No More Learning

In connexion with this Avestan passage (Vd. 1, 18), moreover, in
its bearing on Persian domains in Northern India, it is worthwhile to call
attention to the Pahlavi gloss of the Middle Persian rendering of the
paragraph in Sassanian times. Whatever may be the full import of
this difficult gloss, the passage may be literally translated as follows :
“The Seven Hindukān; the expression "Seven Hindukān" is due to
'
this fact, that the orer-lordship (sar-xūtāi) is seven ; ard therefore I
do not say “Seven Rivers,” for that is manifest from the Avesta (passage]
"From the Eastern Indus (or, India) to the Western Indus (Irdia)"},"
In partial support of the scholast's interpretation as 'the over-lordship is
seven' it has been further pointed out that a tradition as to the dominions
involved may have lingered down to Firadausi's time, inasmuch he
mentions in one passage seven princes of India, namely the lords of
Kābul, Sindh, Hindh, Sandal, Chandal, Kashmir, and Multān; but
too much stress need not be laid on the point. *
The Avestan fragment above cited from the gloss Vd. I, 18-
'from the Eastern Indus (India) to the Western Indus (India)' — is best
interpreted as alluding to the extreme ends of the Iraniān world for Spiegel
has clearly shown by sufficient references that, at least in Sassanian times
Contd. from p. 289.
Darius made of his empire into twenty satrapies ; but Darmesteter warns against the
attempts that have been made to discover much antique history in the chapter. His
rather strorg statement (Vendidad Translated, 2nd ed. , S. B. E. IV, 1) is : We hare here
nothing more than a geographical description of Iran, seen from the religious
point of view. '
1 See Bari holomae, Altiranisches Worterbuch, col. 1814 ; Macdonell and Keith,
Vedic Inder, II 424 ; Hopkins, J. A. OS, XVI,278 ; XVII, 86-88.
2 Cf. Spiegel, Die arische Periode, pp. 112-118 ; Macdonell, History of Sanskrit
Literature, p. 140 ; see also above, p. 287, n. 2, (on the question of Sarasvati=Harah-
vaiti).
3 For the Pallavi text of the passage, and especially the variant readings,
see the addition by D. D. P. Sanjana, The Pahalvi Vendidad, p. 9, Bombay, 1895 ; and the
earlier edition by F. Spiegel, A resta sammt der Huzvāresch Übersetzung, vol. I pt 2, p. 7,
Leipzig, 1851.
4 The passage Firdausi, Shāhnāmah, ed. Macan, p. 1579, was pointed out by W'.
Geiger, Die Pehleviversion des ersten Capitels des Vendidūd (1887), p. 62, and likewise by
Spiegel, Die arische Periode, p. 117.


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XIV)
THE EASTERN AND WESTERN INDUS
291
>
and doubtless earlier, there prevailed an idea of an India in the west as
well as an India in the east'. This is borne out by a passage in Yasht x, 104,
in which the divine power of Mithra, the personification of the sun, light,
and truth, is extolled as destroying his adversaries in every quarter. The
passage (Yt. 8, 104), which is metrical and therefore relatively old, runs
thus : 'The long arms of Mithra seize upon those who deceive Mithra : even
when in Eastern India he catches him even when in Western [India] he
smites him down ; even when he is at the mouth of the Ranhā (river), [and]
even when he is in the middle of the earth? '. The same statement is
repeated in part in Yasna LVII, 29, regarding the power of Sraosha, the
guardian genius 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. '
There is still another Avestan allusion which may possibly be
interpreted as referring in a general way to Indian connexions ; it is the
mention, in Yt. VIII, 32 of a mountain called Us-Hindava, which stands in
the midst of the partly mythical sea Vouru-kasha and is the gathering
place of fog and clouds. The name Us-Hindava mean 'Beyond (or, Above)
India,' according to one way of translating ; but another rendering
makes it simply 'the mountain from which the rivers rise. ' Owing to this
uncertainty, and to a general vagueness in three passages in which the
mountain is referred to as Usind and Usindam in the Pahlavi, or Middle
Persian, texts of Sassanian times (Būndabishn, XII, 6 ; XUT, 5; Zātsparam,
XXII, 3), it seems wiser for the present to postpone an attempt to decide
whether the allusion is to the Hindu Kush or possibly the Himālaya, or
even some other ranges.
