Billimoria on Sindh

Sapta-Sindhu in the Rig Veda

By N. M. Billimoria

(Read before tile Sindh Historical Society, Karachi, 011 l lth Dec. J938)

I must first mention about the Sapta Sindhu and about the Rig

Veda before I take up the proper subject of the paper.

Arya signifying honourable, in ordinary speech, and derived

from arya, which means lord in the Vedas, is the most ancient name

of the Indian people. In Rig Veda I, 51, 8 we read "Distinguish

between the Aryas ami those who are Dasyus; chastizing those who

observe no sacred rites, subject to them to the sacrificer." The term

"Malecha", an impure barbarian, is the opposite of Arya. The same

is the case among the Persians. According to the Persian law of

euphony, arya had to be changed airya, a name which the Persians

long applied to themselves, and out of which the more modern Iran,

has arisen; a name too with whict! Herodotus had become

acquainted. Anairya, non-Iranic is opposed to the word airya.

Ananda K. Coomaraswamy in his recently published book The

Rig Veda as L~nd-Nama Bok says about Arya, Arya thus:-

Arya, "noble" or "gentle" (as in "Gentleman") is form r, to go,

rise up, reach, obtain; cognate forms are ariya, airya, Irna, Erin,

and Germ. Ehrc; for the root, cf. Zend ir, Lith ir-ti (to row, of.

Skr. aritra, "oar"), (ired' or-nu-rni, 'aro-o etc. and LaL or-ior,

or-lens. Any connection with LaL ar, to plough, may be

doubted. The root meanings give the sense of going forward

ami taking possession. The root meaning of arya is that of

"pioneer", in the American sense, where the first settlers arc

most highly honoured (one might almost speak of an "ancestral

cult" in this connection), and where it represents the height of

social distinction to be descended from these first comers from

the other side. From this point of view, there develops the

secondary meaning of "noble" and that of "right", d. rta "law"

and ari "loyal"; the procedure of the first settlers being thought

of as an establishment of law and order where savagery (anrta)

II

Sindt, Observed

had previously prevailed. Thus he, Agni, who purvam arta

(R V. IV, 1, 12) is not only rtaya and rtayus, but also rtavan and

rtvij or in short and in every sense of the word, arya or arya.

It need hardly be pointed out that the term arya is applied by

the Aryans themselves to themselves in this laudatory sense, and by

way of distinction from others whose descent and behaviour are

relatively abominated, and of whose point of viewViehear little.

Rg. Veda IV, 1, 12.

Wonderously first he rose aloft, defiant, in the Bull's lair, the

home of holy order.

Longed-for, young. beautiful, and far-resplendent; and seven

dear friends sprang up into the mighty.

The original Arian race from which later the Indians and the

Persians separated cannot have lived as one community in India or

Persia. The Indians who spoke Sanskrit were not the original

inhabitants of Hindustan. The oldest scats of the Indians mentioned

arc to be placed in the Punjab. In the first Fargad of the Vendidad,

verse 73, Hapta Hindu or India is mentioned, which is called Hindus

in the cunei-form inscriptions. For a long time the meaning of

Hapta Hendu, seven Indias, was not understood. The Vedas gave an

explanation, for in the hymns of the Rig Veda, we find SaptaSindhvas,

the seven rivers, often mentioned; this is the country of the

Indians. From the Punjab, the Indian advanced towards the cast,

first as the Sarswati; after that, they spread over the whole of north

India; they went to the south only in the later period.

The Sanskrit, or what may be called the indigenous name of the

river Indus is Sindhu, not Hindu from which the word Indus has

come. The Rig Veda speaks of the Indus.with its tributaries as SaptSindhavas

(i.e., country of the Seven Sindhu 'rivers) not as HaptHindavas.

See Rig Veda, IV, Hymn 28.

With you as his, companion and in friendship with you, oh

Soma, Indra set the waters fItlwing for man. He slew the Serpent,

set free the seven rivers and opened up the gates which were closed

as it were.

12

Sapta-Sindhu ill the Rig Veda

(Translated by H. D. Velankar, in the journal of the Bombay

University, Vol. VI, Part VI, May 1938).

Great discussion has arisen toassign the original country of the

Arian family. There are many opinions on the subject. One says

that India was the original country of the Arian family, from which

its different' branches emigrated to the north-west and in other

directions.

Some very famous men state that the original abode is to be

sought in the extreme east of the Iranian country, in the tract where

the Oxus and Jaxartes take their rise. The great affinity between the

Sanskrit and the ancient Bactrian languages and the resemblances

between the mythologies of the Vedas and the Avesta should show

that the Iranians had spent a great part of the Vedic period with the

Indians. This opinion is supported by Prof. Max Muller; and he adds

that "the Zoroastrians were a colony from Northern India. They had

been together for a time with the people whose sacred songs have

been preserved to us in the Veda. A schism took place and the

Zoroastrians migrated westward to Arachosia and Persia. They gave

to the new cities and to the rivers along which they settled the names

of cities and rivers familiar to them, and reminding them of the

localities which they had left. Haroyu in Persian would be Saroyu in

Sanskrit; this river of the Punjab is mentioned in the Veda; IV, 30,

18; "Arna and Chitraratha, both Aryas, thou, Indra slewest swift, on

yonder side of Sarayu." Turvasa and Yadu may perhaps have

crossed the river and under the pzorecrion of Indra conquered two

Aryan chiefs whose lands lay beyond it. This same river is

mentioned again in the tenth book, 64 hymn, 9th verse;". Let the

Sarasvati, the Sarayu, the Sindhu, with their waves; let the great

rivers come swiftly strengthening us with their succour, etc,"

M. Pictct in his "Lcs Origines Indo-Europeennes", says:

"Assuming Bactria to have been the centre of the region

peopled by the primitive Atryas, the Iranians must have

possessed its North-East corner, bordering on Sogdiana,

towards Belurtag, and have at first spread towards the cast, as

far as the high mountai I v..lleys, from which they afterwards

descended to col()ni~e ~ran.. Alongside of them, to the southeast,

probably, in the fertile regions of Badakshan, dwelt the

Indo-Arians. occupying the slopes of Hindu-Kush, which they

"'II"" Obscr. -cd

had afterwards 10 cross. or 10 round, in order to arrrvc 111

Cabul, and penetrate thence into Northern India. To the

south-west, towards the sources of the Artamis, and the

Bactrus, we should place the Pelasgo-Arians (the Greeks and

Latins). who must have advanced thence in the direction of

Herat and continued their migration by Khorasan and

Mazenderan to Asia Minor and the Hcllaspont."

I

The period when the Arian emigrations took place the earliest

cannot be placed al less than 3()(X) B.C.

Lassen Ind. Ant. 1,527 remarks as follows: _

'The opinion that the original scats of these (the Indian and

Iranian) nations arc to he soughthere in (the extreme cast of

the Iranian highlands) receives great confirmation from the

fact, that we lind hranches of these nations on both sides of the

lofty range; for the ancient inhabitants of Casghar, Yarkhand,

Khoten, Aksu, Turfan, and Khamil arc Tajkis and -spcak

Persian; it is from this point only that they are diffused towards

the interior of upland Asia; so that their 1110S1 powerful germ

seems to have been planted on this range."

And Prof. Wilson says:

"Without extending the limits of India, however, too far to the

north, there is no reason to doubt. that the valleys of the Indian

Caucasus were properly included within them, and that their

inhabitants. as far as Pamer mountains and Badakhshan, were

Indian", who may have been 011 first tributary 10 Persia. and

afterwards subject 10 some branches of the Greek race of

Bactrian kings" Ariana Antiqua, p. IJ-t.

14

Badakhshan is the countrv on the hanks of the OXliS ncar its

...uurccs situated between lat. .V," and 3X" north, and lying eastward

from Balkh. Pamer lies in the same direction.

I may say ih.u none of the most ancient Sanskrit hooks has any

reference or allusion 10 I he foreign origin of the Indians.

Sapta-Sindhu ill the Rig Veda

In several verses in the Rig Veda we lind words which show

that the composers of the verses still retain some recollection of

their having occupied a colder country:

R. V. I.(l~. 17: May we cherish sons and descendants a hundred

years.

R. V. V. 54.15; Be pleased, 0 Maruts,with this hymn of mine, by

the force of which may we pass through a

hundred winters.

R. V. VI~. 8; May we rejoice, living a hundred winters, with

vigorous offspring.

The mention of Uuara (northern) Kurus may be reminding

them of countries north of the Himalaya. Ptolemy is also acquainted

with Uuara Kuru. He speaks of a mountain, a people, and a city

called Ouorokorra- this place may he sought for to the cast of

Kashgar.

As stated before, Ahura-rnazda created several regions, it

mentioned in the First Fargard of the Vcndidad. The.first region is

Aryano-vacjo Dr. Haug remarks about this that Airyana-vaejo was

originally the only cultivated country, and that all other countries

were waste. As it was to he feared that the inhabitants of the waste

would overrun this fertile region, other countries were also made

habitahle by Ahura-mazda, In the 72-73 verses Sapta-Sindhuvas is

mentioned, the country of the seven rivers of the Punjab. Spiegel

places Airyana-vaejo in the furthest cast of the Iranian plateau, in

the region where the Oxus and Jaxartes take their rise.

Cashmere, which has the sources of one of the tributaries of

the Indus, the .Ihclum- the Hydaspes of the ancient Greeks, the

Bydaspcs of Ptolemy ,IIlU the Vitasra of the Vl.:uas-· was then

included in the above named country of Hapia-Hindu.

Unfortunately, the Iranian names of the Indus have not come down

to us in the extant Iranian literature. But still, the names, Hydaspcs,

the Greek name or the Jhclum, and Bydaspcs, the name given to it

hv Ptolemy, clcarlv show thcir-Jranian oriuin. We know. that M)II1L'

oi the rivers of ancient Pcrxia d2rivI.:d Ihl'i; name!'. 1'0:'"aspa", i.c .. the

horse. because their -pccd was considered In L,L' as great a!'.lhal "I' a

IHH'!'.l', Tnkc 1,)1' example Ihl' Hvaspa, t.r., till' gl)()(I-hor~e which I!'.

15

thought to be the same as the Choaspes of the Greeks. The name

Hydaspes or Bydaspes is another instance of a river deriving its

name from Avesta, Aspa, Sanskrit, Ashwa, Latin, Equus, a horse.

Even later Arab and Mahomedan writers speak of Kashmir as

being a part of Hindu or India. According to Masudi, Kashmir

together with Sindh and Kanauj formed part of India.

We have seen that Bactria or its ncighourhood was the country

- which the different branches of the Indo-European race occupied in

common before they separated. By what route did they enter India.

Lassen says:

"There is only one route by which we can imagine the Arian

Indians to have immigrated into India; they must have come'

through the Punjab and reached the Punjab through western

Kabulistan. The roads leading from the country on the Oxus

into eastern Kabulistan and the valley of the Panjkora, or into

the upper valley or the Indus down upon Gilgit and from

thence either down the course of the Indus or from Gilgit over

the lofty plateau of Dootsu down on Kashmir, are now known

to us as the roughest and most difficult that exist, ... All the

important expeditions of nations or armies which are known to

us have proceeded through the western passes of the

Hindukush, and if we suppose the Arian Indians to have come

into India from Bactria, this is the only route by which we can

assum'e them to have arrived."

Schlegal slates:

The western side of India appears to be more open, as from

Kashmir 10 the Delta of the Indus the boundaries arc not

()Ih<.:rwi~emarked than hy that river itself. But in its upper

course the Indus is 110tnavigable owing to its rapidity and irs

cataracts: and in addition ih right hank is flanked by mountains.

Towards Ihe sea if spreads out into, or is surrounded by,

marshcv; more in the interior. and even above the confluence of

the !IW rivers, it is boundetrby sandy deserts. From that point

to Ik· place where it enters the plains near Attock a tract

intervenes where the ra~sage may be more easily effected.

Accordingly il j~ on this side that India has always been entered

Sapta-Sindhu ill 'he Rig Veda

by foreign conquerors, by Samiramis, if her Indian expedition is

authentic .... by Alexander the Great, Seleucus, and the Greek

kings of Bactria, by the Indo-Schythians, or nomad races, who

invaded certain provinces during the century preceding our era;

by Mahmud of Ghazni, by the Afghans, the Moghuls, and the

Persians under Nadir Shah. Thus all probabilities are united in

favour of the supposition that the ancestors of the Hindus came

from the same side..... The Punjab would consequently be the

first country occupied by the colonists" .

Coming to the present writers, G. R. Hunter in the New

Review for April 1936 writes in a paper on the "Riddle of Mohenjo

Daro:"

It seems fairly certain that at some time prior to the Aryan

arrival the Dravidians held the Indus Valley, For on no other

hypothesis is it easy to account for the present position and

speech of the Brahui 'of Baluchistan. . Further evidence to

suggest that they were actually in Moheqjo Daro at the time of

our texts is afforded by the discovery of what appears to.be a

variety of the Indus script on pottery recovered from cairn

burials in Hyderabad and Madras (see Journal+ of the

Hyderabad Archaeological Society, 1917, p. 57) in country that

one supposes was Dravidian-speaking at the date of those

burials. A further argument might be drawn rrom the presence

at Mohenjo Daro of a high proportion of skulls of the

Mediterranean type. But until more is known of the

anthropological antecedents of the Dravidian-speaking races it

would be wiser to omit this argument."

Rev. Heras in his paper on "Light on the Mohenjo Daro

Riddle", in the July 1936 number of the New Review writes:

"Accustomed as we are to associate the Dravidians from very

ancient times with South India, it is indeed a little difficult to

persuade ourselves that they occupied the whole 01 Jl'ldiaat any

time 'of her history. Even Dravidian scholars have never

claimed that their ancestors were at any time masters of

Northern India. But the Rig Veda itself speaks of the light

between the Aryas and the Dasyus from the moment they

crossed the Hindukush, (I do not speak of the Asuras who

apparently were not Dravidians). During the epic period

17

Sindt: Observed

Northern India,

the Gandharas, the Mahisis, the Matsyas, the Nagas, the

Garudas, the Bakhlias, point to the presence of the much

Dravidian blood in the veins of Northern Indian people.

I3rahui and Uraon, two Dravidian languages now spoken in

Northern India also suggest the domination of the ancient

Dravidians over the whole of Northern India."

"Who were these Dravidians and from where did they come?

The answer to this question will help us a great deal to solve

the Mohenjo Daro riddle. The opinion now prevalent among

historians and ethnologists is that they formed a part of the

great Mediterranean race. Their original home was probabaly

Libya, whose people spread over the southern countries of

Europe and Egypt in its pre-dynastic days, and which seems to

have been an important centre of culture in ancient times. This

culture was brought to India by Lybians who were later called

Dravidians, and it improved by its mixture with the negritoes

and Kolarians who were inhabiting India at the time of their

arrival. This mixture is proved by its results. Though the

Dravidians belonged to the white race they were described by

the Aryan invaders as "blacked faced and noseless." If they

mixed so freely with the negritoes as to acquire some of their

characteristics, they must have mixed much more freely with

the Austric people who were racially less different from them.

