DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27191#0061
INTRODUCTION.
29
the Assyrians seem to have occupied the country eastward of
the Caspian in sufficient force to prevent any further migration.
At least, after—say B.c. 1000—we have no further trace of any
Aryan tribe crossing the Indus going eastward, and it seems
mainly to have been a consequence of this cutting off of the
supply of fresh blood that the purity of their race in India
was so far weakened as to admit of the Buddhist reform taking
root, and being adopted to the extent it afterwards attained.
During the period of the Akhaemenian sway (b.c. 558-334)
the Persians certainly occupied the countries about the Oxus
in sufficient strength to prevent any movement of the peoples.
So essentially indeed had Baktria and Sogdiana become parts
of the Persian empire, that Alexander was obliged to turn
aside from his direct route to conquer them, as well as the
rest of the kingdom of Darius, before advancing on India.
Whether it were founded for that purpose or not, the little
Greek kingdom of Baktria was sufficiently powerful, while it
lasted, to keep the barbarians in clieck; but when, about or
after B.C. 160, the Yue-chi and other cognate tribes invaded
Sogdiana—driving out the Nakas, who next invaded Baktria,
and finally, about half a century later, the Yue-chi conquered
the whole of Baktria,1 they opened a new chapter in the history
of India, the effects of which are felt to the present day.
It is not yet quite clear how soon after the destruction of
the Baktrian kingdom these Turanian tribes conquered Kabul,
and occupied the country between that city and the Indus.
Certain it is, however, that they were firmly seated on the
banks of that river before the Christian Era, and under the
great king Kanishka of the Kushana tribe had become an
Indian power of very considerable importance. The date of
this king is, unfortunately, one of those puzzles that still remain
to be finally solved. It has been held that he was the founder
of the Saka Era, A.D. 78, and that his reign must be placed
in the last quarter of the ist century of our era.2 But this
era is only employed generally in the south and east; and
it now seems almost certain that Kanishka’s reign began in
B.C. 58—the epoch of what was once known as the ‘ Malava
era,’ and later as the ‘Vikrama Samvat,’ the reckoning in
common use in northern India.3 *
1 See Vivien de St Martin’s ‘ Les Huns
blancs,’ Paris, 1849 ; Franke, ‘ Beitrage
aus chinesischen Quellen zur Kenntniss
der Tiirkvolker und skythen Centralasien’
in ‘ Abhandlungen der konig. preussischen
Academie der Wissenschaften,’ 1904—
summarised in ‘ Indian Antiquary,5 vol.
xxxv. (1906), pp. 33-47 ; ‘ Journal of the
Royal Asiatic Society,’ 1907, p. 676.
2 Fergusson, in ‘Journalof the Royal
Asiatic Society,’ N.S. xii. pp. 259-285;
Oldenberg in ‘Indian Antiquary,’ vol. x.
pp. 213-227.
3 Fleetin ‘ Journal of the Royal Asiatic
Society,5 1906, pp. 979-992.
29
the Assyrians seem to have occupied the country eastward of
the Caspian in sufficient force to prevent any further migration.
At least, after—say B.c. 1000—we have no further trace of any
Aryan tribe crossing the Indus going eastward, and it seems
mainly to have been a consequence of this cutting off of the
supply of fresh blood that the purity of their race in India
was so far weakened as to admit of the Buddhist reform taking
root, and being adopted to the extent it afterwards attained.
During the period of the Akhaemenian sway (b.c. 558-334)
the Persians certainly occupied the countries about the Oxus
in sufficient strength to prevent any movement of the peoples.
So essentially indeed had Baktria and Sogdiana become parts
of the Persian empire, that Alexander was obliged to turn
aside from his direct route to conquer them, as well as the
rest of the kingdom of Darius, before advancing on India.
Whether it were founded for that purpose or not, the little
Greek kingdom of Baktria was sufficiently powerful, while it
lasted, to keep the barbarians in clieck; but when, about or
after B.C. 160, the Yue-chi and other cognate tribes invaded
Sogdiana—driving out the Nakas, who next invaded Baktria,
and finally, about half a century later, the Yue-chi conquered
the whole of Baktria,1 they opened a new chapter in the history
of India, the effects of which are felt to the present day.
It is not yet quite clear how soon after the destruction of
the Baktrian kingdom these Turanian tribes conquered Kabul,
and occupied the country between that city and the Indus.
Certain it is, however, that they were firmly seated on the
banks of that river before the Christian Era, and under the
great king Kanishka of the Kushana tribe had become an
Indian power of very considerable importance. The date of
this king is, unfortunately, one of those puzzles that still remain
to be finally solved. It has been held that he was the founder
of the Saka Era, A.D. 78, and that his reign must be placed
in the last quarter of the ist century of our era.2 But this
era is only employed generally in the south and east; and
it now seems almost certain that Kanishka’s reign began in
B.C. 58—the epoch of what was once known as the ‘ Malava
era,’ and later as the ‘Vikrama Samvat,’ the reckoning in
common use in northern India.3 *
1 See Vivien de St Martin’s ‘ Les Huns
blancs,’ Paris, 1849 ; Franke, ‘ Beitrage
aus chinesischen Quellen zur Kenntniss
der Tiirkvolker und skythen Centralasien’
in ‘ Abhandlungen der konig. preussischen
Academie der Wissenschaften,’ 1904—
summarised in ‘ Indian Antiquary,5 vol.
xxxv. (1906), pp. 33-47 ; ‘ Journal of the
Royal Asiatic Society,’ 1907, p. 676.
2 Fergusson, in ‘Journalof the Royal
Asiatic Society,’ N.S. xii. pp. 259-285;
Oldenberg in ‘Indian Antiquary,’ vol. x.
pp. 213-227.
3 Fleetin ‘ Journal of the Royal Asiatic
Society,5 1906, pp. 979-992.