Saka
Encyclopedia
The Saka were a Scythian tribe or group of tribes.
Greek
and Latin
texts suggest that the term Scythians referred to a much more widespread grouping of Central Asia
n peoples.
Accounts of the Indo-Scythian
wars often assume that the Scythian protagonists were a single tribe called the Saka (Sakai or Sakas). But in earlier Greek and Latin texts the term Scythians referred to a much more widespread grouping of Central Asian peoples.
"Scythia" was a generic term loosely applied to a vast area of Central Asia spanning numerous groups and diverse ethnicities. Ptolemy
writes that Skuthia was not only "within the Imaos" (the Himalayas) and "beyond the Imaos" (north of the Himalayas), but also speaks of a separate "land of the Sakais" within Scythia. He also notes that the Komedes
inhabited "the entire mountainous land of the Sakas".
The Romans recognized both Saceans (Sacae) and Scyths (Scythae).
Isidorus of Charax used the term "Saka" in his work "Parthian stations". They were known to the Chinese as the Sai, as in the Chinese Imperial reports by general Ban Chao
. Stephanus of Byzantium
referred to the Sakas in Ethnica as Saka sena, or Sakaraucae. He records how the Sakasena, originally Scythians, were pushed west and displaced by the Asii
who themselves became known as Scythians as they conquered Sakastan
.
To Herodotus
(484-425 BC), the Sakai were the 'Amurgioi Skuthai' (i.e. Amyrgians
). Strabo
suggests that the term Skuthais (Scythians) referred to the Sakai and several other tribes. According to him Bactria
was taken by nomads like "the Asioi and the Pasianoi, and the Tacharoi and the Sakaraukai, who originally came from the other side of the Iaxartou river (Syr Darya
) that adjoins that of the Sakai and the Sogdoanou and was occupied by the Saki." Arrian
refers to the Sakai as Skuthon (a Scythian people) or the Skuthai (the Scythians) who inhabit Asia
. The Prologus XLI of Historiae Philippicae also refers to the Scythian invasion of the Greek kingdom of Bactria and Sogdia
. The invaders are described as "Sarauceans" (Saraucae) and "Asians" (Asiani).
B. N. Mukerjee has said that it is clear the Greek and Latin scholars cited here believed, all Sakai were Scythians, but not all Scythians were Sakai.
(Gaius Plinius Secundus, AD 23–79) provides a more detailed explanation, stating that the Persians gave the name Sakai to the Scythian tribes "nearest to them". The Scythians to the far north of Assyria were also called the Saka suni "Saka or Scythian sons" by the Persians. The Assyrians of the time of Esarhaddon
record campaigning against a people they called in the Akkadian
the Ashkuza or Ishhuza. Hugo Winckler
was the first to associate them with the Scyths which identification remains without serious question. They were closely associated with the Gimirrai, who were the Cimmerians
known to the ancient Greeks
. Confusion arose because they were known to the Persians as Saka, however they were known to the Babylonians as Gimirrai, and both expressions are used synonymously on the trilingual Behistun inscription
, carved in 515 BC on the order of Darius the Great. These Scythians were mainly interested in settling in the kingdom of Urartu
, which later became Armenia
. The district of Shacusen, Uti Province, reflects their name. In ancient Hebrew texts, the Ashkuz (Ashkenaz
) are considered to be a direct offshoot from the Gimirri (Gomer).
Thus the Behistun inscription mentions four divisions of Scythians,
Of these, the Saka tigraxauda were the Saka proper. The Saka paradraya were the western Scythians or Sarmatians, the Saka haumavarga and Saka para Sugudam were likely Scythian tribes associated with or split-of from the original Saka.
also mentions Aseni and Asoi clans south of the Hindukush. Bucephala was the capital of the Aseni which stood on the Hydaspes (the Jhelum River
). The Sarauceans and Aseni are the Sacarauls and Asioi of Strabo.
The term Asio (or Asii) possibly refers to Horse People and may refer to the Kambojas
of the Parama Kamboja domain whose Aswas or horses have been glorified in the Mahabharata
as being of excellent quality. Asio, Asi/Asii, Asva/Aswa, Ari-aspi, Aspasios, Aspasii (or Hippasii) are possibly variant names the classical writers have given to the horse-clans of the Kambojas. The Old-Persian words for horse, "asa" and "aspa, have most likely been derived from this."