1 Spiegel, op. cit. p. 118. Compare also the remarks made below, p. 305, n. 2 on
Esther, I, I.
2 The Av. word niyne, here translated ‘smites down,' is best so taken as a verbal
form ; so also by Bartholomae, Air. Wb. coll, 492, 1814, followed by F. Wolff, Avesta
übersetzt, pp. 79, 214. J. Darmesteter, Le Zend Avesta, I, 366, also n. 52 (and of. II,
469) has 'il abat a la riviore du Couchant'. Others have taken nirne as
thus F. Justi, Handbuch der Zendsprache (1864), p. 171, renders ‘im westlichen Niniveh';
F. Spiegel, Die ar. Per. p. 119, 'im westlichen Nighna' (i. e. the Nile). Opposed to the
explanation as a proper name is C. de Harlez, Avesta traduit (1881), p. 461 who gives
dans les profondeurs de l'occident,' with a footnote dans l'enforcement nocturne';
cf. also ibid. p. 377, n. 4.
3 The interpretation as Hindu Kush is given by Geldner, Grundriss d. iran. Philol.
II, the rendering of Bartholomae, Air. Wb. col. 409, is 'jenseits von Indien gelegen';
Darmesteter, Le Z. -A. , II, 423, n. 70, remarks : ‘Le mot us-hindu signifie litteralement
"d'où se lovent les rivieres. " Il est douteux que ce soit une montagne reelle; Ushiñdu est
le representant de la classe. ' For translations of the Pahlavi passages in which Usind,
or Usindam, is mentioned, see E. W. West, S. B. E. v. 35, 42 ; XLVII, 160 (and cf. v. 67,
n. 3). It may be noted incidentally that an attempt has been made to connect the
meteorological phenomena described in the myth of the Tishtar Yasht (Yt. VIII)
[P. T. O.
;
9
a loc. sg. ;
38 ;
:


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292
(CH.
PERSIAN DOMINIONS IN N. INDIA
.
Precisely as was noted above (p. 287), in considering the ‘Vedic
material as sources for the historian's review of the distant past, there are
likewise a number of Avestan names of places located south of the Hindu
Kush in the territory that once at least was common in part to the Indians
and the Irānians and has had, as a natural borderland, an important
influence upon India's history in later ages. A portion of these domains
corresponds to a considerable section of Afghānistān and possibly to a part
of Baluchistān, realms now under direct British influence or included
politically as a part of the Indian Empire. One of the proofs of this
community of interest is the fact that the territory of Arachosia (Av.
Harahvaitī, O. P. Hara(h)uvati), which corresponds to the modern province
of Kandahār, was known, at least in later Parthian times, os 'White India'
('Ivoikn' Asvkr'). This we have on the authority of the geographer Isidor of
Charax (first cent. A. D. ), who, when mentioning Arachosia as the last in his
list of Parthian provinces, adds (Mans, Parth. 19), 'the Parthians call it
"White India". ' As a supplement to this statement, in its historic aspects,
may be quoted a pertinent observation made by the French savant James
Darmesteter in touching upon the realms of Kābul and Seistān. He regards
the language of Vd. I as indicating that 'Hindu civilization prevailed
in those parts, which in fact in the two centuries before and after Christ
were known as White India, and remained more Indian than Iranian till
the Musulman conquest? '
All of the realms concerned in the next Avestan references to be cited
have their historical and political bearing, important for the statesman as
well as for the historian of India ; and they can be identified with the pro-
vinces under the imperial sway of Darius I of Persia, as mentioned in his
cuneiform inscriptions. The dominions are equally included in the account
of the ancient Persian satrapies given by Herodotus and are comprised in
the geographical descriptions of Irān by his successors. For that reason, in
the following enumeration, the Old Persian, Greek, and modern designations
are recorded in every case together with the Avestan.
