluded that Afghanistan was called Roh about 682 A. D. In the book “Yuan Chwang’s Travels in India” by Thomas Watters, published by London Royal Asiatic Society, 1904 Edition: we read in Volum 11 on page 273: “The narrative in the records continues east to the HohLohu Country.” This was also the old Tokhara territory. It had Oxus on its northside. The district was like Kunduz in natural productions and ways of the people.
Yule indentifies the HohLohu, that is perhaps Rahu of this passage, with Ragh, still an important fief of Badkhshan between tha Kokcha and the Oxus. This district also was apparently not visited by the pilgrim”.
Even today Roh is a part of Afghanistan. Khan Mohd. Abdul Slam in his book “NasabiAgaghana” says on page 18: “Rohillas are those Afghans who came to India and were known as such. Roh is situated in Afghanistan. The Afghans do not call themselves Rohilla. The fact is that they came to be socalled in India in the seventeenth century. Moreover, in the book “GuliRahmat” by Saadat Yarkhan Bin Hafiz Rahmat and in the history of Farukhabad by Syed Wabullah, it is stated that the mountain Roh is a long chain of hills in the east of which is the Kashmir Mountain, and in the west the River Elman, which is near Heart and in the north is the mountain of Kashgar and in the south Suleman Mountain & Khandhar, Kabul, Peshwar, Khyber, Hassan Abdal are all included in Roh. The language of this tract contains words of Sanskrit and Persian. The Rohila Pathans entered India in the 17th Century in the time of Sher Shah Suri and continued coming in the subsequent century, and at last settled down in the land comprising of the districts of Sambhal and Katehar, which later on came to be called Rohil Khand. These people were mostly Yusuf Zais”.
The author of the extract given above is of the opinion that the Afghans are semitic akin to the Jews in race. But this is not a fact, as Afghanistan from very ancient times was inhibited by the Aryans. In a book by Vara Mahira written in the sixth century A. D. Avgan has been used for the people of Afghanistan. H.Tsang entered India through Opokien. The Greeks have referred to the inhabitants of the Kabul Valley as Askein which can be the same as Ashvak of MahaBharat. Hence the view of Mr. Salam does not appear to be correct.
In the Basant Number of the “Daily Milap”, 1930, there appeared an article on the Geography and ancient history of Afghanistan, in which the view of Abdul Salam that the Afghans are semitic in rare has been contradicted. Mr. Ahmad Khan states: “The people of Afghanistan are Aryans in race. There was a time when Afghanistan extended over a wide territory, and the Pushtan, Bactrian, Tajik or Dadyak, Yarat, Askai races inhabited it. As time passed on, other races like the Greeks and Indians got mingled with them. Several thousands years ago, all of them were found in Central Asia. In 3000 B.C., the Aryans were found in the valleys of Oxus and Euphrates, and then they colonized Bactria; and as their population expanded they crossed the narrow mountain valley and settled down in Heart, Kurram, Ghor, Kandhar, Biluchistan, Tokhraristan, Badhakshan, Chitral, Gandhar, Kabul, Peshawar, Pakhtia and down up to valley of Indus, Kashmir and the Punjab from where they penetrated in the hear of India. There is a striking similarity and affinity between the people of India and Afghanistan as regards race, language and religion. Long after this the Sakas came and settled down in Afghanistan”. The same writer further on remarks: “ If a close connection between India and Afghanistan is acknowledge as the Cambridged History of India would have us believe, then we shall have to admit that the history of Afghanistan is initimately connected with India. Seven hundred years after the war between the Asura and Devas, the descendants of Rohu or Dhrou, the son of King Yayati , migrated from the valley of Peshwar and Gandhar to Afghanistan. We read in the Vishnu Puran that the Chandra Vanshi Kshatryas had colonized the land of Jalalabad, Kandhar, Kabul and from there
they reached Iran and then went towards Mesopotamia. Our traditions point to the fact that Kshatryas of Russia, Turkistan and also China were the Kshatriyas of Russia, Turkistan and also China were the Kshtriyas of India. The Swedish Research Scholar Count Bahrein Stein, states that the records carried by Sir William Jones with him to Europe refer to a genelogical table of the Rajas of Mahabadrni dynasty from which it is learnt that the Rajas of this dynasty existed 5600 years before Alexander. The famous scholar Wilson writes that before the invasion of Alexander Afghanistan had a Hindu population. It should also not be forgooten that the Chandra Vanshi Rajas found in the northwest regarded it an act in the interior of India, known tham as Devas. Hence it was that the they left the districts of Sindh, Multan, Dera Ghazi Khan to Afghans belong to this race”. It is a fact that the people found living on the northwestern frontier of India have all along been regarded as war like and uncivilized by the people of India. Pandit Gauri Shankar Ojha, in his history of Rajputana, Volume1, calls the Sakas, Huns and Turushks as Aryan Tribes. Moreover, according to Colonel Tod, the descendants of Shri Krishan and his Yadav Clan and that of Bapa Rawal had settled down in Afghanistan or Roh Desh.