In the Mahabharata the Rishikas were closely affiliated with the Parama-Kambojas. Similarly, the Pasianois were another Scythian tribe from Central Asia. Saraucae or Sakarauloi obviously refers to the Saka proper from Issyk-kul.
If one accepts this connection, then the Tukharas (= Rishikas = Yuezhi) controlled the eastern parts of Bactria (Chinese Ta-hia) while the combined forces of the Sakarauloi, Asio (horse people = Parama Kambojas) and Pasinoi of Strabo occupied its western parts after being displaced from their original home in the Fergana
valley by the Yuezhi. Ta-hia (Daxia
) is then taken to mean the Tushara Kingdom
which also included Badakshan, Chitral
, Kafirstan and Wakhan
According to other scholars, it were the Saka hordes alone who had put an end to the Greek kingdom of Bactria.
Researchers broadly consider as Saka part of the Scythian culture in Siberia
, in particular that of Tasmola and the Upper-Irtysh group. Unlike the Scythians of Europe, Saka remains are wide scattered from Central Asia
to Chinese Turkestan and define a set of cultures close to each other but not identical:
Recently, bronzes found in Yunnan
, China have been tentatively attributed to the Saka.
Migrations of the 2nd and 1st c. BC have left traces in Sogdiana
and Bactria
, but they cannot firmly be attributed to the Saka, similarly with the sites of Sirkap
and Taxila
in Pakistan
. The rich graves at Tillya Tepe in Afghanistan
are seen as part of a population affected by the Saka.
Some of the first Bronze Age
Scythian burials documented by modern archaeologists include the kurgan
s at Pazyryk in the Ulagan
district of the Altai Republic
, south of Novosibirsk
in the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia
. The burial mounds concealed chambers of larch-logs covered over with large cairn
s of boulders and stones.
Archaeologists have extrapolated the Pazyryk culture
from these finds: five large burial mounds and several smaller ones between 1925 and 1949, one opened in 1947 by Russian archaeologist Sergei Rudenko
. The Pazyryk culture flourished between the 7th and 3rd century BC in the area associated with the Saka. Burials at Pazyryk in the Altay Mountains have included some spectacularly preserved remains of the "Pazyryk culture" — including the Ice Maiden of the 5th century BC. Women dressed in much the same fashion as men. A Pazyryk burial found in the 1990s contained the skeletons of a man and a woman, each with weapons, arrowheads, and an axe.
Ordinary Pazyryk graves contain only common utensils, but in one, among other treasures, archaeologists found the famous Pazyryk Carpet, the oldest surviving wool-pile oriental rug
. Another striking find, a 3-metre-high four-wheel funerary chariot, survived superbly preserved from the 5th century BC.
and Wusun
, who were displaced by the rising Xiongnu
empire.
Part of the Saka drove over the Pamir to the border area of present-day Afghanistan and Iran (Sistan
, before 139 BC) and to the Punjab in north-west India.
In Sakastan
they came under the suzerainty of Parthian king Mithridates II
(reigned 123-88 BC) with which they allied themselves. They used the Parthian-Roman conflict to their advantage and grabbed much of the Indus Basin and thus the eastern regions from the Indo-Parthians
and established a short-lived empire under king Maues
, which existed until about 45 AD. They were probably still under Parthian sovereignty, since there are no written records which distinguish the Parthians and Sakas.
, Gandhara
, Kashmir
, Punjab
, Gujarat, Maharashtra
and Rajasthan
, from the middle of the 2nd century BCE to the 4th century CE
.
Indian historians see the actual beginning of the Saka era from 79 AD, after the Kushans conquered the Indo-Parthians and spilled over to the east. The Sakas were once again ousted by the Kushan and forced to wander further into central India. In Rajasthan
they came into the Hindu warrior caste of the Kshatriyas and were assimilated and were now feared nomadic warriors and rulers, for which Rajasthan was famous for a long time.
Under the so-called Kshatrya kings the Shaka Ujjayini ruled from parts of north west India and presented, for example, under Rudradaman I
(r. about 130-150), a competition to the Satavahana dynasty. They were initially dependent on the Kushan. The Kshatriya kingdom was apparently after 397 conquered by king Chandragupta II
(reigned 375-413/15).
Some South-Asian Saka includes the Abhira, Nagbanshi, Andhra, Bala, Gurjjara.
.
The language of the original Saka tribes is unknown. The only record from their early history is the Issyk inscription
, a short fragment on a silver cup found in the Issyk kurgan.
