Zun in Perspective: just the facts

[Karlingid]

Today we are going to be learning about Zun. Not CK2, the real thing. The real, blood-thirsty sun cult of preislamic Afghanistan, based on and complete with archaeological findings and pictures thereof, cross-referenced with contemporary external sources from both Dar al-Islam and China, and topped off with a bit of finger-pointing at nearby surviving pagans for potential reference.

So, what can be said about Zunism? Let's lay out the basic facts that we know from all this work. It was very similar to Hinduism with a particular focus on the sun god, known in India as Surya. It was practiced by a Pashtun dynasty called the Zunbils, who rejected the advances of Islam and defended their borders and their faith against both Islam and Buddhism. There were several sanctuaries of Zun, in one case a Muslim general tore the hand off the statue of Zun and plucked out the statue's eyes to prove its uselessness as an idol. The Zunbils centralized their power around Ghazna. Once a year, people would make a great pilgrimage to the main temple to celebrate.

This is what we know. Now, here's where I talk about the background.

The Hephthalites are believed to have been an East Iranian people centered in Afghanistan, a confederation of Pashtun and Saka clans. I talk a fair bit about it here, I won't go over all the details again. What is to be remembered is that the Hepthalites often put depictions of fire and sun on their coins, at least when they weren't acting in a Buddhist phase. They also used names invoking the sun quite a bit. The general belief that the Zunbils descend from Hepthalite noble clans may hold some merit in this continuity, if we assume Zunism to be the religion practiced by non-Buddhist Hepthalites as supposed.

Now, some people say Zunism is just a version of Hinduism. This is not entirely wrong. Zunism was once quite widespread, reaching out to Hazara in what is modern Pakistan. This was, in fact, the location of another major Zunist community, at the very least a major city. Nearby to this, within the same district of Khyber Pakthunkhwa, lies the Chitral district with its native Kalash people. These Kalash speak an Indo-Aryan language, but are barely Hindus. More specifically, their Hinduism is suggested to be remnant, a pre-Hindu Hinduism, so to speak. It bears features most closely aligned with the Rigveda, dated to the late bronze age C. 1400 BCE. This would place the distinctive features of this religion roughly contemporary to the schism between Zoroastrianism and Hinduism.

I think you know where this is going.

So, the Kalash religion essentially predates, or at least is not far removed, from the schism with Zoroastrianism. Zunism, as we know it, is a sun cult with very Zoroastrian-esque light vs. dark motifs. Now, the Kalash religion was also said to be practiced by nearby Nuristani populations in preislamic times as well. That provides a bridge already between 3 geographically close populations, two of which are confirmed for this same trend. We can confirm from Chinese accounts that the paganism in Hazara is the same in Ghazna, and so if this little cluster holds across not just Indo-Aryan to Nuristani, but further to Iranian, thus completing the Hindu-Kush transition with a religion crossing the boundaries of the schism already, we might have something to work with here.

The creator god of the Kalash is known as Yama Raja, associated in mainstream Hinduism as the son of Surya(!) and cognate to the Iranian Jamshid. So, what have we got here so far? Well, a god of creation, associated strongly by blood to the sun itself, and praised as the greatest king by Iranians. So, creation, sun, a ruler, and crossing between Hindu and Zoroastrian. To make it better, he is the lord of both the Netherworld and Heaven, and sometimes called "Father Sky". So, topping off a sun-based creator god, king of men, and crossing the border, Yama Raja is ALSO a sky god associated with both positive and negative afterlifes and, acordingly, the sorting thereof. Is this our Justice Giver?

Well, get this. Yama Raja is ALSO ALSO called using the Pashto term "Khodai", used by Persians in reference to Ahura Mazda and by Pashtun in reference to Allah. So, this is most firmly our capital-G God, extending into Pashto. There are other features to Kalash religion, like a relatively nuanced opinion on the storm god Indra as opposed to his benevolent Dharmic representation and demonic Mazdan representation, but these are more footnotes in relation to the great picture at work here.

Now, that's not the end of it. Zun wasn't his only name. He was also known by Zur, and just as "Zun" is cognate to English "Sun", "Zur" is cognate to "Surya". Funny how that works out, innit? Now, there was a temple excavated in the far north of Afghanistan bearing figures of Surya. It is my proposal, then, that this is not, as was previously stated, a temple of Surya. Nay, it is, in fact, a temple of Zun! In-tact, and with artifacts. If you've ever wanted some images to put to Zunism, I'll be posting it all at the end of this whole thing. Sure is nice that you've got the holy site in Kabul just so coincidentally when a major temple existed just outside Kabul in this timeframe, huh?

