Indian Antiquary Vol 58

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 301

AFRIL, 1929)
ALEXANDER'S CAMPAIGN ON THE N.-W. FRONTIER
From the restored form Bajira : *Bayira it is not difficult to trace the gradual phonetic change into Bir or Bir. In the development of all Indo-Aryan languages, as illustrated by the transition from Sanskrit into Pråkrit and from this into the modern Indo-Aryan vernaculars, the elision of intervocalio mediæ j and y is a well-known rule, and this holds good also of the related Dandic languages 16. The subsequent reduction of the resultant diphthong ai in Baira into i ori is a phonetic change for which analogies are equally plentiful if the two language groups17. In the same way the disappearance of the final short vowel under the influence of the stress accent on the penultimate conforms to & phonetic law uniformly observed in all modern Indo-Aryan and Dardio vernacularg18. Thus we can account without any difficulty for the successive change of *Bajira (Bayira) > Baira>Bir. The addition of the designation kot, "castle, fort" (Sanskrit kotta), to the name is readily understood, the term kôt being generally applied to any fortified place throughout the North-West of India, whatever the language spoken'
In view of what has just been stated as to the probable pronunciation of the name rooorded by Arrian as Bazira, it is of special interest to note that we find the same placo montioned by Curtius under the name of Beiraso. His notice, very brief, follows upon the account of the operations which Arrian more clearly relates as having taken place in the country of the Aspasioi and Gouraioi, i.e., in Bajaur. We are told that Alexander, “having crossed the river Khoaspes, left Koinos to besiege an opulent city--the inhabitants called it Beira---while he himself went on to Mazaga." I have elsewhere indicated the reasons for believing with Marquart that by the Khoaspes the Panjkóra is meant, which Arrian more correctly calls Guraios91. Though Curtius, manifestly by error, makes the siege of Beira simultaneous with, instead of subsequent to that of Mazaga (Massaga), yet there can be no doubt, in view of the reference to Koinog, that the Beira he mentions is identical with Arrian's Bazira. His form of the name is obviously but another attempt to reproduce the indigenous designation of *Bajira or *Bayira.
Curtius tells us nothing more of the stronghold now safely located at Bir-kot. From Arrian, too, we only learn that the poople of Bazira, when they heard of the fall of Ora, “lost heart and at the dead of night abandoned the town ; [they fled to the rock). Thus the other barbarians, too, did ; leaving their towns, they all fled to the rock in that country called Aornos." Before we follow Arrian's narrative further in order to look for the probable site of Ora and then to trace the true position of that much-discussed fastness of Aornos, I may note here two observations bearing on this flight of the people of Bazira. One is that in the text of Arrian the words of which the rendering has been put above into brackets have been treated as an interpolation, rightly as it seems, by some editors. Hence the text does not necessarily imply that they, too, fled to the "rock" of Aornos. The other is that topographical considerations seem to me distinctly averse from this interpretation.
We shall see that the position of Aornos must certainly be looked for close to the Indus. Now the shortest distance from Bîr-kót to any point on the right bank of the Indus where a hill fastness corresponding in general features to Aornos could possibly be situated, is over 32 miles as the crow flies, and to the spur of Pir-sar, where I believe Aornos to be located, is fully
16 Cf. Grierson, "Paifaci, Pijacas and Modern Pisaca," in 2.D.M.G., 1912, p. 79; 'The Pisaca langu. ages of North-Western India, pp. 109 ag.
17 See Grierson, "The Phonology of the Modern Indo-Aryan Vernaculars," in Z.D.M.G., 1896, pp. 407 aq., 419.
is Cf. Grierson, Loc. cit., p. 400.
19 The term ko is quite common in local names of Hindukush valloys, like Dardland Tangir, where Dardio languages are spoken, and is used also separately in Pashtu.
30 See Historia Alexandri,' VIII. x.
31 C4. Stein, 'Serindia,' 1, p. 2, note 2; Marquart, 'Untersuchungen zur Geschichte von Bran,' 2 pp. 243 sq.