[2]. Manu says: “But in consequence of the omission of the sacred rites, and of their not consulting Brāhmanas, the following tribes of Kshatriyas have gradually sunk in the world to the condition of Sūdras: viz. the Paundrakas, the Kodas, the Dravidas, the Kāmbogas, the Yavanas, the Sākas, the Pāradas, the Pahlavas, the Kīnas, the Kirātas, and the Daradas” (Laws, x. 43-44, trans. G. Bühler, Sacred Books of the East, xxv. 412).
It is a great mistake to suppose the Bactrian Greeks are these Yavanas, who are descended from Yavan, fifth son of Yayati, third son of the patriarchal Nahustha, though the Ionians may be of this race. The Sakas are the Sakae, the races of Central Asia (the Sakha Rajput); the Pahlavas, the ancient Persians, or Guebres; the Chinas, the inhabitants of China; and the Chasas, inhabitants of the great snowy mountains (koh), whence Kohchasa (the Casia montes of Ptolemy), corrupted to Caucasus [?].
[3]. The illustrious Cuvier questions the existence of an ancient central kingdom, because “ni Moïse, ni Homère, ne nous parlait d’un grand empire dans la Haute-Asie” (Discours sur les révolutions de la surface du globe, p. 206). Who, then, were “the sons of Togarmah” (mentioned by Ezekiel [xxvii. 14]) who conquered and long held Egypt? [Togarmah was N. Assyria (Hastings, Dict. Bible, iv. 789 f.).]
[4]. [Bharata, from whom the Kauravas and Pāndavas, more especially the latter, were called Bhāratas, was a prince of the Puru branch of the Lunar race, son of Dushyanta and Sakuntala.]
[5]. The Kaba race is almost extinct; it was famed, even in the days of Krishna, as the savage inhabitants of Saurashtra. When the forester Bhil, who mortally wounded Krishna, was expressing his contrition for the unintentional act, he was forgiven, with the remark that it was only retributive justice, as “in a former birth,” as the godlike Rama, Krishna had slain him. Thus Rama appears as the subjugator and civilizer of these indigenous tribes, of whom the Kabas are described as plundering Krishna’s family after his decease. [The Kābas, now extinct, were regarded as savage inhabitants of Saurāshtra in the Krishna tradition, and are said to be the ancestors of the modern Vāghers (BG, viii. 271, 587).]
[6]. Whence the Hindu names of towns at the estuaries of the Gambia and Senegal Rivers, the Tambaconda and other kondas, already mentioned?
[7]. Mr. Marsden, at an early period of his researches into Hindu literature, shares the merit of discovering with Sir W. Jones that the Malayan language, disseminated throughout the Archipelago, and extending from Madagascar to Easter Island, a space of 200 degs. of longitude, is indebted to the Sanskrit for a considerable number of its terms, and that the intercourse which effected this was many centuries previous to their conversion to the Muhammadan religion. He is inclined to think that the point of communication was from Gujarat. The legends of these islanders also abound with allusions to the Mahabharata and Ramayana. (See Asiatic Researches, vol. iv. p. 226, second edition.) [EB, xvii. 475 ff.
[8]. The cosmography of the Agni Purana divides the world then known to the Hindus into seven dwipas, or continents: one of these is “Sakadvipa, whose inhabitants, descended from Bhavya, are termed Sakeswara (i.e. Sakae-lords).” His (Bhavya’s) offspring or descendants were Jalad, Sukamara, Manivaka, Kusumada, Mandaki, Mahadruma, each of whom gave his name to a khand, or division (qu. Sukmarkhand?). The chief ranges of mountains were Jaldas, Raivat, Syama, Indak, Amki, Rim, and Kesari. “There were seven grand rivers, namely, Mag, Magad, Arvarna, etc. The inhabitants worship the sun.”
Slight as this information is, we must believe that this Sakadvipa or Sakatai is the Scythia of the Ancients; and the Sakeswara (the Sakas of Manu), the Sakae so well known to western history, the progenitors of the Parthians, whose first (adi) king was Arsaka. The sun-worship indicates the adorer of Mithras, the Mitra or Surya of the Hindu; the Arvarna recalls the Araxes applied to the Jaxartes; while Jalad, the proper name of the son of the first king of Sakadvipa, appears to be the Yulduz of the Tatar historian Abulghazi, who uses the same term as does the Hindu, to designate a range of mountains. Whence this identity between Puranic and Tatar cosmography? [These speculations possess no value.]
“A chief of the twice-born tribe (i.e. Brahmans) was brought by Vishnu’s eagle from Sakadvipa, and thus have Sakadvipa Brahmans become known in Jambudwipa” (India). Mr. Colebrooke on Indian Classes, Asiatic Researches, vol. v. p. 53. And Manu says that it was only on their ceasing to sanction Brahmans residing amongst them, that the inhabitants of these remote western regions became ‘Mlechchha,’ or barbarians: testimonies which must be held conclusive of perfect intercourse and reciprocity of sentiment between the nations of Central Asia and India at periods the most remote.