Shaukreya

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Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (Retd.)

Shaukreya (शौक्रेय) was an ancient republic of Ayudhjivi Sangha known to Panini.

Variants of name

Origin

  • Shukra (शुक्र) in Mahabharata (I.59.35), (I.65),(I.60.40), (1.66),(II.48.24),(XIV.8.29), (XIV.8),

Mention by Panini

Shaukreya (शौक्रेय), a warlike tribe, is mentioned by Panini in Ashtadhyayi. [1]

Shaukreyi (शौक्रेयी) is mentioned by Panini in Ashtadhyayi. [2]

History

V. S. Agrawala[3] mentions Sanghas known to Panini which includes - Shaukreya (शौक्रेय), under Yaudheyadi (यौधेयादि) (IV.1.178).

V. S. Agrawala[4] mentions Ayudhjivi Sanghas in the Ganapatha under Yaudheyadi group, repeated twice in the Panini's Ashtadhyayi (IV.1.178) and (V.3.117) which includes - Śaukreya (शौक्रेय). Probably the Scythian tribe Sakarauloi, mentioned as Saruka, along with Pasionoi (Prāchīnī) in the Puṇyaśālā Inscription at Mathura

H. W. Bellew[5] hast quoted Strabo who says....:"Most of the Scythians, beginning from the Hyrkanian Sea, are called Dahai Skuthai, and those more to the east Massagetai and Sakai; the rest have the common appellation of Skythians, but each separate tribe has its peculiar name. The best known tribes are those who deprived the Greeks of Baktriana, the Arioi, Pasianoi, Tokharoi, and Sakarauloi, who came from the country beyond the Jaxartes, opposite the Sakai and Sogdianoi, and which country was also occupied by Sakai. Some tribes of the Dahai are surnamed Aparnoi, some Xanthioi, others Pissuroi. The Aparnoi approach nearest to Hyrkania and the Caspian Sea ; the others extend as far as the country opposite to Aria."

H. W. Bellew[6] writes that ....The Sakarauli may be represented by the Shah Katori of the Upper Kunar valley and Chitral, or Kashkar. Formerly both the Toghiani and the Katori overspread the entire Indus valley from the mountains to the sea ; and their descendants, though for the most part lost to sight in the general Musalman population, are still traceable by their clans scattered here and there in different parts of this extensive tract, from the Hazarah, or Chach, and Rawalpindi districts in the north, to the Sind and Guzrat provinces in the south.

H. W. Bellew[7] writes quoting Strabo as one of those Skythian tribes who deprived the Greeks of Baktriana. Speaking of the Skythians, Strabo says (Geog. xi. 8):...." The best known tribes are those who deprived the Greeks of Baktriana, the Arioi, Pasianoi, Tokharoi and Sakarauloi, who came from the country beyond the Jaxartes, opposite the Sakai and Sogdianoi, and which country was also occupied by Sakai."

H. W. Bellew[8] writes that The Sakarauloi are by some supposed to be represented by the modern Sarikoli, but a preferable identification is obtained by reading Sakatauroi instead of Sakarauloi ; we should then have on the east of Baktria the great and powerful Kataur or Kator nation, which established contemporary branch dynasties at Kabul and in Kashmir, and which is at this day represented in Afghanistan by the Shah-Kator princes of Chitral and Kashkar.

Jat History

Hukum Singh Panwar (Pauria)[9] while discussing Migration of tribes from Indian to north western countries, writes quoting [p.311]:Herodotus[10] who describes five tribes of the Sakas, viz. Auchate, Catiari, Traspes, Paralate and Royal Scythians. Nearly three centuries after Herodotus, Strabo[11]gives the name of yet another group of the Scythians as Sacaraucae or Sakarokoi or Sacarauli.

As we have already noted, they were all Nordics. Their earliest branches were, as described by Kephart[12], Suevis (Sioux) Kimmerians, Getae, Massagetae and Sacae, who gave their name to and lived for a long time in Jete or Gete or Jit in the South of lake Balkhas (Bal + Khasa). We are firmly of the view that they were none else but the exiled people of Sapta Sindhu after their defeat by Diodasa and Sudasa. They are respectively identified as Sivas or Sivis or Sibis, Chumuris or later Chamak or Kinnra Jats or later Goths or Gots, Maha Jats, & Sakas. The formed their confederacy when they fought against the Bharatas. It appears that some of them retained their original names when they departed, otherwise all of them were Jats. These very names are still traceable among the Jats.

