Asii encyclopedia topics

Strabo’s evidence

According to Geographika of Greek historian, geographer and philosopher Strabo (63 BCE/64 BCE - c. 24 CE), Greek Bactriana was taken over by nomads like Asii/Asio, Pasianoi, Tokhario and Sakarauloi who had originally come from country from other side of Jaxartes (Central Asia) . See link:

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Gnaeus Pompeius Trogus' evidence

The prologus XLI of Historiae Philippcae of Pompeius Trogus (Gnaeus Pompeius Trogus), 1st century BCE Roman historian, also refers to the Scythian invasion of the Greek kingdom of Bactria and Sogdiana---the invaders are described as Saraucae and Asiani . The Saraucae are regarded as Sacarauli and Asiani as Asii or Asio of Strabo .

Megasthenes's & Pliny’s evidence

Based on evidence from Indika of Megasthenes (c. 350-290 BCE), Pliny (Gaius Plinius Secundus) (23-79 CE) also refers to clans like Aseni, Osii (=Asii) and Asoi in his Historia Naturalis but he locates them all in southern side of the Hindukush. Bucephala was the capital of Aseni which stood on Hydaspes (Jhelum) . Alexander had named this city after his horse Becephalus when it had died sometime in June of 326 BC after being fatally wounded at the Battle of Hydaspes with king Porus (Paurava) of Punjab. Similarly he refers to Osii and Asio as two other clans among the numerous tribes of upper Indus

The clan names Osii, Asio and Aseni obviously equate to Asii referred to by Strabo and Asiani as referred to in Historiae Philippcae by Pompeius Trogus. The Aseni, Osii, Asoi living in upper Indus valley in north-west India were none else than the Ashvayana and Ashvakayana Kambojas of the Indian texts.

Beyond Geographical ken of Classical writers

Strabo's statement that the Asii/Asio, Pasianoi, Tokhario and Sakarauloi originally came from country from other side of Jaxartes does not seem a perfect statement so far as the Asii/Asio people are concerned. Scholars like I. P’iankov have rightly observed that the territory through which the displaced nomads had passed was beyond the geographical ken of the Greek writers Thus, one can understandably see discrepancies in the geographical situations of the Asii/Asio of Strabo and Osii/Asoi/Aseni of Pliny etc. The only clear point in Strabo's statement is that the Sakas of the trans-Jaxartes region also were of the Haumavarga Saka class i.e Amyrgians of the classical writings. The important point to see here is that one should not treat each and every statement of the classical writers as if it were a gospel truth or as if it were a mathematical equation.

Asii/Asio tribe followed horse culture

Scholars believe that the term Asii/Asio is equivalent to Aswa/Asva and refers to horse as well as people connected with horse-culture . Other related names for horse-clans are Assacene, Assaceni, Assacani, Hispasii, Aspasii clans (i.e. Kambojas) of Paropamisadae. It appears that the Asii of Strabo’s Geographika, or the Asiani of Historiae Philippcae of Pompeius Trogus refers to Kambojas of Parama-Kamboja domain which was the ancientmost habitat of the Kamboja clan. The Mahabharata refers to the Lohas, Parama Kambojas and Rishikas etc as an affiliated tribes (See link:

) and places them in transoxian region in Shakadvipa of the Hindu texts which is the Scythia of the Classical writers. These Indian names have been mentioned differently by the Greek as well as in the Chinese records. Komdei or Komedes of Ptolemy and of Ammianus Marcellinus apparently translates into the region which has been called Parama Kamboja in Mahabharata . It is notable that the Indian traditions locate the Lohas, Parama Kambojas and the Rishikas exactly in the same geographical region wherein the Greek writers place the Haumavarga Sacae as well as the Komedes, Homodotes (Asii) etc and the Chinese records place the Sai, Xiuxun etc.

Since the Kambojas had always been celebrated for their horses as well as a cavalrymen, they had alternatively been known also as Asvakas, Aśvayanas, or Aśvakayanas in Indian texts. The Asii/Osii, Asoi/Asio, Asiani or Aseni appear to be other classical equivalents for the above Sanskrit nicknames by which the Parama Kambojas were also known in general parlance.

Asii/Asioi/Asiani were Parama Kambojas of Alai valley

After being displaced from Issyk-kul lake and in their movements to Bactria via Sogdiana and Fargana under pressure from Ta Yue-chis, the Issyk-kul Sakas (Sakaraulois) had been joined on the way by sections of other Scythian tribes from the intervening regions during their southerly or south-westerly movements to Bactria. In all probability, this included the transoxiana tribes like the Parama Kambojas, Lohas, Rishikas and others. The Sacarauloi appear to be Saca proper from Fargana and beyond. The Parama Kambojas appear to be Asii or Aswa (horse-people) from Alai valley and similarly, the Pasianois were another Scythian tribe from Transoxiana region . Pasianoi are identified by some scholars with Parsas and by others with Parama Rishikas of the Mahabharata and are said to be allied tribes of the Parama Kambojas .

The Rishikas are said to be same people as the Yuezhi. The Kushanas or Kanishkas are also the same people. Aurel Stein says that the Tukharas (Tokharois/Tokarais) were a branch of the Yuezhi. P. C. Bagchi holds that the Yuezhi, Tocharioi and Tushara were identical. Thus, the Rishikas, Tusharas/Tukharas (Tokharoi/Tokaroi), Kushanas and the Yuezhi were probably either a single people, or members of a confederacy. George Rawlinson observes that: "The Asii or Asiani were closely connected with the Tochari and the Sakarauli (Saracucse?) who are found connected with both the Tochari and the Asiani".

If the Rishikas were Tukharas, then the observation from Rawlinson is in line with the Mahabharata statement which closely allies the Parama Kambojas (=Asii/Asio) with the Rishikas and locates them both in the Sakadvipa.

