Cartana

Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R)

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Cartana was a city mentioned by Pliny. Alexander Cunningham has identified Cartana with Begram , a small town and seat in Bagram District in Parwan Province of Afghanistan.

Variants

• Cartana (Pliny.vi.25)
• Karsana or Karnasa (by Ptolemy).
• Tetragonis = Cartana (Pliny.vi.25)

Jat Gotras Namesake

• Karswan = Karsana (by Ptolemy) = Cartana (Pliny.vi.25).

Mention by Pliny

Pliny mentions The Ariani and the adjoining Nations. ....The city of Cartana⁶ lies at the foot of Caucasus; in later times it has been called Tetragonis.⁷ This region lies over against that of the Bactri, who come next, and whose chief city is Alexandria⁸, so ,from the name of its founder. We then come to the Syndraci⁹ the Dangalæ¹⁰ the Parapinæ¹¹, the Catuces, and the Mazi; and then at the foot of Caucasus, to the Cadrusi, whose town¹² was built by Alexander.

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6 Now called Birusen, according to Parisot, and not the city of Cabul, as supposed by Hardouin.

7 Or the "four-cornered city."

8 This place has not been identified. It has been suggested that it is the same as the modern city of Candahar; but that was really Alexandria of the Paropanisadæ, quite a different place.

9 Inhabiting the district now called Arassen, according to Parisot.

10 Inhabiting the modern Danra, according to Parisot.

11 Inhabitants of the modern Parasan, according to Parisot.

12 The modern Candahar is generally supposed to occupy its site.

Karsana, Kartana or Tetragonis

Alexander Cunningham mentions....The passage of Pliny describing the position of Alexandria is prefaced by a few words regarding the town of Cartana, which, while they assign it a similar position at the foot of the Caucasus, seem also to refer it to the immediate vicinity of Alexander's city. I quote the whole passage, with the correction which I

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[p.27]: have already proposed: — " Cartana oppidum sub Caucaso, quod postea Tetragonis dictum. Haec regio est ex adverse Bactriae. Opiorum (regio) deinde cujus oppidum Alexandria a conditore dictum." " At the foot of the Caucasus stands the town of Cartana, which was afterwards called Tetragonis (or the Square). This district is opposite to Bactria. Next (to it) are the Opii, whose city of Alexandria was named after its founder." Solinus makes no mention of Cartana, but Ptolemy has a town named Karsana, or Karnasa, which he places on the right bank of a nameless river that comes from the vicinity of Kapisa and Niphanda (or Opian), and joins the river of Locharna, or Lohgarh, nearly opposite Nagara. This stream I take to be the united Panjshir and Ghorband river, which joins the Lohgarh river about halfway between Kabul and Jalalabad. This identification is rendered nearly certain by the position assigned to the Lambatae, or people of Lampaka or Lamghan, who are placed to the east of the nameless river, which cannot therefore be the Kunar river, as might otherwise have been inferred from its junction with the Lohgarh river opposite Nagara.

This being the case, the Karsana of Ptolemy may at once be identified with the Cartana of Pliny ; and the few facts related by both authors may be combined to aid us in discovering its true position. According to Pliny, it was situated at the foot of the Caucasus, and not far from Alexandria ; whilst, according to Ptolemy, it was on the right bank of the Panjshir river. These data point to Begram, which is situated on the right bank of the united Panjshir and Ghorband rivers, immediately at the foot of the Kohistan

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[p.28]: hills, and within 6 miles of Opian, or Alexandria Opiane. As I know of no other place that answers all these requirements, it seems most probable that Begram must be the true locality. Parwan and Kushan are ancient places of some consequence in the neighbourhood of Opian ; but they are both on the left bank of the Ghorband river, while the first is probably the Baborana of Ptolemy, and the other his Kapisa. Begram also answers the description which Pliny gives of Cartana, as Tetragonis, or the " Square;" for Masson, in his account of the ruins, specially notices " some mounds of great magnitude, and accurately describing a square of considerable dimensions." If I am right in identifying Begram with the Kiu-lu-sa-pang of the Chinese pilgrim, the true name of the place must have been Karsana, as written by Ptolemy, and not Cartana, as noted by Pliny. The same form of the name is also found on a rare coin of Eukratides, with the legend Karisiye nagara, or " city of Karisi" which I have identified with the Kalasi of the Buddhist chronicles, as the birthplace of Raja Milindu. In another passage of the same chronicle, Milindu is said to have been born at Alasanda, or Alexandria, the capital of the Yona, or Greek country. Kalasi must therefore have been either Alexandria itself or some place close to it. The latter conclusion agrees exactly with the position of Begram, which is only a few miles to the east of Opian. Originally two distinct places, like Delhi and Shah Jahanabad, or London and Westminster, I suppose Opian and Karaana

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[p.29]: to have gradually approached each other as they increased in size, until at last they virtually became one large city. On the coins of the earlier Greek kings of Ariana, — Euthydemus, Demetrius, and Eukratides, — we find the monograms of both cities ; but after the time of Eukratides, that of Opiana disappears altogether, while that of Karsana is common to most of the later princes. The contemporary occurrence of these mint monograms proves that the two cities were existing at the same time ; while the sudden disuse of the name of Opian may serve to show that, during the latter period of Greek occupation, the city of Alexandria had been temporarily supplanted by Karsana.

The appellation of Begram means, I believe, nothing more than " the city" par excellence, as it is also applied to three other ancient sites in the immediate vicinity of great capitals, namely, Kabul, Jalalabad, and Peshawar. Masson derives the appellation from the Turki be or bi " chief," and the Hindi gram or city, — that is, the capital. But a more simple derivation would be from the Sanskrit vi, implying " certainty," " ascertainment," as in vijaya, victory, which is only an emphatic form of. jay a with the prefix vi. Vigrama would therefore mean emphatically " the city " — that is, the capital ; and Bigram would be the Hindi form of the name, just as Bijay is the spoken form of Vijaya.

The plain of Begram is bounded by the Panjshir and the Koh-daman rivers on the north and south; by the Mahighir canal on the west ; and on the east by the lands of Julgha, in the fork of the two rivers.

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[p.30]: Its length, from Bayan, on the Mahighir canal, to Julgha, is about 8 miles ; and its breadth, from Kilah Buland to Yuz Bashi, is 4 miles. Over the whole of this space vast numbers of relics have been discovered, consisting of small images, coins, seals, beads, rings, arrow-heads, fragments of pottery, and other remains, which prove that this plain was once the site of a great city. According to the traditions of the people, Begram was a Greek city, which was overwhelmed by some natural catastrophe. Masson doubts the tradition, and infers from the vast number of Kufic coins found there, that the city must have existed for some centuries after the Muhammadan invasion. I am inclined to think that Masson is right, and that the decline of the city was caused by the gradual desertion of the people, consequent on the transfer of the seat of government to Ghazni, after the conquest of the country by the Muhammadans. Coins of the last Hindu Rajas of Kabul and of the first Muhammadan kings of Ghazni are found in great numbers ; but the money of the later Ghaznavi princes is less plentiful, whilst of the succeeding Ghori dynasty only a few specimens of some of the earlier sovereigns have yet been discovered. From these plain facts, I infer that the city began gradually to decay after the Muhammadan conquest of Kabul by Sabuktugin, towards the end of the tenth century, and that it was finally deserted about the beginning of the thirteenth century. As the latter period corresponds with the date of Janghez Khan's invasion of these provinces, it is very possible, as Masson has already supposed, that Begram may have been finally destroyed by that merciless barbarian.

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