Aśvaka

This article is about the people of ancient Gandhara. For the ancient region of south India, see Assaka.

Asvakas (Sanskrit: Aśvaka)^[a] were an ancient people from Gandhara in the present-day Pakistan and Afghanistan.^[3][2][4] The region in which they lived was also called Aśvaka.^[5]

Etymology

The Sanskrit term aśva, Prakrit assa and Avestan aspa means horse. The name Aśvaka/Aśvakan or Assaka is derived from the Sanskrit Aśva or Prakrit Assa and it denotes someone connected with the horses, hence a horseman, or a cavalryman.^[6][7][8] The Asvakas were especially engaged in the occupation of breeding, raising and training war horses, as also in providing expert cavalry services.^[9] The name of the Aśvakan or Assakan is believed by some scholars to have been preserved in that of the modern Pashtun, with the name Afghan being derived from Asvakan.^[3]

Ethnology

In the Major Rock Edicts of Ashoka, Asvakas are described as Gandhāras (Gandharians)^[2][4] who are recorded separately from Kambojas.^[10] Ancient Greek historians who documented the exploits of Alexander the Great refer to the Aspasioi and Assakenoi (Ἀσσακηνοί) tribes among his opponents. The historian R. C. Majumdar considers these words to be corruptions of Asvaka.^[11] It is possible that the corruption of the names occurred due to regional differences in pronunciation.^[12] Rama Shankar Tripathi thinks it possible that the Assakenoi were either allied to or a branch of the Aspasioi.^[13] The Greeks recorded the two groups as inhabiting different areas, with the Aspasioi in either the Alishang or Kunar Valley and the Assakenoi in the Swat Valley.^[12]

History

The Assakenoi fielded 2,000 cavalry, 30 elephants and 30,000 infantry^[b] against Alexander during his campaign in India, which began in 327 BCE, but they eventually had to surrender after losses at places such as Beira, Massaga and Ora. The Aspasioi chose to flee into the hills but destroyed their city of Arigaion before doing so; 40,000 of them were captured, along with 230,000 oxen.^[15] Diodorus recorded the strength of the Aśvaka opposition, noting that the women took up arms along with the men, preferring "a glorious death to a life of dishonour".^[16] Queen Cleophis was the main leader of Asvakas during their war against Alexander.

The Asvayanas have been attested to be good cattle breeders and agriculturists by classical writers. Arrian said that, during the time of Alexander, there were a large number of bullocks - 230,000 - of a size and shape superior to what the Macedonians had known, which Alexander captured from them and decided to send to Macedonia for agriculture.^[17]

References

Notes

1. Also known in various sources as Āśvakāyana, Āśvāyana, Assakenoi, Aspasioi,^[1] and Aspasii,^[2] as well as several other Prakrit, Latin and Greek variants.
2. The statistics for the Assakenoi forces that fought Alexander vary. For example, Barbara West says there were 30,000 cavalry, 20,000 infantry and at least 30 elephants.^[14]

Citations

1. Tucci, Giuseppe (1963). "The Tombs of the Asvakayana-Assakenoi". East and West. 14 (1/2): 27–28. ISSN 0012-8376. JSTOR 29754697.
2. Brunner, Christopher Joseph (2020). "Aspasii". In Daniel, Elton (ed.). Encyclopaedia Iranica Online. Leiden: Brill. doi:10.1163/2330-4804_eiro_com_5974. ISSN 2330-4804. Adapted from Brunner, Christopher Joseph (1987). "Aspasii". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica. Vol. II/8: Aśoka IV–Āṯār al-Wozarāʾ. London and New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul. pp. 787–788. ISBN 978-0-71009-108-6.
3. Bosworth, C. Edmund (2017). The Turks in the Early Islamic World. Routledge. p. 33. ISBN 978-1-351-88087-9.
4. Tarn, William Woodthorpe (2010-06-24). The Greeks in Bactria and India. Cambridge University Press. p. 170. ISBN 978-1-108-00941-6.
5. Gupta, Parmanand (1989). Geography from Ancient Indian Coins & Seals. Concept Publishing Company. pp. 17–18. ISBN 978-8-17022-248-4.
6. Chaudhuri, Sashi Bhusan (1955). Ethnic Settlements in Ancient India: A Study on the Puranic Lists of the Peoples of Bharatavarsa. General Printers and Publishers. p. 51.
7. Lamotte, Etienne (1988). History of Indian Buddhism: From the Origins to the Saka Era. Trans. Webb-Boin, Sara. Université Catholique de Louvain. p. 100. ISBN 978-9-06831-100-6.
8. Majumdar, Ramesh Chandra; Pusalker, Achut Dattatrya; Bhavan, Bharatiya Vidya; Majumdar, A. K.; Ghose, Dilip Kumar; Dighe, Vishvanath Govind (2001). The History and Culture of the Indian People (PDF). Vol. 2. p. 45.
9. Tucci, Giuseppe (1977). "On Swāt. The Dards and Connected Problems". East and West. 27 (1/4): 9–103. ISSN 0012-8376. JSTOR 29756375.
10. Schmitt, Rüdiger (2021). "Kamboja". In Daniel, Elton (ed.). Encyclopaedia Iranica Online. Leiden: Brill. doi:10.1163/2330-4804_eiro_com_337524. ISSN 2330-4804.
11. Majumdar, Ramesh Chandra (1977) [1952]. Ancient India (Reprinted ed.). Motilal Banarsidass. p. 99. ISBN 978-8-12080-436-4.
12. Bevan, E. R. (1955). "Alexander the Great". In Rapson, Edward James (ed.). The Cambridge History of India. Vol. 1. Cambridge University Press. p. 352.
13. Tripathi, Rama Shankar (1992) [1942]. History of Ancient India (Reprinted ed.). Motilal Banarsidass. p. 119. ISBN 978-8-12080-018-2.
14. West, Barbara A. (2009). Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania. Infobase Publishing. p. 359. ISBN 978-1-43811-913-7.
15. Heckel, Waldemar (2010) [2006]. "The Conquests of Alexander the Great". In Kinzl, Konrad H. (ed.). A Companion to the Classical Greek World (Reprinted ed.). John Wiley & Sons. p. 577. ISBN 978-1-44433-412-8.
16. Dani, Ahmad Hasan; Masson, Vadim Mikhaĭlovich; Harmatta, János; Litvinovskiĭ, Boris Abramovich; Bosworth, Clifford Edmund (1999). History of Civilizations of Central Asia (PDF). UNESCO. p. 76.
17. Achaya, K. T. (2001). cf: A Historical Dictionary of Indian Food. Oxford India Paperbacks. p. 91.

Further reading

• Codrington, K. de B. (July–August 1944). "A Geographical Introduction to the History of Central Asia". The Geographical Journal. 104 (1/2): 27–40. doi:10.2307/1790027. JSTOR 1790027.
• Gupta, Kalyan Kumar Das (March–June 1972). "The Aśvakas: an Early Indian Tribe". East and West. 22 (1/2): 33–40. JSTOR 29755742.