Ancient History of Gilgit-Baltistan – Part I
By Dr. Mohsin Abbas Gangjuk
A nation that disregards the importance of its history risks having no future. Unfortunately, the history of Gilgit-Baltistan has long remained in dismay due to the negligence of our society, government, and especially the youth. The absence of history departments in Karakoram International University, Gilgit and Baltistan University, Skardu reflects a troubling indifference toward preserving our heritage. As a result, newer generations remain unaware of their rich historical roots-be it religious, political or social. In an effort to revive this forgotten legacy, I am presenting a series of writings on the ancient history of Gilgit-Baltistan, focusing on its ancient names, languages, and religions. This work aims to spark awareness and appreciation for the deep cultural and historical identity of our region.
Part 1: Ancient Names of Gilgit-Baltistan:
Destinies of states are normally determined by their physical environment as well as by their past histories, which manifest from Gilgit-Baltistan, one of the eccentric regions of the world. The mighty mountains of Gilgit-Baltistan preserved the centuries-old ancient human traditions and folk tales. Nonetheless, in later epochs, geographers and travelers have unveiled the story of mountains and their peoples to the external world.
Gilgit-Baltistan is comprised of a 72,496 sq. km area and a population of over 1.49 Million in 2017 according to Gilgit-Baltistan at Glance Report 2020. It has three administrative divisions; Gilgit, Diamer, and Baltistan, further demarcated into ten districts; Gilgit, Hunza, Nager, Ghizer, Astor, Diamer, Skardu, Shigar, Kharmang, and Ghanche. On its northwest lies a thin arm of Afghan territory known as the Wakhan strip, which stretches out of its main body in Afghanistan to the north of Hunza and also includes the Little Pamir Mountain ranges. The former Russian states of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan are found across this Wakhan strip, while the uppermost tip of this strip meets with Xinjiang, a province of China, forming the northern boundary of Gilgit- Baltistan. Likewise, from the east, it is isolated by rigid frontiers of Indian administered states of Kargil, Ladakh, and Jammu and Kashmir via a temporary cease-fire line which was established in 1948; runs down from the Karakoram Pass towards the Nanga Parbat divides Kashmir into hermetically sealed halves. Similarly, it also meets with the NWFP (KPK) province in the southwest.
Origin of the Present Name
Historically, Gilgit-Baltistan was divided into several independent principalities ruled by the local rulers. The whole region of Gilgit-Baltistan was never remained united in her entire political history. Therefore, no common name was available for the entire region. Various writers used different names by using various geographical features.
Herodotus (d. 425 BC), the first Greek historian, mentioned the country of Pactyica, the country of war-like Indian tribes in the north. They were famous for their immense quality of gold, which was either extracted from sand by using gold-digging ants bigger than foxes but smaller than dogs or washed down by rivers. Almost all the scholars agreed that here Herodotus referred to the country of Darada. He also referred to these lands when he said, “the greater part of Asia was discovered by the Persian king Darius as he wanted to find out where Indus joins the Sea because Indus is the only river other than Nile where crocodiles are found. So, he sent an expedition under Scylax, who followed the course of river Indus until it reached the sea.” Claudius Ptolemy (d. 170 AD), the Greek geographer and astronomer, mentioned the nation of the Byltae/Balti, who lived in the west of the Akhass region near the Imus Mountains (mountains of Pamir and Hindu Kush).
Fa-Hien (d. 422 AD), a Chinese Buddhist monk, in his travels in India and Ceylon (Sri Lanka) from 399 to 414 described the country of Kee-cha where he found four great monasteries. It has not been identified but scholars believe that it was Ladakh or Skardu or some well-known place in it. Before entering North India, he reached the kingdom called To-lie, identified with the country of Dardae, where monks belonged to the Hinayana branch of Buddhism.
Hiuen-Tsang (d. 664), another Chinese Buddhist pilgrim, who traveled to India from 629- 645 reached the country of Po-lu-lo (Bolor), where there is much gold and silver.
Abu al- Rayhan Muhammad Al-Beruni (d.1052), Muslim astronomer, geographer and historian, gives details about these regions as,
“The River Sindh rises in the mountains Unang in the territory of the Turks, which you can reach in the following way: Leaving the ravine by which you enter Kashmir and entering the plateau; then you have for a march of two or more days on your left the mountains of Bolor and Shamilan, Turkish tribes who are called Bhattavaryan. Their king has the title Bhatta- Shah. Their towns are Gilgit, Aswira, and Shiltas, and their language is Turkish…This is the farthest place to which our merchants trade, and beyond which they never pass. This is the frontier of India from the north.”
