Jats the Ancient Rulers (A clan study)/Appendices/Appendix IV
Book by Bhim Singh Dahiya, IRS
First Edition 1980
Publisher: Sterling Publishers Pvt Ltd, AB/9 Safdarjang Enclave, New Delhi-110064
| The digital text of this chapter has been developed into Wiki format by Laxman Burdak |
Appendix IV
Page 343
In his well known book, Races of Mankind, Calvin Kephart mentions certain interesting facts about racial migration and origins. Some extracts from his book, touching upon the ideas contained here, are given below :
Referring to the Aryan sub-race called Nordic by him, Kephart says, "by 7700 B.C. they had crossed (the Tien) mountains and settled in the northern country subsequently known as 'Gete'. This region remained their homeland for thousands of years. It comprises the foot hills and mountainous region of western Turkistan, beyond Kashgar, from the Tien mountains to Lake Balkash the present Kirghiz province of Semiryechensk (from Semiryechie, i.e., seven rivers) and includes upper reaches of the Jaxartes river, Lake Issyk and the Chu and Ili river Basin these Gete people thus became the ancestors of the great Nordic Branch of the Aryan race" (p. 228-29).
Interestingly enough, this present land of seven rivers, which is called Gete by Kephart was also called Hefthindu, Saptasindhu in Sanskrit, by the early Mohammedan writers. N.G. Sardesai identifies the same area with the Sapta Sindhu of Rig Veda. This area contains seven rivers which all fall in the Balkas sea or lake, thus meeting the Rig Vedic condition that the seven rivers of Saptasindhu, individually float into sea.l
Kephart continues; " after about 4300 B.C., the Nordics in Gete extended northward toward the east and west ridges and overspread the vast Kirghiz steppe toward the Ural mountain and Caspian Sea .. ultimately they split into five nations, successively, the Suebi, the Kimmerii, the Getae (who retained their place name), the Massagetae, and the Sakea". (p. 232) He further says that the Suebi left about 2300 B.C., the Kimmerii left about 1700 B.C. and the Getae left about 1000 B.C. The Massagetae and the Sakae
Page 344
remained there till they spread out as the Kushan, Tokhari and white Hunas. (Here it should be noted that we have already identified the Suebi with the Sibi, present Sibia clan of the Jats, the Kimmerii, the Gimri of the Assyrian records, and the Gomer of the Bible have been identified with the Gomar and/or Ghuman clan of the Jats. The Getae is of course the common name of the people and the Massagetae, the great Jats, the royal Scythians of Herodotus were a branch of the same people. The Kusanas, Sakas, Tokhari and the white Hunas have already been identified with Jat clans of the same names.)
Kephart further says, "The Goths originally were known to the Greeks as the Getae, but often were referred to as Scythians, a geographical term " (p. 263 note 43)" Ethnically, there was no Scythian race" (p. 261). He quotes Herodotus (VI, 5-7) to say that the ancestor of the Scythians was Targitaus, some one thouusand years before the invasion of Darius or about 1600 B.C. (p. 251).
Referring to the Medians he mentions that - the Medians were a section of the Kimmeris and "they were called the Manda in early history" (p. 209). Referring to their antiquity, he mentions a tradition in Gothic history that Tanausis, king of the Getae, about 1323/1290 B.C., after defeating the Egyptians returned and conquered much of western Asia "and made it subject and tributary to Sornus, King of the Medes, who was his dear friend" (p. 275). This shows that the Manda had settled in that area earlier to that period and much earlier to 709 B.C. when they were united by their king Deiokes. "Before Herodotus time, the Medians were known also as the Arii (book VII, 26) which name later was used by one of the tribes of Massagetae in North Central Iran. According to Strabo, the ancient Greeks applied the name Ariana to the whole Iranian Plateau between Assyria and India". (p. 278).
"We know how in (529 B.C.) Cyrus the Great of Persia was killed in a disastrous war campaign against the Dahae, a division of the Massagetae, in south western Turkistan, under their queen Tomyris, and how in 512 B.C. his successor, Darius the Great, in revenge (Herodotus IV, I) conducted an expedition around the west of the Black Sea against the Gatae in western Scythia, whose king was Idanthyrus" (p. 463).
Page 345
"On the North, just east of the Caspian Sea, lived the Dahae, who had broken away from the Massagetae a tribe of the Dahae named the Caspi, mentioned by Herodotus, Pliny and Strabo, settled in eastern Transcaucasia (Azer-Baijan) gave their name to the Caspian Sea". (p. 279).
"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.
Referring to the Ephthalites, who are called white Hunas, Kephart says, "They were called the white Hunas by their enemies:
According to the Chinese, they actually were a tribe of the Yue-chi or Getes" (p. 525 quoting Encyclopaedia Britannica, XIIIth Edn. Vol. IX, p. 679-680, and Vol. XX, p. 422).
Finally some remarks about these people.
"Aeschylus, the Greek writer says that the Sakas were noted for their good laws and ware pre-eminently a righteous people" (p.263).
Strabo mentions that the Getae were most just, noble and undeceitful of all people (Geography, VII, 3, 5-9 quoted p. 487).
Herodotus' comments about the Getae has already been quoted at the proper place and there is no need to repeat them.