Scythians - Sakas

Scythians - Sakas Scythian Origins  The Scythians inhabiting Central Asia at the time of Herodotus (5th century B.C.) consisted of 4 main  branches known as the MassaGatae, Sacae, Alani, and Sarmatians, sharing a common language, ethnicity  and culture. Ancient Greek (e.g. Herodotus, Pliny, Plotemy, Arrian) and Persian sources (Darius's  historians) from the 5th century place the MassaGatea as the most southerly group in the Central Asian  steppe. The earliest Scythians who entered the northern regions of South Asia were from this group.  Historians derive "Jat" fom "Gatae", "Ahir" from "Avar", "Saka" from "Scythii", "Gujjar" from "Khazar",  "Thakur" from "Tukharian", "Saurashtra" from "Saura Matii" or "Sarmatians", "Sessodia" (a Rajput clan)  from "Sassanian", "Madra" from "Medes", "Trigartta" from "Tyri Getae" and "Sulika" from "Seleucids".  "Massa" means "grand" or "big" in old Iranian - the language of the Scythians.  The early Sakas or Scythians are remembered by Greek (e.g. Herodotus, Megatheses, Pliny, Ptolemy)  and Persian historians of antiquity as tall, large framed and fierce warriors who were unrivalled on the  horse. Herodotus from the 5th century BC writes in an eye-witness account of the Scythians: "they were  the most manly and law-abiding of the Thracian tribes. If they could combine under one ruler, they would  be the most powerful nation on earth." According to their origin myth recorded by Herodotus, the Sakas  arose when three things fell from the sky: the i) plough, ii) sword and iii) cup. The progenitor of the Sakas  picked them up and hence the Saka race began its long history of conquering lands, releasing its bounties  and enjoying the fruits of their labor (the cup has a ceremonial-spiritual-festive symbolism). The relevance  of these symbols and codes of life and culture to the traditional Punjabi and northwest society are  tantalizingly obvious. A branch of the Sakas kown as the Alani reached regions of Europe, Asia Minor  and the Middle East. They have been connected to the Goths of France/Spain, Saxons and the Juts of  Denmark.  Entry into Southasia  Some of these Saka tribes entered northwest Southasia through the Khyber pass, others through the more  southerly Bolan pass which opens into Dera Ismail Khan in Sindh. From here some invading groups went north, others went south, and others further east. This explains why some Jat, Gujjar and Rajput clans claim descent from Rajasthan (Chauhan, Powar, Rathi, Sial etc.) while others from Afghanistan (e.g. Mann, Her, Bhullar, Gill, Bajwa, Sandhu, etc.). This is supported by the fact that the oldest Rajput geneologies (10th  centuries) do not extend into the northwest's Gandharan Buddhist period (400 B.C. - 900 AD).  Sir Cunningham (former Director General of Indian Archeological survey) writes:       "the different races of the Scythians which succesively appeared as conquerors in the       border provinces of Persian and India are the following in the order of arrival: Sakas or       Sacae (the Su or Sai of the Chinese - B.C. ?), Kushans (the great Yue-Chi (Yuti) of the       Chinese - B.C. 163), Kiddarite or later Kushans (the little Yue-chi of the Chinese - A.D.       450) and Epthalites or White Huns (the Yetha of the Chinese - 470 A.D.).  Cunningham further notes that       ". . . the successive Scythian invasions of the Sakas, the Kushans, and the White Huns,       were followed by permanent settlements of large bodies of their countrymen . . ".  Cunningham and Tod regard the Huns to be the last Scythian wave to have entered India.  Herodotus reveals that the Scythians as far back as the 5th century B.C. had political control over Central  Asia and the northern subcontinent up to the river Ganges. Later Indo-Scythic clans and dynasties (e.g.  Mauryas, Rajputs) extended their control to other tracts of the northern subcontinent.  According to Ethnographers and historians like Cunningham, Todd, Ibbetson, Elliot, Ephilstone, Dahiya,  Dhillon, Banerjea, etc., the agrarian and artisan communities (e.g. Jats, Gujars, Ahirs, Rajputs, Lohars,  Tarkhans etc.) of the entire west are derived from the war-like Scythians who settled north-western and  western South Asia in successive waves between 500 B.C. to 500 AD. Down to this day, the very name  of the region `Gujarat' is derived from the name `Khazar', whilst `Saurashtra' denotes `Sun-worshipper', a  common term for the Scythians. The northwest Southasian region continues to be the most Scythic region in the world.  The oldest Rajputs clans arose much later from earlier Scythic groups; or are of Hun origin (5-6th century AD); and many are no doubt of mixed Scythic-Hun origin. Virtually all are of Scythic descent.  ---------------------------- The Sakas - Indo-Scythians  Jason Neelis  Saka nomads from Central Asia migrated to the northwest of South  Asian subcontinent in the first and second centuries BCE. Herodotus  (4.1-142) describes the extent, customs, and origins of various  groups of Scythians (designation for Sakas in Western classical  sources) who inhabited large areas of the steppes of Central Asia on  the northern peripheries of the Greek world. The Sakas are also  known from Old Persian inscriptions of the Achaemenid Empire. The  Naqs-i-Rustam inscription of Darius I distinguishes three groups of  Sakas:  1) Saka Tigraxauda: "Sakas wearing the pointed cap" who are  portrayed in a sculpture at Behistun and described by Herodotus  (7.64) as "clad in trousers" and having "on their heads tall stiff  caps rising to a point"; these Sakas lived between the Caspian Sea  and the Jaxartes River (Syr Daria);  2) Saka Haumavarga: "hauma-drinking" or "hauma-preparing" Sakas  (hauma is a type of alcoholic beverage) identified with the Amyrgian  Scythians of Greek sources, possibly located in the southeastern  Iranian province of Drangiana, which later became known as Sakastan  or Seistan;  3) Saka Paradraya: Sakas "across the sea" who probably lived north  of the Black Sea and in the Russian steppes, although some groups  reached the Danube Valley in central Europe, Syria, and upper  Mesopotamia.  