A mixture of two races improves the new race and

consequently its cult ure. That the culture of the Dravidian

people received a new impulse after their mixture with the

earlier settlers, the script of Mohenjo Daro is an evident proof.

For though brought into India from outside it developed so

much here as to become the parent script of some of the most

famous scripts in the history of the world."

The words "blacked faced and noscless", used by Rev. Hcras I

have traced 111 verse 10, hymn 29 to Agni, in Book V, of the Rig

Veda.

"One car-wheel of the Sun thou rollcdcst forward, and one thou

scucst free to move hi Kutsa. Thou slowest nosclcss Dasyus

with thy weapon and in their home overthrcwest hostile

speakers:'

Sapta-Sindhu in tlte Rig Veda

Griffiths comments: an eclipse of the sun appears to be

referred to. Noseless, that is the flat-nosed barbarians, a-nasah : or

the word may be as Sayana explains, an-asah, i.e., mouthless,

voiceless, unintelligibly speaking. Asya, face or mouth, being put by

metonomy for sabda, the sound that comes from the mouth,

articulate speech, alluding possibly to the uncultivated dialects of the

barbarous tribes, barbarism and uncultivated speech being identical,

in the opinion of the Hindus, as the familiar term for a barbarian,

'mlechha' which is derived from the root mlechh to speak rudely.

(Of. Muir, Sanskrit Texts, Vol. II, p. 377-78).

Prof. Max Muller says that "at the first dawn of traditional

history we see these Arian tribes migrating across the snow of the

Himalaya, southwards towards the seven rivers (The Indus, the five

rivers of the Punjab, and the Sarasvati) and ever since India has been

called their home." All the writers agree that India is not the

original country of the Hindus.

The immigration of the Arians was from the north-west is

supported by the fact that the composers of the Vedic hymns appear

to be very familiar with the North West parts of India itself, as well

as with the countries bordering on, or beyond the Indus; they were

familiar with the rivers which flow through this region. On the other

hand places, rivers in the central and eastern parts of India are rarely

mentioned; and no allusion is made to the southern region.

The Sindhu is very often celebrated in the hymns of the Rig

Veda, while the Ganges is mentioned only once. In RV. X., 75, we

read "Ganga, Yamuna, Sarasvati, Saturdi, with Purushni, receive

graciously my hymn Marudvridha, hear with Asikni, the Vitasia;

Arjikiya, hear with the Sushorna". Ganga is the Ganges. Yamuna,

the Jumna. Saturdi, the Satlaj, Parushni, the Ravi; Asikni, the

ancient Accsines, the vedic name of the Chandrabhaga, the present

Chcnab. Arjikiya is Vipas or Becas; Vitasta is the Hydaspas,

Kophen is the Kabul river. According 10 Arrian, Alexa nc , : crossed

four rivers before he reached the Indus; the Kophen, Khocs,

Euaspla, and Garocus: we have still in the Punjshir, Alishung,

Khonar and Pinjkora.

TI,c River KlI1l11l. - The country through which the river Karun

passes is very interesting. It was Oil the shores of this river Karun

tl1:lt Daniel. according In the Old Tcstam~nl has his cclchrarcd

J ()

Sind" Observed

dream in the palace of Shushan. It i~'the river down which, we learn

from Arrian, Alexander the Great sailed in his journey from

Pcrsipolis to Susa, and it is the river which his admiral Ncarchus

ascended with the fleet placed at his disposal. It is the river spoken

of in the celebrated march of Taimur, in later times, as the Chahar

Dangah.

To a Parsi, the region traversed by the river is interesting,

where the foreign Parthian dynasty under the last king Ardvan (the

Artabanes of the Greek writers) was overthrown by the well known

Ardeshir Babegan (Ardeshir I). It is the region where Shapur, the

son of Ardeshir, had after his victory at the battle of Edessa,

imprisoned his royal Roman prisoner Valerian, whose prison house

is even now shown in a castle of Shuster on the banks of the Karun.

Horrnuz, the grandson of Ardeshir, here had founded the wellknown

city of Ram Hormuz (Aram-i-Horrnuz, the rest of Hormuz).

This region has many signs of the greatness of the Sassanian dynasty.

Garois, the ancient name was Gauri, the present is Panjkora. I

cannot resist the temptation of quoting from Sir Aurel Stein's

Archaeolo_gical Tour in the Western and Northern Baluchistan.

"Riversmentioned ill Rig Veda. - In the light of what modern

conditions here show us it becomes possible for us to recognise

the true significance of the oldest record that relates to this

ground. Imean the mention of the river Krumu and Gomati in

the famous Vedic hymn the "Nadistuti" of the Rig Veda (X. 75).

Their identity with the present Kurram and Gumal has been

established ever since the study of India's oldest literary

remains started in Europe. But it scarcely appears to have

been adequately realized that the mention of these IWO rivers

both comparatively small except when sudden spates fill their

beds, suggests such acquaintance with Waziristan as only

prolonged occupation by Aryan tribes of the early Vedic period

is likely to account for. It is by the Kuram and Gumalthat the

whole drainage of Waziristan and the Afghan uplands adjoining

westwards finds its way to the Indus. There is ail the more

reason to attach a quasi-historical interest 10 their mention

because acquaintance also with the hill tracts' immediately to

.thc south seems implied hy the reference with another hymn of

the Rig Veda makes to the river Yavyaati; for this I believe has

been rightly identified hy Professor l lillchrant with Gumal's

20

Sapta-Sindhu in 111(' R~!.{Veda

main tributary, the Zhob, the modern name of which can easily

be accounted for as the direct phonetic derivative of the vedic

form.

The change of initial Y into .I and the subsequent one of .I into

ZH is well known in lraniarf dialects the usc of which in the

present Baluchistan is well attested from the early period; in

the southern dialect of Pushtu the pronunciation of initial J as

ZH is quite common.

The change of A VY A into 0 can also he accounted for by the

frequent assimilation of VY into V and by the weakening

process which reduces medical V to D, resulting in the

subsequent normal contraction of A VA into 0."

River Sarasvati is celebrated in several passages: -

111.23.4. On an auspicious day I place thee on the most

sacred spot of Ilia (the earth). Shine, 0 opulent

Agni, in the assembly of men on the banks of the

Drishadvati, the Apaya, the Sarasvati.

By her force and her impetuous waves she has

broken down the sides of the mountains, like a man

digging lotus fibres, For succour let us with praises

and hymns, invoke Sarasvati who sweeps away her

banks.

VI. 61.2

The same epithet "most copious of streams" is applied to

Sarasvati and the Sindhu. Hymns C)5and <)(i of the 7th book of the

Rig Veda arc devoted to the praises of the Sarasvati and her male

corclaiivc Sarasvat. The Rig Veda docs not contain hymns in

celebration of the Ganga, such as we lind Ior the Sindhu and

Sarasvati.

The river Sarayu is mentioned three times, in R. V. IV, 30, lR,

"Arna and Chitraratha, hoth Aryas, thou Indra, slowest swift, on the

yonder hank of Sarayu." This river is the Punjah river (not one ncar

Oudh) Turvasa and Yadu may perhaps have crossed the river and

under the protection of Indra conquered two Arijan chiefs, whose

land lay beyond it.

21

Sindh Observed

In RV, X, 75. several other rivers are mentioned, viz;

Trishtama, Susatu, Rasa, Sveti, Kubha, Gomati, Krumu and

Mehtanu; also Siamvat and Urnavati. According to Sayana (the

commentator) about the last two rivers, the words are epithets of

Sindhu and mean respectively, 'abounding in Silama plants' and said

to be used for cordage, and 'rich in wool,'

The river Rasa is .famous; . in RV. X, 108, the Panis the

avaricious merchants of Sapta Sindhu, had stolen the cows of the

cultivators. Indra wished to go in search himself; but first sent his

watch-dog Sarama to reconnoitre. When she meets the Panis, they

ask her "how didst thou cross the waters of the Rasa"? This river is

mentioned in the Zoroastrain literature as Rangha; in Pahlavi

Bundesh it is called Arang. Different scholars assign it to different

rivers: -

Darrnestcter takes it for the !igris.

Harley takes it for the Oxus.

Spegal, Justi, Geiger, for the Zarzates.

Geiger lakes il for Vedic Rasa.

Windischmann takes it for Sindhu.

Martin Haug in his "Language, writings and Religon of the

Parsis" quotes from Pahlvi Vcndidad I.

The eleventh of places and districts produced perfect by me,

me who am Auharmazd, was Het Homand the illustrious and

glorious; busy and diligent is the spirit which it subdued (1) some say

that of the Vch River (2)

(1) Some modern mss. alter the word into Sistan, because

Hctrnund River is in Sistan.

(2) The Veh (or good) river is one of the two chief rivers of

the word according 19 the Bundahish which states that

"these two rivers flow forth from the north part of the

Eastern Albroz, one towards the west that is the Arang,

and one towards the cast that is the Veh river. The spirits

(If the two rivers arc also mentioned and further

particulars arc given thus (Bundcsh, p. 50) "the Veh river

22

Sapta-Sindhu ill the R~~Veda

passes by on the east goes through the land of Sind, and

flows to the sea in Hindustan, and they call it there the

Mehra River." It is said that the Veh river is also called

the Kasak in Sindh.

Haug further states at p. ~M "The 16th of places ami districts

produced perfect by me, me who am Auharmuzd was on the waters

of Arang stan (Eastern Empire of the Romans) which is Arum .

That is the country of the Arang river, one of the two chief rivers of

the Iranian world. It is likewise said in the Bundahish.

'The Arag or Arang river is that of which it is said that it comes

out from the Albroz in the land of Surkak which they also call

(or in which they also call it Ami and it passes on through the

land of Speros which they also cail Mcsr and they call it there

the Niv."

Rasa is mentioned in RV. I. 112,12- "wherewith yc made

Rass swell Iull with water-flood, and urged to victory 1he car wit hout

a horse;

V.41.1S .. "May the great Mother Rasa here befriend

us .." also

V, 5~. ()... "So let not Rasa, Krumu, or Anitabha

Kubha, or Sindhu hold you hack. Let not

the watery Santy obstruct your way."

Anitahha is an affluent of the Indus. Another river Sivastu, an

affluent or the Indus is mentioned in RV. VIII. 1'), ~(1-~7. "A gift or

lifty female slaves hath Trasadasyu given me, Parukutsa's son. most

liberal kind, lord of the brave. And Syava too Ior me led forth a

sl rong sl ccd at Suvast u's ford." The hard Sohhari is recounting the

presents which he received on the banks of the Suvastu. According

to Arrian the Soasios and Garios now into the Kophcn. Suvastu is

the same as the modern river Suwad, a stream which llows into the

Kabul river from the north, alter first joining the Pnajkora.

\Ve may sfacly say that at the time of the composition of the

Rig Veda the Arian Indians dwelt chiefly in eastern Kabulistan and

the Punjab as far as the Sarasvati; they had not spread further than

to North-West Bengal on the south hank of the Ganges. No

2~

Sind" Observed

mention is made of the rivers Narmada, the Godaveri and the

Kavcri, well khown for their sanctity.

Hymn 33,. Book III, is a dialogue between Visvamitra and the

rivers Vipas al'ld Sutudri; the first is the Beas, and the second to the

south-east of Amritsar, The legend is that Visvarnitra the purohit or

family priest of king Sudas obtained wealth by means of his office

took the whole of it and came where the two rivers met. In order to

make the rivers fordable he praised them with the first three verses

of the hymn. The hymn has some poetical beauty and is interesting

as a relic of the traditions of the Arians regarding their progress

eastward in the land of the live rivers.

The Himalaya mountains are mentioned in X, 121, 4; He

whose greatness these snowy mountains and the sea with the aerial

river declare etc. But no allusion to the Vindhaya range is to be

found in the Rig Veda.

The hymns addressed to Soma were intended to be sung while

the juice of the plant, said to be produced on Mount Mujavat was

heing pressed out and purified. The first verse of R. V. X, 34 runs

thus: -

These dice that roll upon the board

To me intense delight afford

Sweet Soma-juice has not more power

To lure me in an evil hour.

The passion for gambling prevailed very extensively at the time

when the hymns of the Rig Veda were composed. Thus in R.V. VII,

S6, (I dice arc mentioned along with wine, anger, thoughtlessness as

causes of sin.

In the first hook, 7lh hymn, 9th verse it is sung: "Indra who

rules with single sway men, riches, and the fivefold race of those who

dwell upon the cart h." Here the Aryan settlements Of tribes arc

meant. In the 108th hymn, these five arc named: "If, 0 fndra and

Agni, yc arc abiding among the Yadus. Turvasas, Druhyus, Anus,

Purus- come hither. vigorous heroes, from all quarters, and drink

the soma. which has been poured (lUI."

24

Sapta-Sindhu ill the Rig Vee/I;

Vasishtha was the hard of the Tritsu, the thief Aryan nation,

and Vishvamitra was the bard of the Bharastas th~.ir great cncmcis

and one of Ihe most powerful native tribes. Tritsu were perhaps the

original invaders of the Punjab. Their first king, Divodasa was

engaged in continuous warfare with some fierce mountain tribes of

the north, whose chief was Shambara: he had buill a number of forts

into Himalayan fastnesses; these forts were buill of wood, so that the

usual mode of attack and destruction was by fire. That is why in

many passages in which the exploits of Dividasa are glorified, the

credit of the victory was given to Agni and Indra. The forts arc

mentioned as 90 or 99- to express great number. The poet sings in

one place "0 Lightning bearer these are thy deeds that thou

destroyedest 99 castles in one day, and the 100th at night." Victories

arc recorded of Divodasa and his son or grandson, Sudas over the

Yadu and Turvasu, twin tribes always named together, who lived

south of seven rivers between the Indus and the Jamna. These two

tribes were of Aryan stock, connected with the Aryas of the Indus

and Sarasvati. The Purus, a powerful originally a Dravidian race,

who lived in the west and had an unending light with the Gandharas,

who lived in the Kabul valley and bred horses, was for a long time a

firm ally of the Tritsu. The bard sings "From fear of thee the black

people ned; they dispersed, leaving behind their goods and chattels,

when thou. Agni, blazing for the Puru, destroyed their forts (VII, 6,

:\). In the 19th hymn of the same book, Indra is praised for giving

the victory over the Yadu-Turvasu to the Tritsu, for helping Kutsa,

the Puru king, in his battles, and giving his enemy a prisoner in his

hands. Thus the War of the ten kings went on Purukutsa standing at

its head. Tritsu had some allies; we lind names of Prithu and Parsu,

Parthian and Persians; two chief Eranian tribes may have wandered

smilh of the Himalayas.

