Portrait of Alchon king Khingila (c.450 CE), and the bull/lunar tamga of the Alchon (known as Tamgha S1),[1] as visible on Alchon coinage.
Sanjeli
Eran
Gwalior
Sondani
Choti Sadri
Kura
Kausambi
Rīsthal
ALCHON HUNS
HEPHTHALITES
NEZAK HUNS
SASA- NIANS
RAIS
GUPTAS
VAKATAKAS
ZHANGZHUNG KINGDOM
Northern Wei
TOCHARIANS
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Find spots of epigraphic inscriptions (red dots) indicating local control by the Alchon Huns in India between 500-530 CE,[2] with neighbouring polities,[3] and territorial extent of the Alchon Huns (brown).[4]
Capital
Kapisa Udabhanda[5] Sagala[6][7]
Common languages
Brahmi and Bactrian (written)
Religion
Shaivism Buddhism Zoroastrianism[8]
Government
Nomadic empire
Historical era
Late antiquity
• Established
370
• Disestablished
670
Currency
Drachm
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Sassanian Empire
Kidarites
Gupta Empire
Hephthalites
Nezak Huns
Turk Shahi
Second Aulikara dynasty
Karkota dynasty
Maukhari dynasty
Later Gupta dynasty
Taank Kingdom
Kalachuri dynasty
Today part of
Afghanistan Pakistan India
The Alchon Huns, (Bactrian: αλχον(ν)ο [Alkhon(n)o] or αλχαν(ν)ο [Alkhan(n)o]) also known as the Alkhan, Alchono, Alxon, Alkhon, Alakhana, and Walxon, were a nomadic people who established states in Central Asia and South Asia during the 4th and 6th centuries CE.[1] They were first mentioned as being located in Paropamisus, and later expanded south-east, into the Punjab and Central India, as far as Eran and Kausambi. The Alchon invasion of the Indian subcontinent eradicated the Kidarite Huns who had preceded them by about a century, and contributed to the fall of the Gupta Empire, in a sense bringing an end to Classical India.[9][5]
The invasion of India by the Huna peoples follows invasions of the subcontinent in the preceding centuries by the Yavana (Indo-Greeks), the Saka (Indo-Scythians), the Pahlava (Indo-Parthians), and the Kushana (Yuezhi). The Alchon Empire was the second of four major Huna states established in Central and South Asia. The Alchon were preceded by the Kidarites and succeeded by the Hephthalites in Bactria and the Nezak Huns in the Hindu Kush. The names of the Alchon kings are known from their extensive coinage, Buddhist accounts, and a number of commemorative inscriptions throughout the Indian subcontinent.
The Alchons have long been considered as a part or a sub-division of the Hephthalites, or as their eastern branch, but now tend to be considered as a separate entity.[1][10][11]
^ abcRezakhani 2017, pp. 105–124.
^Bakker 2020.
^Schwartzberg, Joseph E. (1978). A Historical atlas of South Asia. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 25. ISBN 0226742210.
^Schwartzberg, Joseph E. (1978). A Historical atlas of South Asia. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 145, map XIV.1 (k). ISBN 0226742210.
^ abBakker, Hans (2017), Monuments of Hope, Gloom and Glory in the Age of the Hunnic Wars: 50 years that changed India (484–534), Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Section 4, ISBN 978-90-6984-715-3, archived from the original on 11 January 2020, retrieved 20 May 2019
^Bakker, Hans (16 July 2014). The World of the Skandapurāṇa. BRILL. ISBN 9789004277144.
^Dani, Ahmad Hasan (1999). History of Civilizations of Central Asia: The crossroads of civilizations: A.D. 250 to 750. Motilal Banarsidass. ISBN 9788120815407.
^Jäger, Ulf. "A Unique Alxon-Hunnic Horse-and-Rider Statuette (Late Fifth Century CE) from Ancient Bactria / Modern Afghanistan in the Pritzker Family Collection, Chicago" (PDF). Sino-Platonic Papers. Archived (PDF) from the original on 4 April 2022. Retrieved 16 February 2023.
^"The Alchon Huns....established themselves as overlords of northwestern India, and directly contributed to the downfall of the Guptas" in Neelis, Jason (2010). Early Buddhist Transmission and Trade Networks: Mobility and Exchange Within and Beyond the Northwestern Borderlands of South Asia. BRILL. p. 162. ISBN 9789004181595.