The inscription is in a variant of the Kharoṣṭhī script, and is probably in a Saka dialect, constituting one of very few autochthonous epigraphic traces of that language. Harmatta (1999) identifies the language as Khotanese Saka
, tentatively translating "The vessel should hold wine of grapes, added cooked food, so much, to the mortal, then added cooked fresh butter on".
What is nowadays called the Saka language
is the language of the kingdom of Khotan
which was ruled by the Saka. This was gradually conquered and acculturated by the Turkic expansion to Central Asia beginning in the 4th century. The only known remnants of the Khotanese Saka language come from Xinjiang
, China, but the language there is widely divergent from the rest of Iranian and accordingly is called eastern or northeastern Iranian. It also is divided into two divergent dialects.
Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
and Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
texts suggest that the term Scythians referred to a much more widespread grouping of Central Asia
Central Asia
Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...
n peoples.
Classical accounts
Indo-Scythians
Indo-Scythians is a term used to refer to Sakas , who migrated into Bactria, Sogdiana, Arachosia, Gandhara, Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, from the middle of the 2nd century BCE to the 4th century CE....
wars often assume that the Scythian protagonists were a single tribe called the Saka (Sakai or Sakas). But in earlier Greek and Latin texts the term Scythians referred to a much more widespread grouping of Central Asian peoples.
"Scythia" was a generic term loosely applied to a vast area of Central Asia spanning numerous groups and diverse ethnicities. Ptolemy
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the...
writes that Skuthia was not only "within the Imaos" (the Himalayas) and "beyond the Imaos" (north of the Himalayas), but also speaks of a separate "land of the Sakais" within Scythia. He also notes that the Komedes
Komedes
Komedes is an ethnonym recorded by Ptolemy. Ptolemy notes that the Komedes inhabited "the entire mountainous land of the Sakas", placing them in eastern Scythia .-Kumud-dvipa:...
inhabited "the entire mountainous land of the Sakas".
The Romans recognized both Saceans (Sacae) and Scyths (Scythae).
Isidorus of Charax used the term "Saka" in his work "Parthian stations". They were known to the Chinese as the Sai, as in the Chinese Imperial reports by general Ban Chao
Ban Chao
Ban Chao , courtesy name Zhongsheng , was born in Xianyang, Shaanxi, and the younger brother of the famous historian, Ban Gu who, with his father Ban Biao, and sister, Ban Zhao, wrote the famous Hanshu, or 'History of the Former Han Dynasty'....
. Stephanus of Byzantium
Stephanus of Byzantium
Stephen of Byzantium, also known as Stephanus Byzantinus , was the author of an important geographical dictionary entitled Ethnica...
referred to the Sakas in Ethnica as Saka sena, or Sakaraucae. He records how the Sakasena, originally Scythians, were pushed west and displaced by the Asii
Asii
Asii, also written Asioi, were one of the nomadic tribes mentioned in Roman and Greek accounts as responsible for the downfall of the state of Bactria circa 140 BCE. These tribes are usually identified as "Scythian" or "Saka" peoples....
who themselves became known as Scythians as they conquered Sakastan
Sakastan
Sakastan or Sakaistan or Sakasthan is a term indicating certain regions of the South Asia where the Scythians or Sakas settled around 100 BC. Sakastan region includes southern Afghanistan; Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Sindh provinces of Pakistan; also includes Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana and...
.
Herodotus
Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria and lived in the 5th century BC . He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...
(484-425 BC), the Sakai were the 'Amurgioi Skuthai' (i.e. Amyrgians
Amyrgians
The Amyrgians were a tribe of the Scythians , named for their king Amorges ....
). Strabo
Strabo
Strabo, also written Strabon was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher.-Life:Strabo was born to an affluent family from Amaseia in Pontus , a city which he said was situated the approximate equivalent of 75 km from the Black Sea...
suggests that the term Skuthais (Scythians) referred to the Sakai and several other tribes. According to him Bactria
Bactria
Bactria and also appears in the Zend Avesta as Bukhdi. It is the ancient name of a historical region located between south of the Amu Darya and west of the Indus River...
was taken by nomads like "the Asioi and the Pasianoi, and the Tacharoi and the Sakaraukai, who originally came from the other side of the Iaxartou river (Syr Darya
Syr Darya
The Syr Darya , also transliterated Syrdarya or Sirdaryo, is a river in Central Asia, sometimes known as the Jaxartes or Yaxartes from its Ancient Greek name . The Greek name is derived from Old Persian, Yakhsha Arta , a reference to the color of the river's water...
