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 3 - Advent of the Sakas and the Saka-Pahlavas
5 (of 18)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
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establishment of a Saka ( Saka) kingdom in the extreme north-west (including
Swat and Darel and also the Gilgit and Chilas areas) by c. 158 B.C. At that
time (100 B.C. - 50 A.D.) the Indo-Greeks were a major power in that part of
the subcontinent. This inference is supported by Pata帽jali, who, in about the
first half of the second century B.C. indicated in his Mah膩bh膩sya (II, 4, 10),
that the Sakas lived outside Ary膩varta situated to the south of the Himavat or
the Himalayan region.
Secondly, they came from the north-west. The Y眉eh-chih occupation of
the Saka territory on the Lake Issyk-Kul might have also compelled a section of
the 艢akas to move westwards from the Lake issyk-Kul region in the direction of
the Jaxartes river or Syr Darya and beyond (as indicated by the Prologus XLI of
the Historiae Philippicae of Trogus, which refers to the Scythian invasions of
Bactra (or the Bactrians and Sogdiana between the Jaxartes and Oxus).1 The
Greeks ruled these territories or at least Bactria.
Bactrian Greeks of the post-Alexandrian period were a significant power.
The Seleucid house of the Alexandrian legacy, ended sometime between c. 246
and 237 B.C. when Diodotus, a Greek satrap of Bactria revolted and became
鹿 P. Trogus, Prologus XLI, Historiae Philippicae (quoted in Justin's Epitome).
