Raja Dahir (Daharseen)

Author : Rtn. Gangaram Shamdas Purswani(P.H.F)

Taking advantages of political upheavals in Persia, the Sindh became independent under Rai Dynasty around 478 A.D. Rai Shasi II was over thrown by Chuch of Aror (Alor) around 632 A.D. A period of hostility between Arabs and Chuch began and this got worsened during the reign of Raja Dahir (Daharseen), the son of Chuch. In the year 711, Hujjaj Bin Yusif, the Umayyad Governor of Iraq sent the Arab forces under Mohammed Bin Qasim (17 years Old), who defeated Brahmin Sindhi Raja Dahir. It was the evening of Thursday, 16th June, 7 I I, the saddest day in history of Sindh, when, due to treason, the Sindhi king lost and died and about 6000 Sindhi warriors were put to death. The ancestors of khudabadi Sonara Community were also the part of Raja Dhair ‘s army as warriers. Dahir’s wife Ladi committed Sati to escape from the hands of Muslim. However, more than heroes, the period of Arab conquest of Sindh had its heroines — Surya Devi and Parimal Devi, the daughters of Dahir. Mohammed Bin Qasim had sent them to Khalifa Walid in Baghdad for his harem. The Chachnama reports that the Khalifa was charmed with their perfect beauty and with their bloodsucking blandishments. However, the two princesses said to the Khalifa that Qasim had already violated their chastity. Hearing this, the Khalifa flew into a rage. He ordered that Mohammed Bin Qasim be killed and his body brought to him in a bullock’s hide. When the orders were duly executed, the princesses revealed that they had cooked up the violation story only to avenge “the ruination of the king of Sindh and Hind and desolation of the kingdom of our fathers and grandfathers”. The enraged Khalifa ordered them tortured to death and had their torn bodies thrown into the river Tigris. Thus, the defeat of Sindh had been partly avenged.

The Arabs redefined the region. The city of Mansura in Sindh was established as a misr (capital). The Sindh became the eastern most province of the Umayyad Caliphate and was referred to as Al-Sindh on Arab maps, resembling the current border with Sindhu River as dividing line between two nations of Pakistan and India. Arab geographers, historians and travellers also used the new name “Sindh” for entire area from Arabian Sea to Hindu Kush (Sindhu River). For about next four hundred years, Sindh remained an integral part of Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties. The local Sindhi provincial governors, called Naibs, were appointed by the Arab central governments and the history has recorded some 37 names of those governors (Naibs). Baghdad had, after levying the taxes on Hindus, permitted them to practice their faith/religion & language, which resulted a fusion of cultures, produced much of what today’s modem Sindhi society.