) that adjoins that of the Sakai and the Sogdoanou and was occupied by the Saki." Arrian
Arrian
Lucius Flavius Arrianus 'Xenophon , known in English as Arrian , and Arrian of Nicomedia, was a Roman historian, public servant, a military commander and a philosopher of the 2nd-century Roman period...
refers to the Sakai as Skuthon (a Scythian people) or the Skuthai (the Scythians) who inhabit Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
. The Prologus XLI of Historiae Philippicae also refers to the Scythian invasion of the Greek kingdom of Bactria and Sogdia
Sogdiana
Sogdiana or Sogdia was the ancient civilization of an Iranian people and a province of the Achaemenid Empire, eighteenth in the list on the Behistun Inscription of Darius the Great . Sogdiana is "listed" as the second of the "good lands and countries" that Ahura Mazda created...
. The invaders are described as "Sarauceans" (Saraucae) and "Asians" (Asiani).
B. N. Mukerjee has said that it is clear the Greek and Latin scholars cited here believed, all Sakai were Scythians, but not all Scythians were Sakai.
Persian sources
Modern confusion about the identity of the Saka is partly due to the Persians. According to Herodotus, the Persians called all Scythians by the name Sakas. Pliny the ElderPliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
(Gaius Plinius Secundus, AD 23–79) provides a more detailed explanation, stating that the Persians gave the name Sakai to the Scythian tribes "nearest to them". The Scythians to the far north of Assyria were also called the Saka suni "Saka or Scythian sons" by the Persians. The Assyrians of the time of Esarhaddon
Esarhaddon
Esarhaddon , was a king of Assyria who reigned 681 – 669 BC. He was the youngest son of Sennacherib and the Aramean queen Naqi'a , Sennacherib's second wife....
record campaigning against a people they called in the Akkadian
Akkadian language
Akkadian is an extinct Semitic language that was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia. The earliest attested Semitic language, it used the cuneiform writing system derived ultimately from ancient Sumerian, an unrelated language isolate...
the Ashkuza or Ishhuza. Hugo Winckler
Hugo Winckler
Hugo Winckler was a German archaeologist and historian who uncovered the capital of the Hittite Empire at Boğazkale, Turkey....
was the first to associate them with the Scyths which identification remains without serious question. They were closely associated with the Gimirrai, who were the Cimmerians
Cimmerians
The Cimmerians or Kimmerians were ancient equestrian nomads of Indo-European origin.According to the Greek historian Herodotus, of the 5th century BC, the Cimmerians inhabited the region north of the Caucasus and the Black Sea during the 8th and 7th centuries BC, in what is now Ukraine and Russia...
known to the ancient Greeks
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
. Confusion arose because they were known to the Persians as Saka, however they were known to the Babylonians as Gimirrai, and both expressions are used synonymously on the trilingual Behistun inscription
Behistun Inscription
The Behistun Inscription The Behistun Inscription The Behistun Inscription (also Bistun or Bisutun, Modern Persian: بیستون The Behistun Inscription (also Bistun or Bisutun, Modern Persian: بیستون...
, carved in 515 BC on the order of Darius the Great. These Scythians were mainly interested in settling in the kingdom of Urartu
Urartu
Urartu , corresponding to Ararat or Kingdom of Van was an Iron Age kingdom centered around Lake Van in the Armenian Highland....
, which later became Armenia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
. The district of Shacusen, Uti Province, reflects their name. In ancient Hebrew texts, the Ashkuz (Ashkenaz
Ashkenaz
In the Bible, Ashkenaz is Gomer's first son, brother of Riphath and Togarmah , thereby a Japhetic descendant of Noah. A kingdom of Ashkenaz is called together with Ararat and Minni against Babylon In the Bible, Ashkenaz (Heb. אַשְׁכֲּנָז) is Gomer's first son, brother of Riphath and Togarmah (Gen....
) are considered to be a direct offshoot from the Gimirri (Gomer).
- the Saka paradraya "Scythians beyond the sea" of SarmatiaSarmatiaSarmatia or Sarmatian can refer to:* the land of Sarmatians, western Scythia as described by many classical authors, such as Herodotus in the 5th century BC* Sarmatian languages, part of Scythian languages...