In the txth Hymn, Book VII, the following lines occur.

Together came the Pakthas, the Bhalanas, the Alinas, the Sivas,

the Vishanins,

Yet to the Tritsus came the Aryas' comrade, through love of

spoil and heroes' war, to lead them.

Fools, in their folly fain 10 waste her waters, they parted

inexhaustible Parushni ..

25

·\·in,lh.Oh,-,·,,·ed

The tribes mentioned above arc non-Aryan tribes opposed to

the Tritsus. The confederates who were on the right or further bank

of the Purushni (the Ravi), intending to attack Sudas and the Tritsus,

tried to ford the river hy digging channels and to divert the waters;

hut the waters rush back and drowned the mcn. The Tritsu victory

. wa-, wmplctc and there was nothing to hinder them from proceeding

eastward towards the Yamuna. Ragozin in the Vedic India on page

32)0\writes: _

"A people named Vishanin, i.e., followers of Vishnu is also

mentioned almost certainly Aryan sun-worshippers, showing

that Vishnuism as a distinctive worship- a sect- had its roots

in a remoter past than was hitherto suspected. (Vishnuism is

probably originally connected with the transition from the

oldest calendar of thirteen lunar months to the reformed solar

year of twelve months, presided over by the twelve Adityas_

see Mr. Hcwiu's Early History of Northern India). As though

to complete the connection, we find in the list of Tritsu allies

the Vishanin brackeled with the Shiva, which is thought to be a

name of the Tugra, one of the oldest aboriginal Dravidian

peoples whom the Aryas had specially nick-named "sons of the

Serpent" and who under the religious designation of Shiva, were

very probably the originators of the worship of Shiva under the

form or with the attribute of a snake.

Arattii. - This is a Prakrit form of the Sanskrit Arashtra, who

were a people of the Punjab; in fact the name Aratta is often

synonymous with the Punjab in Hindu literature.

Arachosii, - This people occupied the countrv around the

modern Kandhar, McCriiHlle (Ancient India, ~S) says "Arachosia

extended westward beyond the meridian of Kandhar, and Was skirted

on the cast by the river Indus. On the north it stretched to the

Western section of the Hindu Kush and on the south to Gedrosia.

The province was rich and populous, and the fact that it was

traversed by one of the main routes by which Persia communicated

with India added greatly to its importance."

Gandaraei, - (Sanskrit, Gandhara). This people lived on both

sides (If the Cabul ri\'c r, ahove its junct ion wit h the Indus: Ihe

modcrn Peshawar dislricl. In earlier times they extended east of the

Sapta-Sil1dllLl ill 111('Rig Veda

Indus, where their eastern capital was located=- Takshasila, a large

and prosperous city, called by the Greeks, Taxila.

Sir Henry Elliot in his "Appendix to the Arabs In Sindh",

writes:-.

Annals of Rajisthan Vol. I p. 85-88.

"Tod exalts the Taks to a high and important rank amongst the

tribes which emigrated from Scythia to India making them the

same as the Takshak, Nagbansi or serpent race, which acted a

conspicous part in the legendary annals of ancient India." p.

124.

In the 7th book of RV., hymn 33; two tribes arc mentioned: -

"Indra heard Vasishtha when he uttered praise, and opened up

a wide space for the Tritsus, Like stakes for driving cattle, the

contemptible Bharatas were lopped all round.

Tritsu was the tribe of which Sudas was king; the Bharatas was

the hostile tribe.

The Kambojas spoke an Arian language, and their country was

situated to the North West India, on the other side of the Indus; we

may state that Sanskrit was spoken at some distance to the west of

that river.

In R.V. 1., 126, 7, the ewes of the Gandharis arc spoken of as

famous for their wool. "I am all hairy like an ewe of the Gandharis."

The country of Gandhara is to the west of the Indus and to the south

of the Kahul river. King Darius in a rock inscription mentions the

Cia(n) dara together with the Hi(n)du as people subject to him ami

the Ganarii, Parthians, Khorasmians, Sogdians, Dadikac, arc said by

Herodotus to have formed part of the army of Xerxes. The name of

the country is preserved in the modern Kandhar.

Though Balkh was conterminous with the most ancient abodes

of the Arians in India, it is curious to note that the Bahlikas arc nol

mentioned in the Rig Veda. But in other 'places this tribe is

mentioned:

'")~ _I

Sindt, Observed

"Let everyone avoid those impure Bahikas, who are outcasts,

from righteousness, who are shut out by the Himayat, the

Ganga, the Sarasvati, the Yamuna, and Kurukshetra, and who

dwell between the live rivers which arc associated with the

Sindhu (Indus) as the sixth."

Their women an: thus described: _

"The women, drunk and undressed, wearing garlands, and

perfumed with unguents, sing and dance in public places, and

on the ramparts of the town."

"In the region where these five rivers now after issuing from the

mountains dwell the Bahikas, called Arattas; let no Arya dwell

there even for two days.."

In the Raja Tarangini, the Gandhara-brahmans are thus

described: -

'Then the Gandhara Brahmans seized upon rent-free lands for

these most degraded of priests were of the same disposition as

that tyrannical prince. These sinners, sprung from Melchhas,

as so shameless as to corrupt their own sisters and daughtersin-law

and to offer their wives to others, hiring and selling

them, like commodities for money. Their women heing thus

given up to strangers are consequently shameless."

Wilson in the Vishnu Puran says about the Gandharas;

"These are also a people of the north-west, found both on the

west of the Indus, and in the Punjab, and well-known to

classical authors as the Gandarii and Gandaridae." (See

Herodotus, IV, pr. 2]6-217.)

Kings arc frequently mentioned in the hymns of the R.V. The

country occupied by the Aryas was no doubt inhabited by various

tribes and divided into numerous principalities. In R. V. 1, 126, 1 a

king called Bhavya is celebrated who dwelt on the banks of the

Sindhu or Indus;

"With my intellect I produce ardent praises on Svanaya, the son

of Bhavya, who dwells on the Sindhu; the invincible prince,

Sopta-Sindbu ill the Rig Veda

who, desirous of renown, has offered through me a thousand

oblations."

In RV. VIII, 21, 18, Chitra and other chiefs arc mentioned as

living near the Sarasvati. Ten kings arc alluded to as having fought

against Sudas. Mention is made of rulers or governors under the

title of Purpati a lord of a city or fortilied place (RV. 1, 173, ]0) and

gramani ruler of a village or tribe or band of men.

In the hymns we find distinct traces of the existence of

polygamy as an exception, but the rule was monogamy. In some

places the husband appears as having only one wife - because the

latter is mentioned in the singular. In some cases, plural is used, 1,

62, ] 1 "our' hymns touch thee, strong god, as loving wives a loving

husband." .

From the following lines we can infer that women were allowed

to select their husbands in those times. "Happy is the female who is

handsome; she herself loves (or chooses) her friend among people

(X. 27).

A widow was allowed to re-marry her husband's brother (RV.,

X., 40) "who draws you to his house, as a widow does her brother-inlaw

to the couch, or as a woman does a man?" The ancient law of

India corresponded in this respect with the law of the Jews, I quote

from XXV, 5, Deuteronomy. "If brothers dwell together and one of

them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry

without unto a stranger her husband's brother shall go in unto her,

and take her to him to wife and perform the duty on an husband's

hrother unto her.": also Mathew, XXII, 24.... " Saying, Master,

Moses said, if a man die, having no children his brother shall marry

his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother."

Cutting lip of flesh for sacrificial purposes is mentioned in 1,

161, 10 "another trims the flesh hrought on the carving board."

Cooking of a Bull and hundreds of buffaloes being eaten is

mentioned e.;.:. V. 29, 8, "when thou three hundred buffaloes' flesh

had'st c.atcn'. As these animals were offered in sacrifice, they also

formed a part of human food. Indra is said to eat the flesh of hulls or

buffaloes, at the same time that he drinks the 'draughts of soma.

Several passages show that wine was in usc. "When drunk they

29

Sind" Observed

(soma-draughts) contend In thy stomach, as men maddened with

wine" (VlIl, 2, 12).

The Vedas are the oldest of all Indian books. They are the

most authentic source of information regarding the earliest language

of the Indians. The Vedic hymns have been preserved unchanged

from a very remote period and faithfully exhibit the social, religious

conditions of the time in which they were composed. Let us see

what profession and trades were followed in the old Punjab and

Sindh.

That man is said to be a skilled physician and both a slayer of

Rakshases and a repeller of diseases, by whom all plants are

collected, like kings in an assembly (X, 1)7, 6). The carriage-builder

is mentioned for chariots were in use. Weapons of war, spears,

swords and knives are mentioned constantly shows there were

skillful artizans. Weaving was universally practised. The art of boat

and ship building was well known; for boats are mentioned to be

propelled by oars; ships arc spoken of as going to sea. Rope-making

must have been practised. as ropes are mentioned in I, 162, 8.

Working in leather must have been also common, as hides and skins

for holding water and wine are constantly referred to. (I, 191, 10;

IV, 45, 1,3, ctc.)

To the gambler agriculture is recommended; R.V. X, 34, 13.

"never play with the dice; practice husbandry, rejoice in thy property,

estimating it sufficient". As Watercourses, natural or artificial are

mentioned, we can inlet- that the irrigation of lands under cultivation

may have been practised. In R.V. X., 142,4, we have clear allusions

to shaving; "As when a barber shaves, a beard, thou shavest earth

when the wind blows on thy flame and fans it."

Gaming or gamhling was a frequent amusement; also dancers

or actors afforded amusement. •

Thieves or robbers arc mentioned in some passages as infesting

the highways or stealing secretly.

The Rig Veda sanhita contains the most extensive collection of

the most ancient Vedic hymns in thcir complete form. It is divided

into ten mandals, and contains in all 1017 hymns.

30

Saptn-Sindhu ill the U~~Veda

We will add something to the geography of the Veda, then we

will take up the races and tribes.

Two rivers Hariyupiya and Vavyati are mentioned in Bk. VI,

'].7.5 and 6 Sayana, the commentator says they arc the same; if so, as

I have said above, it is the Zob river.

Sarasvati, Drishdavati and Apyya, III, 23, 4.

The Sarasvati appears to have been to the early Indians what

the Ganga became to their descendants.

"I place thee, Agni, on the abode of lla, on the most excellent

spot of the earth, on the most auspicious of days. Shine, so as to

enrich us in a place of human resort, on the banks of the Drishavati,

the Apaya, the Sarasvati.

Apaya is not mentioned elsewhere app'ears to have been a little

stream in the same neighbourhood, near the earlier settlement of

the Aryan settlement.

Kurukshctra, the country west of the Jamna and stretching

from the Sarasvati on the north towards Vindravana and Mathura.

Arjika, Sushoma, Saryanavau.

VIl. 7, 28. - Sushorna, Saryanavan and Arjika, full of homes,

have they, these heroes, sought with downward car.

IX, II~, 1 & 2. - Let Vritra - slaying Indra drink soma by

Saryanavan's side, etc.

Lord of the Quarters, now thou on, boon soma from Arika

land, etc.

In X, 75, 5. The poet invokes the ri\'ers:-

\

Favour ye this my land, 0 Ganga. Yam un a, 0 Saturdi,

Purushni. and Sarasvati with Askini. Vit asta, 0 Marudvridha. ()

Argikya, with Sushoma hear my call.

Argiky., and Sushonu, are "tid to he Vipas (Bcas) and Sindhu.

Sindh Observed

Argikya is the district in N. W. India where the river flows and

the people Arjikas, are a non Aryan people.

Saryanavan is a lake and district in Kurukshetra near modern

Delhi.

Moroudvribha, ou Rawi, la riviere de.Lahor.

Let us see the tribes, races and their kings, mentioned in the

Rig Veda:

VII. 18-19.- Yamuna, and the Tritsus, aided Indra. There he

, . stripped Bheda of all his treasures.

The Ajas and the Sigrus and the Yakshus brought into him as

tribute heads of horses.

Bheda was the king of these three non-aryan tribes.

Tritsu the tribes of which Sudas was king. The ten kings of the

confederate tribes opposed Sudas. Bharatas· are the same as

the Tritsus.

V,30, 12. Rusamas. This good deed have the Rusamas done,

Agni, that they have granted me four thousand and cattle. We

have received Rinanchay's wealth, heroes the most heroic,

which was freely offered.

Rinanchya, king of the Rusmas, Babhru, a Rishi, assisted the

Rusmas, a neighbouring people, in a successful foray, and to

have been rewarded with a large portion of the booty.

Srindjaya (Srinjaya). IV, J5, 4. He who is kindled eastward for

Srinjaya, Devavata's son, resplendent tamer of the foc.

32

VI. 47, 25. Thus Srinjaya's son honoured the Bharadvajas.

recipients of all noble gifts and bounty,

i Srinjaya, a certain soma-sacrifice;'. The Srinjaya arc also a

people in the west of India. Bharadvaja is a very celebrated

Rishi.

'Sapta-Silldhu in the Rig Veda

Chedi (Tchedi) VIII, 5, 38-39. He who hath given me for mine

own ten kings like gold to look upon. At Chaidya's feet are all

the people round about, all those who think upon the shield No

man, not any, goes upon the path on which the Chedis walk.

No other prince, no folk is held more liberal of gifts than they.

"Who think upon the shield" means "who are practised in

wearing armour of leather."

One chieftan Kasu, son of Chedi, is even said to have given to

the Rishi ten Icings,brilliant as gold.

"

Saint Martin in "Etude sur la Geographie du Veda" writes:-

Translation, - Such are also the Rousama and the "Gongou,

who did not perhaps attach themselves to the Aryan people except

by the adoption of religion, as well by other tribes of the race of

Yadou, of whom it is always said as of the Aryan tribe, friends of

Indra, although by their origin they belonged to the rlce of the

Dasyous, that is to say (i.e.) to the aboriginal people. We shall say of

them as much as about of the names of Srindjaya and of Tchedi or

Tchedya, who appear in several hymns, as those of princes friends of

Indra. These names, as in several other cases could belong at the

same time to the chief and to his tribe for the Srindjaya and Tchedi

figure in all the following heroic history of India. But they figure as

the tribe as tribes of the race of Yadou a race whose aboriginal

origin or non-aryan there is no doubt that they have even this day

descendants, with their ancient name first the people inhabiting the

mountains of the north of India and the central Himalaya. We shall

find these two people and we shall follow their ethnological history

in our studies on the population of ancient India.

Ikchvakou is the name of an Aryan tribe in a hymn of the Vedic

collection; this hymn which ought to belong to later years of the

Veda, celebrates a prince named Asamati, under whom Ikchvakou

grew "wealthy and foe-destroying." Later the name of lkchvakou

holds a great place in the legendary traditions of the heroic epoch, as

tbe founder of the solar race of Ayodhya. Of the other states,

governed by the princes of the same family they established

themselves in very ancient times on the plains of the Ganges,

33

Sind" Observed

especially at Vaicali, upon the lower Gandaki, and at Mithila in the

country of the same name.