^"Note 8: It is now clear that the Hephtalites were not part of those Huns who conquered the land south of the Hindu-Kush and Sind as well in the early 6th century. In fact, this latter Hunnic group was the one commonly known as Alkhon because of the inscriptions on their coins (Vondrovec, 2008)."
^Rezakhani, Khodadad (2021). "From the Kushans to the Western Turks". King of the Seven Climes: 207.
The AlchonHuns, (Bactrian: αλχον(ν)ο [Alkhon(n)o] or αλχαν(ν)ο [Alkhan(n)o]) also known as the Alkhan, Alchono, Alxon, Alkhon, Alakhana, and Walxon,...
diplomatic missions from the Tang dynasty, and some coexisted with the AlchonHuns from about the mid-sixth century. The polity collapsed in the mid-seventh...
origin of the Huns and their relationship to other peoples identified in ancient sources as Iranian Huns such as the Xionites, the AlchonHuns, the Kidarites...
the AlchonHuns around 515, during the reign of Toramana. During the reign of his son, Mihirakula, the empire reached its zenith. The AlchonHuns were...
centuries, but it declined and was destroyed after the invasion of the AlchonHuns in the 5th century. Siddhartha shown as a bejeweled prince (before the...
and/or Hephthalite, the Kidarites, the AlchonHuns (also known as the Alxon, Alakhana, Walxon etc.) and the Nezak Huns. Such names, along with that of the...
Shamozi Stupa Swat and the wider region of Gandhara were overrun by the AlchonHuns around about 465 CE. Under the rule of Mihirakula, Buddhism was suppressed...
invaders from the north. These were the Kidarites, the Hephthalites, the AlchonHuns, and the Nezaks: The four Huna tribes to rule Afghanistan. These invaders...
the AlchonHuns around 515, during the reign of Toramana. During the reign of his son, Mihirakula, the empire reached its zenith. The AlchonHuns were...
century by the invasions of the AlchonHuns (sometimes considered as a branch of the Hephthalites), and later the Nezak Huns.[citation needed] One of the...
sometimes referred to as Mihiragula or Mahiragula, was the second and last AlchonHun king of northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent between 502 and...
feudatories, as well as the invasion by the Huna peoples (Kidarites and AlchonHuns) from Central Asia. After the collapse of the Gupta Empire in the 6th...
succeeded by the Hephthalites in Bactria and the Nezak Huns in the Hindu Kush. The names of the Alchon kings are known from their extensive coinage, Buddhist...
appear clearly in most of the portraits of rulers in the coinage of the AlchonHuns, and most visibly on the coinage of Khingila. These elongated skulls...
Red Huns, Karmir Xyon (in Iranian) and Kermichiones (in European languages) usually refer to: AlchonHuns Kidarites Hephthalites Huna people Huns White...
Toramana") was a ruler of the AlchonHuns in the 6th century CE. Around the middle of the 6th century CE, the Alchons, after having extensively invaded...
called them Kidarite Huns, or "Huns who are Kidarites". The Huna/Xionite tribes are often linked, albeit controversially, to the Huns who invaded Eastern...
(Bactrian: Meyam, Brahmi: Me-ha-ma), ruled c.461-493, was a king of AlchonHuns dynasty. He is little known, but the Talagan copper scroll mentions him...
CE, between the AlchonHun emperor Mihirakula and a confederation of Indian rulers led by king Yashodharman of Malwa. The AlchonHuns under their able...
discussed. Göbl describes four groups: Kidarites, Alchons, Nezaks, and Hephthalites as the Iranian Huns based on numismatic evidence available at his time...
preference give to the propagation of Hinduism, and later collapsed after the AlchonHun persecution, resulting in it being sparsely practiced in only about ten...
was a king of the AlchonHuns who ruled in northern India in the late 5th and the early 6th century CE. Toramana consolidated the Alchon power in Punjab...
it is known that Yashodhaman occupied most of the territories of the AlchonHuns or Hunas to the north, and the most of the territories of the Gupta Empire...
invasions of north India by various groups such as Indo-Iranian Huns, Hephthalite Huns, AlchonHuns, Turco-Mongols, Arabs, and Persians, and subsequent Islamic...
death of Skandagupta in 467 C.E. On top of that, starting circa 480 C.E. AlchonHun armies began attacking the declining empire from multiple sides. Defence...
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