History of Balochistan (Pakistan) and its links to South Asia

[W.11]

It is thought that Balochistan (Pakistan) has been part of iran/iranians and just as recently as British empire, came to be part of South Asia, but this notion betrays the historical links of Balochistan (Pakistan) to South Asia.

Few facts regarding Balochistan (Pakistan) and its historical ties with South Asia rather than the middle east

1) Indus Valley civilization sites have been discovered in Balochistan (Pakistan), this is not the case with Iranian Balochistan.

2) Maka (Satrapy)/ Achaemenid empire (probably same name as Magan of Sumerians)

According to Fleming, Maka, in the area of Gedrosia, can be considered as one of the Indian satrapies of the Achaemenid Empire.[3]

3) Mauryan empire ruled it which showed affinity of the region with south asia

Gedrosia

4) After the Mauryas, the area passed onto Indo Parthians who used Brahmi and Kharoshti scripts and called themselves Paratarajas

6) Gupta empire probably ruled Balochistan since they crossed seven rivers into Afghanistan, or the territory might have been maintained by the sasanians.

5) Xuanzang in 7th century defines the area of the kingdom of sindh which includes balochstan/bolan pass, xuanzang also writes about buddhist monasteries stretching along the makran coast well into eastern iran areas.

6) Sewa kingdom was a hindu kingdom which ruled in balochistan and name Sibi and Kalat-i-sewa is declared as derivates of sewa kingdom. Presence of Brahuis.

7) The chach kingdom also ruled areas till iranian balochistan or the brahman dynasty.

Harsha, gupta empire are also tauted as the potential rulers of Balochistan because both of them seem to have ruled domain of sindh which held Balochistan (Pakistan)

It remained under arab and mongol rule but also came under local rulership like Kalat along with Persian and pashtun but all of them were not long lasting.

8) It briefly came under Delhi sultanate and was conquered and administered under akber's reign as the mughal emperor. Both Babur and Akber considered Kabul and Kandahar as the gateway to Hindustan.

9) Was administered as british raj

regards

 

[Chakar The Great]

You forgot Mehrgarh

Mehrgarh is a Neolithic (7000-3200 BC) site on the Kachi plain of Baluchistan, Pakistan, and one of the earliest sites with evidence of farming (wheat and barley) and herding (cattle, sheep and goats) in south Asia. The site is located on the principal route between what is now Afghanistan and the Indus Valley.

The habitation of the site has been divided into seven periods, the first being the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period that dates to circa 7000 B.C. or even earlier. The site was abandoned between 2000 and 2500 B.C. during a period of contact with the Indus Civilization and then reused as a burial ground for some time after 2000 B.C.

 

[Thamizh Puli]

@W.11 & @Chakar The Great - fascinating information, thanks for starting this thread. I'll be following with interest so do keep it coming.

Question - The name Parthian and Paratarajas peak my curiosity. As you may know, one of the heroes of MahaBharatha is called Partha, more commonly known as Arjuna. What's more, as I looked up wikipedia on Paratarajas, found that there was a Parataraja king by name King Parataraja Bhimarjuna ! as you know Bhima is the 2nd of the Pandavas and his younger brother Arjuna (aka Partha) the 3rd of the Pandavas! Is it possible that the Parataraja clan itself traced back to or atleast was named after the Pandava Partha and the kings in that dynasty named themselves after the Bhima and Arjuna families ? I will try to dig some more but thought you may already know some source

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paratarajas#/media/File:Coin_of_Parataraja_Bhimarjuna.jpg