Ikshvaku's name occurs in RV. X, 60, 4. He was the former

king of Ayodhya.

Gungus. A non-aryan people, occurs in RV. X, 48, 8.

Muir in Vol. II of Sanskrit Texts devotes pages 397-405 to the

march of the Brahmans (as the Aryans are called with their worship

from the Sarasvati eastward to Behar and Bengal. "Departing from

Kurus (from Indraprastha) they passed through the middle of

Kurujangala, and came to the lovely Padma lake. Then passing .

Kalakuta, they crossed successively on one mountain (or in

Ekaparvataka?) the rivers Gandaki, Mahasona and Sadarina.

Having then crossed the beautiful Sarayu and seen the eastern

Kosala they rossed the river Mala Charmanvati and came to Mithila.

Nicol Macnicol in his Hindu Scriptureswrites: _

"Scholars in the West incline to suggest for the composition of

the earliest of these hymns a date ranging between 1500 B.C.

and 1200 B.C. Indian tradition, on the other hand claims for

them a much earlier antiquity. Any judgment on this matter

has to be based entirely, it must be remembered, on internal

evidence derived from the hymns themselves, and is, in

consequence, uncertain. It is, however, obvious that this

literature is earlier than that of either Greece or Israel, and

reveals a high level of civilisation among those who found in it

the expression of their wroship. The view may be said still to

hold the field that the hymns represent the experiences of

Aryan tribes as they establish themselves among hostile

aborigines in the north-west of India.

The collection comprises ten hooks, and a total of 1017 hymns.

These grew into their present form, it is surmised, during a long

period - perhaps eight centuries - and it is possible to see

some indications of change and development when we consider

the characteristic of the deities worshipped and the ideas that

are associated with one god or another:'

In Rook I, 108,8 the poet mentions the Aryan races:-

34

Sapta-Sindhu ill the Rig Veda

"If 0 Indra and Agni, ye are' abiding among the Yadus,

Turvasas, Druhyes, Anus, Purus - come hither, vigorous heroes,

from 'all quarters, and drink the Soma which has been poured out."

Though these Aryan tribes are mentioned separately in the Rig

Veda, this is the only text in which they are all connected with one

another. .

The poet begins to recount the events of Sudas' victorious

expedition, VII, 18, 5. "What though the floods spread widely, Indra

made them shallow and easy for Sudas to traverse. He worthy of

our praises caused the Simyu, foe of our hymn, to curse the river's

fury. Eager for spoil was. Turvasa Purodas, fain to win wealth, like

fishes urged by hunger. The Bhrigus and the Druhyus quickly

listened; friend rescued friend IIflidthe two distant peoples." In this

!!tanza Sudas, king or chief of the Tritsu tribe has, with the aid of

Indra, crossed a deep river (Purushni i.e., the Ravi) and put 'the

Sirnyus to flight, some of the fugitives were drowned in the waters.

The Simyus are mentioned together with the Dasyus in I, 100, 18, as

hostile barbarians slain by Indra, Professor Roth in his Lexicon,s. v.

dasyu defines that word as denoting 1, a class of superhuman beings,

who are maliciously disposed both to gods and men and are

overcome by Indra and Agni in particular." The word is (2) - he

goes on to say - an opprobrious designation of hostile, wicked and

barbarous men.

,

KRIVI. ~ The emponymous of a warrior tribe in the Punjab,

in later times combined with or identical with the Panch alas. R V.

VIII, 20, 24; also II, 17,6 and II, 22, 2.

The seven rivers are mentioned often in the RV. VIII, 24, 27.

"Who delivered us .from the destroyer, from calamity, who, 0

powerful God, did'st avert the bolt from the Dasa from the Arva in

the land of the seven streams. According to Prof. Max Mulle~ the ~ ,

Indus, the live rivers of the Punjab, and the Sarasvati; Lassen and

Ludwig_put the Kubahin the place of the last named.

Four rivers are mentioned in I, 104, 3 and 4. The two wives of

Kuyava bathe with water: may they he drowned in the streams of the

Sipha.: This hath his kinship checked who lives beside us; with

ancient streams forth speed and rules the Hero. Anjasi, Kulisi, and

Vir.ipatni, dl'li!-!htin1! him, hear milk upon (heir waters." Kuyav« ()'1~

Sirdh Observed

of the non-aryan chiefs. Sipha is the name of the river; about this

and the other three rivers, St. Martin in his "Geographie du Veda"

writes on page 53:

"Pour suivre l'ordre d'anciennete de leur mention dans les

hymnes nous citerons d'abord la Cipra, puis l'Andjasi, la

Koulici, et la Virapatni, nominees en meme temps dans un

hymne du premier livre, a une epoque ou tout semble indiquer

que les tribus n'habitaient pas loin encore des bords du Sindh.

Mais ces quatre noms ne se retrouvent nulle part ailleurs, ct

nous n'avons absolument aucune donnee qui nous permette

d'enhasarder I'application .

Le mot compose Virapatni Signiferait litteralment, en sanscrit,

maitresse des heros,

TRANSLATION. - In order to follow the order of the

ancientness of their mention in the 'hymns, we quote at first the

Cipra, then the Andjasi, Koulici, and the Virapatni, mentioned at the

same time in a hymn of the 1st Book, of one epoch or always deem

to appear to indicate that the tribes did not live far from the border

of Sind. But these four names are not found in any part, and we

have absolutely given any data which permits us to hazard the

application.

The word Virapatni literally means in -Sanskrit "the heroes'

wives."

Since writing the above I have come across a paper by Sir Aurel

Stein published in the Journal of the R.A. Soceity, Great Britain and

Ireland in 1917 "On Some River Names in the Rig Veda". He

translates the verse in Hymn X, 75: "attend to this my song of

praise, 0 Ganga, Yamuna, Sarasvati, Saturdi, Parusni; together with

Asikni, 0 Marudvrdha, and with Vitasta, 0 Arjikiya, listen with

Susoma."

He continues: the identity of the first four nvers here

enumerated and also the Vitasta is subject to no doubt. They

correspond to the present Ganges, Jumna, Sarsuti, Sutlej and Jehlam

(the ancient Hydaspes still called Vyath in Kasmiri.) The order in

which the first four are mentioned exactly agrees with their

geographical sequence from east to west.

36

Saptn.S;~.t ill the Rig Veda

Hence Professor Roth ... was justified in looking for the three

rivers Parusni, Marudvrdha, and Asikni, which figure in the list

between them and the Vitasta, among those of the "Five Rivers" of

the Punjab that intervene between the Saturdi; Sutlej in the east and

the Vitasta; Jehlam in the west. Guided by this sure indication he

succeeded in correctly identifying the Asikni with the Chenab or

Chandrabhaga ....

No such definite evidence is available regarding the Parusni ....

The main argument in its favour is that the Beas, the only other

Punjab river of any importance between the Sutlcj and the Chenab is

repeatedly mentioned in other hymns of the Rig Veda under its

proper ancient designation of Vipas.

If we pay attention to the position occupied by the name

Marudvrdha in the list and bear in mind the fact that the narrow

Doab between the Chenab and the Jehlam leaves no room for any

stream to descend independently to the Indus, it is obvious that we

have to look for the Marudvrdha either among the western main

tributaries of the Chenab or else among those which join the Jehlam

from the east. Now among all the affluents in question there is none

comparable in importance and volume to the glacier-fed river which

joins the right bank of the Chenab or Candrabhaga, as it is still

known in the mountains in the alpine territory of Kishtwar, and

which, in the Survey of India m aps is shown as the "Mroowardan

River." In its course of about one hundred miles it gathers as can

clearly be seen in sheets 28, 45, 46 of the "Atlas of India," the

greatest part of the drainage from the almost continuous chain of

glacier-girt peaks which stretches from the big snowy massif of

Amarnath (17, 900 feet above the sea) in the extreme north-east of

Kashmir proper, to the head-waters of the Bhutna River culminating

in the ice-clad Nun-Kun Peaks well over 23,000 feet high. Narrow

and deep-cut in its lowest portion the valley of Maruwardwan open

out above the point (eire. 75° 46' long. 33° 40' lat.) where its tWO

'main branches meet, and throughout a total length of about forty

miles affords ample space for cultivation at an elevation of between

6,000 and 9,000 feet. On the west this portion of the valley

immediately adjoins the water-shed towards the eastern part of the

great Kashmir valley watered by the Jehlam or Vyath (Vitasta).

Simi" Observed

It is equally easy to account for the addition of the determinant

wan, Skt. vana, at the end of the compound. The name Maruwardwan

applies primarily to the valley, and it seems quite

appropriate that the latter should be designated as the "forest of the

Marudvrdha" seeing that its lower and middle portions have their

sides clothed with dense forests of deodars and firs duly marked in

the Survey map.

Of the river names mentioned in our verse there remain two

for discussion. The last of them is Susoma found likewise in a few

other Rig Veda passage and for this Vivien de Saint-Martin has long

ago indicated what appears to me the right indications. He took it to

be the present Sohan River (also spelt Suwan) which flows from the

outer Hazara Hills through the Rawalpindi district and reaches the

Indus north of the Salt Range. With the Susoma; Sohan we have

reached the extreme west of the Pancanada or Punjab Proper.

Mr. Sobhraj Nirmaldas has kindly made the following addition

to the above paper

THE INDUS

In the mountains bordering on the kingdom of Kayabish, i.e.,

Kabul, rises a river which is called Ghorwand, on account of its many

branches. It isjoined hy several affluents: _

1. The river of the pass of Ghuzak.

2. The river of the gorge of Panchir, below the town of

Parwan.

3,4. The river Sharvat and the river Sawa, which latter flows

through the town of Lanbaga, i.c., Lamghan; they join the

Ghorvand (it the fortress of Druta.

5.(1. The rivers Nur and Kira.

Swelled hy these afflucnts, the Ghorvand is a greater river

opposite the town of Purshavnr, being there called the ford from a

ford near the village of Mahanara, on the eastern banks of the river,

38

Sapta-Sindhu in the Rig Veda

and it falls into the river Sindh ncar the castle of Bitur, below the

Capital of Alkandahar (Gandhara), i.e., Vaihand.

The river Biyatta known as Jailem, from the city of this name

on its western banks, and the river Gandhara join each other nearly

fifth miles above Jahravar, and pass along west of Mullan.

The river Biyah flows east of Multan, and joins afterwards the

Biyatta and Gandhara.

The river Irava is joined by the river Kaj, which rises in

Nagarkot in the mountains of Bhatul. Thereupon follows as the fifth

the river Shatladar (Salej).

After these five rivers have united below Multan at a place

called Panchanada, i.e., the meeting place of the five rivers, they

form an enormous watercourse. In flood times it sometimes swells

to such .a degree as to cover nearly a space of ten farsakhs, and to

rise above the trees of the plains so that afterwards the rubbish

carried by the flood is found in their highest branches like bird nests.

The Muslims call the river, after it has passed the Sindhi city

Aror, as a united stream, the river of Mihran, Thus it extends,

flowing straight on, becoming broader and broader, and gaining in

purity of water, enclosing in its course, places like islands, until it

reaches Almansura, situated between several of its arms, and flows

into the ocean at two places, near the city, Loharani and more

eastwards, in the province of Kacch at a place called Sindhu-Sagara,

i.c., the Sindh Sea.

As the name union 01 the five rivers occurs in this part of the

world (in Panjab), we observe that a similar name is used also to the

north of the abovementioned mountain chains, for the rivers which

flow thence towards the north, after having united ncar Tirmidh and

having formed the river of Balkh, arc called the union of the seven

rivers. The Zoroastrian of Sogdiana have confounded these two

things: for they say that the whole of the seven rivers is Sindh, and its

upper course Baridish. A man descending on it sees the sinking of

the sun on his right side if he turns his face towards the west, as we

see it here on our left side (sic.).

Sind" Observed

Saptu Sindhu

Names of the seven rivers that merged in the Indus, Biyas,

Sutlej, - Chenab, Lindo, Ravi, Jhclum and Atok.

40

The Iranians in Ancient India -

Especially in Sindh and the Punjab'

By N, M. Billimoria

(Read before tire Sindli Historical Society, Karachi,

011 (he 20th December 1936).

The sources of ancient history are: 1. Prehistoric Archeology;

2. Ancient literature; 3. Foreign writers; 4. Inscribed monuments

and coins; 5. Ancient alphabets; and lastly progress of research. I

wish to show the sway of the Persians in North West India before the

invasion of India by Alexander the Great and the fall of the

Achaemenian Empire of Iran in the latter part of the fourth century

before Christ. The Veda and the Avesta are the earliest literary

monuments of India and Persia; they prove the relationship between

the Hindoos and the Persians through ties of common Aryan blood,

close relationship in language and tradition, and through near

affinities in matters of religious beliefs, ritual observances, manners

and customs.

Cuniform tablets which the German Professor Hugo Winckler

discovered in 1907 at Baghaz-koi in North-East Asia Minro give

additional evidence to these similarities. These tablets give a record

of treaties between the Kings of Mitani and of Hittites about 1400

B.c.; among the gods called to witness are deities common in part to

India and Persia. The Rig Veda refers to certain districts indicated

by the rivers Kubha (Kabul). Krumu (Kurram) and Gumati

(Gumal). The allusions in the Veda to Gandhara and Gandhari may

be interpreted as referring to the districts of Peshawar and

Rawalpindi South East from Kabul. A part of these districts

belonged rather to Iran than to India.in historic times.

In the Encyclop. Brit. in his article on Persia, Edward Meyer

states 'The dividing line between Iranian and Indian is drawn by the

Hindu-Kush and the Soliman mountains of the Indus district. The

valley of the Kabul (Cophen) is already occupied by Indian tribes,

~1

Sindh Observed

especially the Gandarians; and the Salaygydae (Pr. Thatagu) there

resident were presumably also of Indian stock."

The first chapter of the Avestan Vandidad contains an allusion

to a portion of Northern India in a list which it gives of 16 lands or

regions, created by Ahura Mazda, and apparently under the Iranian

sway. The 15th of these regions was Hapta Hindu, seven rivers, a

region of abnormal heat probably the territory of Sapta Sindhu,

seven rivers, the Rig Veda, mentions in the 8th Book, Hymn 24, line

27 "Who will set free from ruinous woe, or Arya on the seven

streams, 0, valiant hero, bend the Dasa's weapon down" that is from

any Aryan enemy in the land of the seven rivers, probably the Indus.

The district in question must have included the lands watered by the

Indus and its branches in the north and North West of Hindustan,

viz. Vitasta (Jhelum); Asikni (Chenab); Purushni (later named

Iravati, hence its present name Ravi); Vipasa (Beas); and the

·easternmost Sutudri (Sutlej). Some interpret this "overIordship is

seven" for Firdusi mentions seven princes of.India, namely the lords

of Kabul, Sindh, Hindh, Sandal, Chandal; Kashmir, and Multan.

