Essay name: Scythian Elements in early Indian Art
Author:
Swati Ray
Affiliation: University of Calcutta / Department of Ancient Indian History and Culture
This essay studies Scythian Elements in early Indian Art鈥攁 topic that has not garnered extensive scholarly attention. Although much research has focused on various aspects of Saka/Scythian culture, such as politics and numismatics, their contribution to Indian art remains underexplored. This essay delves into archaeological evidence, historical texts, and art forms from Eurasian steppes to decipher the Scythian impact.
Chapter 2 - Scythia鈥攊ts geographical location
11 (of 14)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
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The classical sources knew about the conquest of the Graeco-Bactrian
kingdom by nomadic tribes around 130 B.C. These nomadic tribes were
referred to as peoples who came from beyond the Jaxartes (now the Syr Darya).
Strabo mentions four tribes: the Asioi, the Pasianoi, the Tokharoi and the
Sakarauloi. Pompeius Trogus notes briefly that the Asiani, kings of the
Tochari laid waste the Sacaraucae. 2 The 艢akas were driven out from the Greco-
Bactrian kingdom by the Yueh-chih (as mentioned in Shih-chi of Szu-ma
Ch'ien, the Han-shu, the Hou Han-shu and the Pei-shih). Thereafter the 艢akas
established a series of kingdoms in eastern Iran and north-western India as
known from archaeological data, Graeco-Roman literary works and occasional
references in Sanskrit texts. In the first century A.D. along with the Parthians
or Pahlavas they ruled a territory stretching from the Seistan to the north-
western India.
It is interesting to note that Herodotus's references to the Scythians and
modern archaeological finds suggest trade in gold from Siberia and silk from
China through the routes in Central Asia. When the Greeks began to rule in
Bactria it was already a potential trading zone.鲁 It was at the meeting point of
various trade routes and these routes were important in long distance trade in
Gegeographikon, XI. 8, 2.
Prologus XLI of the Historiae Philippicae.
F. Holt, Alexander the Great and Bactria: The Formation of a Greek Frontier in Central
Asia, Leiden, 1988, p. 32.
