Caspian Sea

The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. It has a surface area of 371,000 square kilometers (143,244 sq mi) and a volume of 78,200 cubic kilometers (18,761 cu mi). It is an endorheic body of water (has no outflows), and lies between the southern areas of the Russian Federation and northern Iran. It has a maximum depth of about 1025 meters (3,363 ft). It is called a sea because when the Romans first arrived there, they tasted the water and found it to be salty. It has a salinity of approximately 1.2%, about a third the salinity of most seawater.

Jat clan

• Kashyap
• Kaswan

Origin of name

It is named after the ancient Caspians. According to Dr. Kephart the Caspian Sea derives its name from the one group of Dahae (Dahiya Jats) known as Caspi. According to B S Dhillon, The name of this Central Asian sea, Caspian Sea, is derived from a Massagetae ("great" Getae or Jats) tribe called Caspii that lived on its western shores. According to General Sir Sykes , once this sea was also called sea of Gillan. The Gill clan, is probably the largest among the Jat Sikhs. In Punjabi, the word "Gillan" is the plural form of the word "Gill" "Gillan de Munde" means "Boys of the Gills".

Discoveries in the Huto cave near the town of Behshahr, Mazandaran south of the Caspian in Iran, suggest human habitation of the area as early as 75,000 years ago.[1]

In classical antiquity among Greeks and Persians it was called the Hyrcanian Ocean. In Persian antiquity, as well as in modern Iran, it is known as the Khazar Sea (Persian خزر) or Mazandaran (Persian مازندران) Lake. In Turkic speaking countries it is known as the Khazar Sea. Old Russian sources call it the Khvalyn (Khvalynian) Sea after the Khvalis (Khyalia Jat clan), inhabitants of Khwarezmia. Ancient Arabic sources refer to Bahr-e-Qazvin — the Caspian/Qazvin Sea.

The word Caspian is derived from the name of the Caspi (Persian کاسی), an ancient people that lived to the west of the sea in Transcaucasia. Strabo wrote that "to the country of the Albanians belongs also the territory called Caspiane, which was named after the Caspian tribe (Kaswan, Kashyap Jat clans), as was also the sea; but the tribe has now disappeared". Moreover, the Caspian Gate, which is the name of a region in Tehran province of Iran, is another possible piece of evidence that they migrated to the south of the sea.

Hyrcania (Virk Jat clan), was an ancient kingdom located in the territories of present day Golestan (Gulia Jat clan), Mazandaran, Gilan (Gill Jat clan) and part of Turkmenistan, lands south of the Caspian Sea. The name "Hyrcania" is the name attested in Greek historiographic accounts. This Greek name is a calque of Old Persian Verkâna, as it is recorded in Darius the Great's Behistun Inscription, as well as in other inscriptions in Old Persian cuneiform. Verkā means "wolf" in Old Persian (New Persian gorg) and consequently, "Hyrcania" means the "Land of the Wolves".

For the Greeks, the Caspian Sea was the "Hyrcanian Sea". In medieval times, the same body of water was the "Mazandaran Sea".

Virk is one of the most important Jat clan whici is associated with "Hyrcania". It is mentioned by Panini and V.S. Agrawal has identified Virk with the Jats. The same identification has been mentioned by Buddha Prakash. Mahabhasya mentions Vrika and its derivative Varkenya, the Varkan of the Persians, and Hyrcan of the Greeks. The Caspian sea was once called the Sea of Vrkans (Hyrcanian). The identification of Hyrcan with Varkan has also been mentioned by Rawlinson in his History of Herodotus, he mentions that even in the thirteenth century, their country in Central Asian was mentioned as Urkanich in Yakut. According to Herodotus they fought in the battle of Thermopylae under their leader named Megapanus, who was afterwards Satrap of Babylonia.

References

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