The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c5.s1.t4: 3. Arachosia, or Ghazni.
The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c5.s1.t4
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3. Arachosia, or Ghazni.
c5.s1.t4.1
The Chinese pilgrim places the country of *Tsau-ku-ta* at 500 *li*, or 83 miles, to the south of *Huphina*, or Kophene, and to the north-west of *Falana*, or Banu. The valley of the *Lo-mo-in-tu* river, which is mentioned as producing assafœtida, is readily identified with the Helmand by prefixing the syllable *Ho* to the Chinese transcript. The kingdom is said to have been 7000 *li*, or 1166 miles, in circuit, which cannot be far from the truth, as it most probably included the whole of south-western Afghanistan with the exception of Kandahar, which at that time, from the story of the begging-pot of Buddha already noted, would appear to have belonged to Persia.
c5.s1.t4.2
This district possessed two capitals, called *Ho-si-na* and *Ho-sa-lo*. The first has been identified by M. de St. Martin with Ghazni, which is quite satisfactory; but his suggestion that the other may be connected with Hazára is, I think, very doubtful. Hazára is the name of a district, and not of a town; and its application to this part of the country is said by the people themselves not to be older than the time of Janghez Khan.* I would, therefore, identify it with Guzar or Guzaristan, which is the chief town on the Helmand at the present day; and with the Ozola of Ptolemy, which he places in the north-west of Arachosia, or in the very same position as Guzaristan.
c5.s1.t4.3
The name of Tsaukuta still remains to be explained. The identifications just made show that it corresponds exactly with the Arachosia of classical writers, which is the Arokhaj and Rokhaj of the Arab geographers. The latter form is also found in Arrian’s ‘Periplus of the Erythræan Sea’ as ’Ραχούσοι. It was, therefore, not unusual both before and after the time of Hwen Thsang to drop the initial syllable of the name. The original form was the Sanskrit Saraswati, which in Zend became Haraqaïti, and in Greek ’Αραχωτός, all of which agree in the last two syllables with the Chinese Tsaukuta. The first Chinese syllable Tsau must, therefore, correspond with the Ra of the other forms. This change may, perhaps, be explained by a peculiarity of the Turki language, which frequently changes the letter r into a soft z or sh, as the Turki words dengiz, “sea,” and okuz, “ox,” are the same as the Hungarian tenger and okur.† On the Indo-Scythian coins, also, we find the Turki names of Kanishka, Huvishka, and Kushána changed to Kanerke, Hoverke, and Korano in Greek. It seems possible, therefore, that the initial syllable Tsau of the Chinese transcript may be only the peculiar Turki pronunciation of the Indian Ra, which would naturally have come into use with the occupation of the country by the Turki tribe of Tochari, about the beginning of the Christian era.
c5.s1.t4.4
∗ ‘Ayin Akbari,’ ii. 163. † Prichard, ‘Physical History of Mankind,’ iv. 403.
c5.s1.t4.5
In the seventh century the king of Ghazni, who was a Buddhist, was descended from a long line of ancestors. Both the alphabet and the language of the people are said to have been different from those of other countries; and as Hwen Thsang was acquainted with both the Indian and Turki languages, I infer that the speech of the people of Ghazni was most probably Pushtu. If so, the people must have been Afghans; but, unfortunately, we have no other clue to guide us in settling this very interesting point, unless, indeed, the name of *O-po-kien*, a place to the south-east of Ghazni, may be identified with *Afghán*, a point which will be discussed hereafter.
c5.s1.t4.6
Of Guzaristân, on the Helmand, I am not able to give any further information, as that part of the country has not yet been visited by any European. Ghazni itself is too well known to require any particular description, but I may note that it must have been in a very flourishing condition in the seventh century, as Hwen Thsang estimates its circuit at 30 *li*, or 5 miles. At the present day the circuit of the walled town is not more than one mile and a quarter. Vigne calls it an irregular pentagon, with sides varying from 200 to 400 yards in length, strengthened by numerous towers. He adds,* that "the Afghans boast much of the strength of the walls and fortifications of Ghazni." But Ghazni has always been famous in the East as a place of strength and security; and for this very reason it received its name of Gaza, an old Persian term for a "treasury." It is described in some crabbed lines of the ‘Dionysiaca’ of Nonnus, who lived about A.D. 500, and also in the ‘Bassarica’ of Dionysius, who lived not later than A.D. 300. Both of them refer pointedly to its impregnability. Dionysius calls it,—
c5.s1.t4.7
∗ ‘Ghazni,’ p. 122.
c5.s1.t4.8
Ἀστύφελον δήοισι, καὶ εἰ παγχάλκεον ἦεν,
“As stern in war as if ’twas made of brass,”
c5.s1.t4.9
and Nonnus says,* “They fortified, with a net-like enclosure of interlacing works, *Gazos*, an immoveable bulwark of Ares, and never has any armed enemy breached its compact foundations.” These early notices of this famous place suggest the possibility that the *Gazaka* of Ptolemy may have been misplaced amongst the Paropamisadæ to the north of Kabul, instead of to the south of it. But as Stephanus of Byzantium, who quotes the ‘Bassarica’ of Dionysius as his authority for this Indian town, πόλις Ἰνδικὴ, takes no notice of the Indian *Gazaka*, I conclude that he must have looked upon it as a different place.
Linked texts (1)
- Sarasvatī — Sanskrit