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ravichaudhary
August 9th, 2003, 09:25 PM
Posted without comment:
For the full article see:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JatHistory/message/789


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SCYTHIANS AND SARMATIANS


ANUP REJ

The Royal Norwegian Embassy, Bangkok

http://www.worldmultimedia.biz/Culture/Scythians.html


The pastoral nomadism, known as Yamnaya culture, existed in the
steppe of Central Asia, just north of Turkmenia, earlier than 4000
BC. In the third millennium BC horses came to be in use in the area.
Wheeled carts became in vogue in the north of the Black
sea in the middle of third millennium. The burial mounds, called
Kurgans, spread through the steppe between 2500 BC and 1500 BC, and
around 2000 BC the Bronze age began to flourish there. Srubnaya and
Andronovo cultures descended from this Yamnaya
culture: They spoke Indo-European languages. It is believed that the
Scythians originated from the Srubnaya and Andronovo cultures. The
Scythians formed several secondary groups in the East like the
Sacians (Sacae) and Messagetes.



WESTWARD MOVEMENT

Massagetes (Sacae) lived to the north of the Oxus. When the
forerunners of the Huns,

The Hsiung-Nu tribe was dislodged from their territory in the western
China, they pushed Messagetes westward. It caused a chain reaction,
causing successive displacement of different nomadic tribes towards
the west. Massagetes pushed the Scythians, who, in
turn, displaced the Cimmerians from the northern shores of the Black
Sea. The Aryans from the Pontic steppe of Russia entered the Aegean
coasts as Acheans and Phrygians, and while pursuing the Cimmerians
crossed over the Caucasus and came to the
present-day Azerbaidzhan, and founded their capital at Sakiz, south
of lake Urmia in the present day Kordestan. Later they became allies
of the neighboring Assyrian empire.

The Medes managed to evict these Scythians from their territories,
and pushed them back to Urartu in Amazones from where they had
entered Persia. Then the Sarmatians -
a tribe of very similar origin as the Scythians, but whose maidens
rode, hunted and joined in wars with their men - pushed the Scythians
from their eastern enclaves. Being pushed westward the Scythians
entered Hungary and Bulgaria and established outposts in the Balkans.

Later Scythians and Sarmatians were evicted from the Black Sea area,
first by the Romans, then by the Goth and the Huns. This caused the
migration of the Scythian and Sarmatian tribes (Lombardi, Alani,
Heruli people) towards Scandinavia. Thus Scytho-Sarmatian culture
entered northern Europe and later became the cultures of the
Varangians, and the Vikings.

ENTRY INTO TIBET:

Yueh-Chihs The movement of the Aryan nomads along the Central Asian
steppe had been both from east to west, and west to east. While some
tribes had penetrated a long way into the Northeast to the region of
Pazyryk and Minusinsk (todays Northwest of Mongolia - north of Altai
range), other Scythians and Sarmatians had populated the Tarim oases
from Kashgar to Kucha, Kara Shahr, Turfan and as far as Kokonor lake
in Amdo region of Qinghai. From there they had entered the steppe of
Kokonor and Alpine grassland of Tibet.

Indo-European Tocharian language was spoken in the Tarim Basin. It is
an archaic Indo-European language, that separated at very early date
from the common Indo-European group, and was subjected to a
considerable isolation from Indo-european languages and influence by
non-Indo-European languages instead.

These people of Tarim Basin, called Tukhara, were known as Yueh-Chih
by the Chinese. The Yueh-Chih resided in the area northeast of
Kokonor as early as 1000 BC.

They were in the border of the Tibetan plateau as early as the second
millennium BC.

The Yueh-Chih people suffered defeat to Hsiungnu people in the second
century BC.

After their king was killed, the main clan (Ta Yueh-chih), led by
their queen, fled to the west in the region of Amu Daria. A small
group, known by the Chinese as Hsia Yueh- chih, fled across the
mountain to the south, and settled in the area of the Jangrig
people,who are the Chiang Tibetan. In Tibet they adopted the language
of the Chiang.

Ta Yueh-chih after being driven away from the Ili valley and the
Issyk Kul basin, settled in the province of Fergana along the Greek
kingdom of Bactria around 160 BC. The regions of Tashkent, Fergana
and Kashgar became inhabited by these Sakas (Yueh-
chih), who overran Bactria by the end of second century BC. Once the
state of Tokharai (the Indo-Scythians) stretched from north of the
Tunhuang Caves to the Chi-ling Mountains north of Lake Koko Nor.

ENTRY INTO YUNNAN AND SOUTH EAST ASIA

Hsia Yueh-chih, who settled among the Chiang Tibetan, formed the
kingdom of Nanchao, presently in the Yunnan province and adopted the
language of the Chiang.

The Kingdom of Dian was established around Kunming in Yunnan, and the
township of Yizhoujun was established in 109 BC. The Dian Kingdom was
built on the east bank of the Dianchi Lake. There the nobles and the
common people, the warriors and the slaves, all were fond of songs
and dances. They showed a vibrant culture that became among the best
bronze cultures of the world. Then Nanchao Kingdom took over
Yizhoujun, and made Kunming one of its capitals. The small Kingdom of
Ailao was created by 122 BC by proto-Thai inhabitants in Yunnan, and
proto-Thai migrants from territories earlier settled by proto-Thais,
but then
conquered by the Chinese. Armed conflict between China and Ailao
Kingdom pushed the Aliao people towards Indo-China peninsula by the
first century BC. Thais migrated from their settlements in Yunnan.
They crossed the valley of the Salwin, and set up
independent principalities in the Sip-Song Pan Na near the region of
present day Chiangsaen on the Mekhong River. This territory included
the land north of the Mekhong in present day Laos, and perhaps part
of present day Burma, and was known as Yonok
Country.


ENTRY INTO INDIA

The Saka tribes entered India through different ways: some entered
northwest India through the Khyber pass, while others entered through
the more southernly Bolan pass which
opens into Dera Ismail Khan in Sindh -an entry point into Gujarat and
Rajasthan. From here some groups went north (Punjab), some went south
(Maharasthra), and others went further east (UP, MP). This explains
why some Jat, Gujjar and Rajput clans
claim descent from Rajasthan (Chauhan, Powar, Rathi, Sial etc.),
while others claim descent from Afghanistan (e.g. Mann, Her, Bhullar,
Gill, Bajwa, Sandhu, etc.).

According to Sir Cunningham (former Director General of Indian
Archeological survey) different races of the Scythians succesively
arrived as conquerors from the border provinces
of Persian and India in the following waves: Sakas, or Sacae (the Su
or Sai of the Chinese), Kushans (the great Yueh-Chih (Yuti) named by
the Chinese - around 163 B.C.), Kiddarite, or later Kushans (the
little Yueh-chih called by the Chinese) in 450 A.D. The successive
Scythian invasions as and dynasties (e.g. Mauryas, Rajputs) extended
their control to other tracts of the
northern subcontinent. The largest Saka imperial dynasties of
Sakasthan included the Satraps (204 BC - 78 AD), Kushanas (50 AD -
380 AD), Virkas (420 AD - 640 AD) while others like the Mauryas (324
BC - 232 BC) and Dharan - Guptas (320 AD - 515 AD)expanded their
empires towards the east. The agrarian and artisan communities (e.g.
Jats, Gujars, Ahirs, Rajputs, Lohars, Tarkhans etc.) of the entire
western India are derived from the 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 Gujarat-Rajasthan
region continues to be the most Scythic region in the world. Sakastan
Starting from the Vedic period (1500 BC) until the advent of Mohammed
Ghori in the 13th