The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c24.136

v1.c24.136

In connexion with this Avestan passage (Vd. I, 18), moreover, in its bearing on Persian domains in Northern India, it is worth while to call attention to the Pahlavi gloss of the Middle Persian rendering of the paragraph in Sassanian times. Whatever may be the full import of this difficult gloss, the passage may be literally translated as follows: ‘The Seven Hindukān; the expression “Seven Hindukān” is due to this fact, that the over-lordship (*sar-xūtāī*) is seven; and therefore I do not say “Seven Rivers,” for that is manifest from the Avesta [passage] “From the Eastern Indus (or, India) to the Western Indus (India)”.¹ In partial support of the scholiast’s interpretation as ‘the over-lordship is seven’ it has been further pointed out that a tradition as to the dominions involved may have lingered down to Firdausī’s time, inasmuch as he mentions in one passage seven princes of India, namely the lords of Kābul, Sindh, Hindh, Sandal, Chandal, Kashmīr, and Multān; but too much stress need not be laid on the point.²