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ravichaudhary
October 13th, 2003, 09:16 PM
Professor Buddhaprakash's note on the Sakas, there
Migrations, their place names, from the Black Sea to the Punjab.

Source: Buddhaprakash, Political and social movements
in Ancient Punjab, Motilal Banarsidas, and New Delhi
(1964)


It is noteworthy that on the pedestal of a Bodhisativa image, found
at Katra Kesavadeva in Mathura, a lady, named Abhor, is called 'asi',
which shows her Saka origin. The Greek forms of this word rsi-isi-asi
are asioi and asiani, which are the name of the tribes, who invaded
Bactria and overthrew the Greek kingdoms. (J. Junge Saka Studien
(Leipzig 1939). pp. 96-97; W. W. Tarn. The Greeks in Bactria and
India, pp. 287 El seq. Ludwig Bachhofer, 'On the Greeks and Sakas in
India', Journal of The American Oriental Society (194.1) pp. 246-247.
Wherever the Saka tribes went, they carried this name with them.

The Siraci and the Aorsi, living on the shores of the Black Sea, were
in relations with the Greeks since the middle of the first century
B.C. Later, when the Alans occupied the region inhabited by the
Aorsi, the latter mixed up with them, and the tribal name Alanorsi
recalls their merger. (J. Junge, Saka Studien pp. 54, 75).

Later on, the Sakas seem to have merged in the confederacies of the
Turks after their ascendancy in Central Asia. Among the five tribes
of the Western Turks, who lived to the east of the river Chu and were
known as Tu-lu, the Turgesh were composed of the Tukhshi and the Azi
(Az of the Orklhan inscriptions). These Azi represent the Asi or
Rsikas and the Tukhsi seem to be the remnants of the Tukhara.

Under their ruler Sulu (d. 733) these Turgesh rose to power in
Central Asia and eclipsed the might of the Western Turks, whose ruler
A Shih-na married his daughter Huai-tao to this rising chief (V.V.
Barthold, Four Studies on the History of Central Asia pp. 85, 87).

In 766 the Qurluq ousted the Turgesh and adopted the old title of
Jabghu (Yabghu)

After the conquest of the Mongol some of the Saka tribes entered
into their groupings also. The Asud and the Tokhurau, the branches of
the
Dzhalair, were the Rsikas and Tukharis, who mixed up with the
Mongols.
In the West the 'Alans' are known as the As (Asy or Iasy) . Pelliot
haw shown that 'Alan' represents the original name of the Iranian
confederation. In the language of the northern Iranians 'ry' becomes
'l', as shown by Gauthiot in his Gramaire Sogdienne. Thus the
word 'arya', whence 'haraiva, areioi' etc., normally becomes 'ala',
plural 'alani'. We know that the Caucasian Ossets call
themselves 'Iron', i.e., Iranians, from the same root as 'Aryan'. It
is only their neighbors, who call them Ossets. (Russianised
Georgian 'Ovs-et-I' (land of the Ovs) based on 'As').

The fact that these people are called 'As' also shows their affinity
with the Scythian stock. (Paul Pelliot, Notes on Marco Polo I p. 18),
Many toponyms in the steppes of northern Taurida bear the impress of
this name. Several villages within the former Eupatoria and Perekop
districts have "as" their name or a part of it e.g. Biuk-as,
Kuchuk-as, Terekhi-as etc. There is also a river 'As' in the northern
part of the Peninsula. The name of the Gothic City of Doras (dor-as)
points to the same direction. Another group of the 'As' lived on the
Caucasian side of the Bosphorus, where the name of the hill 'Asso-dag
(As-Dag)' in the Kuban delta near Taman arid the name of the town of
Malorosa provide evidence of it. In the Secret History of the Mongols
(sections 62, 270, 274) there are many references to 'Asut,' a
regular
Mongol plural from 'As', and it is this 'Asut', which is correctly
rendered by the Chinese transcription 'A-su', occurring hundreds of
times in the Yuan Period.

Accordingly, in Chinese texts, for instance, Ching- shih-ta-tien," we
find the form ' A-lan A-ssu'. (Buddha Prakash, 'Sakadvipa', Purana
Vol. Ill (1961) pp. 253-287.). This wide, prevalence of the word as
shows how far and deeply the Scythian element had spread in ancient
times. Rawlinson has shown that the names of the Scythian-kings,
Seopasis, Idanthrysus and Taxacis [note 1]imply the Scythian root asi
or arsi (G. Rawlinson, History of Herodotus Vol. Ill p, 205; G.
Vernadsky, 'Ancient Russia (1943) pp. 83-84; H.W. Bailey, 'Asica'
Transactions of the Philological Society (1943) PP 2-3.

The westernmost branch of the Ossets, the Digor, living on the Urukh
and its tributaries, speaks a dialect of its own and calls its
country
Digor, which is also known as Ashtigor or As-Digor or Arsi Tagare in
the' Geography 'of Moses of Khorene (Grundriss der Iransischen
Philologie; Vladimirh Minorsky, Huduid-al-Alam p. 445). '

The 'As-Digor' are the descendants of the Yue-che, who crossed the
Don in the second century B.C.. and settled in the steppes north of
the
Caucasus and on the shores of the Black Sea in the first century B.C.

************
Note 1: Readers may note the similarity between the name of the
Scythian King "Taxa-cis" and the clan name Tak or Taksh-ac.

The Greek often took the name of a tribe as a proper name for the
king.

E.g. At the Time of Alexander's raid into India, he ran up against
the Puru tribe. The leader's name was taken as Porus. There is at
least one other " Porus' referred to in the Greek accounts.

The clan or gotra name is Puru, and now found amoung the Jats as
Puru, Pawar, Parmar, Paur, or Pauria, or Paurya.

These clan names are still found in the Jats.

Takshac, is found today as Tak, Taka, Dhaka, Tonk. The Tonk Jats
coins are still found as far afield as the Eastern Coast of India in
Orissa, where they were known as the Puri Kushans.

Takshila, or Taxila( now in Pakistan) was a famous ancient city,
where a renowned University existed in pre Buddhist and later
times.
The famous grammarian , Panini ( circa 6th century BCE) lived in
that area.

As in Nalanda,. Bihar, India, students came from all the known
world to study. They were both destroyed in the Islamic invasions.