Xanthii

Xanthii is a variant of Jat in Central Asia.

Variants of Xanthii

• Iatii
• Xandii
• Xanthii
• Xuthi
• Zanthii
• Zatale
• Zothale
• Zuthi

History

Hukum Singh Panwar (Pauria) writes - From classical historians and geographers of the first century BC as well as from those of first century A.D. have come down to us variants like Xanthii or Zanthii or Xandii⁷⁹ Iatii or Iatii⁸⁰, used for the people living on the banks of the Oxus between Bactria,

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The Jats:Their Origin, Antiquity and Migrations: End of page 344

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Hyrkania and Khorasmia⁸¹. Xuthi or Zuthi ⁸² for those who occupied Karamanian desert and Drangiana ⁸³, One scholar⁸⁴ suggests that those people gave their name as Zatale or Zothale to the irrigation channel from the Margus river. All these terms are said⁸⁵ to be variants of the term Jat with their "parental house on the Oxus" and their original seat or colony in Sindh as well as "on the Margus (Zotale or Zothale) river". This reference definitely indicates that the Jats were spread over the region bounded by Indus in the east and the Oxus in the West in Central Asia. This learned scholar seems perplexed in deciding the original habitat of the Jats in spite of the fact that earlier scholars like Pliny, Diodorus Siculus and Megasthenese had claimed that contemporary Indians were indigenous.

Pliny⁸⁶ found the Indians living in the Indus Valley from the past. Diodorus Siculus⁸⁷ asserted that the contemporary Indians were evidently indigenous and Megasthenese⁸⁸ , who was in fact more familiar with northern India of the fourth and third centuries B.C. than any other of his contemporaries, wrote about the people, inhabiting north-western India, that "none was alien and all of them were India's indigenous citizens". These impartial statements of the classical writers amply expose the fallacy of the assertions of those who assign foreign origin to the Jats. It is a pity that in spite of the corroborative evidence, the Indian origin of the Jats was disputed and repudiated in favour of the Central Asian origin, simply because this theory was propounded by European scholars led by giants like Cunningham and Tod. These theories were readily accepted by their Indian adherents without making any reason or rhyme, simply because of the prestige£ that European scholars commanded.

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79. Strabo. Geog., XL, 8-2 & 3. Westphal and Westphal, op.cit., pp. 87-88.

80. Pliny, His. Nat., VI, 18. Ptolemy, Geog., VI, 12,14.

81. ASR, Vol., II, (1863-64), p. 55.

82. Ibid. Westphal and Westphal, op.cit., pp. 87-88.

83. Ibid.

84. Ibid.

85. Ibid.

86. Majumdar, R.C; op.cit., p. 340.

87. Ibid., p. 235.

88. Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historiea, II, 220.

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Sir Alexander Cunningham, Former Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India, considered the Jat people to be the Xanthii (a Scythian tribe) of Scythian stock who he considered very likely called the Zaths (Jats) of early Arab writers. He stated "their name is found in Northern India from the beginning of the Christian era." These people were considered by early Arab writers to have descended from Meds and Zaths. Sir Cunningham believes they "were in full possession of the valley of the Indus towards the end of the seventh century. Sir Alexander Cunningham held that the Rajputs belonged to the original Scythian stock, and the Jats to a late wave of immigrants from the north west, of Scythian race.

References

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