Book Title: Indian Antiquary Vol 62
Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications
View full book text
________________
JULY, 1933]
PLACES AND PEOPLES IN ASOKA'S INSCRIPTIONS
For our period, Manu is a better guide; and Manu's Code gives exactly the same situation as the Matsya, viz.:
Pâradas
Palhavas Cinas Kirâtas Daradas Khasas (X, 44).
This means that in the time of the Code (c. 150 B.C.) the Pâradas and Palhavas extended up to the Cînas (Siņas) and Daradas (Dards). Here Palhava seems to me to be a form of Valhava (Balkh), v changing to p, a change well known in Prakrit and in the area concerned. This Palhava of Manu has nothing to do with Parthia.
Monumental Evidence of Aśoka's Rule on the Oxus.
6. Yuan Chwang includes the countries by the upper Oxus as well as the Pâmîrs in Jambudvipa, just as the Purânas include them in Bharatavarsa. When Aśoka mentioned Jambudvipa, he probably referred to a division greater than Bhâratavarsa. The then AllIndia, i.e., the India up to the Oxus (his empire) was included in it: it was something like Asia.2" That Aśoka ruled up to the Oxus is proved by his stúpa which Yuan Chwang saw in the Antarâpa, or Andarâb, country: "There is one stúpa built by Aśoka-raja" (Life, p. 195).
Palhava-Sveta-Hana (White Huns)
Maru Cina (XVI, 38).
Purânic Enumeration of Oxus Countries.
7. The name Vira-maru (Matsya) was changed into Cina-maru (Vayu) owing to Chinese political influence reaching up to Persia in the first century B.C., embracing the 'desert country' (Russian Turkistân). By this maru (Cina or Vira) were meant the waste lands of Turkistan commencing above And-khui on the Oxus. This is also suggested by Varâhamihira's record:
Cola (i.e., northern 29a) - Avagana (=Apagana=
Afghan)
This maru was in Zend called Mouru, which survives in the name Merv. The Puranic enumeration seems to run from west to east. Taking the tract between the Oxus and the Paropamisus-Hindukush, the Puranic names may be equated with the modern names thus:corresponding to Maru (Cina)
Kalika ? Andhras
Valhava Pârada Saka
Khasa
Desert
Kerki
And(h)-khui Balkh
Badakhshân Shighnân-Wakhân
37
""
33
33
""
125
35
22
Pâmîrs
""
In the time of Asoka, the districts of northern Afghanistan now known as Andkhui, Mazar-i-Sharif and Khulm seem to have been under the Andhras, and Badakhshan under the Pâradas.
Name of the Country of the Paradas.
8. The correct form of the name of the country is Parada (Varada), and of that of the people, Pârada, as Valhava would be the place name, and Vâlhaveya (and Vâlhîka) the name of the people. The present-day Bâradzai, a Durrânî tribe, allied to the Yusuf-zai, seems to be their representative.
The a-Raja-Visaya of Aśoka.
9. There has been a misreading and misappreciation of a term in Rock Series XIII. In connection with these self-governing communities, the emperor, after noting the success
29 Otherwise it would be identical with Bhâretavarsa; but it seems that a term was designedly adopted to indicate a wider area. In Hindu geography Jambudvipa is made up of several vargas, including Bharatavarga. I shall show in my note on the Aparâmtas of Asoka that he employed technical terms of Hindu geography. The wider significance of the name Jambudvipa dates from a time anterior to Asoka and the name is to be found used in that wider sense in the Buddhist canon as well as in the Epics. 29a Cf. Ency. Brit. (11th ed.), XIII, 330.