[p.312]:Similarly to Wessendonk[13] and Tarn[14], the Sacaraucae of Strabo and the Sakahaumavarka of the Nakshi-i-Rustam inscription of Darius, were one and the same, Pompei Trogi[15] and Justin[16] consider the Sacaraucae and the Asiani as the Royal Scythians for they headed the Tokhari (Tusar, Tukhar Jats) confederation as the latter's Kings, Richard Frye[17], Herzfeld[18] and Tarn[19] assert that the Haumavarga (the hauma revering ones), one of the three sections of the Sakas, enumerated in the Achaemepian inscriptions, were also called

[p.313]:Amyrgiol or Amyrgian[20]. We gather from the above that Paralatai, Sacaraucai or Sacarauli, Asiani, Sakahaumavarka and Amyrgian, were different names of the same people. Further identifications reveal that the Sakahaumavarka were the Virkas[21] and the Sakatigarkhauda were obviously the Yueh Chih or Kushanas or Rsikas[22] (Rathikas or Rathis) or the Rig Vedic Visanins who are identified with Saka Tigarkhauda by us in preceding pages.

In Mahabharata

  • Shukra (शुक्र) is mentioned in Mahabharata (I.59.35), (I.65),(I.60.40), (1.66),(II.48.24),(XIV.8.29), (XIV.8).

External links

References

  1. ↑ V. S. Agrawala: India as Known to Panini, 1953, p.450
  2. ↑ V. S. Agrawala: India as Known to Panini, 1953, p. 89
  3. ↑ V. S. Agrawala: India as Known to Panini, 1953, p.500
  4. ↑ V. S. Agrawala: India as Known to Panini, 1953, p.449
  5. ↑ An Inquiry Into the Ethnography of Afghanistan, p.36
  6. ↑ An Inquiry Into the Ethnography of Afghanistan, p.37
  7. ↑ An Inquiry Into the Ethnography of Afghanistan, p.142
  8. ↑ An Inquiry Into the Ethnography of Afghanistan, p.142
  9. ↑ The Jats:Their Origin, Antiquity and Migrations/The identification of the Jats,p.311-313
  10. ↑ CAH, Vol. III,p.193. Lister,op.cit., p.51. ASRI, Vol.I, p. 31. Dushanbe Report, Vol.II, p. 179.
  11. ↑ CHI, Vo.I, p.459. Geographika, XI. 8.2. Kephart, op.cit., pp.232, 250f.
  12. ↑ CHI, Vo.I, p.459. Geographika, XI. 8.2. Kephart, op.cit., pp.232, 250f.
  13. ↑ Q. by Budha Prakash, op.cit., p.102
  14. ↑ Q. by S. Chattopadhyaya, op.cit., p.15.
  15. ↑ Q. by Gankovsky, op.cit., p.8l.
  16. ↑ Ibid.
  17. ↑ Chattopadhyaya, S; op.cit., p.3. ASRI, No. 34, ppA-6.
  18. ↑ Greeks in Bactria and Ind., p.29l.
  19. ↑ Greeks in Bactria and Ind., p.29l.
  20. ↑ Herodotus, Eng. Trans. Rawlinson, IV, 16-29.
  21. ↑ Buddha Prakash, op.cit., pp. 100f. See also Sukumar Sen, Old Persian Inscriptions, pp. 48f, fn. 92. KP. Jayaswal, JBORS, Vol. XVI, p. 258. Shafer, op.cit., pp. 76-149. Aggarwal, op.cit., pp. 443, 467. A. Stein, 'On the Ephadraa Homa and Soma Plant'. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 1931, pp. 501-14.
  22. ↑ Buddha Prakash,op.cit., pp. 98ff. Cf. alsoJ. Ph. Vogel, Excavations at Mathura, ASI, 1911-12, p.126.

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