The Avestan fragment "from the Eastern Indus (India) ·to the

Western Indus (India)" is explained by Spiegel that in Sassanian

times and doubtless earlier there prevailed an idea of an India in the

west as well as an India in the East. This is supported by a passage

which is metrical and therefore old." The long arms of Mithra seize

upon those who deceive Mithra; even when in Eastern India catches

him even when in Western India he smites hirri down; even when he

is at the mouth of the Ranha river, and even he when he is in the

middle of the earth." The same statement repeated inpart in Yasna

LVII, 29, regarding the power of Sraosha, the guardian genious of

mankind as extending over the wide domain from India on the east

to the extreme west even when in Eastern India he catches his

adversary even when in Western India he smites him down."

The river Ranha of the Avesta is the river Rasa of the Rig

Veda for in Book I, Hymn] 12, line 12,we read "Wherewith ye made

Rasa swell full with waterflood and urged to victory the car without

the horses. "In the Bundahish we read "These two rivers flow from

the north part of the eastern Albroz, one towards the west, that is

the Arang, and one towards the east, that is the Vch river... The Vch

river passes by on the east goes to the land of Sindh, and flows to the

sea in Hindustan, and they call it there the Mehra river." It is stated

that the Veh river is also called the Kasak in Sindh.

42

The lranians ill Ancient India -

One more allusion to the Indian connection. In Yast VIII, 32

mention is made of a mountain called Us-Hindva, meaning beyond

or above India, or it may mean, "the mountain from which the rivers

rise." It may mean the Hindu Kush or the Himalaya.

We have the following three authorities 10 show the Persian

kings who came to India.

1. Firdusi narrates that Franak the mother of Farudin sent

her young son Farudin to Hindustan to save him from the cruel

hands of Zohak who invaded and conquered Persia .

.The same poet gives the story of Asfandiar, son of Gustasp,

who came to India and persuaded the Indian Ruler to venerate fire

and accept the Zoroastrian religion. Firdusi is supported by a

statement in a Pahlvi book that "Prince Asfandiar and Zarir his

brother roamed about out of their country 10 the country of the

Hindus for the spread of religion." This shows that from the very

time of Zoroaster and immediately after, the Zoroastrian religion

was believed to have begun exercising some influence on India.

2. In the Ain-i-Akbari we find that Hoshang the founder of

the Pesdadian dynasty was the first king of Persia to come to India.

Jamshed was the second person to visit India. He went to China viz

Bengal Both Dr. Sir Jivanji Modi and Prof. Darmesteter state that

when they visited the fort of Jamrud in the Khyber Pass, they heard

that the fort was connected with the name of King Jamshed of the

Pesdadian dynasty of Persia.

Nariman son of Kcrsasp, Sam Nariman Zal son of Sam,

Framroz son of Rustom, Behram son of Asfandyar also came 10

India for conquest. Kersasp was told by some soothsayers that his

rule over Zabulistan would be overthrown, and his own, and those of

his heirs, dead bodies would be disintercd by his enemy. In order 10

avoid this, he asked that his body may be buried at Kanauj in India.

His' followers Nariman, Sam ;md Rustom also made the same

request and their request was complied with. Rustom had killed

Asfandyar, father of Behman, who conquered Zabulislan and came

10 Kanauj 10 disgrace the tomb of Kersasp. 11 was believed that

great wealth was also buried with the dead -hodies of the Persian

43

Sind" Observed

kings. Behman carried away the treasure but did not disturb the

corpses of the Persian Rulers.

3. According to Ferishta, Indian Ruler Krishna and Persian

Shah Tehmurarp were great friends. Krishna's nephew and his

uncle were not on good terms; so at the request of the nephew,

Kersasp Atrart was sent to India to induce Krishna to give a portion

of his territory to his nephew. After this time Sam Nariman invaded

Punjab. He was opposed by one Mulchand, who at last submitted.

From this time Punjab remained in the hands of the descendants of

Faridun. It was governed by Kersasp and by the members of his

family, the ancestors of Rustom. It formed part of the country of

Kabul, Jabul, Sindh and Seistan, which was under the federal sway of

Rustom's family. Kesurai the successor of Mulchand had asked the

help of King Minocher against some of his rebel kings. Minocher

sent Sam Nariman to his help. He met Kesurai at Jallandcr and

helped him in subduing his tributary kings. Firujrai came after

Kesurai. He turned ungrateful to Iran. After the death of Sam

Nariman, when Afrasiab invaded Iran; he rebelled against the

sovereignty of Persia and freed Punjab from its yoke. He took

Jallandcr under his sway, and offered allegiance to Afrasiab. Upto

the time of King Kekobad, Punjab remained independent under

Indian rulers, Rustom then invaded India, and Firouzrai the Indian

ruler fled to Tirhoot. Rustom then placed Surajrae on the throne.

Later on Kedar Raja paid tribute to Kaus and Kaikhusroo.

Severa learned persons have shown that the Persians had come

to India and lived there from the vedic times:

Several learned persons have shown that the Persians had come

to India and lived there from the vedic times:

1. Prof. Spiegel in his introduction to Avesta says "The

original abode of the Indo-Germanic race is to be sought in the

extreme east of the Iranian country, in the tract where the Oxus and

the Jaxartes take their rise ... It might be imagined that not only the

Indians along with them had migrated to the countries on the Indus

and that Iranians, perhaps owing to religious differences, had

retraced their steps to the westwards."

2. Prof. Maxmuller says: It can now be proved even by

geographical evidence that Zoroastrians had been settled in India

44

The Iranians in Ancient India -

before they migrated into Persia .... That the Zoroastrians and their

ancestors started from India during the Vedic period cart be proved

as distinctly as that the inhabitants of Massilia started from Greece.

Prof. Maxmuller in his Lectures. on the Science of Language repeats

the same opinion: The Zoroastrains were a colony from North

India. They had been together for a time with the people whose

sacred songs have been preserved to us in the Veda. A schism took

place and the Zoroastrians migrated westwards to Arachosia and

Persia."

The Parshus and Prithus are mentioned in the Rig Veda; either

they were inhabitants or invaders. of India.

hi Rig Veda I, 105, 8, The Parshus (Persians) harass me all

round like Rival wives. In VlII-6-46 "I wrested from the Yadva tribe

100 cattle in the province of Tirindira and 1,000 cattle in the

province of Parshu. The third reference is in VII, 83-1 "0 you men,

looking to you and to your wealth the Prithus and Parsus fain for

spoil, march forward. 0 Indra- Varuna you smote and slew the Dasa

and Aryan enemies and helped Sudas 'with favour."

Cyprus appears to have subjugated the Indian tribes of Hindu

Kush and in the Kabul valley especially the Gandarians. Darius

himself, advanced as far as the Indus. Cambyses was more occupied

in Egypt than in India.

Darius ruled from B. C. 522-486; from the three inscriptions

executed by his command and other sources we find what the

general outline of Persian Dominion in his time, and we can even

infer that he annexed the valley of the Indus early in his reign. The

three records in stone are; (1) the famous Bahistan rock inscription;

520 and 518 B.C. may be assigned to this incription; (2) Two old

Persian block tablets at Persepolis; carved between B.C. 518-515;

and (3) Two inscriptions chiselled around the tomb of Darius in the

cliff at Naksh-i-Rustom, this' must have been engraved some time

after 515 B.C.

The Bahistan inscription does not mention India in the list of

23 provinces which obeyed Darius. It can be inferred that the Indus

region did not form part of the empire of Darius at that time. The

Indus conquest is assigned to the year 518 B.C.

45

Silld" Observed

Herodotus while gIVIng a list of 20 satrapies or governments

established by Darius expressly states that the Indian realm was the

29t h division. About the amount of tribute he states:'

"The Indians who arc more numerous than any other nation

with which we arc acquainted paid a tribute exceeding that of

every other people to wit, three hundred and sixty talents- of

gold-dust. This was the twentieth satrapy."

On page 40(, he adds "The way in which the Indians get the

plentiful supply of gold, which enables them to furnish year by year

so vast an amount of gold-dust to the king is the following: _

Eastward of India lies a tract which is entirely sand. finally it was

constructed hy the great satrap Rudra Daman in A. 0 -.150.

Dr. Bhau Daji a great scholar said that the actual builder of the

bridge on lake Sudarshana ncar Girnar was the Pahlava minister of

Rudradarnan, named Suvishakha, a sanskrit adaptation of the

Persian name Siavaksha; his father's name was Kuaipa and

Siavaksha appeared to be the governor of Anarta and Saurashtra

(Kathiawar).

The writer of the Bombay Gazetteer says "The name of

Suvishakha, as Dr. Bhau Daji suggests, may be a sanskritised form of

Siavaksha. One of the Karli inscriptions gives a similar name

Sovaska, apparently a corrupt Indian form of the original Persian,

from which the snnskritised Suvasaka must have been formed.

S()v~ka is mentioned in the Karle incription as an inhabitant of

Ahularna, apparently the old trade mart of Obollah, at the head of

the Persian Gulf.

On page :'i51 of Rawlinson's Seventh Great Oriental Monarchy

(find: -

The most important city of the southern region was at the time

Oboll, which was situated on a canal or backwater derived from the

Euphrates, not far from the modern Busrah.

I. Rawlinson's Hcridotus Vol. II p. 41H

O\·cT a million pounds sterling.

The Iranians ill Ancient lndia -

Sir H. Rawlinson places Obelia twelve miles below Busrah,

between that city and the place where Shat-e1-Arab divides into two

streams. He conjectures its identity with the ancient Teredon or

Diridotis. (see also Rawlinson's Herodotus, Vol. I, p. 525).

This trade connection between the Persian Gulf and the

~estern India sea board must have led to a settlement from very

early times of Pahlavas, who gradually became converted to

Buddhism.

Karli Inscription. _ Parthian or Persian artists seem to have

sculptured the rock temples in the Thana district - this dates from

centuries before and after Christ. Harpharan of Abulama (Obollah

a port near Basra on the Persian Gulf) whose name appears in one

of the Karli inscriptions was a Parthian or a Persian. The inscription

reads "In the 24th year of the King Shri Pudumava, son of Vasava

this beautiful religious assignation is made of the mendicant

Harapharana, son of Satru-parana, the devoted inhabitant of

Abulama. Dr. Burgess says "the names of Upasaka Harapharna and

his father Setapharna are unlike any in use in India and may possibly

be of Parthians. The name of their family Sovaska has a

resemblance to Syavaka, but their native place Abulama has not an

Indian name. As the word Upasaka is generally used for Buddhist

mendicants it appears that Harapharana was a Zoroastrian at one

time, but subsequently became a convert to Buddhism. The animal

capitals of the pillars at Karli Bedsa, and Nasik arc so closely alike to

those at Persipolis and Susa that according to Fergusson, the early

Buddhists of Western India either belonged to the Persian empire or

drew their art from it.

Inscriptions of Nahapana's Family

There are six inscriptions of Nahapana's family in the cave at

Nasik, 'one at Karli, and one by Nahapana's minister at .Iunnar. In

the inscriptions the names of Khaharata and Nahapana occur they

were either Persians or Parthians. Ksahharata may be equal to

Phrahtes a satrap of the Parthian Dynasty. Dr. Fleet says: "I hold

that the Saka era was founded by the Kshaharata king Nahapana,

who reigned in Kathiawar, and over some of the neighbouring

territory as far as Ujain from A.D. 78 to aboiu A.D. 125 and held for

a time Nasik and' other parts north of Bhinbitl and who seems to

have been a Pahlava or Palhava or Parthian extraction."

47

Sind" Observed

Nasik Inscription. _ In this inscription King Gotamputra,

(Ruled in 120 A.D. of Andhra dynastry) is mentioned as ruler of

Mundaka, Surashtra, Kukura, Aparanta, Anupa, Virdarbhha, and

was the lord of the Vindya and Paryatra (western part of the Vindya)

mountains, the Sahya (western Ghauts) and Kanha (Kanheri) hills.

He subdued Sakas, Yavanas, and Pahlavas.

Manikiala Stone Inscription - Manikiala was one of the most

famous places in the Punjab in very early period. It was called

Manikpur or Maniknagar; it was in the South East of Peshawar and

Taxila; 34 miles from the latter place. The stone inscription was put

up in a market place, close to the object of donation, which was most

probably an instrument for measuring time. The present was a joint

gift of a Zoroastrian donor and a Buddhist priest. The translation of

the inscription runs thus: "In the year 18 the King Puru-aspa, the son

of an aggrandiser of the Kushan race of Kanishaka, the noble-men

of the people establishes in the market place of the Satrap Vespashi,

who is fond of the hours, for clear announcement through the

ringing or proclamation of the hours - along with Vespashi, with

Khudenti and with Buritra, the priest of the Vihara (Buddhist

monastry) and with all attendants. May the useful gift by its

meritorious foundation with the aid of Budha and Spenta (the Holy

one) be always true."

Kshathra is an avestan word meaning king; Paru-aspa may be

for Pourushashpa. The Iranian word Karapan is applied to teachers

and priests hostile to the Zoroastrian religion.

Parthians in Gujrat and Sindh

Ferishta writes about the Indian king Sinarchand who paid

tribute to the Iranian King Godrej, who was a Parthian.

Cunningham in his Ancient Geography of India writes "Thatha

was the actual position of the Minhabari of the Arab Geographers

and of the Min-nagar of the author of the Periplus ....The Name

Manhabari is variously written as Mehabari and Manjabari; for

which we might perhaps read Manabari or Mandawari, thy city of

the Mand tribe. This Mand tribe is referred to by Edrisi, Ibn

Haukal, Rashid-ud-ciin and Masudi. The name is variously written

as Mer, Med, Mand, Mind. The Mand tribe occupied lower Sindh in

48

The Iranians in Ancient India _

great numbers Irom the beginning of the Christian era. To this

people I refer the name Min-nagar or city of Min, which was the

capital of lower Sindh in the second century of the Christian era;

Min was a ~Sythi~n name. The appearance. of the name in Sindh

would alone be sufficie"t,to suggest the presence of the Scythians;

but its connection with them is placed=beyond all doubt by the

mention that tke rulers of Min-nagar were rival Parthians who were

mutually expelling each ~other. (NOTE. -These contending

Parthians must have been the remnant of the Karen Pahlavas who

joined with the Kushans to attack Ardeshir Papakan). These

Parthians were Dahae Scythians from the Oxus who gave the name

of Indo-Scythia to the Valley of the Indus."

Tod in his Annals and Antiquities of Rajesthan states that

"Arrian who resided in the second century at Barugaza (Broach)

describes Parthian sovereignty as extending from the Indus to the

Nerbadda. Their capital was Minagara.

