Euergetae

Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R)

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Euergetae is an honour given as Sujatas in Sanskrit to Good Jats or "benefactor" Jats. Etymander River flows through the territory of the Euergetae.

Variants of name

• Euergetae (Anabasis by Arrian, p. 196, 216.)
• Euergetes = Sujatas = Good Jats
• Εὐεργέτης, Euergétēs (Ancient Greek)
• Euergetis (Εὐεργέτις) (Feminine: Ancient Greek)
• Euergetism
• Euer Gatae

Jat Gotras Namesake

• Jats = Sujatas = Good Jats or "benefactor" Jats.= Euergetae (Anabasis by Arrian, p. 196, 216.) (ευ-, "good")

Origin

Euergetes, meaning "the Benefactor" (ευ-, "good", + εργετης, "doer, worker;" ), was an epithet, an honoring title, given to various benefactors. Euergetism, meaning "doing good deeds," was the ancient practice of high-status and wealthy individuals in society distributing part of their wealth to the community. Euergetes is an honour given as Sujatas in Sanskrit to Good Jats Etymander River flows through the territory of the Euergetae.

Examples

Archelaus I of Macedon supplied wood to Athens and takes the titles of proxenos and euergetes in 407/6 BC. The title was given to several Hellenistic monarchs:

• Antiochus VII Euergetes, Seleucid king, reigned 138–129 BC
• Attalus III Philometor Euergetes, king of Pergamon, reigned 138–133 BC
• Mithridates V Euergetes, king of Pontus, reigned 150–120 BC
• Nicomedes III Euergetes, king of Bithynia, reigned 127–94 BC
• Ptolemy III Euergetes, king of Egypt, reigned 246–222 BC
• Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II, king of Egypt, reigned 169–164, 144–132, 126–116 BC
• Telephos Euergetes, Indo-Greek ruler, reigned 75–70 BC
• Tiraios I Euergetes, king of Characene, ruler, reigned 95/94-90/89 BC

• Cleopatra Euergetis, queen of Egypt, reigned 142–131, 127–101 BC. The feminine form was Euergetis (Ancient Greek: Εὐεργέτις).

Greek History

Arrian writes that Alexander discovered the conspiracy of Philotas, Son of Parmenio. They were men of his confidence but Philotas and Parmenio were put to Death.....About the same time Amyntas, son of Andromenes, was brought to trial, together with his brothers Polemo, Attains, and Simmias, on the charge of being accessory to the conspiracy against Alexander....Alexander appointed two commanders over the Companion cavalry, Hephaestion, son of Amyntor, and Clitus, son of Dropidas....He now arrived in the land of the people formerly called Ariaspians, but afterwards named Euergetae, because they assisted Cyrus, son of Oambyses, in his invasion of Scythia. Alexander treated these people, whose ancestors had been serviceable to Cyrus, with honour; and when he ascertained that the men not only enjoyed a form of government unlike that of the other barbarians in that part of the world, but laid claim to justice equally with the best of the Greeks, he set them free, and gave them besides as much of the adjacent country as they asked for themselves; but they did not ask for much. The Ariaspians inhabited the south part of Drangiana on the borders of Gadrosia. The river Etymander, now known as the Hilmend, flowed through their territories.

Ch.27: Treatment of Amyntas.— The Ariaspians (p.195-196)

Arrian writes..... They also say that about the same time Amyntas, son of Andromenes, was brought to trial, together with his brothers Polemo, Attains, and Simmias, on the charge of being accessory to the conspiracy against Alexander, on account of their trust in Philotas and their intimate friendship with him. The belief in their participation in the plot was strengthened among the mass of men by the fact that when Philotas was arrested, Polemo, one of the brothers of Amyntas, fled to the enemy. But Amyntas with his other two brothers stayed to await the trial, and defended himself so vigorously among the Macedonians that he was declared innocent of the charge. As soon as he was acquitted in the assembly, he demanded that permission should be given him to go to his brother and bring him back to Alexander. To this the Macedonians acceded; so he went away and on the same day brought Polemo back. On this account he now seemed free from guilt much more than before. But soon after, as he was besieging a certain village, he was shot with an arrow and died of the wound; so that he derived no other advantage from his acquittal except that of dying with an unsullied reputation.^[1]

