Sanatana Dharma flourished for millennia before Arab and Persian invasions
By Inderjeet Singh, UK
When young manu lal fled mountainous Afghanistan in an exodus in the early 1990s and took refuge in the US, it was with a heavy heart. Amidst rapidly escalating internal war after the Soviet invasion ended, he—and most of his Hindu and Sikh brethren—reluctantly left behind a millennia-old presence of Hinduism and Sikhism that was nearing extinction. “Even in a small town like Kandahar, we had 5,000 Hindus, and many beautiful temples,” he told Hinduism Today at the time. “There were temples to Shiv Parvati, Devi Mata, Satyanarayan and also many gurdwaras. There were four big gurdwaras which even people from India came to see.”
Most people are only familiar with Afghanistan as an Islamic nation, so in this article I trace some of the documented history of Hindus in Afghanistan from the 7th century ce until today. It also serves as a rebuttal to those who contend that the British brought Hindus into the country for the first time in the 19th century.
The mighty river Indus and its tributaries flow in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Tibet. The ancient Greeks called it Indos, and the land of Indos was known in Latin as India. In South Asian languages the river is called Sindhu (or Sindh). The neighboring Persian pronunciation replaced “S” with “H” and called the land Hind, eventually lengthening to Hindustan. In the Indus River basin, there are three major western tributaries—Kabul, Kurram and Gomal—that flow from Afghanistan. In ancient times this region was deemed as part of India, as Indus was synonymous with India. Pakhtas are mentioned as a frontier tribe in the Rig Veda, the oldest Hindu treatise, and they are usually identified with the Pashtun (or Pakhtun) ethnic group of Afghanistan.
Sadly, ancient Hindus and South Asians (including Afghans) did not write their history, so we rely on the accounts of others for the earliest centuries.
The Earliest Period
The great traveler Hiuen Tsang left China in 629 ce and wrote that he reached India when he entered Nangarhar province of present-day Afghanistan. He stated that the ruler of Kapisa (part of Kabulistan) was a Kshatriya.
The Zunbil dynasty resisted invasions from Arabs and Persians from the west for almost 200 years until 873 ce. They fought and at times used diplomacy against their adversaries. Professor Andre Wink (1991) in his book Al-Hind, the Making of the Indo-Islamic World: Vol 1, states that the dynasty got its name from the famous temple of the solar Deity Zun, situated on top of a sacred mountain in Zamindawar (“Land of the Justice Giver”) in the present-day Helmand province. The religion of Zun was primarily Hindu, not Buddhist or Zoroastrian. He adds that there may be a link between Zun and the Deity Sharva—associated with a fierce form of God Siva—in Kafiristan (now known as Nuristan).
The excavation of statues of Deities from ancient archaeological sites proves that Hindus resided in these regions for centuries. A statue of Sri Ganesh dated to the fourth century ce was found in the 1960s at Sankar Dhar, 30 miles north of Kabul. This corresponds to the Kidarites dynasty, who ruled this region and were contemporaries of the Gupta dynasty in India. Three centuries later, when Hiuen Tsang visited the area, he mentioned the worship of an elephant God.
Another image of Ganesh was found in Gardez by an Italian archaeology team in the 1960s. The marble statue is intact, except for broken forearms, and is 24 inches high by 14 inches wide. The inscription in the Proto-Brahmi script at the base of the statue states that this “great and beautiful image of Mahavinayaka” was consecrated by the Turk Shahi King Khingala, who ruled Kabulistan in the late 8th century ce.
The 10th Century
The book Hudud al-Alam gives us an indication of the Hindu presence alongside Islam at this stage. The anonymous geographical work, which means “Regions of the World,” was compiled in 982-83 ce, dedicated to a Muslim ruler in what is now northern Afghanistan. The work briefly summarized many cities in Afghanistan, some with a non-Muslim majority at that time. Some excerpts below:
The king of Ninhar (in modern Nangarhar province) “makes a show of Islam” and had over thirty wives that included Muslims, Afghans and Hindus. The people worshiped Deities and there were three large murtis in Ninhar.