Indo Parthian Dynasty ruled in the Punjab from B. C. 120 to

A.D. 60. Mithridates I of Parthia annexed the country between the

Indus and" Jhclum, or in other words the kingdom of Taxila in B.C.

138. The western Punjab formed the integralpart of the Parthian

dominion for a time; but at the death of MithridatesI, B.C. 136 the

control relaxed. And about B.C. 120 a chieftain Maus made himself

king of Taxila. He was quite independent as appears from his coins

which bear the inscription Rajadhirajas Mahatsa Mous, "of Moa the

great king of kings." The coins of Moa's isuccessors Vonones,

Spalahores etc. were found at Peshawar and in districts on the west

bank of the Indus.

Mithridates II suprressed the independence of Sistan and

joined these provinces in the Parthian empire. Azes or Aya who was

deprived of Kandhar was allowed to rule at Taxila after Maus; he

established a kingdom there inB.C. 90. The legend on his coins

reads "Maharajasa Rajrajsa Mahatasa Ayas," of Aya the great, the

great king. the king eOr kiags (Ph. 586-92, Cambridge, History of

India, Vol. I.) .

Aziliscs came after Azcs in B.C. 40; _.RJ1ed for 25 ~ He

was followed by Gondopharcs; he ruled r_-A.D. 20 to 60; He

ruled over Araohosia, Sistan and vallev Ol rhe lower Indus.

Ahdagascs ruled after him-fur a short time.' In the latter part of the

49

first century of the Christian era the valley of the Lower Indus was

under Parthian cheifs. At this time the Sakas, the Tartars, and other

wandering hordes (rom 'Central Asia were coming down in great

numbers upon .thc North West frontier of India. The family of

Volones ruled in Seistan, Kandhar, and North Baluchistan; and the

descendants of Maus ruled in Punjab and Sindh until A.D. 25.

The coins of' Gondopharnes and his successors are found in

Seistan, Kandhar and Sindh. This is the ruler who had put St. Judas

Thomas to death. The passage relating to this is quoted by Rapson

in his Ancient India, p. 579, from The Apocryphal Acts of the

A.post lcs,

The date of the reign of Gondopharncs may be definitely fixed

from a monument of this king's rule in the Peshawar district

commonly known as the, Takht-i-Bahi inscription. It is dated the

26th year of the king's reign and OJ) the Sth day of the month of

Vaisakha in the year 103. There is no doubt that the era is the

Viknim Samvat which began in B.C. 58, and that therefore

Gondolpharnes began to reign in A.D. 19 and was still reigning in

A.D.4S.

To Azes I, has been attributed the foundation of the Vikrama

era beginning in 58 B.C. and according to Sir John Marshall Indeed

of all the inhabitants of Asia concerning whom anything is known,

the Indians dwell the nearest to the cast, and the rising ofJhe sun.

Beyond them the whole country is desert. on account' of the sand.

The tribes of Indians arc numerous and do not speak the samo

language - some arc wandering tribes, others nol. They who dwell

in the. marshes along the river live on raw fish, which they take in

boats made of reeds each formed out of a single. joint. These

Indians wear. a dress of sedge, which they cut in the river and bruise;

afterwards they weave it into mats, and wear it as we wear a breastplate."

By the sandy desert Herodotusmeans the-desert of Cob! 01""

Shamoo and the crivcr.is surely meant the Indus. He did not know

the existence orGallgc~which only became.known 10 the Greeks hy"

the expedition of Alexander,

Vincent Smith gives the summary thus: Although the eXiH.:I

limits of thl.! Indian satrapy under Darius cannot he determined we

50

Tire Iranians ill Ancient India _

know that it was distinct from Aria (Herat), Arachosia (Kandahar)

and Gandaria (North West Punjab). It must have, comprised

therefore the course of the Indus from Kalabagh to the sea,

including the whole of Sindh and perhaps included a considerable

portion of the Punjab cast of the Indus.

Expedition under Scylax

There is a passage in Herodotus which gives proof of the

annexation or control of the valley of the Indus from its upper course

to the sea. including therefore the Punjab and Sindh; it showed that

it was possible to navigate by sea from the Indus to Persia. About

517 B.C. Darius sent a naval expedition under Scylax, a native IIf

Caryanda in Caria to explore the Indus. The squadron embarked at

a place in the Gandhara country called Kaspatyros, The exact

location is unknown but Sir A. Stein suggests Jahangir an ancient

sight on the left bank of the Kabul River, some six miles above the

point where it flows into the Indus at Attock. The fleet succeeded in

making its way to the Indian Ocean and finally reached Egypt two

and a half years from the time that the voyage began. It is doubtful

whether this expedition was sent before or after the Indian conquest';

it must be after, otherwise Scylax would have experienced the same

trouble from unsubdued tribes as did Alexander the Great,

Sway exercised ~y Darius over the peoples 01" Indian Borderland

Of the 23 tributary provinces named on the stone inscriptions

three provinces, Bakhtri (Bact ria), Haraiva (Herat) and Zaranka

(Drangian, a' 'portion of Seistan) form part of the present

Afghanistan lie more remote from the Indian frontier. The

following frve are connected with the region of the Indus; l.

Gandara (region of the Kabul valley as far as Peshawar); 2. Thatagu

(either Ghilzai territory to the South West of Ghazni or the Hazara

country further to the west and north west); 3. Harahuvati (the

district about Kandahar); 4. Sah (Seistar) and 5 Maka, (Makran).

During all the reign ~f Cyrus, and afterwards when Camhvscs

ruled there were no fixed trihules, hut the nations scvcrallv brouuht

gifts to'the king. On account of this and other like d(~inl!~.thL'

Persians say that Darius Was ;i huckster, Caml)vsl:~it master, and

Cyrus, a father: for Darius·lookcd'.(n making a g;.tin in every Ihin!:!:

51

.'iiI/eli, Oh'I'/"C:c/

Cambyscs was harsh and reckless; while Cyrus was gentle. and

procured them all manner of goods.'

Reference to Parsis and Persians in Sanskrit Books

The Hindu writers used the word Parasika for the Parsis and

Pahlavas for the Parthians or Iranians generally.

In the Shanti Parva and Bhisman Parva of the Mahabharata,

the Pahlavas are mentioned. According to Pandit Bhagwanlal, the

Pahlavas came to India about B.C. 150. According to a writer of the

Bombay Gazetteer seven. leading hordes entered India from the

North West and West. The Yavanas or Bactrian Greeks came to

India from B.C. 2..'50to 125; The Pahlavas or Parthians from B.C.

170 to 100; From a paper by Dr. Bhau Daji on the Junagar

inscriptions it appears that the Pahlavas were in India in about 120

A.D.

In the Vishnu Puran the tribes inhabiting Bharatavarsha, are

mentioned; among them are the Parasikas, It is stated in the

sanskrit drama Mudra Rakshasha, written in the 8th century A.D.

that the Pars is helped Chandagupta in his invasion of Northern

India. On the authority of the same book we know that "Parsiko

Meghnad". The Parsi named Meghanada was a Raja and friend of

Chandragupta. The same name occurs in another passage, thus -

"Among these the fifth is one of name the Megha the great king

of the Parsis who has got a large cavalry. (compare Moghistan, land

of Moghs or Magi another name of Hormuz Island).

In the Raghu Vamsa written by Kalidas in A.D. 550 we read

about Raghu the great grand-father of Rama: "thence we set out by

an inland route to conquer the Parasikas." This is correct for the

poet further says that the horses of Raghu relieved their fatigues by

rolling on the banks of .the river Sindhu. He adds that Yavanas,

Kambojas and Hunnas.werc defeated by Raghu. According to Dr.

Hoernle the Persian king was Kobad who with ihe help of the Huns

removed his brother Jarsasp from the throne '(A.D. 499). The huns

fought with the Indian king Yashodbarman. They were assisted by

Kohad who lost Sindh and some eastern provinces. This is the loss

.referred to by Kalidas when he speaks ofthe defeat of the Parsikas,

Firdusi does not mention this loss-in the time of Piruz or Kobad but

52

111('Iranians ;11 Ancient India _

Tabari the Arabic writer says that a part of the Indian frontier

belonged to the Persians in Beramgor's time. It passed back into the

hands of an Indian King he fore the time of Noshirwan.

In the Katba-sarit ~ngra, written by Somadeva in the 12th

century we findthe storyof Udayana; he was king of Vasta and

defeated the king of the Chola {the Tamil people of South India

from whom the Coromandal coast (Chola MandaI) receives its

name, they were the ancestors of the Chaldeans.) Having subdued

the king of Siridh at the head of his cavalry, he destroyed the

Malechhas. The cavalry squadron of the Turks were broken on the

masses of his elephants .... The august hero received the tribute of his

foes and cut off the head of the wicked king of the Parasikas."

Cunningham in his Ancient Geography of India refers to the story of

Udayana thus "The story of Udayana, king of Kosarnbi is referred to

by the 'poet Kalidas in his Mcgha-duta or cloud-messenger where he

says that Avanti (or Ujain) is great with the number of those versed

in the talc of Udayana. Now Kalidas nourished shortly after A.D.

500: If Udayana was a contemporary of Budha, the wicked Parsi

king referred 10 above lived in about the 5th century B.C. Could this

be Xerxes who was killed in B.C. 465 who was according 10 some

writers cruel and wicked.

Al-Biruni mentions the names of the people of India on the

authority of Vayu Puran placing the Pahlavas among the people of

the north. In the same book he says that one of the names of the

people in the South West was Parasava, i.e.. Persians.

Persians mentioned in lnscrlptions

Taxila Inscription, - The ruins of Taxila lire situated about 24

miles from Rawalpindi. Sir .Iohn Marshall excavated it: in these

excavations was the ruins of Mound of .Ihandial, so called [1"11111 a

neighbouring village. Sir John Marshall here excavated a temple

which he calls the Temple of .Ihandiala, and which he thinks to be an

ancient fire temple of the Parsecs of Parthian times. There J~ it

tower of solid masonry with a foundation of about :1() Iect.

Dr. Sir Jivanji .I. Modi says that he is not a student of

Archaeology "but as an humble student of Zoroastrianism, knnwing

something about its fire temples, and the customs of the firccult ami

having examined very carefully the structure :)f the Jhandiala temple

)~

Silld" Ol)sc,,.('d

I venture to say that I observed nothing that could be said to go

against Sir John's views about the building _~ing a Zoroastrian

temple of God. On the other hand in main principles the structure

even resembled some of our modern fire-temples. But there is one

point on which I have my doubts. The learned archaeologist thinks

that the tower is the seat of a lire-altar at the top and takes as the

ground for this view the fact that the Persians had their fire altars in

high places. Of course he has the authority of Herodotus (Book I,

n I). But I think that thai view would not apply to later Parthian

times about 500 years after Herodotus - to which Sir John Marshall

attrihutcs the temple on archaeological grounds. If some further

researches lead him to attribute the temple to more ancient times _.

say the lime when Darius the Great invaded India with his large

army of Persians and when he passed through this part of the Punjab

- then his view (If the usc of the Tower may possibly, though not

assuredly, he held to he stronger ..... Of all the modern lire-temples

of India, the one at present in the old Parsi centre of Naosari seems

to suggest this view and seems to come nearer to the Taxila lower.

There ncar the place of t he sanctuary wherein the sacred lire is

burning there is a small two-storied building, reminding one of a

lower. though not exactly a town on which the worshippers went to

have a look at the disant Purna river and to say their Ardvisura

Nyaish, and even the Khorshcd and Mchar Nyaishes, It was a place

which gave them a more open look of the whole of the surrounding

nature. The Taxila tower may have been intended for a similar

purpose."

Gimar Inscription. - On a bridge ncar Girnar at Junagadh in

Kathiawar, known as Rudra Daman's hridge there is a remarkahle

inscription of the Shah kings. The ancient bridge was swept away by

a flood, that it was ~repaired hy Pushpagupta, whose sister

Chandrugupta had married: it was subsequently repaired by Tushapa

the Yavana raja. an oflicer of Asoka and inscription discovered by

him at Taxilla is actually dated in the year n(i of Azes." This

interpretation may he correct in ~ite of the tradition that this era

was Ioundcd hy King Vikrarnaditya of Ujjain to commemorate the

defeat of the Sakus: and whatever may have been origin of this era

the assignment of the reign of Azes I to this period is justified, It is

consistent with the date ascribed independently to his predecessor

Maus (8.C. 75) and with the date of his third successor

Gondopharncs who certainly began to rule in A.D. 1'>.

54

"J he lnuiiansill And""i lndia _

Gondopharncs was reigning in the year 45 A.D. and Virna

Kadpiscs was reigning in 78 A:D. Sir John Marshall discovered a

Kharoshti inscription in the Chir Tope ai Taxilla; it is dated the 5th

Ashad year n6: the era which hegins in B.C. 58, this daje would be

equivalent to A.D. 77-78, this is the last year of the reign of Virna

Kadophiscs: his successor Kanishka began to reign in A.D. 78.

The history of the Kushana empire has been preserved by

Chinese writers -. Wc find that the Tartars who drove the Sakas out

of Bactria consisted of five tribes. After a settlement of 3}>8\1t10n

wars in Bactria the chief of one of these tribes, the Kushan has

gained thc supremacy over the Tartars and founded a kingdom

called Kushan. The Kushanas became masters of territory to the

south of Hindu Kush, i.e., the modern South Afghanistan, the

ancient province of Kabul and Arachosia that is Kandhar. huvishka

was the successor of Kanishka, the legend on his coins is Maharaja

Dcvputra Huvishka; Huvishka is a Persian word; but he could not

have been a pucca Zoroastrian. for no Zoroastrian would connect

his name wit h dcva.

Before I come to the Sassanian period the rulers of which

dynasty were on terms of close friendship with the rulers of Western

India, I should like to explain the Brahmi and Kharoshthi alphabets.

Both the alphabets arc of Semitic origin, i.c. they are ultimately

derived from the same source as the European alphabets. Brahmi

has been traced back to the Phoenician type of writing. It was

probably brought into India through Mesopotamia as it result of the

early commerce by sea between Babylonia and ports of Western

India. It is the parent of all the modern Indian alphabets. .

Kharoshthi is derived from the Aramaic script which was

introduced into India in the 6th century B.C. when the North West

was under Persian rule and when Aramaic was used as a Common

means of communication for the purpose ofGovernment throughout

the Persian empire, That originally the Aramaic language and.

alphabet pure and simple were thus imported into Gandhara has

been proved bv Sir John Marshal's discovcrv or an Aramaic

inscription at T;~xilla. In the third ccntury A.D .. Kharoshti appears

more fully developed in Chinese Turkestan, when its existence must

he attributed to the Kushana empire. In this rcgiorr <t!i in India it W<lS

evidently superseded by Brahmi.

