Hinduism in Afghanistan

Hinduism in Afghanistan is practiced by a tiny minority of Afghans, believed to be about 1,000 individuals who live mostly in Kabul and other major cities of the country.

Before the Islamic conquest of Afghanistan, the Afghan people were multi-religious. The majority were followers of Hinduism and Buddhism. Most Hindu temples were destroyed or converted into mosques by the 11th century.

There is no reliable information on when Hinduism began in Afghanistan but historians suggest that the territory south of the Hindu Kush was culturally connected with the Indus Valley Civilization in ancient times. At the same time, most historians maintain that Afghanistan was inhabited by ancient Arians tribes 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, the Greeks gave up control of the territory 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.

When Chinese travelers, Faxian, Song Yun and Xuanzang explored Afghanistan between the 5th and 7th centuries AD, they wrote numerous travelogues in which reliable information on Afghanistan was stored. They stated that Buddhism was practiced in different parts between the Amu Darya (Oxus River) in the north and the Indus River. However, they did not mention much 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". The Chinese monks were followers of Buddhism, it is possible that they had no interest in writing about other religions. In addition, traveling in the Afghanistan region was too risky due to warlords and bandits.

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