Zun's main temple was said to lie on a mountain. The one mentioned above was, too. It was too far north, but the main temple in the southern half, in "Sakastan" or Afghan "Sistan" corresponding roughly to the Kandahar region, former location of Alexandria Arachosia, and the only holy site you spawn with as the Zunbils, that's what we're talking about. It was on a mountain, a big mountain, a holy mountain. To the Kalash, mountains are all holy. In fact, they are primarily defined in sanctity by how tall they are. The taller the mountain, the holier it is. So, obvious choice to put temples on top of mountains. The Kalash do something similar, raising pure goats for sacrifice in the highest valleys they can find.

You know, that's a funny comparison. Kalash goat herds with Zunist temples? What, are you crazy Karlingid? Yes, I am, nobody of sane mind would talk to themself while writing headcanon fanfiction about how real-life circumstances impact a game in ways that will probably never be implemented or measured. But here I am. So, funny thing about the Kalash: they say their religion downgraded. According to them, they once had priests and organized structure, but with the coming of Islam and the rise of empires, they were pushed down into more local, disorganized efforts with shamans and village leaders instead. Sounds like it just confirms this whole thing to me!

It was said that on the pilgrimage to the temple of Zun, all the faithful would bring wealth and livestock. Nobody would dare try to steal this all in this time. Sheep and horses take the forefront of these animals. Wouldn't you know it, sheep and goats are gathered in sacred herds for later sacrifice by the Kalash, and the Kalash also revere horses as sacred. Funny how these keep lining up, huh?

There are many clans in Afghanistan that bear the name of the Justice Giver. Apart from the land itself, Zamindawar and Zabulistan, which literally carry the epithet "Justice-Giver" in their very names, there are the names of tribes. Sanakhel, the Sana- component possibly a reflection of "Suna"/Zun. Sana Khan, as a personal name, also bears this element. Sanarud, a river tributary, and a village named Sanabad too. Surabad is another village, home of the Zuri tribe. Minhaj-e Siraj talks of tribes named Sur, Suryakhel, and Suryan, all possible reflections of "Zur". Lastly, there is a village called "Diya Zur" nearby ruins called "the Fort of the Infidels".

I feel like I've slowly gone from a simple explanation to a bunch of conspiratorial connections, but it makes sense to me. To finish off, here are the promised images:

Spoiler: Zun

Now you know what to imagine when you play as Zunists.

 

[Patriarch of Bub]

While speculative, you wrote something really impressive. I never did a Zun run, because i always thought it was a cheesy, pretty much made up, Darksoul referencing religion. I'll definitely try when HF comes out. Furthermore since i use CK2 has a way to arouse my historical interests, your post is very welcome.

 

[Lord_Bean]

Thank you for an interesting read. Do you have some sources you used yourself or recommendations for further reading? Although it doesn't matter for the more fun flavour this provides to Zun playthroughs, I am always a tad wary for such speculative connectionmaking in history. As for example the works of Umberto Eco show; you can connect a lot of facts of history into something that is not at all historic. Take for example this part:

It was said that on the pilgrimage to the temple of Zun, all the faithful would bring wealth and livestock. Nobody would dare try to steal this all in this time. Sheep and horses take the forefront of these animals. Wouldn't you know it, sheep and goats are gathered in sacred herds for later sacrifice by the Kalash, and the Kalash also revere horses as sacred.

The bringing of sacrifices is common in almost all religions, and especially in communities of herdsman livestock is ususally sacrificed due to a) being a living thing and b) being of great value to it's owner. The fact that goats and sheep are common in this area adds to them playing a largel role in people's daily, cultural and religious lives.

Still a very intersting read!

 

[Veldmaarschalk]

Moved to the history-forum

 

[Karlingid]

Thank you for an interesting read. Do you have some sources you used yourself or recommendations for further reading? Although it doesn't matter for the more fun flavour this provides to Zun playthroughs, I am always a tad wary for such speculative connectionmaking in history. As for example the works of Umberto Eco show; you can connect a lot of facts of history into something that is not at all historic. Take for example this part:

The bringing of sacrifices is common in almost all religions, and especially in communities of herdsman livestock is ususally sacrificed due to a) being a living thing and b) being of great value to it's owner. The fact that goats and sheep are common in this area adds to them playing a largel role in people's daily, cultural and religious lives.

Still a very intersting read!

