McCrindle in his
note on ‘Aspasioi Assakenoi’ in ‘Ancient India as Described by
Arrian etc.’ observes thus: “The Aspasioi are the people called
by Strabo, in his list of the tribes that occupied the country
between the Kophes (this is the Kabul river, called otherwise by the
classical writers the Kophes, except by Ptolemy, who calls it the
Koa. Its name in Sanskrit is the Kubha) and the Indus, the Hippasioi.
They are easily to be recognized under either of these names as the
As’vaka who is mentioned in the Mahabharata along with the Gandhara
as the barbarous inhabitants of far distant regions in the north. The
name of the Asvaka, derived from As’va, a “horse”, means
cavaliers, and indicates that their country was renowned in primitive
times, as it is at the present day, for its superior breed of horses.
The fact that the Greeks translated their name into Hippaasioi (from
a Greek word for horse) shows that they must have been aware of its
etymological signification. V. de Saint Martin inclines to think that
the name of the Hippasioi is partly preserved in that of the Prachi,
a considerable tribe located in the upper regions of the Kophes
(modern-day Kabul) basin. It is more distinctly preserved in Asip or
isap, the Pukhto name of this tribe, called by Mohammedans the
Yusufzai. The name of the Assakenoi, like that of the Aspasioi,
represents the Sanskrit As’vaka, which in the popular dialect is
changed into Assaka, and by the addition of the Persian plural
termination into Assakan, a form which Arrian has all but exactly
transcribed, and which appears without any change in the Assakanoi of
Strabo and the Assacani of Curtius.
“They are now
represented by the Aspin of Chitral and the Yashkun of Gilgit. Some
writers think, however, that the name of the Assakans or Asvakans is
still extant in that of the Afghans, for the change of the sibilant
into the rough aspirate is quite normal, and also that of K into g, a
mute of its order. Dr. Bellew, however, in his Inquiry into the
Ethnography of Afghanistan, finds the source of the name in the
Armenian Aghvan, and says it seems clear from what he has explained
that the name Afghan merely means “mountaineer,” and is neither
an ethnic term of distinct race nationality nor of earlier origin
than the period of the Roman dominion in Asia Minor.”
McCrindle further
states in his notes thus: “The people living between Oxus and
Juxartes rivers were called Paraitakenoi and we find mention of them
by Alexander’s historians. We are told that after capturing the
Rock Chorienes, Alexander went himself to Baktra and dispatched a
cavalry and a force of infantry against Katanes and Austanes, the two
chiefs left in the country of Paraitakenai who still held out against
him. The Parai – tak – enai possessed part of the mountainous
country between the upper courses of the Oxus and the Juxartes. They
were perhaps one in race with the Takkas of India, who had a great
and flourishing capital, Taxila (i.e. Takkasila, the rock of the
Takkas), situated between the Indus and upper Hydaspes (Bias), the
first part of their name Parai represents perhaps the Sanskrit
Parvata, a hill, or Pahar (a hill) of the common dialect. A tribe of
the same name occupied a mountainous part of Media (Herodotus. I.
101) and another is located by Isidoros of Charax between Drangiana
and Archosia. Another form of the name is Paraitakai (Arrian, iii.
19; Strabo, xvi. 736; Stephanos Byz.)”.
We are informed by
these historians that Alexander led his army from Baktra to invade
the Indians and arrived at the city of Alexandria that he had founded
in the land of the Parapamisadai when he first marched to Baktra. The
tribes collectively designated Paropanisadai were according to
Ptolemy (who calls them Paropanisadai), the five following: the
Bolitai, Aristophyloi, Parsioi, Parsyetai and Ambautai. They lived
along the spurs of the Hindu Kush, chiefly along its southern and
eastern sides. They thus occupied the whole of Kabulistan and part of
Afghanistan. The Bolitai were probably the people of Kabul, a city
which, no doubt, represents that which Ptolemy calls Karoura
(Kaboura?) or Ortospana. These Indian tribes lived at far apart
places from each other but they shared more a common feeling of
spiritual values of life than a sense of political unity. The
geographical map of true India does not coincide with her political
map.
