Oxycanus

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Oxycanus or Oxykanuswas a city mentioned by Arrian[1], the historian of Alexander the Great.

Origin of name

Identification

Oskana appears to be the Oxykanus of Arrian and Curtius. [2]

History

Alexander Cunningham[3] writes.... Abhijan is a Sanskrit term for " fame," and is not improbably connected with Hwen Thsang's Pi-chen-po-pu-lo, which, by adding an initial syllable o, might be read as Abhjanwapura. I think it probable that Alor may be the Binagara of Ptolemy, as it is placed on the Indus to the eastward of Oskana, which appears to be the Oxykanus of Arrian and Curtius. Ptolemy's name of Binagara is perhaps only a variant reading of the Chinese form, as pulo, or pura, is the same as nagara, and Pichenpo may be the full form of the initial syllable Bi.


Alexander Cunningham[4] writes about.... PraestiPortikanus, or Oxykanus. .... From the capital of Musikanus Alexander allowed his fleet of boats to continue their course down the Indus, while he himself, according to Arrian, 1


1. 'Anabasis,' vi. 16.


[p. 260]: marched against a neighbouring prince named Oxykanus, and took two of his chief cities at the first assault. Curtius makes Oxykanus the king of a people named Praesti1 and states that Alexander captured his chief city after a siege of three days. Diodorus and Strabo call the king Portikanus. Now, these various readings at once suggest the probability that the name was that of the city, which, either as Uchcha-gam, or Porta-gam, means simply the "Lofty town," in allusion to its height. The description of Curtius of the " tremendous crash" made by the fall of two towers of its citadel shows that the place must have been more than usually lofty. I would therefore identify it with the great mound of Mahorta on the bank of the Ghar river, 10 miles from Larkana. Masson describes it as "the remains of an ancient fortress, on a huge mound, named Maihota 2 . Mahorta, which is the spelling adopted by the surveyors, is probably Mahorddha, for maha+urddha+grama, or "the great lofty city," which, as pure Sanskrit, is not likely to be a modern name. This identification appears to me to be very probable, not only on account of the exact correspondence of name, but also on account of the relative positions of Alor and Mahorta with reference to the old course of the Indus. At present Mahorta is within a few miles of the river ; but in the time of Alexander, when the Indus flowed down the bed of the Nara, the nearest point of the stream was at Alor, from which Mahorta was distant 45 miles to the south of west. Hence Alexander was obliged to leave his fleet, and to march against Oxykanus


1 Vita Alex., ix. 8, 26. 2 'Travels,' i. 461.


[p. 261]: The site of Mahorta must always have been a position of great importance, both commercially and politically, as it commanded the high-road from Sindh, via, Kachh-Gandava, to Kandahar. Since its desertion, the same advantages have made Larkana, which is situated on the same small stream, 10 miles to the west of Mahorta, one of the most flourishing places in Sindh. The rivulet called the Ghar rises near Kelat, and traverses the whole length of the Mula, or Gandava Pass, below which it is now lost in the desert. But the channel is still traceable, and the stream reappears on the frontier of Sindh, and flows past Larkana and Mahorta into the Indus. Under a strong and judicious ruler, who could enforce an economical distribution of the available waters, the banks of the Ghar rivulet must formerly have been one of the most fertile districts of Sindh.

The name of Praesti given by Curtius 1 might, according to Wilson, be applied to a people occupying the thals, or " oases," of the desert. He refers to Prastha, or Prasthala, as derived from sthala, the Sanskrit form of the vernacular thal, which is the term generally used to designate any oasis in Western India. But as the name is simply Praesti, I think that it may rather be referred to prastha, which means any clear piece of level ground, and might therefore be applied to the plain country about Larkana, in contradistinction to the neighbouring hilly districts of Sehwan and Gandava. It seems possible, however, that it may be connected with the Piska of Ptolemy, which he places on the lower course of the small stream that flows past Oskana into the Indus.


1 Vita Alex., ix. 8.


[p. 262]: Now Oskana is almost certainly the Oxykanus of Arrian and Curtius, for not only are the two names absolutely identical, but the inland position of Oskana, on a small stream to the west of the Indus, agrees exactly with that of Mahorta, which I have identified with Oxykanus. I think also that Ptolemy's Badana, which lies immediately to the north of the rivulet, must be the present Gandava, as the letters B and G are constantly interchanged. In the books of the early Arab writers it is always called Kandabil.

Chapter xvi. Campaign against Oxycanus and Sambus.

Arrian[5] writes....THEN he (Alexander the Great) took the archers, Agrianians, and cavalry sailing with him, and marched against the governor of that country, whose name was Oxycanus, because he neither came himself nor did envoys come from him, to offer the surrender of himself and his land. At the very first assault he took by storm the two largest cities under the rule of Oxycanus; in the second of which that prince himself was captured. The booty he gave to his army, but the elephants he led with himself. The other cities in the same land surrendered to him as he advanced, nor did any one turn to resist him; so cowed in spirit~ had all the Indians now become at the thought of Alexander and his fortune. He then marched back against Sambus, whom he had appointed viceroy of the mountaineer Indians and who was reported to have fled, because he learned that Musicanus had been pardoned by Alexander and was ruling over his own land. For he was at war with Musicanus, But when Alexander approached the city which the country of Samb held as its metropolis, the name of which was Sindimana, the gates were thrown open to him at his approach, and the relations of Sambus reckoned up his money and went out to meet him, taking with them the elephants also. They assured him that Sambus had fled, not from any hostile feeling towards Alexander, but fearing on account of the pardon of Musicanus. He also captured another city which had revolted at this time, and slew as many of the Brahmans as had been instigators of this revolt. These men are the philosophers of the Indians, of whose philosophy, if such it may be called, I shall give an account in my book descriptive of India.

References