Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c13.s2.11

c13.s2.11

It stretched eastwards as far as the Indus and had its capital at Massaga, a “formidable fortress probably situated not very far to the north of the Malakand Pass but not yet precisely identified.” The name of the Assakenians probably represents the Sanskrit Aśvaka ‘land of horses,’ not Aśmaka, ‘land of stone.’ The territory occupied by the tribe was also known in different ages as Suvāstu, Udyāna and, according to some, Oḍḍiyāna. The Aśvakas do not appear to be mentioned by Pāṇini unless we regard them as belonging to the same stock as the Aśmakas³ of the south for which there is no real ground. They are placed in the north-west by the authors of the *Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa* and the *Bṛihat Saṁhitā*. The Assakenian king had a powerful army of 20,000 cavalry, more than 30,000 infantry and 30 elephants. The reigning king at the time of Alexander's invasion is called by the Greeks Assakenos. His mother was Kleophis. Assakenos had a brother¹ who is called Eryx by Curtius and Aphrikes by Diodoros.² There is no reason to believe that these personages had any relationship with king Śarabha, whose tragic fate is described by Bāṇa and who belonged apparently to the southern realm of the Aśmakas in the valley of the Godāvarī.