Kandahar is described as a pleasant, large town, with numerous murtis of gold and silver, where hermits and Brahmins resided. Laghman was a town situated on a river bank and described as an “Emporium of Hindustan” and residence for merchants. It had temples to Deities.
Wahind (in present-day Pakistan) was the capital city of Jayapala, the Hindu Shahi ruler, and the town had few Muslims. Merchandise from Hindustan such as musk and precious things regularly came to this city.
Kabul city had a solid fort that was known for its strength. The inhabitants were Muslims and Indians (Hindus), and there were temples with Deities in the city. The ruler of Kannauj (Uttar Pradesh, India) made a pilgrimage to the temples of Kabul.
Hindu Shahi Dynasty
Alberuni, the great scholar and writer of the book Tarikh al Hind (History of India) accompanied Sultan Mahmud Ghaznavi to India, who ruled the Ghaznavi Empire from 998–1030. To distinguish the ruling dynasty of Kabulistan and Punjab from the previous Turk Shahi dynasty (predominantly Buddhist), Alberuni named them Hindu Shahis. That dynasty ruled from 873 to 1026. The neighboring Ghaznavi commanders gained strength, capturing Kabulistan in 986 and Peshawar in 1001. They allowed Hindus to live within the Sultan’s empire as dhimmi (protected people) with some restrictions and obligatory payment of the Jizya tax.
The book Tarikh-i-Sabuktigin, by Abul Fazl al-Baihaki, refers to Hindus working in responsible positions under the Ghaznavi rulers in their capital Ghazni. Baihaki writes that fifty days after the death of Sultan Mahmud, his son and successor Masud dispatched Sewand Rai, a Hindu chief with a large Hindu cavalry, to pursue the nobles who were supporting his rebel brother for the throne of Ghazni. In the subsequent battle, Sewand Rai and the majority of his troops perished, but they managed to inflict heavy losses upon their opponents. Five years later, Tilak, son of Jai Sen, was the commander of Hindu troops in the service of Sultan Masud. He was sent to chastise the rebel chief Ahmad Nialtigin. Tilak chased the rebels and managed to capture thousands of them.
Alberuni also wrote that Hindu physicians were employed by the Ghaznavi rulers. For instance, when the chief of Gardez was suffering from chronic piles, their Muslim physician, despite using several medicines, was unable to cure it, but a Hindu physician was able to effect a cure using an Indian aconite (buttercup plant).
The 13th through 15th Centuries
The Mongols under Genghis Khan formed one of the biggest empires in the Middle Ages and by 1220 ce had captured most of Afghanistan. Although Hindus are not specifically mentioned in historical accounts of this time, based on the tolerant rule of the Mongols, one can assume that Hindus survived, if not flourished, in this period.
Timur the Lame (1336–1405) was one of the greatest conquerors and founder of the Timurid Empire which included Afghanistan, Persia and Central Asia. Persian accounts mention many military expeditions by Timur made against the Jat country (or Turkestan) where the majority of the population were infidels and deity worshipers. The British translators seem to suggest that they were Jats of India, hence Hindus.
Babur, founder of the Mughal Empire, recorded the old temple of Gor Hatri (in old Peshawar, which still exists) in his autobiography Baburnama. He writes about the place which was considered holy by the Hindu ascetics “who came from long distances for pilgrimage and got their head and beards shaved.” Babur refers to Kabul city as an excellent trading center and Hindustan’s own market. He mentions that almost 8,000–10,000 horses would come to the city along with 15,000–20,000 caravans from Hindustan with household stuff, slaves, white cloth, refined sugar candy, common sugar and aromatic roots.
The 16th and 17th Centuries
In 1558, Anthony Jenkinson visited Bukhara (now in Uzbekistan but part of then Khurasan), writing that the city was an annual resort of merchants, to which great caravans from India, Persia, Balkh, Russia and other countries routinely arrived. Indians brought dye, cotton and coarse linen to Bukhara and took away silk, red hides (for leather), horses and slaves.
