Page:History of India Vol 2.djvu/365

CHAPTER XIV THE MEDIEVAL KINGDOMS OF THE NORTH 648 TO 1200 A.D. I RELATIONS WITH CHINA AND TIBET THE tenacity of the Chinese government in holding on to the most distant possessions of the empire has been exemplified in recent times by the recovery of Kashgaria and Yunnan from Mohammedan powers, and of Kuldja from the Russians. The history of the seventh and eight centuries offers many illustrations of the same characteristic, and exhibits China as mak- ing the most determined efforts to exercise influence in, and assert suzerainty over, the countries on the northern frontier of India. In the first half of the sixth century the power of China in the " Western Countries " had vanished, and the Ephthalites, or White Huns, ruled a vast empire, which included Kashgaria (the " Four Garrisons " of Chinese writers), Kashmir, and Gandhara, the region near Peshawar. About the year 565 (" between 563 and 567 ") the 321