Paraetacene
| Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R) |
Paraetacene (Παραιτακηνή) was a district of ancient Persis which extended along the whole of its northern frontier in the direction of Media Magna, to which, indeed, it in part belonged.[1]
Variants
History
The name is first mentioned by Herodotus, who calls one of the tribes of the Medians Paraetaceni.[2] The same district comprehended what are now called the Bakhtyari mountains and tribes. The whole country was rugged and mountainous[3] and appears to have been inhabited, like the adjacent province of Cossaea, by wild and robber tribes.[4] The inhabitants were called Paraetaceni[5] or Paraetacae.[6]
It was the location of the Battle of Paraitakene in 317 BCE.
Jat clans
Origin of this name
There has been considerable discussion with regard to the origin of this name. The best determination seems to be that it is derived from a Persian word, Paruta, signifying mountain. [confer Sanskrit Parvata]. It will be observed that while Herodotus gives the Paraetceni a Median origin,[7] and Stephanus of Byzantium calls Paraetaca a Median town, Strabo gives one portion of the district so named to the Assyrian province of Apolloniatis or Sittacene.[8] There were, however, other places of the same name at considerable distances from the Median or Persian province. Thus, one is mentioned between Bactriana and Sogdiana, between the Oxus and Jaxartes,[9] and another between Drangiana and Arachosia.[10] In India, too, we find the Paryeti Montes, one of the outlying spurs of the still greater chain of the Paropamisus (or Hindu Kush).[11]
Mention by Pliny
Pliny[12] mentions....Between the Parthi and the Ariani projects the territory of the Parætaceni.16 By these nations and the river Euphrates are the Lower kingdoms of Parthia bounded; of the others we shall speak after Mesopotamia, which we shall now describe, with the exception of that angle of it and the peoples of Arabia, which have been already mentioned in a former book.17
16 There were several mountainous districts called Parætacene in the Persian empire, that being the Greek form of a Persian word signifying "mountainous."
Mention by Panini
Parvatiya sangba (पार्वतीय संघ) is mentioned by Panini in Ashtadhyayi. [13]
Parvatiyas (पार्वतीय) (meaning:Mountaineers) were ancient republic of Āyudhajīvī Sanghas known to Panini (IV.3.91) and mentioned in Mahabharata (VI.10.56),(VIII.30.79),(VIII.51.19).
See also
References
- ↑ Hausleiter, A., M. Roaf, E. Keall. "Places: 903096 (Paraetacene)". Pleiades. Retrieved 23 November 2017
- ↑ Herod., i. 101.
- ↑ Strabo, ii. p. 80, xi. p. 522, xv. p. 723; Plin. vi. 27. s. 31.
- ↑ Strabo, xvi. p. 744.
- ↑ Herod., i. 101; Strab., xv. p. 732
- ↑ Strab. xv. p. 736; Arrian, iii. 19
- ↑ Herod., i. 101.
- ↑ Strab., xvi. p. 736.
- ↑ Arrian, iv. 21; Curt. viii. 14. 17.
- ↑ Isid. Char. p. 8.
- ↑ Lassen, in Ersch and Grüber, Encycl. s. v. Paraetacene.
- ↑ Natural History by Pliny Book VI/Chapter 29
- ↑ V. S. Agrawala: India as Known to Panini, 1953, p.434, 436
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