SHAHI FAMILY

also called Shahiya, dynasty of some 60 rulers who governed the Kabul valley (in Afghanistan) and the old province of Gandhara from the decline of the Kushan empire in the 3rd century AD. The word Shahi, the title of the rulers, is related to the old Kushan form shao, or king. The dynasty probably descended from the Kushans, or Turks (Tarushkas). Nothing is recorded of the history of the long line until the last king, Lagaturman, who reigned at the end of the 9th century and who was thrown in prison by his minister, a Brahman named Kallar. Kallar then usurped the throne and founded a new dynasty, the Hindu Shahi, which ruled the area at the time of Mahmud's invasion of India from Ghazna (modern Ghazni, Afg.) in 1001. The Shahis maintained a hopeless resistance against Mahmud's forces but fell in 1021. They were so thoroughly extinguished that 30 years later the commentator Kalhana said that men wondered whether they had ever existed. The historian al-Biruni also noted their disappearance and paid high tribute to their nobility of character.