Alexander appointed two commanders over the Companion cavalry, Hephaestion, son of Amyntor, and Clitus, son of Dropidas, dividing the brigade of the Companions into two parts, because he did not wish any one of his friends to have the sole command of so many horsemen, especially as they were the best of all his cavalry, both in public estimation and in martial discipline.^[2] He now arrived in the land of the people formerly called Ariaspians, but afterwards named Euergetae, because they assisted Cyrus, son of Oambyses, in his invasion of Scythia.^[3] Alexander treated these people, whose ancestors had been serviceable to Cyrus, with honour; and when he ascertained that the men not only enjoyed a form of government unlike that of the other barbarians in that part of the world, but laid claim to justice equally with the best of the Greeks, he set them free, and gave them besides as much of the adjacent country as they asked for themselves; but they did not ask for much. Here he offered sacrifice to Apollo, and arrested Demetrius, one of his confidential body-guards, on suspicion of having been implicated with Philotas in the conspiracy. Ptolemy, son of Lagus, was appointed to the post vacated by Demetrius.

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1. For the trial of Amyntas, cf. Curtius, vii. 2-6.

2. Alexander also formed a separate cohort of the men who were pronounced sympathisers with Parmenio, and this cohort afterwards greatly distinguished itself. See Diodorus, xvii. 80; Curtius, vii. 10; Justin, xii. 5.

3. The Ariaspians inhabited the south part of Drangiana on the borders of Gadrosia. The river Etymander, now known as the Hilmend, flowed through their territories. Cf. Curtius, vii. 11; Diodorus, xvii. 81.

^p.195-196

Ch.6: Spitamenes driven into the Desert (p.214-216)

Arrian writes.... But Aristobulus says the greater part of this army was destroyed by an ambuscade, the Scythians having hidden themselves in a park and fallen upon the Macedonians from their place of concealment, when Pharnuches was in the very act of retiring from the command in favour of the Macedonians who had been sent with him, on the ground of his not being skilled in military affairs, and of his having been sent by Alexander rather to win the favour of the barbarians than to take the supreme command in battles. He also alleged that the Macedonian officers present were the king's Companions. But Andromachus, Menedemus, and Caranus declined to accept the chief command, partly because it did not seem right to make any alteration on their own responsibility contrary to Alexander's instructions to them, and partly because in the very crisis of danger, they were unwilling, if they met with any defeat, not only individually to take a share of the blame, but also collectively to exercise the command unsuccessfully. In this confusion and disorder the barbarians fell upon them, and cut them all off, so that not more than forty horsemen and 300 foot preserved their lives.^[1] When the report of this reached Alexander, he was chagrined at the loss of his soldiers, and resolved to march with all speed against Spitamenes and his barbarian adherents. He therefore took half of the Companion cavalry, all the shield-bearing guards, the archers, the Agrianians, and the lightest men of the phalanx, and went towards Maracanda, where he ascertained Spitamenes had returned and was again besieging the men in the citadel. Having travelled 1,500 stades in three days, at the approach of dawn on the fourth day he came near the city;^[2] but when Spitamenes was informed of Alexander's approach, he did not remain, but abandoned the city and fled. Alexander pursued him closely; and coming to the place where the battle was fought, he buried his soldiers as well as the circumstances permitted, and then followed the fugitives as far as the desert. Returning thence, he laid the land waste, and slew the barbarians who had fled for refuge into the fortified places, because they were reported to have taken part in the attack upon the Macedonians.^[3] He traversed the whole country which the river Polytimetus waters in its course; but the country beyond the place where the water of this river disappears is desert; for though it has abundance of water, it disappears into the sand.^[4] Other large and perennial rivers in that region disappear in a similar way:—the Epardus, which flows through the land of the Mardians; the Areius, after which the country of the Areians is named; and the Etymander, which flows through the territory of the Euergetae.^[5] All of these are rivers of such a size that none of them is smaller than the Thessalian river Peneius, which flows through Tempē and discharges itself into the sea. The Polytimetus is much too large to be compared with the river Peneius.[6]

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1. Curtius (Tii. 32) says that Spitamenes laid an ambush for the Maeedoniana, and slew 300 cavalry and 2,000 infantry.

2. About 170 miles.

3. Curtius (vii. 40) says that Alexander founded six cities in Bactria and Sogdiana. Justin (xii. 5) says there were twelve.

