Indian Antiquary Vol 33

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

Page 87

MARCE, 1904.)
THE KHAROSHTRI WRITING AND ITS CRADLE.
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Chinese admitted that the name of the country was explained by the natural perverse temperament of the inhabitants."
The first term indeed of the name may be "Kara," which enters into the composition of 80 many geographical names in Turki countries. From this point of view it may be interesting to notice that according to the Sürya-garbha-sútra (Je-tsang-king; Nanjio, No. 62 ; Jap. ed. III. fasc. 3, p. 53*) the name of Khotan (Yu-t'ien) under Käsyapa Buddha, -- that is to say the most ancient known name of Khotan, Wag Kia-lo-sha-mo, where the element Kara again seems to appear. Because of its singular esbobance, I again recall the name of the Prince Royal “Kharaosta Yataraja," son of Mahachhatrava Rajula, and brother of Chhatrava Sudasa, whose name is on the famous lion-pillar of Mathurā. Is it possible that the name of this Yuvarāja is a souvenir of the crigin of this family with foreign names, which, coming into the heart of India with the Scythian conquest, was elevated to the dignity of Satraps ?
The name of the country, Kharöshtra, met with in the Chinese texts, sheds an unexpected light on a long description by Ktesias. The résumé of the Greek Doctor, incorporated in the Bibliotheca of Photius, gives a long description of the singularities of an Indian population called the Kalystrioi, which is equivalent to the Greek Kynokephaloi, otherwise the “Dog-heads." The Kalystrioi live in the mountains, in which the Hyparklios (or Hypobares) has its source. This river flows from the north to the Eastern Ocean ; its name means "the bearer of all good things" (pheron panta ta agatha). The form and the meaning recall the Suvastu of Sanskrit geography, designated by the pilgrim Higan-tsang by the name Sabhavastu (sic) which becomes the Svåt of modern geography. Buddhist tradition places the abode of the Näga A palūla, one of the most popular and important of the Nāgas, at the source of the Svāt. The Eastern Ocean, which receives the waters of the Hyparkhos, means for Ktesias nothing more definite than the seas to the east of Persia. Whether we have to do with the Svāt or another stream, the country of the Kalystrioi is to be found in the Hindu Kush, as their mountains "extend to the Indus." The Greek Kalystrioi leads directly to a (251) Sanskrit Kalashtra; from Kalushțra to Kbaroshțra the path is too simple for us to refuse to accept it, especially when one considers the route that this name must have traversed to reach Ktesias.
Greek tradition, it is true, does not take any notice of the real or supposed elements in the Sanskrit word Kharōshtra; but the Chinese interpretation on the other hand is not more literal. The generic parentage of the two glosses is evident. “Dog-heads" or "evil-natures" indicate the dig agreeable tendency to depreciate one's neighbour; the natural coarseness" which the Chinese commentators lay to the credit of the Kharõshtras to jastify their name, is a counterpart of the wild roughness of the Kalystrio of Ktesias. But there is no need to search far from the country of the Kalystrioi or Kharöshtras to meet "Dog-heads" in the classic geography of India. The astronomer Varāha-Mihira (6th century), in his description of India (Bțihat-Sanhita, xvi. 28), places the Turagananas, "Horse-faces," and the Svamukbas, "Dog-heads," in the North, in the region of the Himalayas, between Trigarta (Jalandhar) and Takshasilā (the town of Taxilēs). These two peoples are found together in a modern work, derived from an original Persian, the Romakasiddhanta (Cat. MSS. Oxon, 340", 16); after them come the Kimnara-mukhas, "Kimnara-faced," other monsters with horse-heads who are usually placed on the borders of China. Lastly, the "Dog-heads" are again mentioned in a long list of populations of Central Asia which I intend to publish shortly : there, also, they are classed near the “Forse-headed," between the people of Khotan and Nepal, that is, in the Tibotan Himalayas. The Tibetan populations have exactly the traits of the Kalystrios mentioned by Ktesias : mountaineers, hunters, eaters of meat, herdsmen, rich in sheep, above all dirty, with a dirtiness which is rendered still more striking by contrast with the regular and frequent ablutions of the Hindus. Their physiognomy, and their harsh language, bristling with monosyllables, also correspond with the description of the Kalyatrioi.
Separated by an interval of a thousand years, the Greek and the Chinese evidence by their agreement show that the name Kharðshtra was used, from the 5th century B. C., to denote the