AFGHAN DIARY " Two great religions and one Silk Route"

To most lay men, it is not common knowledge that among the many wonderful things India and Afghanistan share, it is the pre-eminence of being the birthplaces of the two oldest religions, of the world. A fact which could have been our crowning glory but unfortunately we share the irony of a destiny that desecrated and destroyed and eventually banished these religions from their homeland, their greatness and importance reduced and nearly forgotten in the land of their origin today.

The amateur excitement of wanting to write a simple story on how Buddhism went from India and flourished in Afghanistan, along the silk route, turned out to be a major revelation .Like an errant school boy tumbling upon an archaeological find while at play,it unlocked the history of the birth and work of the great prophet of Afghanistan along the same silk route, whose followers are surprisingly found only in Iran and India today.

Zoroaster, the great Iranian thinker, preacher and miracle maker was born some 2000 years before Christ, in the ancient city of Balkh or Bacteria.

Modern day researchers claim this genral area to be none other than the “the holy city” of Mazar-e-Sharif in northwest Afghanistan.Infact Avesta the sacred text of the Zoroastrians is believed to have been composed as early as 1800 BCE and written in ancient Ariana (Aryana), possibly the earliest name of Afghanistan.

Zoroastrianism, like Buddhism holds a place of unique importance, in the history of religion. With its genesis in the Vedic principles, it is hard to find a parallel to the immense popularity of this religion at that time. So huge was its followership and so overpowering its influence that it remained the official religion of Persia for more than a thousand years,through a period of reasonable stability and growth much in the same way as Buddhism harbingered prosperity and peace under Ashoka and Kanishka.

Not in favour of conversion or propagation through persuasion, these two most peace loving religions of the world, never waged any war or had any history of retaliation. Their descendants and disciples suffered persecution instead, fled and survived far away from their places of origin – always contributing richly to wherever they went.

Today with no more than 200,000 surviving descendants in India and Iran ,the Zoroastrian Parsis are still among the most educated and philanthropic lot. They played an instrumental role in the economic development of the sub continent over many decades and continue to do so. Tata, Godrej, Wadia are among the names that have gone down the annals of Indian history for their distinguishing contribution to the prosperity of India, while ironically Afghanistan still struggles amidst poverty and anarchy. The Buddhists too settled in China, Japan and the Far East contribute to the well being of some of the most advanced nations of the modern era.

In another surprising similarity both Mazar-e-Sharif and Nepal seem to be broiling in great unrest. The fourth largest city of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan continue to be a prime target of the Taleban and has already faced untold suffering, major damages and atrocities just as Nepal , the last of the Hindu kingdoms is battling with insurgency and civil wars

Tying up these surprising, hair razing similarities is an interesting link, namely the Silk Road. It played a huge role in spreading the word of wisdom of these great men at one time as also in the process of its survival, later.

Apparently three important caravan routes from China, India and Central Asia met at Kapisa, somewhere near Kabul in Afghanistan, carrying more than just merchandise of silk, ivory, gold precious jems and fruits. This 4500 km web of tracks connecting China in the East and Italy in the West , thrived as a conduit of trade and commerce and cultural exchange, even as far back as 2th century BC. Gradually it filtered in agricultural and metallurgical technologies and information but remained, above all, the chief channel for exchange of religious ideas and philosophies, through traders, travellers and visiting monks.

Mazar-e-Sharif and the Himalayan kingdom of India are both vital nodal points on the Silk route. But when Zoroastrianism faced persecution in the hands of Arabs, in its own home turf ,the silk route in its fledgling state, may not have been an accessible means for mass migration.Probably the reason why only a handful of Zoroastrians survived at that time after feeing to Iran and entering Gujarat along the sea route to Gujarat.

Buddhism was luckier that that. It spread steadily along the silk route that had by then become a busy thoroughfare . Hence even after facing desecration from Hindu kings first and later from the Islamic rulers , it managed to survive and flourish in the East.

Losing out on the rich heritage of our respective religions may not be solely dependent on a highway but the birth of two major religions of the world along a silk route is an uncanny coincidence.It forces one to speculate whether Zoroastrianism had a better chance of survival a few hundred years later when the silk route became an important link to the countries in the East.

More than anything however it makes one wonder how the future of India and Afghanistan may have shaped up had we held on to our ancient faiths in our respective countries.