Also, based on the syntactical construction of the Mahabharata verse 5.5.15 and verse 2.27.25 , the outstanding Sanskrit scholar Ishwa Mishra believes that the Rishikas were a section of the Kambojas i.e. Parama Kambojas. Dr V. S. Aggarwala also relates the Parama Kambojas of the Trans-Pamirs to the Rishikas of Mahabharata and locates them in Sakadvipa (or Scythia) . According to B. N. Puri, the Kambojas were a branch of the Tukharas.. Based on the above Rishika-Kamboja connections, some scholars also claim that the Kambojas were a branch of the Yuezhi themselves .

There are other references which also equate Kamboja = Tokhara. A Buddhist Sanskrit Vinaya text has the expression satam Kambojikanam kanyanam i.e. 'a hundred maidens from Kamboja'. This has been rendered in the Tibetan as Tho-gar yul-gyi bu-mo brgya and in Mongol as Togar ulus-un yagun ükin. Thus Kamboja has been rendered as Tho-gar or Togar. And name Tho-gar/Togar is Tibetan or Mongolian form of Tokhar/Tukhar .

Scholars tend to link the Rishikas or Tukharas with the Kushanas and the latter with the Ta Yue-chis themselves . If one accepts this connection, then the Tukharas or Tusharas (=> Rishikas => Kushanas = > Yue-chis) had controlled the eastern parts of Bactria country (Ta-hia) while the combined forces of the displaced Sakarauloi, 'Asio' (horse people = Parama Kambojas) and the 'Pasinoi' of Strabo etc had occupied its western parts after being dislocated from their original home in Fargana/Alai valley by the Ta-Yuechis. The Ta-hia (Daxia in Pinyin) of the Chinese records is taken to mean Tukhara/Tokhara which also is believed to have included Badakshan, Chitral, Kafirstan and Wakhan which districts had formed eastern parts of Bactria According to other scholars, it were the Scythian hordes alone (Asii/Asio, Pasianoi, and Sakarauloi) who had put an end to the Greek kingdom of Bactria .

H. W. Bailey lists several classes of the Kamboja horses and states that their haya- and javana- breed ('swift horse') implies the famous horses of the Farghana breed , thus indicating Fargana connections with Kamboja. Praja Bhata, a Kashmiri Sanskrit poet and author of the fourth Rajatarangini, while writing about history of Moghul dynasty in India, addresses emperor Babur as a Yavana king hailing from Kambhoja . Since Vabur (Babur) was native of Fargana (in Kyrgyzstan of Central Asia), this Indian reference seems to extend the Kamboja boundaries i.e the Parama Kamboja domain almost as far as to Fargana. Obviously, the Alai valley, north of Pamirs, had formed important part of Parama Kamboja.

Thus, the foregoing sufficiently proves that the territory of the Parama Kambojas lied in a region beyond Mt Hemodos or Imaos or Himalaya/Hindukush, which region the ancient Sanskrit texts like Mahabharata labels as Shakadvipa and the classical writers like Strabo and Diodorus define it as part of Scythia.

These mixed hordes of Sacarauloi (Sakas), Asii/Asio (Parama Kambojas), Pasianoi etc from Scythia ---i.e. the Scythian invaders of western Bactria, were soon over-powered by Parthian rulers and became their subjects and settled in Drangiana in Helmond valley. This settlement became known as Sakasthana (modern Seistan) after the appellation of the dominant clan i.e Sakas. Later these mixed hordes entered south-western Indian sub-continent via Bolan Pass and spread into Sindhu, Sovira, Gujarat, Rajputana, Malwa, Maharashtra, Punjab, UP and eastern, central and southern India as well.

Sai-Wang Scythian hordes in Chipin or Kipin (Kamboj)

A section of the Central Asian Scythians (under Sai-Wang) is said to have taken southerly direction and after passing through the Pamirs it entered the Chipin or Kipin after crossing the Hasuna-tu (Hanging Pass) located above the valley of Kanda in Swat country . Chipin has been identified by Dr Pelliot, Dr Bagchi, Dr Raychaudhury and some others with Kashmir while other scholars identify it with Kapisha (Kafirstan) (=in Kamboja) . The Sai-Wang had established his kingdom in Kipin. Dr S. Konow interprets the Sai-Wang as Saka Murunda of Indian literature, Murunda being equal to Wang i.e king, master or lord , but prof Bagchi who takes the word Wang in the sense of the king of the Scythians but he distinguishes the Sai Scythians from the Murunda Scythians . There are reasons to believe that Sai Scythians were also a section of Parama Kambojas or Asii/Asio/Asoi Scythians and, king Sai-Wang propbably belonged to the Scythianised Kambojas (i.e. Parama-Kambojas) of the Transoxiana region who had come to settle among his own stock after being evicted from his ancestral Asii country (=Parama Kamboja) located in Scythia or Shakadvipa. Dr B. N. Mukerjee also writes that king Moga or Maues could have belonged to this group of Sai Scythians who had migrated from the Sai (Central Asia) to Chipin . Chinese term Sai could easily be related to the Greek Asii/Asio/Asoi, linguistically. Moreover, the Mathura Lion Capital inscriptions attest that the members of the family of king Moga (q.v.) had last name Kamuia or Kamuio (q.v) which Khroshthi term has been identified by scholars with Sanskrit Kamboja or Kambojaka . Thus, Sai-Wang and his migrant hordes which came to settle in Kabol valley in Kapisha may indeed have been a section from the transoxian Parama Kambojas living in Shakadvipa or Scythian land whom we have equated to Asii/Asio of classical writings . The Kambojas are said by scholars to be a royal clan of the Scythians .