The famous ancient geographical work, Ḥudud al-Alam: The Regions of the World, compiled in 982/83 mentioned Gilgit as Bolor and Baltistan as a province of Tibet known as Bolorian Tibet.
Kalhana’s Rajatarangini, an ancient account of the history of Kashmir, the first time mentioned the word Daraddesa for the Gilgit region. The late 4th-century Kharoshthi inscription of a Daraddraya (king of the Daradas) was found at the Alam Bridge near Gilgit.
Mirza Haider Doughlat invaded the country of Bolor in 1528. He gives the following description as,
“Bolor is an infidel country and most of its inhabitants are mountaineers. Not one of them has religion or creed. Nor is there anything which they abstain from or to avoid but they do whatever they list and follow their desires without check or compunction. Baluristan is bounded on the east by the provinces of Kashghar and Yarkand; on the north by Badakhshan; on the west by Kabul and Lumghan; and the south by the dependencies of Kashmir. It is the fourth month’s journey in circumference. Its whole extent consists of mountains, valleys, and defiles, in so much that one might almost say that in the whole of Baluristan, not one farsakh of level ground is to be met with. The population is numerous. No village is at peace with another, but there is constant hostility, and fights are continually occurring among them.”
The Mughal sources used Tibet-i-Khurd (Little Tibet) for the Baltistan region. The Chinese sources mentioned Po-lu-lo in connection with the 7th-century local ruling dynasty of Patola Shahis. It was later changed into Bolor by the Muslim sources. Bolor at that time consisted of two parts; eastern parts were called Great Bolor identified as Baltistan and western parts were called Little Bolor identified as Gilgit.
Chilas is the Headquarter of Diamer district. It also includes sub-divisions of Darel, Tangir, and Astor. It is the ancient city that lies at the crossroads of communication for traders and pilgrims. Its ancient names are Shiltas, Silavata, and Semanangara, all derived from 6th-century AD old rock inscriptions. The Northern Areas of Pakistan was later renamed as Gilgit-Baltistan by the Pakistan Peoples Party’s government in 2009.
References:
- Herodotus, The Histories, trans. Aubrey de Selincourt (London: The Penguin Books Limited, 1972), 246248. These regions are famous for abundance of gold and gold extraction process from sands and rivers, which was imported to Hindustan, see Abū’l Faḍl, The A’in-i- Akbarī, ed. D. C. Phillot, trans. H. Blochmann (1873; repr., Lahore: Sang-e-Meel Publications, 2003; originally published by Calcutta: Calcutta Madrasah,).
- The term Dards or Dardistan included the whole valleys lying between the Western Punjab and the Hindu Kush, inhabited mostly by Arian tribes. The name Dard is not acknowledged by any section of the tribes to whom it has been so frequently applied. It is now difficult to identify with certainty the exact locality of these tribes, see John Biddulph, Tribes of the Hindoo Koosh (Lahore: Sang-e-Meel Publications, 2001.
- Claudius Ptolemy, Collected Works of Ptolemy, trans. Edward Luther Stevenson (London: Delphi Classics, 2009).
- Fa-Hien, A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms: Being an Account by the Chinese Monk Fa-Hien of his Travels in India and Ceylon (399-414 CE) in Search of the Buddhist Books of Discipline, trans. James Legge (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1886).
- Shaman Hwui Li, The Life of Hiuen-Tsiang (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. Limited, 1973).
- Edward C. Sachau, Alberuni’s India: An Account of the Relgion, Philosophy, Literature, Geography, Chronology, Astronomy, Customs, Laws and Astrology of India About AD 1030, vol. 1 (Delhi: Low Price Publications, 1996).
- Anonymous, Ḥudud Al- Alam: The Regions of the World trans.V. Minorsky (Karachi: Indus Publications, 1942).
- Kalhana, Rajatarangini, trans. Aurel Stein, vol. ii (Delhi: Roopabh Publishers, 1961), 911.
- Doughlat, The Tarikh-i-Rashidi, 384.
- Abdul Qadir Al-Badayuni, Muntakhab-ut-Tawarikh, vol. ii, trans. W. H. Lowe (Karachi: Karimsons, 1976).
- Karl Jettmar, Bolor and Dardistan (Islamabad: National Institute of Folk Heritage, 1980).