To confine attention first to the land that is now Afghānistān, it may
be noted that the Hindu Kush range may possibly be referred to in the
Avestan allusion to Us-Hindava, mentioned above (p. 291). It is likewise
Contd. from p. 291.
in which this allusion occurs with the breaking of the monsoon. See the articles by
Mrs. E. W. Mounder, The Zoroastrian Star-Champions, in The Observatory Nov. and
Dec. 1912, March 1913 ; and the similar view by Mr. E. W. Maunder, of the Royal
Observatory, Greenwich, quoted by Moulton, Early Zoroastrianism, pp. 25, 26 n. 2,
436. 7.
1 Darmesteter, S. B. E. (2nd od. ), IV. 2 ; and cf. Le 2. -A. II, 13, n. 33, where he
bases his statement about the character of the civilisation on Masūdi, Les Prairies d'or,
ed. and tr. Barbier de Meynard, II, 79-82, Paris, 1863.


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XIV)
THE PERSIAN PROVINCES
293
>
possible to conjecture that the ridge of Band-i. Baiān, somewhat to the
west, may perpetuate the old Avestan name Bayana in the list of mountain
names enumerated in the Nineteenth Yasht (Yt. XIX, 3); while the chain
familiarly known from the classics as Paropanisus or Paropamisus appears
to be included under the Avestan designation Upā irisaēna, lit. 'Higher
than the eagle'l. To the north of these barriers lay Bactria (Av. Bākhdhi,
O. P. Bākhtri, Gk. Báktpol, Baktplaun, Mod. Balkh), a centre which was
destined to play an important part in India's history? .
Herāt, on the west, including the district watered by the Hari Rūd,
was known in the Avesta as Harõiva (O. P. Haraiva, Gk. 'Ape'lo). Kābul,
to the east and nearer the present Indian frontier, appears as Vaēkereta
answering to the western part of O. P. Ga(n)dāra, Gk. Taud apltls, or El.
Parupareasanna, and possibly in part to O. P. Thatagu, Gk. PattayU'S. . ! ? ).
The region corresponding to the modern province of Kandahār, as already
stated, is represented by Av. Harahvaiti (O. P. Hara(b) uvatī, Gk. ’Apaywor’a).
In the territory to the south-west, the river Helmand and the lagoon
districts of Seistān around the Hāmūn Lake (which the natives call Zirrah,
i. e. Av. Zrayah 'sea') are respectively known in the Avesta as the Haētu-
mant and as Zrayah Kāsaoya (cf. O. P. Zra(n)ka or Zara(n)ka, Gk.
Ζαράγγοι, Σαράγγοι, or Δραγγιανη) : while the river systems that empty
into this lagoon depression from the north are mentioned in Yasht xix, 67,
by names that can be identified exactly with their modern designations in
almost every case4. It is worth noting that the majority of these particu-
lar allusions are found in the Nineteenth Yasht, which is devoted to the
praise of the 'Kingly Glory' of the ancient line of the Kayanians, heroes
who are known to fame also through Firdausi's epic poem, the Shāhnāmah,
1 Cf. El. Bab. Parupar esanna, substituted for O. P. Gain)dāra in these versions
of the Bahietān Inscription, 1. 16 (6). It is quite possible to see in Av. iskata and
pouruta, Yt. X. 14 (cf. Yt. XIX, 3 ; Ys, X, 11), the names of two mountain branches
of the Hindu Kush and Paropanisus ; so, among other scholars, Sarre and Herzfeld,
Iranische Felsreliefs, Text, p. 31 ; somewhat differently Bartholomae, Air. Wb. coll.
376. 900.
2 For references to the passages in which the ancient Irānian names of the pro.
vinces occur, consult Bartholomae, Air. Wb. , under each of the separate Avestan or
Old Persian names involved.
