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ravichaudhary
June 20th, 2003, 02:56 AM
Sunny Singh has posted tis query on the jathistory group.

He has invited comments.


Is there any member who has access to the Royal Asiatic Society Journal referred to .

There will be a copy in London England and Delhi.

Do any members have access to the library.

If so please copy the article and send me a copy.

Thanks

Ravi
*********


Hi Group, I posted this question on IndiaCulture.Net – views?

---I ran into an article in the Journal of Royal Asiatic Society of
1912, by Sten Konow. As you know Konow is a well-respected scholar.
The article is entitled "Goths in India" regarding
incriptions found
at the Junnar - Inscription No. 5 and No. 33. in which they mention
foreign named such as Irila and Cita, who both claim to be
"Gatas".
Luders claim the "Gata" to be Sanskrit "Garta" –
does this
mean "Jarta"? The inscriptions are dated by Konow around 150
B.C.
roughly Bactrian Greek times. There is also the appellation Yavana-
Gata – Greco-Jats???

Junnar played a considerable role in the Western Ksatrapas and Konow
claims that Irila is the Gothic name Erila, which is in
English "Earl", Old Norse "Jarl", Old Saxon
"erl", which lead to the
ethnic name "eruli" and "heruli" in Germanic
languages. Cita, Konow
translates to "Hilda" or "Helda". He then writes,
"Both Irila and
Cita are characterized as Gatas, and this latter word is the regular
Indian form corresponding to Latin goti, the Goths (Konow 381)."

He further claims the original form of the tribe as they knew
themselves is "Gutans", which he relates to the Guttones who
were
situated east of the Vistula in modern Poland. Sarmatians??? Does
this not strengthen Ammianus Marcellinus comments about the Alani
(Massagetae)?

Does this Gata inscription at Junnar imply that the Getae were known
as Gatas in their unpalatilized forms and came with the Bactrian
Greeks or pre-existed them? Is Gata the same as the classical Indian
literature Jata or Jarta, who along with the Madras of Sialkot were
deemed barbarians? Or is it that somehow Scandinavian Goths found
their way to India???

Sten Konow, "Goths in Ancien India." __Journal of the Royal Asiatic
Society__ (1912), 379-385.

Best Wishes,---