The district
Rawalpindi from its geographical position is associated with much of great
interest in the history of Pakistan. The armies of such successions invader
from the west or north-west swept across the Chach plain ,and down southwards right
across the district. The names of Alexander,Mahmood of Ghazni ,Babar and “Tamurlane”
or Timur are all closely connected with the district, and as will have been
already seen from the description of places of antiquarian interest.
The Takkas were the earliest inhabitants
of this part of the country after the Arya s who are supposed to have come in
to it about 1426 BC.The tract between the Indus and the Jhelum ,known as Samma
is supposed to have been held by Anavas of the Timar race .Peshawar and the
country west of the Indus by the
Ghandhare
The Takkas an early Turanian race ,are believed to have
held the whole or the greater part of the Sind-Sagar Doab.Some probability
,drives from this tribe as the name of
taxilla,or Takshasila,which at the time of Alexander,was a large and wealthy
city ,the most populous between the Indus and Hydaspes (Jhelum) and is
indetified beyond a doubt with the ruins of Shah-Dheri or Dhari-Shahan a few
miles to the north of Margalla pass in the district of Rawalpindi and
Islamabad.
So far,researcher and historian Muhammad Adnan’s theory as to the early population of the district seems reasonable enough ,but he goes on to assert his belief that already ,before the time of Alexander,the Tikkas had been ousted from the nabouhood of the Taxila by the Awan.This theory he builds upon the scanty foundation existing in the similarity of the name Awan or “Anuwan” as he would read it with that Amanda,the district in which the town of Taxila was situated.