, - the Saka tigraxauda "Scythians with pointy hatPointy hatPointed hats have been a distinctive item of headgear of a wide range of cultures throughout history. Though often suggesting an ancient Indo-European tradition, they were also traditionally worn by women of Lapland, the Japanese, the Mi'kmaq people of Atlantic Canada, and the Huastecs of Veracruz...
s", - the Saka haumavarga " haomaHaomaHaoma is the Avestan language name of a plant and its divinity, both of which play a role in Zoroastrian doctrine and in later Persian culture and mythology. The Middle Persian form of the name is hōm, which continues to be the name in Modern Persian and other living Iranian languages.Sacred haoma...
-worshipping Scythians" (AmyrgiansAmyrgiansThe Amyrgians were a tribe of the Scythians , named for their king Amorges ....
) of the PamirPamir MountainsThe Pamir Mountains are a mountain range in Central Asia formed by the junction or knot of the Himalayas, Tian Shan, Karakoram, Kunlun, and Hindu Kush ranges. They are among the world’s highest mountains and since Victorian times they have been known as the "Roof of the World" a probable...
and - the Saka para Sugudam "Scythians beyond Sogdia" at the Jaxartes.
Of these, the Saka tigraxauda were the Saka proper. The Saka paradraya were the western Scythians or Sarmatians, the Saka haumavarga and Saka para Sugudam were likely Scythian tribes associated with or split-of from the original Saka.
Saka in South Asian history
PlinyPliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
also mentions Aseni and Asoi clans south of the Hindukush. Bucephala was the capital of the Aseni which stood on the Hydaspes (the Jhelum River
Jhelum River
Jehlum River or Jhelum River , ) is a river that flows in India and Pakistan. It is the largest and most western of the five rivers of Punjab, and passes through Jhelum District...
). The Sarauceans and Aseni are the Sacarauls and Asioi of Strabo.
The term Asio (or Asii) possibly refers to Horse People and may refer to the Kambojas
Kambojas
The Kambojas were a kshatriya tribe of Iron Age India, frequently mentioned in Sanskrit and Pali literature.They were an Indo-Iranian tribe situated at the boundary of the Indo-Aryans and the Iranians, and appear to have moved from the Iranian into the Indo-Aryan sphere over time.The Kambojas...
of the Parama Kamboja domain whose Aswas or horses have been glorified in the Mahabharata
Mahabharata
The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India and Nepal, the other being the Ramayana. The epic is part of itihasa....
as being of excellent quality. Asio, Asi/Asii, Asva/Aswa, Ari-aspi, Aspasios, Aspasii (or Hippasii) are possibly variant names the classical writers have given to the horse-clans of the Kambojas. The Old-Persian words for horse, "asa" and "aspa, have most likely been derived from this."
In the Mahabharata the Rishikas were closely affiliated with the Parama-Kambojas. Similarly, the Pasianois were another Scythian tribe from Central Asia. Saraucae or Sakarauloi obviously refers to the Saka proper from Issyk-kul.
If one accepts this connection, then the Tukharas (= Rishikas = Yuezhi) controlled the eastern parts of Bactria (Chinese Ta-hia) while the combined forces of the Sakarauloi, Asio (horse people = Parama Kambojas) and Pasinoi of Strabo occupied its western parts after being displaced from their original home in the Fergana
Fergana
Fergana is a city , the capital of Fergana Province in eastern Uzbekistan, at the southern edge of the Fergana Valley in southern Central Asia, cutting across the borders of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan...
valley by the Yuezhi. Ta-hia (Daxia
Daxia
Daxia, Ta-Hsia, or Ta-Hia is the name given in antiquity by the Han Chinese to the territory of Bactria....
) is then taken to mean the Tushara Kingdom
Tushara Kingdom
Tusharas were a Mleccha tribe, with their kingdom located in the north west of India as per the epic Mahabharata. An account in Mahabharata depicts Mlechchas as the descendants of Anu, one of the cursed sons of king Yayati. Yayati's eldest son Yadu, gave rise to the Yadavas and youngest son Puru...
which also included Badakshan, Chitral
Chitral
Chitral or Chetrar , translated as field in the native language Khowar, is the capital of the Chitral District, situated on the western bank of the Kunar River , in Pakistan. The town is at the foot of Tirich Mir, the highest peak of the Hindu Kush, high...
, Kafirstan and Wakhan
Wakhan
Wakhan or "the Wakhan" is a very mountainous and rugged part of the Pamir and Karakoram regions of Afghanistan. Wakhan District is a district in Badakshan Province.-Geography:...
According to other scholars, it were the Saka hordes alone who had put an end to the Greek kingdom of Bactria.