3 The position of the Sattagydai is not quite certain ; according to Sarre and
Herzfeld, Iranische Felsreliefs, Text. pp. 27, 256, they are to be located in Ghazni and
Ghilzai ; but Dames Afghanistān in Encyclop. of Islam, I, 158, places them in the
Hazāra country further to the north-west. Other authorities differ; e. g. J. Marquart,
Untersuch. z, Gesch, ron. Eran, II, 175.
4 See M. A. Stein, Afghanistān in Avestic Geography, in The Academy, May 16,
1885, pp. 348-349 (also in Indian Antiquary XV, 21-23). Consult also Geiger, Grundr.
d. iran. Philol. II, 388, 392-4. On the possibility of locating the tribal name Av. Sāma,
cf. Gk. Oop. cvcol in Afghānistān, compare Sarre and Herzfeld, op. cit. p. 27; Marquart,
Unters. z. Gesch. v. Eran, II, 144, 176.


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294
[CH.
PERSIAN DOMINIONS IN N. INDIA
and from whom some of the families in the regions named still claim to be
descended.
With regard to Avestan place names that may be localised in parts
of Baluchistān there is more uncertainty. It is thought by some, for
example, but denied by others, that Av. Urvā (Vd. ), 10) may thus be a
locality near the Indian border. It might also be possible to suggest that
the Avestan name Peshana (Yt. v, 109) may still survive in the Baluchi
town near Pishin, near Quetta, but it would be difficult to prove this.
The quotations above given from Avestan sources serve at least to
show the interest or share which Persia had traditionally in Northern India
and the adjoining realms at a period prior to Achaemenian times, provided
we accept the view, already stated (p. 289), that the Avesta represents in
the main a spirit and condition that is pre-Achaemenian, however late
certain portions of the work may be? .
Prior to the seventh century B. O. , and for numerous ages afterwards,
there is further proof of relations between Persia and India through
the facts of trade in antiquity, especially through the early commerce
between India and Babylon, which, it is believed, was largely via the
Persian Gulfs. Persia’s share in this development, although hard to
determine, must have been significant even in days before the Achæmenian
Empire. Beginning with the sixth century B. C. , however, we enter upon
the more solid ground of recorded political bistory. From unquestioned
sources in the classics we know that the Medo-Persian kingdom, which was
paramount in Western Asia during that century, was brought into more or
less direct contact with India through the campaigns carried on in the east
of Irān by Cyrus the Great at some time between 558 and 530 B. C. , the
limits of his reign. The difficulty, however, of determining exactly when
this campaigning occurred and just how the domains between the
rivers Indus and Jaxartes came under the control or sphere of influence
of the Persian Empire is a problem accounted among the hardest in Irānian
history
In the following paragraphs of discussion, which may be considered
as a critical digression, statements or inferences from Herodotus, Ctesias,
and Xenophon, with other evidence, have to be compared with those
1 For references see Bartholomae, Air. Wb. col. 404.
2 Lack of space prevents including here certain supplementary allusions to India
in early times as found in the Pahlavi literature of the Sassanian era and in such later
sources as Firdausi's Shāhnāmah ; but they will appear in the Festschrift Windisch.
3 See J. Kennedy, The Early Commerce of India with Babylon, 700-300 B. C. , in
J. R. A. S. 1898, pp. 241-288 ; and cf. V. A. Smith, Early History of India, 3rd ed. , p. 28.
n. , Oxford, 1914 ; likewise W. H. Schoff, J A. O. S. XXXIII, 352; Rhys Davids,
Buddhist India, p. 104.
4 See Prasek, Geschichte der Weder und Perser, I, 224 ; and compare How and
Wells, Commentary on Herodotus. I, 177 (vol. I, 135), Oxford, 1912.


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XIV)
EARLY RELATIONS WITH INDIA
295
of Strabo and with the seemingly more conservative views of Arrian, in in-
terpreting the question of the possible or probable control of the Indian
borderland touching upon Irān.
