Indian Antiquary Vol 33

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 19

JANUARY, 1904.)
NOTES ON THE INDO-SCYTHIANS.
15
Wijën, Persian Bījēn; but such a reconstruction would not account for the Greek and Latin forms; it might be admissible, if we located the kingdom of Mesdeos in Iran, but it is inexplicable when India is concerned. The compiler of the Acts knew too much about India to give to an Indian prince the name of a secondary hero of the Iranian epic. The remembrance of this personage, Bezhan, son of Gēv, son of Gudarz, may no doubt have had some influence on the Syriac and Armenian forms of the original name, bat the Greek and Latin ones exclude the identity of the two names.
Comparison of all the forms leads us back to an original ouzan, or rather gouzan; in fact, the transformation of the syllable vi inio gu, which had been definitely settled by the time of the Sassanians, was in [40] progress a little after the Christian era and facilitated the substitution of one syllable for the other. On the borders of India and of Iran, the pronunciation at the same period was unstable, and thus oscillated between initial 2 and gu. The name of Gondophares affords a conclusive example of this; while the Takht-i-Bahi inscription and the Indian legends of the coins have Guduphara, Gudapharna, Gondophara, the Greek legends hesitate between three transcriptions: Gondapharou, Tuduphrrn and Undopherrou. Thus it seems that at the time the forms Undopherres and Guduphara were officially equivalent. We may, therefore, suppose Ouzanes and Gusana to be also equivalent. Gasuana is the official form of the name of the Kushanas in two inscriptions, dated one in the reign of Kanishka, to the other in the year 122.17 The second of these inscriptions, « century later than Kanishka, is only separated by an interval of twenty-four years from the last ascertained date for Vāsudēva-Bazdeo. It mentions & maharaya Gushana, but without specifying whether this indicates the dynastic or personal name of the king in question. The mahārāja Gushana, who came so soon after the Kushaņa Vasudēva, was perhaps identical with the royal prince Ouzanes, son of Masdeos. 18
[41] If Goudophares and Vasudeva were really contemporaries of St. Thomas, they both reigned about the middle of the first century of the Christian era.10 With regard to Gondophares, this hypothesis agrees with other data (see P. Gardner, The Coins of the Greek and Scythic Kings of Bactria and India, 1886, Introd.). In the Greek legends on coins, Gondophares takes the title autokrator, as did the Roman emperors beginning with Augustus. The coins of the Parthian kings, natural intermediaries between the Roman world and India, shew us plainly, when this title passed from the west to the east. Omitting the uncertain Sanotrokes, we find that Phraates IV., who reigned 8 to 11 A. D., was the only one who took the title autokrator. It is also from the time of Phraates IV. that we find the square omega substituted for the round one in the Greek legends ; the coins of Gondophares shew the change had been made in India by his time. Finally, Cunningham, relying upon the identity of names, considers Abdagases, nephew of Gondophares, [42] to be the grandson of the Parthian Abdagases, who was the ruling spirit at the court of Tiridates, in 36 A. D. ; consequently he places the reign of Gondophares between 30 and 60 A. D.20
16 The Manikyāla inseription has: gushuna-va fa-samvardhaka. Cf. Senart, Notes d'épigraphie indienne, VI., in J. A., Jan.-June, 1896, 5-26.
19 Panjtar insoription, published by Canningham, Archeological Survey, V. 61.
18 Ja view of future identifications, it may be useful to place together hare the names of the other Indian personages mentioned in the legend of St. Thomas. The general of Mesdeos is called in Greek Siphör, Supbor, Sąmphoros; in Latin, Sapor, Siporus, Sitorus; in Syriac, Sifør; in Armenian, Siphor. The chief of the servants of Mes deos is Charisios (Gk.), Carisius (Lat.), Karish (Syr.); he has for wife Mygdonia, whose nurse is Markia (Narohia, Narka). The queen, wife of Mesdeos, is Tertia or Tertianē; Treptia (Lat.), Tartabania (Ethiop.). The prince Ouzanes (named Maiturnos in Ethiop.) is married to Asinara (Sisar., Mnõsara); Managhar (Syr.); Marna (Ethiop.). - See algo Indian Antiquary, 1903, pp. 7 and 158, where more preciso lists are given. The texts hardly seem to justify the desoription (chef des serviteurs) applied to Charisios.-W.R.P.]
19 The Christians of St. Thomas date the martyrdom of the apostle 21 December, 68 A.D.
20 [Cunningham in 1854, in the paper referred to on p. 10 above, thought it "highly probable that tho " Indo-Parthian Abdegases was the same as the Parthian chief whoso revolt is recorded by Tacitus (Annal. XV.2)
At tbe place named, Tacitas makes no mention of Abdagases or of the rovolt. There is nothing elsewhere in Taoitus to lead us to conneot his Abdugases with India and Gondophares (see Annals, bk, 6(A, D, 32-37), ch. 35, 36, 43 and 44). As to Josephus, there are only twenty books in the Antiquities of the Jews. Abdagases is only named in bk. 18, oh., seo. 4, and there merely incidentally as one of the generals of Artabanus III. He is not mentioned in connexion with any revolt.-Subsequently, 1890, Cunningham thonght
ponsible that the AbdAcases of the coins was the grandson of the Abdagases of Tacitus, not tho same individual (see Coins of the Indo-Scythians, London, 1890, p. 17). The reason of the change from graudfather to grandson is not apparent.-W. R. P.]