These people
inhabit today in a conglomeration of Asian nations that stretches
from the Central Asian nations to Afghanistan to the shores of
Caspian Sea. People of political India today are but a small part of
this large single ancient community. These people share a common
tendency to stick to their ancient traditions and accord primacy to
things that are spiritual in nature over material pursuits of secular
nature in their daily life. This is an element which is common to
them all and still surviving despite all odds of time. This element
once formed a cornerstone of one nationality. However, their secular
life – which is reflex of the Spirit – is fragmented today by
divisive religious and political forces. However, the harmonious
symmetry of inner life among all these people – that is latent and
responds spontaneously to the Spirit – is despite strangulating
centuries of divisive ravages still extant though badly bruised. It
lies buried under the turbulent waves of divisive forces and waits
for its hour of resurgence.
Ancient historians
from Herodotus to Arrian etc. talk of a people called Medes and their
country as Media. Who were these people? The famous historian Edward
Gibbon says that Media is Aderbijan (modern Ajairbaijan). The
organization of Medians into a nation by their first prince named
Deioces has been described by Herodotus in his Histories. Herodotus
says, “Now these are the tribes of which they (Medes) consist: the
Busae, the Paretaceni, the Struchates, the Arizanti, the Budii, and
the Magi.”
After the legend
of Asurbanipal, we get no information about the history of Bactria
(Bulkh). Well-known historian H.G. Rawlinson in his ‘Bactria –
from the Earliest Times to the Extinction of Bactro-Greek Rule in the
Punjab – 1908’ says in chapter II (the Early History of Bactria)
thus: “Under the Persian Empire, Bactria was conquered by Cyrus,
and the importance of the undertaking is emphasized by Herodotus, who
informs us that Cyrus conducted the expedition in person, as a task
too difficult to be left to a subordinate. Cyrus recognized the real
importance of Bactria to the vast and nebulous Persian Empire; he saw
that its primary function was to act as a barrier, interposed to
protect the Aryan civilization of the Western Asia and Eastern Europe
from the oncoming tide of Mongolian invasion. As Curtis says, it was
no doubt due to the proximity of the Scythians and the constant
marauding raids to which their fertile lands were always liable, that
the Bactrian owed those martial qualities, which made them at once
such useful and such troublesome subjects to their Persian masters.”
Rawlinson further
says: “In the reign of Xerxes, two of his brothers hold the
Imperial Satrapy (of Bactria) in turn. Prince Hystaspes, the elder of
these, is chiefly known to us in connection with the great invasion
of Greece in 480 BC when he appeared at the head of the Bactrian and
Sacaean contingent… It is noteworthy, however, that when Mardonius
was selecting a picked force to carry on the campaign after the
retreat of Xerxes, he chose “Medes, Sacae, Bactrians and Indians,
both Infantry and Cavalry,” which attests to the military prowess
of the Bactrian (note: also of Sacae and Indian) troops. We hear
little more of Bactria till the days of Alexander.”
He goes on thus:
“Alexander was leaving (Bactria) for India, and wished to have a
settled country in his rear. Garrison towns had sprung up in all
directions; the numbers of Greco-Macedonian settlers, including the
army of occupation, were probably considerably over 20,000. We know
that 23,000 went home on Alexander’s death and 7,000 had been
settled in the Caucasian Alexandria.
‘’Considerable
garrisons were in the forts near Margiana, in Maracanda (Samarkand),
Bactria and other towns. Alexander founded twelve cities in Bactria
alone. Alexandria Eschate was largely populated with natives from the
city of Cyropolis, when the later was destroyed. Alexander while
retreating after his conquest had settled old, disabled and retiring
Greek soldiers among the Baktrian Indian tribes to colonize the area
as a part of his empire.
‘’However,
soon after these Greek-Indians staged a revolt against the imperial
domination and became independent. Seleukos Nikator, who was one of
the Alexander’s generals and had participated with him in the
invasion of India and to whose share of imperial division Baktria had
fallen after the death of Alexander, attacked and conquered Baktria
from Greek-Indian rebels. After the conquest, he made it a dependency
of the Syrian Kingdom that he had founded.
‘’Seleukos
Nikator while accompanying Alexander in his Asiatic expedition had
distinguished himself particularly in Indian campaigns. In the second
partition of the empire the important province of Babylonia fell to
his share. Afterwards he subdued Sousiana, Media and all the eastern
dominions conquered by Alexander from the Euphrates to the bank of
the Oxus and the Indus rivers. In 306 BC he assumed the regal title.