After winning the battle of Panipat in 1526 against the Lodi dynasty (which incidentally was Pashtun), Babur joined Kabulistan with Northern India. For the next two hundred years (until 1738) eastern Afghanistan—including Jalalabad, Ghazni and Kabul—remained part of Mughal India. Throughout this period, European travelers visited Isfahan and Delhi/Agra, which were the capitals of the Persian and Mughal Empires, respectively. They all mention Hindu traders and merchants doing brisk business in Isfahan and other major cities of Persia.
Following the visit of Guru Nanak—founder of Sikhism—to Afghanistan around 1521, some Hindus became his followers and came to be known as Nanakpanthis. Sikh manuscripts Mahima Prakash Vartak and Gurbilas Padshahi Chhevee, written in the first half of the 18th century, record the visit of Nanakpanthis from Kabul and Peshawar to Punjab to pay their respects to the Sikh gurus.
The 18th Century
Ahmad Shah Durrani (ruling from 1747–1772) is considered a national hero in the country. He combined various tribes and regions and officially named the country Afghanistan. He is infamous in India, as he invaded North India nine times during his reign. He appointed Kabuli Mal, a Hindu from Kandahar, to govern Lahore from 1762–1764. Sikhs in Punjab were proving to be a headache for Durrani rule and Ahmad Shah may have thought that a Hindu at the helm of affairs would be better suited to forge a diplomatic solution with the Sikhs who were defending their homeland.
George Forster (1752–1791) was a traveler, writer and civil servant of the East India Company. He traveled from Bengal to England in 1782–83 disguised as a Muslim merchant. He writes that the Hindus of Kabul were ensured of “security of person and property” as a Hindu (unnamed) controlled the revenue of the Timur Shah, the ruler of Afghanistan, and was favored by him. Forster mentions a helpful Hindu who pleaded on his behalf to the Afghans who were harassing him at “Dickah,” a small village on the southern bank of the Kabul River. In addition, he writes about the presence of Hindus in major towns and cities of Afghanistan.
The 19th to mid-20th Century
In 1808, Mountstuart Elphinstone was sent to Afghanistan by the British East India Company to study and possibly make an alliance, lest the Russians decide to invade the sub-continent. There is a wealth of information on Hindus in the country in the accounts and travelogues of Mohan Lal, Alexander Burnes, Arthur Conolly, G.T. Vigne and Charles Masson among many others.
Mohan Lal visited the Gorakhnath Temple in Jalalabad around 1834, which still exists. He writes that there were 2,000 Hindus in Kabul and “many of them are the first inhabitants of Kabul.” Alexander Burnes, who traveled along with Mohan Lal, mentioned two types of Hindus in Kabul: those who are merchants, coming to the country without families and living in caravanserais, and Hindus who live in tall houses (signifying wealth) with large families.
Afghan Hindus, especially those in the Kabul region, were an enterprising lot and later attained modern education. There were doctors, professors, engineers and pharmacists among them. Until 1990, all hospitals in major cities had their share of Hindu and Sikh doctors. In modern times, Diwan Niranjan Das held an important ministerial position during the reign of Amir Habibullah Khan (ruling 1901-1919) and his son King Amanullah Khan (1919-1929). The Hindus and Sikhs were part of the Loya Jirga (Grand Assembly of the Tribal Elders) and Parliament until very recently. Eminent Sikh historian Ganda Singh visited Afghanistan in 1951 and wrote in his travelogue that there were a few Hindus here who have been living in Kabul since the olden times, even before the advent of Islam, and were racially pure Afghans.
Last Several Decades
In the 1970s the government of Afghanistan became very liberal and most mandirs were rebuilt and renovated by Afghan Hindus. Sadly, the photos of the mandirs before 1970 are lost, unless an Afghan Hindu has them in a private collection. The mandirs in Afghanistan do not have a shikhara, the rising tower found in the architecture of North Indian temples. From the outside, they look like a house or a building. The mandirs are spacious and carpeted, unlike those in India, as winters are very harsh in Afghanistan.
