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CHAPTER VIII. SCYTHIAN RULE IN
NORTHERN INDIA.
SECTION I.
THE SAKAS.
In the second and first centuries B.C., Greek rule in parts of Kāfiristān, Gandhāra and possibly the Hazāra country, was supplanted by that of the Sakas. In the days of Darius, the Achaemenid king of Persia (B. C. 522-486), the Sakas lived beyond Sogdiana (para-Sugdam) in "the vast plains of the Syr Darya, of which the modern capital is the town of Turkestan."1 But already towards the end of the first century B.C. they were established at Sigal in modern Sistān.? The story of their migration from central Asia has been recorded by Chinese historians. The History of the First Han Dynasty (Ts’ien Han-Shu) states “formerly when the Hiung-nū conquered the Ta-Yiie-tehi the latter emigrated to the west, and subjugated the Tabia ;3 whereupon the Sai-wang went to the south, and ruled over Kipin.” Sten Konow points out that the Sai-wang are the same people which are known in Indian tradition under the designation Saka-murunda, 5 Murunda being a later form of a Saka word which has the same meaning as Chinese "wang," i.e., king, master, lord. In
1 E. Herzfeld, MASI, 34, 3. 2 Schoff, Isidore, Stathmoi Parthikoi, 17. 3 c. 174-160 B.C. according to some scholars.
4 JRAS.. 1903, p 22 ; 1932, 958; Modern Review, April, 1921, p. 464. The Śaka occupation of Ki-pin must be posterior to the reign of Eukratides and his immediate (Greek) successors.
5 Professor Hermann identifies the Sai-wang with the Sakarauloi or Sakaraukoi of Strabo and other classical authors. Corpus, II. 1. Xxf., For Murunda, see pp. xx.