It's a compilation of things, deductions I've made myself, and those I've taken from other people. A lot of the particular connections to the Kalash are things I've made up myself, but with grounding in the actual scholarship between what is known about the Zunbils, the archaeological history of Afghanistan, and the studies done on the Kalash people and their traditional religion.

This was a pretty prominent source, an article from 1969 by Abdul Hai Habibi. It goes over most of the things I covered about the archaeological remnants of the Zunbils, and the external descriptions of them by Xuanzang and various Islamic sources. Although Abdul was caught up in a scandal over a book supposed to contain 18th century Pashto poetry that carried potential anachronistic spelling habits, the vast majority of his work is given high regard and led a prestigious life. He also provides his own nice list of sources, if you wish to pursue further.

Spoiler: his response to the accusation

"I obtained the hand-written manuscript with the help of the late Abdul Ali Khanozay, a Kakkar at Psheen in 1943. First I translated it into Persian, provided explanatory notes and annotations and published it in 1944 through the Pashto Academy. In 1961 five thousand copies of the original edition were published by the Publications and Translation Department. Due to the great demand for the book, the third edition was published in 1976 by the Pashto Development Board of the Ministry of Information and Culture. This edition contained a complete facisimile of the original hand-written manuscript. Since its publication 33 years ago different opinions have been expressed about this book and certain people have cast their doubts upon it. Some have said that I have composed the book while others have claimed that it was forged by Shah Hussain, son of Haji Mirwais Khan. Such claims have been heard over the years, but unfortunately, the critics have not compiled any detailed or scholastic analyses of the work so that they may be studied, and if found refutable, commented upon scholastically. Scholars in the field have not discussed this book in detail so far. What has been written has been brief and expressions of doubts. No scholastic or positive criticism from the viewpoint of linguistics or etymology has been provided so that the authenticity or forgery of words may be evaluated and the facts clarified."

The information about the Kalash was, admittedly, taken from a fair variety of online sources, most of which I can no longer remember. This one's a pretty hefty one, though. The Kalash as a whole take a somewhat secondary role as their purpose for this whole post was based in acting as a possible support pillar for filling out gaps left behind by the historical record. The mention of sacrifices was not so much trying to connect them, but moreso reckoning just what the Zunists were doing with all the animals they brought by comparison to the holy herds kept by the Kalash. The historical record never tells the fate of the gold, silver, and beasts brought to the temple, so I was trying to fill the gap through what might be a very reasonable assumption. The choice of bringing horses specifically, instead of something like cattle, was a peculiarity I thought mentioning due to the special significance of horses to the Kalash.

The temple of Surya near to Kabul is the pinnacle of this whole thing, and even if we discard the Zunbil/Kalash connection, I think that said temple still provides all you need for mental imaging an aesthetic to the Zunbils, even if you then proceed to then disregard ritual particulars. Something I forgot to bring up, though, is that the Zunbils were said to commit human sacrifice; I could not easily find any more detail on this practice, but the "Judgement by Zun" option seems like it might be as fair a guess as any. The alternative is the sort during Kali festivals, which AFAIK is just slitting the throat.

It can also be viewed in the context of immurement, a tradition common in historic Iranian cultures as well as that of the Mongols. Essentially, a place in the wilderness would be chosen, and the condemned would be walled up in a pillar, or locked in a box, and left to die of exposure. Sometimes they'd be kept alive purposefully through feeding, just to ensure exposure was the cause of their death. Later travelers wrote of the heads of men alongside roads, their bodies buried in pillars, begging for relief: either in death, or in charity. The infamous scaphism is a waterborne variant of this practice. Exile to the desert is another form of punishment we see historically in the Middle East. The Zunist custom, then, is to be interpreted as such immurement with the guise of the Justice-Giver, that is the sun and sky, deciding whether or not to grant mercy to the condemned. In traditional fashion across the world, surviving one's execution is essentially an automatic pardon, and so surviving this immurement/being-thrown-into-a-pit-in-the-desert is a pardon, or at least mercy, from Zun. So it is decided.

 

[Karlingid]

I bet none of you thought this would be making a comeback, but I've found out more about the historic background behind ancient and early medieval Afghanistan, and instead of making a new thread and reposting a lot of the same stuff, I figured to just bump this one. I apologize to the mods if this is the incorrect course of action.