4. This is a mistake; for it ends in a lake Dengiz near Karakoul.

5. The Areius is now called Heri-rud. The Etymander is the modern Hilmend. Nothing is known of the Epardus.

6. The Peneius is now called Salambria. It forces its way through the Tale of Tempe, between mounts Olympus and Ossa, into the sea. Cf. Ovid (Met., i. 568-576).

p.214-216

Jat History

Bhim Singh Dahiya writes....The 'Maan kingdom' on the Lake Urumiya, as well as the earlier Venwal kingdom on the Lake Ven, were later merged in the seventh century B.C. in the kingdom of Manda clan, under Huvakshatra (Cyaxeres of the Greeks). This empire of the Mandas was superseded by Cyrus the Great and at that time, many Jats, who refused to accept the change of government, went into various directions. Many of them came to India and some of them spread into Europe where they were called Gots or Goths. Those who remained there and accepted the change of dynasty by expressing their loyalty to Darius, were called Euer Gatae, meaning the "benefactor" Jats, obviously benefactors to the Persians and not to the Jats' cause.

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Bhim Singh Dahiya writes...."Before Strabo's time, a number of small tribes had split from the Massagetae, such as the Dahae, the Chorasmii and others (Strabo geography, XI, 8, 1-8) the Dahae from around the Caspian Sea who had also invaded Parthia, joined the Medians and soon formed the Parthian nation of Northerly Iran" (p. 264). Their language was called Pahlavi and "the Pahlavi dialect of the Nordics of Parthia was unintelligible to the Persians" (p. 348).

It is well known that certain sections of the Jats Sided With Darius the Great. They were called Euergetae, i.e., benefactor Jats. We have mentioned that they were so-called because they were beneficial to the cause of Darius which was against the cause of the Jats. Kephart translates the word Euergetae as anti-Getae after referring to certain tribes who helped Alexander against the Massagetae (p. 529). These Euergetae are mentioned by Arrian (III,27,4) Dioderus (XVII, 81) and Curtius (VII, 3, 17).

This change in meaning is significant. Earlier they were benefactor Jats but during the time of Alexander they were Anti-Jats". This makes two things clear; one, that these people were never treated as friends or even Jats after Darius, and two, this also indicates that the adversaries of Alexander the Great in Central Asia were Jats whereas his helpers were anti-Jats.

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Hukum Singh Panwar (Pauria) writes ....The Jats are described as Sujatas, the sons of Bharata, the foremost of the hundred sons of Talajanghha of the Haihayas in the Puranas (Vishnu, IV, 1I, 17). We know it for sure that those Jats, who helped Cyrus and Darius, the Iranian Emperors⁷² and Alexander the Great⁷³ in their central Asian conquests as well as the Muslim invader, Mohammad bin Qasim⁷⁴ in his conquest of Sindh, were appellated in Greek and Latin as "euergetae or good Jats" and those, who opposed them, were notoriously called with the opprobrious sobriquet of enemies, robbers, especially as Jat-i-badzaat (of evil race). The unknown can often be best explained by the known. Similarly, the Jats, (Haihaya-Scythians) who came to the help of the Yadavas in their ordeals, were called Su-Jatas, a name which gives two meanings i.e. "good-Jats" because 'Su' in Sanskrit⁷⁵ means "good or noble" and also "Saka-Jata", for "Su" in archaic Chinese language⁷⁶ was also used to denote the Sakas. Since the grateful Yadavas commonly addressed them as Sujatas, they were described likewise in various Puranas ⁷⁷. However, notwithstanding their fabrication in the Yadava genealogy, it may vividly be understood that they were not at all the descendents of the latter, and the exponents of the theory misused them not only as a sheet-anchor but also as a powerful lever to raise it. It is extremely interesting to note that this reference to the Jats as Sujatas is the first and the last in the Puranas ⁷⁸.

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72. Kephart. Calvin, op.cit. p. 529.

73. Ibid,

74. Elliot and Dowson, Vol. 1. pp. 131-211.

75.Monier-Wliliams, op.cit., p. 1223.

76. Cunningham. ASRI, Vol. II, 1883-84, pp. 48f.

77. Wilson Vishnu Pur., pp. 335f.

78. The Puranas generally omit the name and use Dasa or Dasyu instead, which Dahyu in the Zend Avesta and Daha in Archaic Persian and Dahae in Greek whereas, Tahae in Bactrian and Dahiya in Haryanvi.

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