India Today reported in 1989 that there were 50,000-odd Sikhs and Hindus in Afghanistan. The Sikh population overtook Hindus only in the 1970s when Sahajdharis (those who believe in Sikh gurus and Guru Granth Sahib but do not keep unshaven hair) in Kabul region became Khalsa Sikhs.
Afghanistan was conservative but tolerant during the reign of Amanullah Khan and Zahir Shah till the 1980s. The struggle of Mujaheddin (freedom fighters) against the Russian occupation (1979–89) was supported by the USA, Pakistan and other allies. This was the era of the Cold War, and as India was very friendly with the Soviet Union (Russia), the Hindus and Sikhs of Afghanistan were dubbed as Indians, infidels and traitors.
The Human Rights Watch Report, Blood-Stained Hands, focuses on April 1992 to March 1993 and calls it “The Battle for Kabul,” stating that by May 30, 1992, civil war broke out between various factions of Mujaheddin. A major part of Kabul was destroyed, and this civil war led to tens of thousands of civilian deaths and injuries and caused hundreds of thousands to flee Kabul to safer areas. During the chaos, the houses of Afghan Sikhs and Hindus were looted and a few people were killed. To make matters worse, on December 6, 1992, the Babri Masjid in India, built in the 16th century on the site of a famous Hindu temple, was demolished. This gave the fundamentalists an excuse to loot, harass and in a few cases kill, Sikhs and Hindus who were “Indians” in their eyes.
The Indian Embassy in Kabul stated that between 1992–94, almost 75,000 Indian visas were issued. According to London-based historian Dr. Joginder Singh Tej Khurana, around 50,000 people—out of a total population of 60,000 to 65,000 Afghan Sikhs and Hindus—left Afghanistan. Some men left their families in India and came back to sell their houses or continued to work in Afghanistan for a few months of the year. Almost 10,000, mostly Afghan Sikhs, decided to remain in the country. However, by the end of 2001, when the first Taliban government was replaced, this number had dropped to 3,000. Hindus and Sikhs were now confined to only three cities: Kabul, Jalalabad and Ghazni. There were about 40 mandirs in Afghanistan till the early 1990s. The vast majority of mandirs (and gurdwaras), if not all, are now under illegal occupation by the miscreants from the majority community. By late 2022, Hindus and Sikhs had reduced to 40–80 people, including only 15 Hindus.
The remaining Hindus and Sikhs were mostly caretakers of temples in Kabul and a few other provinces. Despite the Taliban’s more positive public messaging after returning to power in 2021, as of late 2024 only a few individuals remained due to new, ongoing difficulties, based on Indian Parliamentary statements and European Union assessments. In 2025 over two million Afghans were deported from Iran and Pakistan back to Afghanistan, and it is currently unknown if any of them are Hindus or Sikhs.
Present & Future of the Heritage
On a positive note, Manjeet Singh Lamba, a representative of the Hindu and Sikh community in Afghanistan, told Pajhwok Afghan News in August 2025 that living conditions are now “better and safer than in the past.” He applauded the Islamic Emirate’s Ministry of Justice for publicly supporting restitution of their usurped properties, and stated that a number of Hindus have returned to pursue this and invest in the country. Lamba, who himself is among those who returned from India, says that currently around 100 Hindus and Sikhs live in Afghanistan, and if India resolves their visa issues, more families will return to the country. According to him, Hindus living in Afghanistan celebrated Vaisakhi Festival 2025 in Kabul, Nangarhar and several other provinces in a secure environment.
According to Dr. Khurana, there are about 100,000 Afghan Sikhs and Hindus around the world and 40% of them are Hindus. The Afghan Hindu diaspora has built mandirs in London, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and the USA. The largest community is in Germany where there are about 3,000 to 3,500 Hindu families. Frankfurt-based Jagannath Gardezi informed me that there are eight mandirs in Germany run by Afghan Hindus: two in Cologne, two in Hamburg, and one each in Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Kassel and Essen.