So, Bactrian documents. Something we forgot about in our initial analysis was that there was actually a thing there for quite a while. Certainly, the Greco-Buddhists are more famous, but local deities show up now and then between Bactria and the Hephthalites. I'm seeing some new names tossed around:

The first is "Kamird", whose priests are reportedly called "Ked". These priests act as soothsayers and fortune tellers, in a sense oracles. According to Encyclopedia Iranica, the "ked" was also the name applied to priests of Zun. "Kamird", translating simply as "Chief", and who seems to lack distinguishing features, seems to be considered simply a Bactrian epithet for Zun. The link there references a Dokhtar-e Noshervan painting, depicted here, identified as another image of Zun to add to those we've seen already. All of this is a pretty strong connection, too, since the figure is both depicted with the regalia of a Hephthalite king, and is recognized as "King of the gods".

The second is "Wakhsh", or "Oxus" per convenience. He is mentioned thus: "The God Wakhsh, the granter of favours and fulfiller of wishes, great and wonderful who has worship in Kah". As one might guess, Oxus is the god of the Oxus river. Although one source seems to say this is another epithet of Zun, and together they form a Bactrian Mithra, this link is somewhat tenuous based on other contemporary information, and the author does not treat the theory as their own but simply as an alternative. the Chinese traveler Duan Chengshi associates this deity with Tishtrya. This means Wakhsh is our fertility god of the holy waters, with a golden horse (in contrast to Tishtrya's white horse), and known primarily as a river instead of as rains but most likely associated with both. Perhaps not quite the same deity, but we're not exactly talking about Zoroastrianism either. The Oxus Treasure might've come from a temple to Wakhsh, so that's cool.

Thirdly, we have "Ram(set)". Described as: "the granter of favour and fulfiller of wishes", this would most likely be associated with the relatively obscure Zoroastrian angel Raman, the yazad of joy. There's surprisingly little to say here, it's very straight-forward and simple in its presentation. No confusion, no associations with other deities, Ram is just Ram, the one who does things to make people happy. Interesting enough is that Ram's generic description seems to be formulaic, since it is shared with Wakhsh. While Wakhsh is a known oracular deity, Ram is not known to have any such cult.

Yam(sh). That's four, now. This is, evidently, a local form of "Jamshid". If you've been keeping up with this thread, you already know where this goes. Epithet, then, of Zun.

Five brings us Mihr, which perhaps against all expectation is still not Mithra. Funny enough, the Persian equivalent to this is actually "Khwarshed", and the deity is associated with Helios. So...this is the sun, basically. You could apply it to Zun in a sort of animistic way, I suppose, but yeah. Helios. Sun.

W(e/i)sh. Wesh or Wish. This is, evidently, a pretty strong ripoff of the Vayu, the god of the wind. He was confused with Shiva initially, perhaps because of his relatively strong presence in the Kushan Empire and perhaps because his name kinda sounds like "Isha" as in "Ishvara".

On the sixth god, we get our first lady. Nana, a goddess known just as well in Kush and associated with the Anahita figure of Iran otherwise. A warrior goddess with a side of lions, the proper Pashto name for this goddess is "Nawi", whereas "Nana" is simply the Kushan and Bactrian version. According to the Kushans, this was a goddess of wisdom and fertility. If we take the Anahita-expy to its logical conclusion, then "healing" should be thrown in here as well.

Before we go any further, now is a good time to repeat that this is not Zoroastrianism, not by a long shot. These deities have simply been associated with linguistic or functional cognates, but this is as helpful to the understanding of the regional faith as Interpretatio Romana is to understanding Germanic practice. If I tell you that Germans worship Odin, and Odin is similar to Mercury, it doesn't actually reveal much about Odin proper. If I tell you Thor is Hercules, you get an idea of a strong defender of the people, but you don't really get the whole "Thunderer" aspect and his whole separate mythology.

So then, how does this all fit into our preestablished narrative?

Well, some interesting things to point out. We've found a few more epithets of Zun, for one: "Kamird", and we can replace "Sun Guardian" with "Ked". Also Yamsh, another epithet of Zun if we follow the connection of Zun to Yama Raja. This works pretty well, since Jamshid is reportedly the one who delivered law unto man, and Zun is historically confirmed as a Justice-Giver. We've already talked a fair bit about this connection before, but we've got a bigger question now: Mithra?

