Hinduism in Afghanistan - History

History

Further information: History of Afghanistan

There is no information on when Hinduism arrived to Afghanistan but some historians have suggested that the territory south of the Hindu Kush may have been culturally connected with the Indus Valley Civilization in ancient times. At the same time, most historians maintain that today's Afghanistan was inhabited by the Medes followed by the Achaemenid before the arrival of Alexander the Great and his Greek army in 330 BC. It became part of the Seleucid Empire after the departure of Alexander three years later. In 305 BCE they gave south of the Hindu Kush to the Indian Maurya Empire as part of an alliance treaty.

Alexander took these away from the Aryans and established settlements of his own, but Seleucus Nicator gave them to Sandrocottus (Chandragupta), upon terms of intermarriage and of receiving in exchange 500 elephants. —Strabo, 64 BC – 24 AD

When the Chinese travelers, Faxian, Song Yun and Xuanzang visited Afghanistan between the 5th and 7th centuries AD, they wrote numerous travelogues in which accurate information on Afghanistan was stored. They explained that Buddhism was practiced in different parts between the Amu Darya (Oxus River) in the north and the Indus River. Interestingly, these Chinese monks did not mention about Hinduism although Song Yun did state that the Hephthalite rulers did not recognize Buddhism but "preached pseudo gods and killed animals for their meat".