Like all South Asian people who migrated to the above countries, the worry that the new generation is losing their traditional language is profound. In Afghanistan, the Hindus would cover their heads in the mandirs. However, the new generation is increasingly questioning it, as it does not seem to be an essential tenet of the wider Hindu religion. On the positive side, Afghan Hindus are now part of the global community and have left old practices of marriage among cousins (a necessity due to low numbers). Similarly, they are now discarding aversion to matrimony based on caste and regionalism, which existed in Afghanistan. It is hoped that the new generation will take an interest in the past and embrace their history and heritage in the coming years.
About The Author
Inderjeet Singh, based in Nottingham, UK, wrote the book Afghan Hindus & Sikhs: History of a Thousand Years. He is passionate about Punjab and Sikh history.
Afghanistan Hindus Struggle to Persist
Afghan Hindu refugee Sena Pati Lund reflects on how the dwindling Hindu and Sikh community adapted to mounting pressures in their homeland
By Rutvij Holay, California
Even after centuries of islamic rule and conversion attempts, there were still thousands of Hindus in Afghanistan by the late 20th century, some of whom had embraced the teachings of Guru Nanak and become Sikhs. While in the villages there were incidents of murder and torture, in the city the community was generally well-respected and well-educated. In 2023, I interviewed historian and Hindu refugee Sena Pati Lund, who was born in Kabul and now lives in New York. “Hindus and Sikhs have always felt connected to Afghanistan,” he reminisced. “The Muslim community considered the Hindus and Sikhs as the pride of the community. They trusted them and allowed them to participate in all aspects of life, including banking, medicine and business.” This is because educated Muslims knew that Hindus were the original inhabitants of the land, having lived there for at least 5,000 years.
Aside from the ancient greats like Panini and King Anandapala, many notable Afghan Hindus came from the modern era. Atma Ram, for example, was a Hindu minister who was said to have dominated trade between Afghanistan and Central Asia in the mid-1900s, while Sham Lal Bhatija was the economic advisor for President Ashraf Ghani in the late 2010s.
Effects of the Exodus
As the Soviet Union invaded in 1979, many educated people, Hindus and Muslims alike, left, fearing the political instability that was to follow. As a result of this loss, Afghanistan was left with mainly fundamentalist Muslims. They lacked their educated religious brethren’s respect for their Hindu neighbors, thus leaving the community in a more vulnerable position.
As the political situation worsened, so did the condition of Hindus in the nation, with the majority of them leaving in the 80s and 90s. As Lund put it, “Our first choice was to go to our religious motherland, India. However, India was not very welcoming at the time, so even though 90% of Afghan Hindus went to India, 90% of that group ended up going to Europe or the US.”
A small minority chose to stay. Some were families, but many were businessmen who, according to Lund, “were simply more comfortable selling their wares in a country and language that they knew, rather than having to start over in a foreign land.” It was these Hindus that suffered under Taliban rule.
After the Taliban’s first takeover in 1996, they made Hindus wear a yellow armband, much like Jews had to wear the Star of David in Nazi Germany. The law drew worldwide condemnation, with many lawmakers, including in the US Congress, wearing yellow badges with the inscription “I am a Hindu” and passing H.R. 145, condemning the Taliban for its actions against Hindus. While the law on yellow armbands was the only rule publicly announced, Lund said, “we [Hindus] were not allowed to perform religious rituals or to send our kids to school. Even though, in the past, our community was famous for its education, I don’t know of a single Hindu or Sikh who has graduated in a long time.”
Yet, throughout the takeover and beyond the Taliban’s toppling in 2001, this tiny population was somehow able to remain Hindu. When I asked how they did it, Lund shared multiple factors. “During that time, people were just trying to protect themselves, and didn’t think it was that important for their kids to go to schools. All that mattered was saving them, protecting them and their Hindu culture, and so they weren’t sent to colleges or universities even after 2001.”
Also key were relationships that had been forged. In Lund’s words, “We stuck close to each other. We had family relations living together, businesses together and religious practices together. Of course, that isn’t to say people didn’t convert—there were both willing and forced conversions, but those things always happen in this part of the world. For a majority of us, our community kept us and our culture strong.”