SilldIrOhw"'l'd

The Sassanian dynasty was on terms of close friendship with the

rulers of Western India and became the leading traders. I will

narrate further on the visit of Bcgram Ghor to India and his

marriage with a Hindu Princess, Sa pi nuda. Firdusi says that when

Bchram Ghor carried away his Indian wife, and came to sea he saw

a group of Iranian traders "because they were Iranian traders they

were hold in travelling hy land and sell." This shows that the Iranian

traders went' to India horh by land and sea.

Tabari states that Shapur II built cities not only in Sagistan but

actually in Sindh. Again King Phiroz founded two cities in India

proper - Ram Phiroz and Roshcn Phiroz.

There arc several towns of Persia which have a prefix RAM.

desire,

Ram Ardeshir, a town situated formerly between the province

of Isphan and Khuzisial') ..and also named Tawaj or Tawaz.

Ram shirist;~~t~iMc.ient capital of Sijistan before the Arab

conquest, at present :in ruin~.~nd replaced by Zaranj.

Noshirwan Adal, the Just (A.D. 5~1-579)and his grandsom

Parviz (A.D. 590-(28) were united by treaties and by 'interchange of

presents with the rulers of South India and Sindh.

About A.D. 5(15 the dominions of the White Huns, namely

Kashmcre, Ghandhara and Peshawar, passed. into the hands of the

Persians. Tabari states that King Khusru II of Persia received an

embassy from King Pulikessin II in about 625 A.D. and an embassy

was in return sent to India, which was received with due honour at

the Indian Court. In the caves of Ajanta there is a painting which

depicts the court of the Raja, where these Iranian ambassadors arc

sitting on a gadi welcoming the foreign arnirs who have brought a

message and some presents. The dress and manners of the

messengers clearly show that they were Persians. In another room

at Ajanta an Iranian Ruler and his Queen are depicted, surrounded

hy tWI) Iranian servants, Fergusson is of opinion that this picture

depicts Khusru Perviz and his queen Sherin, and the Indian Raja is

Pulukcsh Ill' Malwa. Tahari the Arab Historian states that Pulukcsh

of Malwa had sent·inA.D. (,;!6 a leiter to the son of Khusru Parviz

and the picture der.i<;ts)hc Iranian Messengers hringing a reply to

J he'lmn;l/1I\ in .'1116('11/ india -

that letter. The picture show that the Ajanta school of art was

derived from Persia.

On the authority of Mr. G. K. Nariman I state that in the time

of Shri Harsha of Sindh, Persian army came to Sindh. The ruler fell

in the battle, hut the Persian contended themselves with devastating

a portion of Sindh and returned; the son of the slain ruler occupied

the rule of Sindh. He was himself overthrown in 621 - this shows

that the event happened in the reign of Khusru Pcrviz, Coins found

in North7West India with Indian and Pahlavi legends prove that this

territory was under the Persian rulers.

Barzuya, the physician of Noshirvan was sent to India who

<obtained a copy of Panchtantra or the original of Hitopdcsha, which ,

he got translated into Pablavi; also game of chess was obtained from

the same source, '

Early in the 7th century a large body or Persians landed in

Western India and from one of their leaders, possibly a son of

Khusru Pcrviz, the family of Udcpur have sprung.

Cunningham in his Archaeological Reports has noted that the

influence (If the Sassanian« was most strongly felt in Sindh and

Western Rajputana where India and Persia came into direct 'contact;

hut in North West India and the Punjab it was ovcrthorwn hy the

White ifuns and Little Yuchi who successively held the Kabul valley.

The former were certainly lire-worshippers and the latter were

apparently Brahmanists, hut hoth had adopted the style of Sassanian

coinage; he calls this lndo-Sassanian period, extending down to AD.

700; shortly after that date the direct Persian influence came to an

end in Western India by the Mahorncdan conquest of Sindh and

Multan byMahorncd Kasim in AD, 711.

There is a tradition that the Ranas of Mcwar were connected

with the Sassanian king» of Persia; in support, Abdul Fazal (A.D.

1500) say!ol that the Ranas consider themselves descendants of

Sassanian Naushirwan (AD. 5~1-579); there is no evidence to .

support this. But the marriage between a Valbhi Chief and Mah

Banu daughter of ~the fugitive lust Sassanian Yazdgard ',is' not

impossible. (AD. (lSI).

Silld" Oh..-e'1'('d

There was connection between Persia and Western India; the

fact is that a subsequent deteriorated issue from some mint in

Gujcrat now known as Gadhia Paisa has plainly been imitated from

the coins of Ihe Sassanides. Princep in his Essays on Indian

Antiquilies says "The popular name of these rude silver and copper

coins is in Gujrat Gadhia ka paisa, equal to ass-money or rather the

money of Gandhia, a name of Vikramaditya. The king was a

powcrfu] king of the western provinces, his capilal being Cambal or

Cam bay; and it is certain that the princes of these parts were

Iributary to Persia from a very early period. Scholars have

di~c()vered on Ihe coins the prolile of face after the Persian model

Oil one side and the Sassanian lire altar on the other. If this is

admilled as proof of an Indo-Sassanian dynasly in Saurashtra, we

may find the date of its establishment in the epoch of Yazdgird the

. son of Behram Ghor. This is supported by the testimony of tho Agni

Puran that Vikram son of Gadha-rupea (Behram Ghor) ascended

the throne of Malaya (Ujjain) in A.D. 441."

Tod in the Annales of Rajasthan assigns the fall of the Valabhi

empire to an army of Parlhians and Scythians, but Elphinstone has.

suggested that the invaders may have been Sassanians probably

under Nallshirwan; and in this event we have an explanation of the

occurrence of the Gadhia coins. Deteriorated as they are the bust

and lire-altar of the Sassanides are apparent; we can conclUde that

cit her the Sassanian monarchy obtained a footing in Gujerat or that

an off-shoot of the dynasty succeeded in establishing an empire there.

A Pahlava prince in Kathiawar in A.D. 720 built the fort of

Elapur; in it he established an image of Siva adorned with a crescent;

Cunningham thinks this may be Somnath. This Elapur or Elawar by

Ira!lSposition would become ErawaJ, Ihe present Wcrawal.

Dr. SJ)ooner's Excav~tion of Patliputrcl and his paper on

Zoroastrian period of Indian History

Patliputra the modern Patna is the Palibothra of Megaslhencs

who was the ambassador of Seleucus Necator in the reign of

Ch'andragupta about B,C. 300. It is situated on the confluence of the

rivers Ganges and Son or Scna, It was the capital of the ancient

kingdom. of Magadha, or South Bchar. It was form!!r1y called

'/IIC Iranians in Ancient India ,-

Kusurnpur and Pushyapur, city of flowers. Pat ali is the flower

Bigroia suavcolcns.

The Chinese travellers, Fa Hien who 'visited it in B.C. 399-414

and Hiucn Tsiang, about A.D..629,speak very highly of this city.

Mcgcsihcncs about B.C. 300-302, the ambassador of Se1eucus

Necator at the court of Chandra Gupta and Chanakya, the minister,

left us some account of the magnificence of the royal court.

I

Strahl) in his Geography mentions this city; so also Arrian in his

Indica: I may mention that Chandragupta is Sandrakottos of the

Greeks, Sandrakoptus of Athenaens, and Andro-kottos in Plutarch

life of Alexander the Great. They city rose to its zenith in the time

of Asoka (B.C. 250), the grandson of Chandragupta.

Pliny among the ancients, French Geographer D'Anville (1697-

1782) English Geographer Rennel (1742-1830),Thomas Pennant, an

antiquary (1726-1798), Col. Wilford, William Franklin, Dr.

Buchanan Hamilton, and several others have tried to identify the

city.

Dr. Spooner began his excavations in January 1913. As the

work was expensive, the late Sir Ratan Tata made a generous offer

to pay every year Rs.10,OOOto the Government of India.

Dr. Spooner first located eight rows of monolithic polished

pillars. Afterwards he found the ninth row; each row has ten pillars.

Dr. Spooner's wife gave him great help; it was she who first drew the

attention to the fact that the pillars of the Mauriyan building

resembled the plan she had seen at Persepolis.

The meaning of "Mauryan replica of Pcrsipolis" was that the

intluence of Iran upon India was much mOTCthan it is ordinarily

supposed. The excavations were on a monumental scale. The

learned doctor produced numisiatic, literary, and other evidence to

show the certainty of a very powerful intluence of Iran upon India.

Ancient Persia had its influence on Greece, Rome, Egypt, and

other adjoining countries; the greatest intluence was of their religion

and that is they arc called 'The Puritans of the Old World."

·"'·inc/IIObserved

It was Cyrus the founder of the Achaemenian dynasty who

paved the way for the subsequent influence over India. Cyrus laid

.thc foundation of Persia by taking Media in B.C:-SSO; Lydia in~546;

Babylonia in 538; Egypt was added by CambysS~)11 ~2§;:and Darius

organised the Great Persian possessions in his It)ng reign~ioll1 528-

486 before Christ.

Dr. V. A. Smith the best authority on Ancient India has shown

that Achaemenian Iran had a strong influence on Mauryan India

such as-

1. Influence of Iranian architecture on Indian architecture.

2. The Achaeminian practice of inscribing on. pillars and rocks

and style ur-the inscripli(;-ns'-which. were followed by Asoka in his

inscriptions. ,,_

3. The Kharoshth! script came to India from the Aramaic clerks'

of the Achheminians.

4. Some of the features of the Mauryan administration and polity

and court customs were taken from the Iranians.

The style of some of the sculptured capitals of Asoka had its

origin in the capitals of the palace of Darius at Persipolis. The style

of the huge monolithic sandstone and other pillars of Asoka is also

Persian; The bas-relief sculpture of-some of the Mauryan buildings

resemble that of the Persians at Persipolis.

Fergusson specially points to the capitals in the caves at Bedsa,

.about ten miles south of Karle, ncar Lonavla, and says Bedsa, about

ten miles south of Karle, near Lonavla, and says "their capitals are

more like the Persepolitan type than almost any others in India and

are each surmounted by horse and elephants bearing men and

women."

The other similar caves are at Bhaja about 4 miles south of the

Karle caves ncar .Lanovla; 2, At Jamalgarhi some 40 miles N.E. of

Peshawar; here the capitals of the old Pcrso-Indian type have new

Iorrns given to them the animal figures being whilst the pillars

themselves are placed on the backs of crouching changed, figures

with wings. The 3rd type is found at Tavagumpha caves near the

fiO

711cIranians ill Ancient India _

Khandgiri hill in Orissa where "the doors are flanked by pilasters

with capitals of}he Persopolitan types." .

The debt of India to Perso-Assyrian art is strikingly apparent

-Irom two observations; 1, The sculpture of India proper - the India

of the Gangetic valley - is mainly bas-relief. The Indians apply

their bas reliefs after the Persian fashion. Their sculpture is

bestowed chicfy on doors and vestibules, and as in Persia, the most

important single figures guard the entrance of gateways in India.

Even the unique bas-reliefs of Barhut have their counterparts at

Persepolis and Nineveh. 2. the decoration of the Vihara caves was

Persian.

Asoka followed Darius in the matter of his edicts. It was the

practice of Darius to erect pillars in the countries which he

conquered or through which he passed. We learn from Herodotus

that in his march against the Scythians he "surveyed the Bosphorus

and erected upon its shores two pillars of white marble, whereupon

he inscribed the names of all the nations which formed his army."

While digging the modern Suez Canal, some pillars of Darius have

been discovered in Egypt. Asokain-his pillar edicts has followed this

practice of Darius.

Darius inscribed on the sides of rocks and mountains. The best

instance is that on the rock at Behistan, Asoka has also some of his

inscriptions on rocks; one at Jungadh at the-foot of the Girnar.

Darius commences every edict with the words "Thus sayetP

Darius the king: Asoka also begins in'the 'Sameway: "thus saitlLHisSacred

and Gracious Majesty the King."

The idea of inscribing ethical dissertations on the rocks.in the

guise of royal proclamation seems to be of Persian origin. ..

The Kharoshti script was introduced in India by the

Achaemenian kings through their Aramaic clerks. The Kharoshti

writing seen on the coins of the western Satraps of Saurashtra

(Kathiawar) point to the northern origin of the kings.

Dr, Vincent Smith says that the civil and miiitarv institutions of

the Mauryan Empi,re as d~cribed hy Asoka in .his edicts and by the

oJ

----- - -----------------

Sillel/, Ob.\<'I, 'eel

Greek writers were essentially Indian modified in some particulars

by imitation of Persian practices.

As for Court customs, I give two examples; one of these is the

custom of observing birthdays by the kings. Herodotus Vol. IV p.

3S1-R2 when writing about Amestris the wife of king Xerxes says that

"she Waited therefore till her husband gave the great royal banquet a

feast which takes 'place once every year in celebration of the king'S

birthday. Tykta the feast is called in Persian tongue which in our

language may _!Jerendered perfect and this is the only day in all (he

year in which the king soaps his head and distributes gifts to the

Persians. The law of the feast required 'that no one who asked a

boon that day at the king's board should be denied his request. The

Indian custom referred to hy Strabo. "Historians also relate that the

Indians worship Jupiter Ombrius (or the rainy) the river Ganges and

the indigenous deities of the country; that when the king washes his

hair, a great feast is celebrated and large presents are sent, each

person displaying his wealth in competition with his neighbour:

When Megasthcnes was in India, Strabo speaks of the Indians

of that time. "The Indians wear white garments white linen and

Muslim contrary to the accounts of those who say that they wear

garments of a bright colour; all of ttem wear long hair and long

beards, plait their hair and bind it with a fillet. The Indian custom of

keeping long hair among the Maruyan kings is believed by Dr. Smith

to have been taken from the Achaemanian Iranian. The ancient

Iranians kept their hair long. They seldom cut them. Old Iranian

sculptures show that the Iranians kept long beards. Even now the

Parsi priests keep -beard which they cannot trim or ~~I.

Dr. Spooner wrote a paper in 19]5 in the Journal of the R.A. S.

of Gr. Br. & Ireland entitled "a Zoroastrian period of Indian

History." This paper threw a homh-shell in the camp of the

oricntnlisn, He advances a good deal of literary evidence in support

of the discovery that the Mauryan huilding at Patliputra was copied

from an Iranian huilding. He showed that upon the threshold of the

historical period, a dynasty of almost purely Persian type ruled over

India. That dynasty Was the Mauryan dynasty, the founder of which,

Chandragupta, the first great Indian Emperor Was a Persian Aryan,

a Parsi. He had Pcrscpolis as his ancestral home. The Mauryan

dynasty was Zoroastrian. NOI only that but the Dr. says that Budha,

the founder of Budhism, was an Iranian sage and as such was a

()2

111eIranians in Ancient India -

Persian. He affirms that the palaces referred to in the Mahabharata

are the Mauryan buildings at Pataliputra, that the Asura Maya to

whose supernatural power the construction of the palaces is

attributed is the Ahrura Mazda of the Zoroastrians whom Darius

often invoked in his inscription at Persepolis. The influence of Iran

over India was much more than ordinarily believed. It was not

confined to architecture; it was in matters of religion. Budha,

Chandragupta, and his minister Chandakya were Persian, if not by

birth, at least by descent.