History
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
, in particular that of Tasmola and the Upper-Irtysh group. Unlike the Scythians of Europe, Saka remains are wide scattered from Central Asia
Central Asia
Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...
to Chinese Turkestan and define a set of cultures close to each other but not identical:
- The Zhetysu area of East-KazakhstanKazakhstanKazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
, KyrgyzstanKyrgyzstanKyrgyzstan , officially the Kyrgyz Republic is one of the world's six independent Turkic states . Located in Central Asia, landlocked and mountainous, Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and China to the east...
and Ferghana represents Saka culture in the strict sense. - The Aral-Caspian area relates to the cultures of the MassagetaeMassagetaeThe Massageteans or Massagetaeans were an Iranian nomadic confederation in antiquity known primarily from the writings of Herodotus. Their name was probably akin to Thyssagetae.-Name:...
and DahaeDahaeThe Dahae , or Dahaeans were a confederacy of three Ancient Iranian tribes who lived in the region to the immediate east of the Caspian Sea. They spoke an Eastern Iranian language.-Records:...
. - A final Saka area is located in the TajikTajikistanTajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders it to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and China to the east....
and Chinese PamirPamir MountainsThe Pamir Mountains are a mountain range in Central Asia formed by the junction or knot of the Himalayas, Tian Shan, Karakoram, Kunlun, and Hindu Kush ranges. They are among the world’s highest mountains and since Victorian times they have been known as the "Roof of the World" a probable...
.
Recently, bronzes found in Yunnan
Yunnan
Yunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country spanning approximately and with a population of 45.7 million . The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders Burma, Laos, and Vietnam.Yunnan is situated in a mountainous area, with...
, China have been tentatively attributed to the Saka.
Migrations of the 2nd and 1st c. BC have left traces in Sogdiana
Sogdiana
Sogdiana or Sogdia was the ancient civilization of an Iranian people and a province of the Achaemenid Empire, eighteenth in the list on the Behistun Inscription of Darius the Great . Sogdiana is "listed" as the second of the "good lands and countries" that Ahura Mazda created...
and Bactria
Bactria
Bactria and also appears in the Zend Avesta as Bukhdi. It is the ancient name of a historical region located between south of the Amu Darya and west of the Indus River...
, but they cannot firmly be attributed to the Saka, similarly with the sites of Sirkap
Sirkap
Sirkap is the name of an archaeological site on the bank opposite to the city of Taxila, Punjab, Pakistan.The city of Sirkap was built by the Greco-Bactrian king Demetrius after he invaded ancient India around 180 BC. Demetrius founded in the northern and northwestern Indian subcontinent an...
and Taxila
Taxila
Taxila is a Tehsil in the Rawalpindi District of Punjab province of Pakistan. It is an important archaeological site.Taxila is situated about northwest of Islamabad Capital Territory and Rawalpindi in Panjab; just off the Grand Trunk Road...
in Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
. The rich graves at Tillya Tepe in Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
are seen as part of a population affected by the Saka.
Pazyryk culture
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
Scythian burials documented by modern archaeologists include the kurgan
Kurgan
Kurgan is the Turkic term for a tumulus; mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves, originating with its use in Soviet archaeology, now widely used for tumuli in the context of Eastern European and Central Asian archaeology....
s at Pazyryk in the Ulagan
Ulagansky District
Ulagansky District is an administrative and municipal district , one of the ten in the Altai Republic, Russia. Its administrative center is the rural locality of Ulagan. District's population: Population of Ulagan accounts for 22.5% of the district's population....
district of the Altai Republic
Altai Republic
Altai Republic is a federal subject of Russia . Its capital is the town of Gorno-Altaysk. The area of the republic is . Population: -Geography:...
, south of Novosibirsk
Novosibirsk
Novosibirsk is the third-largest city in Russia, after Moscow and Saint Petersburg, and the largest city of Siberia, with a population of 1,473,737 . It is the administrative center of Novosibirsk Oblast as well as of the Siberian Federal District...
in the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
. The burial mounds concealed chambers of larch-logs covered over with large cairn
Cairn
Cairn is a term used mainly in the English-speaking world for a man-made pile of stones. It comes from the or . Cairns are found all over the world in uplands, on moorland, on mountaintops, near waterways and on sea cliffs, and also in barren desert and tundra areas...
s of boulders and stones.