In the first place, Herodotus says (1, 177) that 'Cyrus in person
subjugated the upper regions of Asia', conquering every nation without
passing one by'; but this statement is so broadly comprehensive that it
is difficult to particularise regarding North-western India except through in-
direct corroborative evidence. In fact, most of the allusions by Herodotus
to India refer to the times of Darius and Xerxes. It is certain, however,
that Cyrus, by his own personally conducted campaigns in the east, brought
the major part of Eastern Irān, especially the realms of Bactria, under
his sway? . His conquests included the districts of Drangiāna, Sattagydia,
and Gandaritis, verging upon the Indian borderland, though we may omit
for the moment the question of the extent of Cyrus's suzerainty over the
Indian frontier itself.
In the same connexion may be mentioned the fact that Ctesias, espe-
cially in the tenth book of his lost Persica, if we may judge from quota-
tions in later authors regarding the nations involved, appears to have
given an account of the campaigns by Cyrus in this regions. The stories,
moreover, regarding the death of Cyrus differ considerably4; but the
account recorded by Ctesias (fragm. 37, ed. Gilmore), which reflects local
Persian tradition, narrates that Cyrus died in consequence of a wound
inflicted in battle by 'an Indian,' in an engagement when the Indians were
fighting on the side of the Derbikes and supplied them with elephants. '
The Derbikes might therefore be supposed to have been located somewhere
near the Indian frontier, but the subject is still open to debate.
Xenophon, in his romance of the life of Cyrus, entitled Cyropaedia
(1, 1, 4), declares that Cyrus brought under his rule Bactrians and
Indians,' as foruning a part of his wide-spread empire. In the same work
(VIII, 6, 20-21) he furthermore says that Cyrus, after reducing Babylon,
'started on the campaign in which he is reported to have brought into
subjection all the nations from Syria to the Erythraean Sea' (i. e. the
1 i. e. the regions in the east, more distant from Greece and contrasted with
those subdued by Cyrus in Asia Minor through his general Harpaguz.
2 For the Bactrian and Çaka conquests, see Herodotus, I, 153 compared with I,
177 ; and consult Ctesias, Persica, fragms. 33-34 (ed. Gilmore, pp 127-129). For
certain problems raised by the quostion of the Çakas, see F. W. Thomas, J. R. A. S.
1906, pp. 181-216, 460- 164.
? See the passages in Gilmore's edition of the Persica, pp. 133-133 ; also G.
Rawlinson, Five Great Monarchies, IV, 371, n. 22 ; but of Marquart, Unters, z. Gesch.
v. Eran. II, 139.
4 Consult G. Rawlinson, op. cit. IV, 378-380 ; E. Katz, Cyrus des Perserkonigs
Abstammung, Kriege, und Tod, Klagenfurt, 1895 ; Pràsek, Gesch. der Meter und
Perser, I, 236, n. 1,
5 The notices of classical authors regarding this widely distributed people are
collected by Tomaschek, art. Derbikes, in Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encyclopädie ; V,
273-238, Stuttgart, 1905.


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296
[CH.
PERSIAN DOMINIONS IN N. INDIA
Indian Ocean); and for that reason he repeats that 'the Erythraean Sea
bounded the empire of Cyrus on the east. ' This reference, though inde-
finite, certainly contains a direct allusion to control over the regions bor.
dering on the Indian Ocean ; but it would be unwarranted to interpret it
as indicating any sovereignty over the mouth of the Indus, such as could
be claimed in regard to the Persian sea-route to India in the time of
Darius and his successors.
In a general way, however, as possibly supporting the idea of some
sort of suzerainty over Northern India by Cyrus, we may note the fact
that Xenophon (Cyrop. vi. 2, 1-)l) introduces an account of an embassy
sent to Cyrus by an Indian king. This embassy conveyed a sum of money
for which the Persian king had asked, and ultimately served him in a deli-
cate matter of espionage before the war against Croesus and the campaigns
in Asia Minor. It may be acknowledged that the value of this particular
allusion is slight, and that the Cyropaedia is a source of minor importance
in this particular regard ; but yet it is worth citing as showing, through
Xenophon, a common acceptance of the idea that Cyrus was in a position
to expect to receive direct consideration, if not vassalage, from the over-
lord of Northern India.