The answer isn't so clear. The association of Wakhsh with Zun is a fairly weak one, as external sources seem to indicate Zun is more associated with mountains. Mithra is associated with waters, one of several Iranian deities to be so. Mithra is a judge, and a protector of truth, and Mithra's sun-connection can't be simply ignored in this context either. What's more is that the Indian Mitra is considered an epithet of Surya, which we've associated with in times past in building our connection. HOWEVER, our associations tend to connect Zun and Yama with JAMSHID, not Mithra or Surya! If anything, Zun would in this case be Mithra's "son". Get it? No? Okay. I guess what I'm saying is, Mithra as Zun as Jamshid as Yama is one long connective chain that is possible to make, and with the Indian version in mind might be even plausible, but the association with the waters goes to Wakhsh who is similarly a divinity by which people wrote contracts and swore oaths. It is, in fact, those contracts from which we primarily know of this deity. Told you it wasn't too clear-cut.

Hey, let's talk about Wakhsh for a moment. So, this is a god of the waters, but a very important one by which oaths are sworn and temples built. He's also sometimes called "King of the gods", but he's so blatantly dissimilar from Zun that we are pretty much certain he's not the same thing. He brings happiness and prosperity, according to the contracts written in his name. He brings the water by defeating the demon who stops the waters from reaching mankind if our Tishtrya comparison is to be believed. You know how this all fits into the Kalash, though? There was always one gap I was never quite sure of, but now I think I've found it. This is our Indra. Wakhsh is a near-perfect stand-in for the Kalash Indra, a deity of similar great importance and who is often considered cognate to Zeus, Perun, and Odin in comparative studies. Certainly the sort of god that you'd swear by. This ties further with the Kalash, whose Indra-like war god Mon will on occasion take the form of a bull or a horse (like our golden horse at Wakhsh's temple) to bring rains and/or water to the people. For the Kalash, he collects clouds, but the more river-centric Bactrians say instead he emerges from the river as a golden horse.

Wish. Wish, wesh, wish. Wesh. Οηϸο. So, the important nature of this deity is quite interesting really. Although, in hindsight, perhaps it's quite obvious why a bunch of mountain tribes would have reverence for a deity of wind. Perhaps, if we're having trouble distinguishing this Vayu from Shiva, the answer lies in Rudra? The general point is that Wish is a high-ranking wind deity who wields a trident and has a bull. It has admittedly been a while since I did research on the Kalash, so I'm not fully certain if this properly connects or not.

Mihr is the sun. Even Zoroastrianism makes a distinction between the sun god and the sun itself.

So, Nana. Nawi, really. There's a couple of Kalash deities this goddess could represent, and knowing the passage of time, perhaps they share a common origin in her. I'd probably skew her towards the queen-creator instead of the motherhood goddess if I had to choose, but really it could be either or both. I don't really know, I'm just padding this out a bit so I can avoid writing about Ram a bit longer.

Fine, Ram, here we go. I'll be honest, this one is kinda lost on me. I was never an expert on the Kalash, and my resources on them are relatively limited. I was amazed by the connections I could make despite this, but I just don't know enough about the Kalash to draw any particular conclusions here. The material I've got on the Bactrian pantheon is likewise fairly limited, but at least there's the decency of the authors to tell me how deities line up vaguely with one another. I have no doubt the Kalash have some version of this, just like they have some version of Nawi, I'm just not educated enough to point to anything particularly - the presence in both Zoroastrianism and Hinduism of such concepts would tell me that it's most likely an older thing, though. I mean hell, I can see allusions to something pretty damn close to Ram in translations of Kalash songs, but I'll be damned if I can actually put a name to it.

In conclusion, Zunism is closely related to, but distinct from, Khurmazta. Sogdian Nanaiya is technically cognate to our Nawi, but is much sexual and motherly compared to the more martial and wise Nawi, just for an example. I haven't played Khurmazta in forever, so I don't remember their patron gods too well. I guess look at it like Romuva and Slavic, that's probably the best comparison I can give here. Thanks for listening to my rambles.

 

[Patriarch of Bub]

We should thank you, not the other way around. I always love to read your posts. Keep them coming. <3

 

[Karlingid]

We should thank you, not the other way around. I always love to read your posts. Keep them coming. <3

I don't know how much more there is to uncover at this point, probably a lot and I just won't know until I spend 3 hours googling stuff. So it goes.

 

[Patriarch of Bub]

I don't know how much more there is to uncover at this point, probably a lot and I just won't know until I spend 3 hours googling stuff. So it goes.

Well maybe not much more about the Zunists, since I'm surprised how much you actually already found, but I'm sure there are other religions or cultures you can help us discover more about.
Can I pm you a few questions?

 

[Karlingid]

Well maybe not much more about the Zunists, since I'm surprised how much you actually already found, but I'm sure there are other religions or cultures you can help us discover more about.
Can I pm you a few questions?

I don't see why not, I suppose.