Archaeologists have extrapolated the Pazyryk culture
Pazyryk culture
The Pazyryk culture is an Iron Age archaeological culture identified by excavated artifacts and mummified humans found in the Siberian permafrost in the Altay Mountains. The mummies are buried in long barrows similar to the tomb mounds of western Scythian culture in modern Ukraine...
from these finds: five large burial mounds and several smaller ones between 1925 and 1949, one opened in 1947 by Russian archaeologist Sergei Rudenko
Sergei Rudenko
Sergei Ivanovich Rudenko was a prominent Russian/Soviet anthropologist and archaeologist who discovered and excavated the most celebrated of Scythian burials, Pazyryk in Siberia....
. The Pazyryk culture flourished between the 7th and 3rd century BC in the area associated with the Saka. Burials at Pazyryk in the Altay Mountains have included some spectacularly preserved remains of the "Pazyryk culture" — including the Ice Maiden of the 5th century BC. Women dressed in much the same fashion as men. A Pazyryk burial found in the 1990s contained the skeletons of a man and a woman, each with weapons, arrowheads, and an axe.
Ordinary Pazyryk graves contain only common utensils, but in one, among other treasures, archaeologists found the famous Pazyryk Carpet, the oldest surviving wool-pile oriental rug
Oriental rug
An authentic oriental rug is a handmade carpet that is either knotted with pile or woven without pile.By definition - Oriental rugs are rugs that come from the orient...
. Another striking find, a 3-metre-high four-wheel funerary chariot, survived superbly preserved from the 5th century BC.
Migration southward
After 178 BC the Saka homeland was invaded from the east by the YuezhiYuezhi
The Yuezhi, or Rouzhi , also known as the Da Yuezhi or Da Rouzhi , were an ancient Central Asian people....
and Wusun
Wusun
The Wūsūn were a nomadic steppe people who, according to the Chinese histories, originally lived in western Gansu in northwest China west of the Yuezhi people...
, who were displaced by the rising Xiongnu
Xiongnu
The Xiongnu were ancient nomadic-based people that formed a state or confederation north of the agriculture-based empire of the Han Dynasty. Most of the information on the Xiongnu comes from Chinese sources...
empire.
Part of the Saka drove over the Pamir to the border area of present-day Afghanistan and Iran (Sistan
Sistan
Sīstān is a border region in eastern Iran , southwestern Afghanistan and northern tip of Southwestern Pakistan .-Etymology:...
, before 139 BC) and to the Punjab in north-west India.
In Sakastan
Sakastan
Sakastan or Sakaistan or Sakasthan is a term indicating certain regions of the South Asia where the Scythians or Sakas settled around 100 BC. Sakastan region includes southern Afghanistan; Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Sindh provinces of Pakistan; also includes Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana and...
they came under the suzerainty of Parthian king Mithridates II
Mithridates II of Parthia
Mithridates II the Great was king of Parthian Empire from 123 to 88 BC. His name invokes the protection of Mithra. He adopted the title Epiphanes, "god manifest" and introduced new designs on his extensive coinage....
(reigned 123-88 BC) with which they allied themselves. They used the Parthian-Roman conflict to their advantage and grabbed much of the Indus Basin and thus the eastern regions from the Indo-Parthians
Indo-Parthian Kingdom
The Gondopharid dynasty, and other so-called Indo-Parthian rulers, were a group of ancient kings from present day eastern Afghanistan and Pakistan who ruled India, during or slightly before the 1st century AD...
and established a short-lived empire under king Maues
Maues
Maues was an Indo-Scythian king who invaded the Indo-Greek territories.-Conqueror of Gandhara:...
, which existed until about 45 AD. They were probably still under Parthian sovereignty, since there are no written records which distinguish the Parthians and Sakas.
Indo-Scythians
Indo-Scythians is a term used to refer to Saka who migrated into Bactria, Sogdiana, ArachosiaArachosia
Arachosia is the Latinized form of the Greek name of an Achaemenid and Seleucid governorate in the eastern part of their respective empires, around modern-day southern Afghanistan. The Greek term "Arachosia" corresponds to the Iranian land of Harauti which was between Kandahar in Afghanistan and...
, Gandhara
Gandhara
Gandhāra , is the name of an ancient kingdom , located in northern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan. Gandhara was located mainly in the vale of Peshawar, the Potohar plateau and on the Kabul River...
, Kashmir
Kashmir
Kashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range...
, Punjab
Punjab region
The Punjab , also spelled Panjab |water]]s"), is a geographical region straddling the border between Pakistan and India which includes Punjab province in Pakistan and the states of the Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh and some northern parts of the National Capital Territory of Delhi...