Descending to the Hellenistic age, when the Greeks began to have
knowledge of India at first hand, we find that two of the principal autho-
rities, Nearchus, who was Alexander's admiral, and Megasthenes, the
ambassador of Seleucus I at the court of Chandragupta, are at variance
regarding an attempted conquest of India by Cyrus.
The account of Nearchus, as preserved by Arrian (An ab. vi, 24, 2-3),
links the names of Cyrus and of Semiramis, the far-famed Assyrian Queen,
and states that Alexander, when planning his march through Gedrosia
(Baluchistān), was told by the inhabitants that no one had ever before
escaped with an army by this route, excepting Semiramis on her flight from
India. And she, they said, escaped with only twenty of her army, and
Cyrus, the son of Cambyses, in his turn with only seven. For Cyrus also
came into these parts with the purpose of invading India, but was preven-
ted through losing the greater part of his army, owing to the desolate and
impracticable character of the route? '
Megasthenes, on the other hand, as quoted by Strabo (Geogr. xv,
1, 6, pp. 686-687 Cas. ), declares that the Indians had never engaged in
foreign warfare, nor had they ever been invaded and conquered by a
foreign power, except by Hercules and Dionysus and lately by the Mace-
donians. After mentioning several famous conquerors who did not
1 In regard to the term •Erythraean Sea' as a designation for the Indian Ocean,
see W. H. Schoff, J. A. 0. S. XXXIII, 349-362.
2 Strabo, Geogr. xv, 1, 5 p. 686 Cas, (and cf. xv 2, 5 p. 722 Cas. ), likewise
quotes Nearchus but merely to the effect that Cyrus escaped with seven men.
1


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XIV]
CYRUS
297
attack India, he continues : Semiramis, however, died before (carrying
out) her undertaking ; and the Persians, although they got mercenary
troops from India, namely the Hydrakes? , did not make an expedition into
that country, but merely approached it when Cyrus was marching against
the Massagetae. '
We may also take megasthenes to be the authority for the statement
of Arrian (Indica, ix, 10 ; and cf. v, 4-7) that, according to the Indians, no
one before Alexander, with the exception of Dionysus and Hercules, had
invaded their country, 'not even cyrus, the son of Cambyses, although he
marched against the Scythians and showed himself in other respects the
most enterprising of Asiatic monarchs? . '
It appears, therefore, that both Nearchus and Megasthenes deny, the
former by implication and the latter expressly, that Cyrus ever reached
India, although Nearchus regards him as having made an unsuccessful
campaign in Baluchistān. We must not, however, overlook the fact that
Strabo and Arrian, our proximate sources, consider the river Indus to be
the western boundary of India proper ; and the foregoing accounts
consequently leave open the possibility that Cyrus made conquests in the
borderland west of the Indus itself. Indeed, Arrian elsewhere (Indica
1, 1-3) expressly states that the Indians between the river Indus and the
river Cophēn, or Kābul, 'were in ancient times subject to the Assyrians
afterwards to the Medes, and finally submitted to the Persians and
paid to Cyrus, the son of Cambyses, the tribute that he imposed on
them. '
In regard to the supposed campaign of Cyrus in Baluchistān, we may
note that Arrian (Anab. 111, 27, 4-5) mentions the story, recorded elsewhere
in connexion with Alexander's exploits, that Cyrus had received substantial
help from the Ariaspian people (a tribe dwelling in a region that
corresponds to the modern Seistān) when he was waging war in these
territories against the Scythians'. This folk received from him in conse-
quence the honorific title Euergetae, 'Benefactors,' a term answering to the
Persian designation Orosangae mentioned by Herodotus (viii, 85).
One further point may be cited from a classical source. Pliny,
Hist. Nat, vi, 23 (25) credits Cyrus with having destroyed a city called
Capisa in Capisene, a place supported to be represented by Kafshān
1 i.