Chinese historical annals refer to the movements of the Sai (Chinese  designation for Sakas) southwards into northwest of South Asia  following a period of disturbances in Central Asia during the second  century BCE. According to the History of the Former Han (Han shu),  covering the period from 206 BCE to 25 CE: "When, formerly, the  Hsiung-nu [Xiongnu] conquered the Yueh-chih [Yuezhi] the latter  moved west and established themselves as masters of Ta Hsia [Da  xia]; it was in these circumstances that the king of the Sai moved  south and established himself as master of Chi-pin [Jibin]. The Sai  tribes split and separated and repeatedly formed several states."1  The westward migrations of the Yuezhi (see Kushan essay) led to the  emigration of the Sai sometime before 128 BCE, when the Han  ambassador Zhang Qian arrived in Sogdia and Bactria to make an  alliance with the Yuezhi. Saka migrations were not led by a single  king, but were probably gradual movements of acephalous groups to  Jibin, a region apparently corresponding to Gandhara or to northwest  of South Asia in general.  At the beginning of the first century BCE, two or possibly three  groups of Sakas migrated to South Asia from Central Asia:  a) Sakas from the north (perhaps coming from Khotan) took the 'Pamir  routes' through the Karakorum Mountains to Swat and Gandhara;  b) Sakas crossed the Hindu Kush under pressure from the Yuezhi to  mountain valleys of northeastern Afghanistan;  c) Sakas coming from the southwest (Sakastan) took control of modern  Sindh in southern Pakistan.  Maues was one of the earliest Indo-Scythian rulers during the early  first century BCE. His name is preserved in bilingual Greek (Maues)  and Kharosthi (Moa) coins and a Kharosthi inscription from Taxila  (Moga). Maues' origins are obscure: he may have been connected with  the Sakas of Sakastan, or he could have belonged to another branch  of Sakas that migrated from the north through the mountains to  Gandhara and Taxila. In giving himself the title of "King of Kings"  in bilingual Greek and Kharosthi coin legends, Maues imitated  Parthian royal titles. A Kharosthi inscription on a copper plate  from Taxila dated in year 78 of an unspecified era during the reign  of "maharaja Moga the Great" records the establishment of Buddhist  relics by a donor named Patika, the son of an official (ksatrapa)  named Liaka Kusulaka. The inscription demonstrates that Liaka  Kusulaka acknowledged the authority of Maues as his overlord.  Decentralized administration continued after the period of Maues  under loosely affiliated officials who acknowledged a more powerful  leader.  Numismatic sequences and inscriptions show that Azes followed Maues  as the most powerful Indo-Scythian ruler in 58 BCE, a date  corresponding to the beginning of the so-called "Vikrama" era, which  is still used in India. Like his predecessor, Azes adopted the title  of "King of Kings" and iconography of Greek and Indic gods and  goddesses from the coins of contemporary Indo-Greeks. Indo-Greek  power in territories of central Afghanistan and eastern Punjab  rapidly diminished during the second half of the first century BCE  as Indo-Scythians predominated. Azes and his successors Azilises and  Azes II administered Taxila and other areas of Pakistan and  northwestern India through regional rulers with Iranian, Greek, and  Indian titles.  Another branch of Indo-Scythians called the "Western Ksatrapas"  ruled parts of western India from the first century BCE to the end  of the fourth century CE. The Western Ksatrapas vied with the  Satavahanas, another regional dynasty in western India, to control  trade routes between the Deccan Plateau and ports on the west coast.  This area flourished due to lucrative long-distance trade across the  Indian Ocean to the Red Sea and Mediterranean (described in the  Periplus Maris Erythraei). The Western Ksatrapas and other ruling  families and groups of merchants supported Buddhist cave monasteries  clustered along routes through the Western Ghats (see essay on  Buddhism and Trade). Ujjayini in central India was the center of the  Western Ksatrapas from the second to early fourth centuries, until  the Gupta ruler Candragupta II defeated the "Sakas" between ca. 395-  400 CE.  Sakas in control of major commercial centers along the "Northern  Route" (Uttarapatha) and "Southern Route" (Dakshinapatha) encouraged  the development of trade networks and supported religious  institutions. Inscriptions that record the establishment of Buddhist  relics and donations to monasteries in Gandhara, Taxila, Mathura,  and western South Asia show that Sakas, Parthians, and other  Iranians were active lay supporters of the Buddhist community. Saka  support of Buddhism did not preclude their patronage of other  religious traditions or imply that their old beliefs were abandoned.  Iranian elements in architecture, iconography, languages, and many  other spheres of South Asian life around the beginning of the Common  Era are easy to recognize. Concurrent with their impact in South  Asia, migrations of the Sakas during the last two centuries BCE and  the Kushans in first century CE from Central Asia to northwest of  South Asia eventually led to the transmission of Buddhism in the  other direction to Central Asia and East Asia.  (1) Translation of Anthony F.P. Hulsewe in China in Central Asia.  The Early Stage: 125 B.C. - A.D. 23 (An Annotated Translation of  Chapters 61 and 96 of the History of the Former Han Dynasty).  Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1979, pp. 104-5. Pinyin equivalents in brackets  correspond to the Wade-Giles transliterations.