, Gujarat, Maharashtra
Maharashtra
Maharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India...
and Rajasthan
Rajasthan
Rājasthān the land of Rajasthanis, , is the largest state of the Republic of India by area. It is located in the northwest of India. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert , which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with...
, from the middle of the 2nd century BCE to the 4th century CE
Common Era
Common Era ,abbreviated as CE, is an alternative designation for the calendar era originally introduced by Dionysius Exiguus in the 6th century, traditionally identified with Anno Domini .Dates before the year 1 CE are indicated by the usage of BCE, short for Before the Common Era Common Era...
.
Indian historians see the actual beginning of the Saka era from 79 AD, after the Kushans conquered the Indo-Parthians and spilled over to the east. The Sakas were once again ousted by the Kushan and forced to wander further into central India. In Rajasthan
Rajasthan
Rājasthān the land of Rajasthanis, , is the largest state of the Republic of India by area. It is located in the northwest of India. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert , which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with...
they came into the Hindu warrior caste of the Kshatriyas and were assimilated and were now feared nomadic warriors and rulers, for which Rajasthan was famous for a long time.
Under the so-called Kshatrya kings the Shaka Ujjayini ruled from parts of north west India and presented, for example, under Rudradaman I
Rudradaman I
Rudradaman I was a Saka ruler from the Western Kshatrapas dynasty. He was the grandson of the celebrated Sah king Chastana. Rudradaman I was instrumental in the decline of the Satavahana Empire.- Mahakshatrapa :...
(r. about 130-150), a competition to the Satavahana dynasty. They were initially dependent on the Kushan. The Kshatriya kingdom was apparently after 397 conquered by king Chandragupta II
Chandragupta II
Chandragupta II the Great, very often referred to as Vikramaditya or Chandragupta Vikramaditya in Sanskrit; was one of the most powerful emperors of the Gupta empire in northern India. His rule spanned c...
(reigned 375-413/15).
Some South-Asian Saka includes the Abhira, Nagbanshi, Andhra, Bala, Gurjjara.
Kingdom of Khotan
In the 3rd century AD the Saka had their own kingdom in KhotanKingdom of Khotan
The Kingdom of Khotan was an ancient Buddhist kingdom that was located on the branch of the Silk Road that ran along the southern edge of the Taklamakan Desert in the Tarim basin. -Early names:-Capital:...
.
Language
Issyk kurgan
The Issyk kurgan, in south-eastern Kazakhstan, less than 20 km east from the Talgar alluvial fan, near Issyk, is a burial mound discovered in 1969. It has a height of six meters and a circumference of sixty meters. It is dated to the 4th or 3rd century BC . A notable item is a silver cup...
, a short fragment on a silver cup found in the Issyk kurgan.
The inscription is in a variant of the Kharoṣṭhī script, and is probably in a Saka dialect, constituting one of very few autochthonous epigraphic traces of that language. Harmatta (1999) identifies the language as Khotanese Saka
Saka language
Saka or Sakan is a Middle Iranian language attested from the medieval Buddhist kingdoms of Khotan and Tumxuk in what in now Xinjiang, China. Both dialects share features with modern Wakhi and Pashto. Many Prakrit terms were borrowed from Khotanese into the Tocharian languages.Khotanese is attested...
, tentatively translating "The vessel should hold wine of grapes, added cooked food, so much, to the mortal, then added cooked fresh butter on".
What is nowadays called the Saka language
Saka language
Saka or Sakan is a Middle Iranian language attested from the medieval Buddhist kingdoms of Khotan and Tumxuk in what in now Xinjiang, China. Both dialects share features with modern Wakhi and Pashto. Many Prakrit terms were borrowed from Khotanese into the Tocharian languages.Khotanese is attested...
is the language of the kingdom of Khotan
Kingdom of Khotan
The Kingdom of Khotan was an ancient Buddhist kingdom that was located on the branch of the Silk Road that ran along the southern edge of the Taklamakan Desert in the Tarim basin. -Early names:-Capital:...
which was ruled by the Saka. This was gradually conquered and acculturated by the Turkic expansion to Central Asia beginning in the 4th century. The only known remnants of the Khotanese Saka language come from Xinjiang
Xinjiang
Xinjiang is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. It is the largest Chinese administrative division and spans over 1.6 million km2...
, China, but the language there is widely divergent from the rest of Iranian and accordingly is called eastern or northeastern Iranian. It also is divided into two divergent dialects.