Dr. Spooner, on the evidence of Indian literature, proves that

the ancient Persians had, long before the Mauryan dynasty, settled in

various parts of North India, from the frontiers of Punjab in the

West to Assam and Orissa in the cast, and from the valley of the

Nerbudda in the south to the valley of Kashmir in the Himalayas in

the north.

I had quoted a passage, from the Vandida, from which we learn'

the following facts about India; h That India was the 15th out of the

16 Aryan countries known to early Iranians, as created by God, 2. It

was known as Hapta-Hindu. 3. The country watered by the Indus

formed India, and its boundary literally extended further both W\IYS,

towards the East and the west; 4. It had two curses, heat and

premature maturing of women. The age of Vandidad is B.C. 1200.

Next-to the Vandidad we have the authority of Cuniform

inscriptions of Darius at Persipolis and Nakhs-i-Rustom. Darius

mentions amongst the .conquered countries 'the name of India as

Hidush or Hindush. With this conquest Persia must have exercised

great influence upon India.

I have quoted above from Herodotus to show that India was

the 20th Satrapy. Darius was not a' flying conqueror of India. He

wanted to retain the country for the good of India and Persia. He

directed to retain the country for the good of India and Persia. He

directed his admiral Scylax to explore the whole country watered bv

Ihe Indus from Cashmere down to the sea. He developed commerce

between india and Persia. With this object he connected the Red

with the Mediterranean Sea by a canal, ending at its extremity at

Suo..

Sinat» Observed

The Punch-marked coins point Iranian inflUence in' India. They

nrc so called because the devices were impressed on the'coltls not by

m~atts of a die, but by separate punches applied irregularly at

various points on the surface. Vincent Smith thinks that thc,'ie coins

were a private coinage issue.l hy guilds and silversmiths ~[h the

permission of the ruling powers. The obverse punche~~.~ere_

impressed by the different moneycrs, and the reverse marks were -

the signs of approval hy the controlling authority. Dr, Spooner does

not agree. He thinks that they 'were Mauryan coins ha"ving the

symbol of the sun, a group of suns, a branch, a bull and 'a chaitya.

He asserts that th~ sun was worshipped by the Zoroastrians; the

branch is Homa hranch; the hull was the Mithraic bull; the Chaitya

which signified a hill was the mount Maru, situated in Merv in Iran.

Hence from this evidence of the Mauryan coins Dr. Spooner thinks

thai the Mauryan were Zoroastrians.

We have the tradition of a Brahmin Changragach who went to

Persia 10 oppose Zoroastrianism; he returned to India fully

convinced and in his turn converted about HO,!XlO Indians into the

religion of Zoroaster.

Besides the evidence of coins, other proofs arc adduced; one of

them I will give when Chandragupta invaded Magadha .hc was

assisted hy Persian troops. This is narrated in' a Sanksrit drama,

Chandragupta beseiged Kasuma-pura J~at is.Patliputra with his

troops consisting of the Scythians .....-Xavanaswr"'the Greek Kiraias,

people .Iiving below the Himalay.AA.~Kamtx)ja),':-:Kahulis, Parasikas,

'. Persians, .aop Balhikas, Bactrians, At the same time the- enemies

·~ad also .'tb army of mixed races. Both the sides raised armies of

mcrcenarscs.

The Parsis are iAdchlcd to Dr. Spooner for bringing the

following facts; that a few centuries before Christ, the Persians

fousht in India for their Maurian ma.~te~ that their masses lived as

subjcd-raccs ill Nord,,:rn India long before the Arab conquest of

P-er,ua, Ihill tlJcir:-1eadcF5WCre made chiefs and even petty Rajas and

I.hat (raaian ..~ IUM)a hand ia the erection of the Maurvan flU_iii aflct {~st~ ofthc H~at Pe~liCpof~. .

. ~

Since writing the a~we I have <;nmc across a paper in French

written ~, Mr. F.OJ. Paruck, ~Iweil known numismatist of Bombay.

Jill' lrunians in Ancient lndia _

The paper is "Observations sur cinq monnaics Sassanides", published

in the Revue Numismatique, 1936.

Five coins are described; from the inscriptions on the first three

coins he shows that Pirouz was a viceroy of Khorasan in the reigns of

Sapor I and Horrnisdas. Shapor f was sovereign from A.D. 240 to

2271, and his son Horrnisdas ruled for one year and ten days; Sindh,

Mullan and Rajputana were under the Kouchans, and their ruler was

a vassal of Hormisdas I, and perhaps of Sapor I. T will give the

original French, lest I may be making a wrong translation. "ScIon le

Kitab-al-Fihrist. Pirouzfut Ie vice-roi de Khorasan; il Ie fut sous les

rcgnes de Sapor ler et d'Horrnisdas ler. Aussi estil dcfficile de

decider sous quel rcgne ses diachmes furent frappees. Ces pieces,

cependant, nous autorisent a declarer que Ie Sindh, Ie Multan et le

Rajputana etaient alors aux mains des Kouehans, et que leur roi fut

vassal de Hormisdas Ier et peut-etre aussi celui de Sapor." Icr.

Translation .... According to Kitah-al-Fihrisht, Pirouz was the

viceroy of Khorasan. He was such during the reign of Sapor I and

Hormisdas 1. Also it is difficult to decide in whose reign the coins

were minted. These coins, then, authorise us to decide that Sindh,

Multan and Rajpatana were at that time in the hands of the

Kushans, and that their king was a vassal of Hormisdas I or perhaps

of Sapor.I.

On these coins Mr. Paruck reads the words MALKA INDI

JRAI?A (TI) Maika is the king, and Inde signifies Sindh. For I

translate what he writes. "It appears to' me certain that the name

Inde on these coins signify Sindh. The Phelvi form of this name is

Hind, but by Greek influence the first word H is omitted. These

coins were struck in the rule of the Kushans, where the Greek

influence was at that lime .... The short legend Maika Inde on ihe

right depicts the personage sitting on a throne as being the King of

Sind: Indc Iradati signifies Sind and Mullan.

About lRADA (TI), that the name is given to the valley of the

River Ravi, one of the live rivers of the Punjab, in the centre of

which is Multan, which according to old Arab Geographers, was

;'1duded in the kingdom of Sindh.

Rawlinson in his "Seventh Great Monarchy" docs not mention

Pheroz as Ihe son of Artcxerxes or brother of Shapor ,. because I

- , ,

65

Si"d" Ob'<(,/"cd

believe he never came to the throne of Iran, but was the king of the

Kushans, For on his coins we read. Mazdesn bage Peroze wazung

Kushan shah," that is, Mazda-worshipping divinity Firoz, the great

king of the Kusans." Kushan was the name of the dynasty of Yuechi,

who for centuries occupied Transoziana, cast-Iran, the south of the

Hindu Kush and the North-cast India.

The most ccleb~ated and interesting coin of Hormazd II (A. D.

303-310) is a piece of gold coin struck on the occasion of his

marriage to the daughter of the Kushan king of Kabul. Rawlinson in

his "Seventh Monarchy" confirms this and says "Among his other

wives, Hormisdas, we are told married a daughter of the king of

Cabul, ' It 'was natural that after the conquest of Seistan by

Varaharfn II, about A. Q.28, the Persian monarchs should establish

relations with the chieftains ruling in Afghanistan. That country

seems from the first to the fourth century of our era, to have been

.under the government of princes of Scythian descent and of

considerable wealth and power. Kadphises, Kanerki, Kenorano,

Ooerki, Baraoro, had the main seat of their empire in the region.

about Cabul and Jalalabad; but from this centre they exercised an

extensive sway which at times probably reached Candahar on the

one hand and the Punjab region on the other. Their large gold

coinage proves them to have been monarchs of great wealth while

their use of the Greek letters and languages indicates a certain

amount of civilization. The marriage of Homisdas with a princess of

Cabul implies that the hostile relations existing under Varahran II

had been superseded by friendly ones. Persian aggression had

ceased to be feared. The reigning Indo-Scythic monarch felt no

reluctance to give his daughter in marraigc to his western neighbour,

and sent her to his court (we are told) with a wardrobe and

ornaments of the utmost magnificence and costliness."

It would not be out of place to give a short table of the rulers of

Eran. Shapor I, son of Artcxcrxes or Ardashir I, ruled for 31 years

from A.D. 24 (-271, Shapor had three brothers, Ardesar, Firoz, king

of the Kushans, and Narscs. After Shapor I, his son Hormuzd 1, or

Hormisdas, ruled from 27 -272, one year and ten days. His brother

Varahran I, or Bahram I, ruled from 272-275. His son Bahram II

ruled from 275-292. Bahram III ruled only for a few months,

Narscs son (If Shapor I ruled from 292-3f)], His son Hormisdas II

ruled from 301-30<), The las: ruler was Yezdcgerd Shahriyar. The

defeat of Nchavcnd in (,41 terminated the Sassanian Pl)Wt:r. The

66

711t! Iraniansin Ancient india _

Arabs call the battle of Nehavend "Fattah-hu-Fuuuh, Victory of

victories; Isdigerd wandered from place to place from 641 to 651; at

last he was murdered for the sake of his clothes. .

In the above quoted extract from Rawlinson the conquest of

Scistan is mentioned. On one of the five 'coins described by Mr.

Paruck, there is a monogram SKSIN (Sakastan). This is the only

coin on which this monogram is struck in full on the Sassanian coin.

One of the coins adds the word Hrezi. According to Arab

geographers Haras was an old name for Rajputana.

As I said above Bahram conquered Sakastan which included

the whole of the N.W. India. The' Pahlvi inscription at Paikuli

mentions several princes of India who had proceeded to Persia to

offer allegiance to King Narses (292-3 1) on his succession. Among

the princes were' the prince of the Kushan, the prince -of Saurastra

(Kathiawar) and Avanti (Malwa) and other Saka princes.

'I may add that Saki! is modern Seistan. The Saccae are

undoubtedly Scyths, They may have dwelt on the Oxus or possibly in

Afghanistan.

Mr. Parruck in his "Sanian coins" writes:

A fine piece of silver in the Vienna Museum represents on-the

obverse the bust of Khusru II and on the reverse the bust of. the

Solar city, Aditya, both facing .... Dr. Nutsel of the Berlin Museum

kindly procured for me the casts of this coin in the Vienna Museum

and with the help of the three goldpieces, one in the Berlin Museum,

the other in the British Museum, and the third specimen in the

Bibliotheque Nationalc, Paris, I read this legend as Airan afzutaneti

"May he cause Eran to prosper." These gold pieces bear the year 21 \

of reign whereas the silver one is of the year 37. Ouselcy proposed

to read the word Airan as the name of Queen Sherin, the celebrated

consort of Khusru II, whose bust he believed to be on the reverse

based on the analogy which exists in Pahlavi between sh and a.

Mordtmann also believed that the bust on the reverse was that of the

consort .of_Khusru II. On comparing other coins of Mullan, whose

reverse docs not represent the bust of a female, but the figure of the

sun ai '.I young man it will be seen that it is the bust of the solar dcitv

Aditya. It was CunninghCLm who first demonstrated that the figure

67

Sindh Observed

on the reverse was none other than that of the solar diety, Aditya,

whose temple was at Multan. It is probable that these coins were

stuck at Mull an.i at Ihc time of the expeditions of Khusru Il to lndia

or during his occupation of the country. The bust of the solar deity

was worshipped at that time in Multan, as it is represented on other

Indo-Sassanian coins also. But historians mention nothing precise as

to Khusru " having been to India in the years 610 and ('26, the dates

of these pieces. Although the Huns were mainly instrumental in

introducing coins of Sassanian type into India, it seems c~rtai~ that

shortly after the invasion of the Huns the Sassanian power or a

dynasty acknowledging the Sassanian suzerainty was established in

India; [or coins of Sassanian type and fabric bearing inscriptions in

Nagari, Sassanian Pahlvi, and an alphabet hitherto unread, which is

probably a development, of the modified form of the 'Greek alphabet

used by the Scytho-Sassanians, are found in the north-west of Indian.

These coins have been attributed by Cuningham to the later Huns,

but apparently without sufficient reason. Rapson (Indian Coins) is'

, however of opinion that they were almost certainly stlVck by some

Sassanian dynasty or dynasties ruling over Sindh and Multan, which

later the ancient Arab geographers include in the kingdom of Sindh,

as is shown by the style of the coins and by the use of Sassanian

Pahlvi. It may be noted that this region had been in the hands of

Persian conquerors during the Parthian period. These coins are

closely connected with the particular issues of Khusru II mentioned

above, by the use of the same reverse type, representing the sun-god

of Multan.

The adventures of Bahram V, (420-438,A.D.) in India and the

enlargement of his dominions in that direction by the act of the

Indian king, who is said to have ceded to him Makran and Sindh and

to have given him his daughter in marriage cannot be regarded as

fiction. Firdusi calls this Indian king Shankal. His native name is

Vasudevc of the dynasty of the Maharajas Adhiraja of Magadha and

Kanoj.

Malkan Maika has been the title of Persian kings from the most

ancient times; the meaning is "king of kings". The words Malkatan

Malkata, Queen of Queens is found on the beautiful gem of Queen

Dinak, wife of Yczdcgcrd II, (440-457).

Mr. Paruek in his "Sasanian Coins" writes that this form is

particularly interesting to note as it gives us the proof that if the

68

The Iranians in Ancient India -

expression Malkan Maika was sometimes pronounced Shahan Shah.

it was simply done on the ground of the dialect of the province

where the word was spoken." In the first century of the Christian era

we find the legend shahnano shah on the coins of Kanishka (A. D.

78-1(0) and his successors and the title of Shahi in their inscriptions

in Sanskrit. The inscription of Samudra Gapta at Allahabad shows

the title in the form of Shahi Shahanashahi. There is another notice

to same effect about the middle of the 4th century. Persis Saporcrn

ct Saansaan ndpcllantibus ct Pyroscn, quod rex rcgibus imperans ct

bcllorum victor interpretatur. The translation is:

The Persians called Shapor Shahn Shah and Peroch, that is the

king ruling over kings and victorious in W;IL

Literature Consulted

Herodotus, translated by Prof. Gco. Rawlinson, 4 vols.

Rawlinson. George. The Seventh Oriental Monarchy.

Rapson E. J. Ancient India from the earliest time. Vol. I.

Ancient India.

Rapson, EJ. Ancient India from the earliest times to the

Ist Century' A.D.

Hodivala, S.K. Parsisof Ancient India.

Modi, Dr. Sir .l..J. Asiatic Papers Part I!.