“He then
undertook an expedition into India with a view to recover the
Macedonian provinces within India that had been conquered by
Chandragupta (Sandrokottos) few years after Alexander’s death.
“A war took
place between Chandragupta and Seleukos that was concluded by a
treaty. By virtue of the treaty Seleukos surrendered to Chandragupta
all the provinces of India that were conquered by the Macedonians as
well as those to the west of the Indus as far as the Paropanisos
range and agreed to marry his daughter Helena to Chandragupta in
exchange of a nominal gift of 500 elephants given by Chandragupta.
‘’Seleukos was
assassinated in 280 BC by Ptolemy Keraunos at Hellespont after
reigning for thirty-two years and at the age of seventy-eight.
Baktria was wrested from the third prince Seleukos line about 256 BC
by Theodotos who raised the dependency to the status of an
independent Kingdom. It was a warlike dynasty that lasted for about
130 years.”
There is a long list
of ancient Indian frontier peoples. One should not confuse India that
we are dealing with here with geographical India of today. And, there
is no scope for nationalist sentiment on this account. Ancient Hindu
scriptures, like Poorans, also describe an Aryavrata (sanskrit word
Arya + Avrat, that is, a land covered by Arya) that was
geographically much wide than today’s India. In fact, Aryavrata was
the abode of Aryans that encompassed most of the modern Central Asian
States of today and beyond. It is a matter of research.
One Ammianus
Marcellinus, who probably lived in 390 AD, was a native of Antioch in
Syria, being a professional soldier took part in several campaigns in
the East and later settled in Rome, provides details of the Indian
frontiers in the sixth chapter of twenty-third book of his ‘History’
thus: “To the north of the Seres lives the Ariani – a people
exposed to the blasts of the north wind. Their country is traversed
by the Arias, a navigable river, which forms a lake of the same name.
Aria possesses a great many towns, of which the most distinguished
are Bitaxa, Sarmatina, Sotera, and Nisibis and Alexandria. From this
last place the distance by water to the Caspian Sea is reckoned at
1500 stadia. In proximity to Aria are the Paropanisatae, whose
country has the Indians on its eastern frontier and Caucasus on the
western. They occupy the slopes of this range.
“The
Ortogordomaris, which is the largest of all their rivers, has its
sources in Bactriana. They have besides some towns, of which the more
notable are Agazaca and Naulibus and Ortopana. From thence a coasting
voyage as far as the frontiers of Media next to the Caspian Gates is
a run of 2200 stadia. Over against Drangiana Arachosia comes into
view, touching India on its right (eastern) side. It is called after
the river which washes it, and which issues from the Indus, the
greatest of rivers, than which it is far smaller, though it has
amplitude of waters, and forms the lake called Arachotoscrene. Among
the cities of this country the most important are Alexandria and
Arbaca and Choaspa.
‘’At the
extremity of Persis is situated Gedrosia, which on the right touches
the borders of India. It is fertilized by the Artabius and some other
smaller streams. Here terminate the Barbitanian Mountains, whence
other streams issue, and lose each of them its name in that of the
mightier river Indus. Gedrosia too has its cities, not to mention
islands subject to its rule. The cities, which are considered
superior to the others, are Sedratyra and Gynaeconlimen.”
Jaganmohan Verma,
who has translated from Chinese into Hindi the travelogue of Fa-Hian,
says in a note thus: “Yuche people were expelled from North West of
China around 173 BC and in 160 BC they defeated Sacae. Then Sacae
made them flee to the north of Oxus river. A very long time after
this event, Kada Faisus got these Yuche together. According to Ital
these people were Sacae and Tatar and in 180 BC they were expelled by
Huns and thereupon in 126 BC they conquered Bactria near Oxus and
then finally conquered Punjab and Kashmir etc.”
We may remind the
reader that here in this series of write-ups under Vision Document,
we are dealing with the origin of life, and the history and future of
mankind on Earth. It is a coherent story of cosmic evolution, which
offers a logical explanation of the past, casts an obligation in the
present on us to conduct ourselves with responsibility and provides
an insight into the future. This write-up is only a piece of the
whole jigsaw and you are encouraged to read and understand the whole.