Epigraphia Indica Vol 19

Author(s): Hirananda Shastri
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India

Page 21

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. XIX.
The designation Sakamurunda, Sai-wang is not exactly synonymous with Saka, Saka. Not all the Sakas were Sakamurundas. We now know that the Kushāpas, who followed up the Yüe-chi conquest of the Tokhara country by an invasion of India, acted as the successors of the Sakas. We also know that the home-tongue of the Kushäpas was the language which we know from numerous documents recovered in the southern oases of Chinese Turkistan, and especially in and about Khotan. I have myself called this language Khotani and thought that it was related to, but not perhaps quite identical with the tongue of the Sakas. The prevalent opinion is, however, that Khotani is simply the speech of the Sakas. In reality there is only a difference in the terms chosen to designate the language. The necessary inference from all that we know at the present moment is that Khotani is a Saka dialect or, according to most scholars, the Saka language, in other words, that the Kushanás, and consequently the Yüe-chi, were Sakas, not however exactly the same tribe as the Sai-wang. The difference was not of an ethnic nature but, if we may judge from the designation Sai-wang, it had some reference to the system of government or to the title used by the rulers of that particular tribe. The title murunda was not used in the country where we find the Saka language or dialect used in literature and adminístration. We there find other designations, rre, genitive rrundi, king, and shehau. Though rrundi later on also occurs in the form rrundi, there can be no question about identifying it with murunda, where mu evidently belongs to the base. Shehau, on the other hand, is the title which was used in the coin-legends of Kanishka and his successors, shaonano, shao Kaneshki Koshano written in Greek letters, with the same representation of a short u through o as in kozoulo for kujula. The title shaunānu shau is not met with in Eastern Turkistan. We can, however, infer that it was known from the fact that the designation of the Buddha as gyastānu gyasti, i.e., the god of gods, is evidently framed in imitation of this title. There can be no doubt that it is an adaptation of the imperial Persian title, and we have no reason for thinking that it was originally in use among the Sakas of Eastern Turkistan. We know from the Kalakacharyakathanaka that the Sakas who invaded India before Vikramaditya used a slightly different form, shahānu shahi, which is evidently borrowed from Middle Persian, and this form was adopted by the Kushaņas in their Brahmi inscriptions and also occurs in the Allahabad prasasti. Shaunānu shau is the same title; but it is not simply borrowed, but translated, the Middle Persian shahi being replaced by the indigenous word shau, formed with another suffix van from the base kshai. We must necessarily infer that the Saka chiefs of Eastern Turkistan, the ancient Yüe-chi, used this title, in addition perhaps to rre, before they introduced the imperial Persian titulature. Their rulers were accordingly called rre or shau, while the chiefs of the Sakamurundas were designated as murunda or some older form of this word.
Now if murada, muroda of the Zeda inscription is the same word as murunda, it would be of interest if we could settle the question about its exact meaning. An etymological explanation of the word, which is perhaps possible, has been given by Professor Hermann Jacobsohn." He thinks that it is formed from the same base as the Greek words (epi)meletes, meletör, meledōnos, caretaker, supervisor, and is about synonymous with kshatrapa. If such be the case, it becomes probable that the title kshatrapa used by the Saka rulers in India is merely a translation of the old term, so that the Sakamurundas of the Allahabad prasasti are the Western Kshatrapas.3
The meaning care-taker, office-bearer and ruler seems to suit the context in the Zeda inscription. Murodasa, i.e., probably murondasa, is followed by a word which was read mardukasa
Cf. Ostasiatische Zeitschrift VIII, pp. 220 ff.
3 Arier und Ugrofinnen, Göttingen, 1922, pp. 1061, 200.
1s it conceivable that the title meridar khes, which is used in Greek inscriptions of the Selenold age and sphere and in Egypt, is an adaptation of the Iranian title based on a popular etymology of the word? Of, about this title Dr. F. W.. Thomas, Festschrift Windischp, 362 ff.