Zhun



Zhun also known as Zhuna, Zhūn or Zūn is a Solar deity, the chief god of Zunbils and the Hephthalite god of the sun. He served as a dispenser of evil and a bringer of justice and oaths, he was a divine judge and a great warrior of the people who held truthfulness in the highest honur. He may have also been the creator and lord of the universe, though this particular belief is unfounded, he was also a lord of mountains in a mountainous place and a lord of the river Oxus, which may have held the primeval waters. He is represented with flames radiating from his head on coins. Statues were adorned with gold and used rubies for eyes. Huen Tsang calls him "Sungir".

About the Zhun
According to author André Wink, "In southern and eastern Afghanistan, the regions of Zamindawar (Zamin I Datbar or land of the justice giver, the classical Archosia) and Zabulistan or Zabul (Jabala, Kapisha, Kia pi shi) and Kabul, the Arabs were effectively opposed for more than two centuries, from 643 to 870 AD, by the indigenous rulers the Zunbils and the related Kabul-Shahs of the dynasty which became known as the Buddhist-Shahi. With Makran and Baluchistan and much of Sindh this area can be reckoned to belong to the cultural and political frontier zone between India and Persia. It is clear however that in the seventh to the ninth centuries the Zunbils and their kinsmen the Kabulshahs ruled over a predominantly Indian rather than a Persian realm. The Arab geographers, in effect commonly speak of that king of "Al Hind" ...(who) bore the title of Zunbil."

South of the Hindu Kush was ruled by the Zunbils, offspring of the southern-Hephthalite. The north was controlled by the Kabul Shahis. The Zunbil and Kabul Shahis were connected by culture with the neighboring Indian subcontinent. The Zunbil kings worshipped a sun god by the name of Zun from which they derived their name. For example, André Wink writes that "the cult of Zun was primarily Hindu, not Buddhist or Zoroastrian."

In his travel diaries, the Chinese monk Xuanzang reported in the early 700s that the temple of the Hindu god Zun/Sun(Surya) was in the region. He also reported there were numerous Buddhist stupas in the area of Zabul. There were dozens of Hindu temples and hundreds of Buddhist monasteries. In addition, drawing many pilgrims. According to Wink, it was clear that Zunbils ruled over a predominately Indian realm.

"Predominantly Indian but possessing Persian and Central Asian features was also the God Zun from which the Zunbils derived their name."

"Marqart maintained that Zunbil or Zhunbil is the correct form and Ratbil a corruption, and it was he who connected the title with the God Zun or Zhun whose temple lay in Zamindawar before the arrival of Islam, set on a sacred mountain and still existing in the later ninth century when the Saffarid dynasty's Yaqub and Amr b Layth conquered the area as far as Kabul."

"With Kabul Ghazana and Bust as the key points between the commerce between India and Persia, Zamindawar had become an important pilgrimage center."

While other scholars however have connected Zhun with the Sassanid Zoroastrian deity Zurvān, the deity of time. "'Regarding origin of Žuna, Xuanzang had only mentioned that it was initially brought to Kapisa, later Begram from 'far' and later moved to Zabul. There is no consensus as to who brought it and when. By identifying Žun with Sassanian Zurvān, the cult of Žun or *Zruvān can be viewed in a much wider context of Iranian history and religious developments. Žun, Like Zurvān, most likely represented the 'god of time', a heresy in Zoroastrianism, which originated in response to the religious reforms introduced during second half of Achaemenid Empire. The cosmopolitan nature of the god is consistent with the variety of religions practiced in the region prior to the Islamization of Afghanistan.'" According to Gulman S, its Afghan followers were, most probably, initially Zoroastrians. Mention of Žun and its devotees disappeared with the end of Žunbil dynasty of Zabulistan in 870. Its followers, according to Ibn Athir, accepted Islam.

According to N. Sims-Williams: "'It is not unlikely that Zhun derives from the Iranian Zurwan.'"

Ulf Jäger states: We should interpret "Zhun" as the name of the ancient Iranian deity of time, "Zurwan".