The Temple as Refuge
As of the early 2020s, there were still a few temples left in Afghanistan. The most notable one, where the remaining tiny community came together—much like Indian Hindus may visit Varanasi—is the Asamai Temple in Kabul, home to Asha Mai, a local form of Durga, and an Akhand Jyoti (eternal flame) which has been kept lit for the past 4,000 years. The mandir, until December of 2021, still ran its own Facebook page, and in many ways was similar to any mandir in North India. The language spoken was a mix of Hindi, Punjabi and Farsi, with regular singing of “Om Jai Jagadish Hare” at satsangs. Devotees were dressed much like Muslim Afghans, showing the connectivity to the land that Lund referred to.
Lund explained there was a school attached to the side of the temple, in which religious texts were taught. In Kabul, these texts were taught in Hindi so children could have a deeper connection with their Hindu brethren. However, he continued, “In other cities, like Jalalabad, Khost and Kandahar, Hindu religious books were written in local languages, so that became the medium of instruction. Due to this, a lot of people grew up being Hindus, but not knowing Hindi or Sanskrit at all.”
Local dialects aside, Afghan Hinduism has lost many of its distinguishing factors. Lund explained, “Since we grew up as a minority, our activities were defensive in nature, trying to simply survive and practice our faith.” In fact, Lund argues that what distinguished Afghan Hindus from some other Hindus was their openness to other faiths. Due to the geographical location of Afghanistan, there was a heavy Sikh influence on Hinduism. Intermarriage, mixed dwellings—many Hindus and Sikhs moved into local temples and gurdwaras for shelter following the Taliban takeovers—and even mixed prayers were not uncommon. “We would do our prayers, and we would also have our Guru Granth Sahib text. We never thought of Sikhism as a different religion, and they never thought of Hinduism as different. We were fully interconnected.”
Looking at the current situation in India, where Hindus and Sikhs have become divided to the point that many Punjabis will take offense to being mistaken for a follower of the other religion, there is a certain wisdom in Lund’s words. In the eyes of other faiths, as seen in Afghanistan and Pakistan, there is no difference between a Hindu and a Sikh, or a Buddhist or a Jain, for that matter—as we are all kafirs, non-Muslims. If Afghan dharmis had refused to accept this, chances are they would have been unable to survive, and only because they chose to unite in their commitment to following a dharmic path, were they able to pass on their traditions to their children despite centuries of Islamic rule.
The Early 2020s
Interestingly enough, according to Lund, this community bond was left alone by the Taliban after its resurgence in 2021. Granted, even their unity may not be enough to keep Hinduism alive in Afghanistan. The second Taliban takeover caused many more Afghans to flee. Only one Hindu priest, Rajesh Kumar, chose to remain. Lund explained how “Initially, the Hindus there were a little skeptical. Six hundred people left, and the rest [around 100] assembled in a Gurdwara. Given what had happened the last time the Taliban was in power, we were not sure how they were going to react. Yet, till today there has been no confrontation. The Taliban has said that Afghan Sikhs and Hindus are the original people of Afghanistan, and hence will be allowed to do whatever they want.”
Indian travel vlogger Deepanshu Sangwan visited Afghanistan in November 2025 and was able to meet priest Rajesh Kumar at the historic Mahabeer Siva Temple he maintains in Shor Bazaar, Kabul. The entire temple was recently clad in Afghan marble, a significant upgrade. Apple trees, fig trees and grapevines are cultivated around the main building. Rajesh Kumar, whose family currently lives in India as refugees, said he stayed because “This is my motherland.” He visits his family annually. He echoed Lund’s comments that the situation for Hindus has greatly improved under the latest Taliban government. He explained that his temple is funded by 18 shops it owns in the surrounding bazaar. Rajesh told Deepanshu that there are currently only 20 Hindus and Sikhs living in all of Afghanistan. Deepanshu’s vlog of this temple visit, titled “Last Hindus of Afghanistan—Life of Hindus under Taliban Rule,” can be found at his YouTube channel, called Nomadic Indian. Since the information flow out of Afghanistan is sparse, the situation could have changed since November without our knowledge.