CHAPTER VII: THE SCYTHIC INROADS, FROM ABOUT 100 B.C. TO 500 A.D.
The Scythians in Central Asia
The Greek or Bactrian expeditions into India ended more than a century before Christ; but a new set of invaders soon began to pour into India from the north. These came from Central Asia, and, for want of a more exact name, have been called the Scythians. They belonged to many tribes, and they form a connecting link between Indian and Chinese history. As the Aryan race in the west of Asia had, perhaps 3000 years before Christ, sent off branches to Europe on the one hand, and to India on the other; so the Scythians, who dwelt to the east of the old Aryan camping-ground in Asia, swarmed forth into India and to China. These Scythic inroads went on during a great period of time. Buddha himself is said by some to have been a Scythian. But they took place in very great force during the century preceding the birth of Christ. They were the forerunners of a long series of inroads which devastated Northern India more than a thousand years later, under such leaders as Changiz Khan and Timur, and which in the end founded the Mughal empire.
Scythic Kingdoms in Northern India
About the year 126 B.C., the Tartar or Scythian tribe of Su are said to have driven out the Greek dynasty from the Bactrian kingdom, on the north-west of the Himalayas. Soon afterwards the Scythians rushed through the Himalayan passes and conquered the Greco-Bactrian settlements in the Punjab. About the beginning of the Christian era, they had founded a strong monarchy in Northern India and in the countries just beyond. Their most famous king was Kanishka, who summoned the Fourth Buddhist Council about 40 A.D. King Kanishka held his court in Kashmir; but his suzerainty extended from Agra and Sind in the south, to Yarkand and Khokand on the north of the Himalayas. He seems to have carried on successful wars as far as China. Six hundred years afterwards, in 630 A.D., a town called China-pati in the Punjab was pointed out as the place where King Kanishka kept his Chinese hostages. The Scythian monarchies of Northern India came in contact with the Buddhist kingdom under the successors of Asoka in Hindustan. The Scythians themselves became Buddhists; but they made changes in that faith. The result was, as we have seen, that while the countries to the south of India had adopted the Buddhist religion as settled by Asoka’s Council in 244 B.C., the Buddhist religion as settled by Kanishka’s Council in 40 A.D. became the faith of the Scythian nations to the north of India, from Central Asia to Japan (p. 79).
Scythic Races still in India
Kanishka was the most famous of the Scythian kings in India, but there were many other Scythian settlements. Indeed, the Scythians are believed to have poured into India in such numbers as to make up a large proportion of the population in the north-western frontier Provinces at the present day. For example, two old Scythian tribes, the Getae and the Dahae, are said to have dwelt side by side in Central Asia, and perhaps advanced together into India. Some writers hold that the Jats, who form nearly one-half of the inhabitants of the Punjab, are descended from these ancient Getae; and that a great subdivision of the Jats, called the Dhe, in like manner sprang from the Dahae. Other scholars try to show that certain of the Rajput tribes are of Scythian origin. However this may be, it is clear that many Scythian inroads took place into India from the first century B.C. to the fifth century A.D.
King Vikramaditya, 57 B.C.
During that long period several Indian monarchs won fame by attempting to drive out the Scythians. The best known of these is Vikramaditya, King of Ujjain in Malwa, in honour of whose victories one of the great eras in India, or systems of reckoning historical dates, is supposed to have been founded. It is called the Samvat era, and begins in 57 B.C. Its reputed founder is still known as Vikramaditya Sakari, or Vikramaditya the enemy of the Scythians. According to the Indian tradition, he was a learned as well as a valiant monarch, and he gathered round him the poets and philosophers of his time. The chief of these were called ‘The Nine Jewels’ of the court of Vikramaditya. They became so famous, that in after times a great many of the best Sanskrit poems or dramas, and works of philosophy or science, were ascribed to them; although the style and contents of the works prove that they must have been written at widely different periods. The truth is that the name Vikramaditya is merely a royal title, meaning ‘A very Sun in Prowess,’ which has been borne by several kings in Indian history. But the Vikramaditya of the first century before Christ was the most famous of them—famous alike as a defender of his country against the Scythian hordes, as a patron of men of learning, and as a good ruler of his subjects.
King Salivahana, 78 A.D.
About a hundred years later, another valiant Indian king arose against the Scythians. His name was Salivahana; and a new era, called the Saka or Scythian, was founded in his honour in 78 A.D. These two eras—the Samvat, beginning in 57 B.C., and the Saka, commencing in 78 A.D.—still form two well-known systems of reckoning historical dates in India.
Later Opponents of the Scythians
During the next five centuries, three great Indian dynasties maintained the struggle against the Scythians. The Sah kings reigned in the north-west of Bombay from 60 to 235 A.D. The Gupta kings reigned in Oudh and Northern India from 319 to 470 A.D., when they seem to have been overpowered by fresh hosts of Huns or Scythians. The Valabhi kings ruled over Cutch, Malwa, and the north-western districts of Bombay from 480 to after 722 A.D. The Greek traders in the Red Sea heard of the Huns as a powerful nation of Northern India about 535 A.D. The Chinese Pilgrim, Hiuen Tsiang, gives a full account of the court and people of Valabhi (630-640 A.D.). His description shows that Buddhism was the State religion; but heretics (i.e. Brahmans) abounded; and the Buddhists themselves were divided between the northern school of the Scythian dynasties, and the southern or Indian school of Asoka. The Valabhi dynasty seems to have been overthrown by the early Arab invaders of Sind in the eighth century A.D.
Materials for Reference
The leading sources for this obscure and confused period are the Reports of the Archaeological Survey of Western India; the coins and inscriptions of the Gupta, Sah, and other dynasties; Rockhill’s Life of the Buddha; the Gazetteers or District Statistical Surveys of Northern and Western India and of the Central Provinces; articles contributed to the Indian Antiquary; Colonel Tod’s not always trustworthy Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan; the magnificent volumes of the Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum; and various papers in Royal Asiatic Society’s Journal by Dr. James Fergusson and other polemical scholars.