DAHAE
![](dahae.jpg)
Dahae
Location
: Present-day west and northwest Turkmenistan, far southwest
Kazakhstan and far west Uzbekistan (most of the Ustyurt Plateau)
Branches : Parni, Xanthii and Pissuri
The
Dahae, also known as the Daae, Dahas or Dahaeans (Latin: Dahae;
Persian: Dahan; Ancient Greek: Dáoi, Dáai, Dai, Dasai;
Sanskrit: Das; Chinese: Dayi) were an Iranian people of ancient
Central Asia. A confederation of three tribes – the Parni,
Xanthii and Pissuri – the Dahae lived in an area now comprising
much of modern Turkmenistan. The area has consequently been known
as Dahestan, Dahistan and Dihistan.
Relatively
little is known about their way of life. For example, according
to the Iranologist A. D. H. Bivar, the capital of "the ancient
Dahae (if indeed they possessed one) is quite unknown."
The
Dahae dissolved, apparently, some time before the beginning of the
1st millennium. One of the three tribes of the Dahae confederation,
the Parni, emigrated to Parthia (present-day north-eastern Iran),
where they founded the Arsacid dynasty (The Parthian Empire (247
BC – 224 AD), also known as the Arsacid Empire).
Origins
:
The Dahae may be connected to the Dasas (Sanskrit : Das), mentioned
in ancient Hindu texts such as the Rigved as enemies of the Arya.
The proper noun Das appears to share the same root as the Sanskrit
dasyu, meaning "hostile people" or "demons"
(as well as the Avestan dax´iiu and Old Persian dahyu or dahayu,
meaning "province" or "mass of people"). Because
of these pejorative implications, a tribe called the Dahi –
mentioned in Avestan sources (Yašt 13.144) as adhering to Zoroastrianism
– is not generally identified with the Dahae. Conversely the
Khotanese word daha- meaning "man" or "male"
was linked to the Dahae by the Indologist Sten Konow (1912). This
appears to be cognate with nouns in other Eastern Iranian languages,
such as a Persian word for "servant", dah and the Sogdian
d'yh or d'y, meaning "slave woman".
Some
scholars also maintain that there were etymological links between
the Dahae and Dacians (Dacii), a people of ancient Eastern Europe.
Both were nomadic Indo-European peoples who shared variant names
such as Daoi. David Gordon White, an Indologist and historian of
religion, has reiterated a point made by previous scholars –
that the names of both peoples resemble the Proto-Indo-European
root: *dhau meaning "strangle" and/or a euphemism for
"wolf". (Similarly, the Massagetae, the northern neighbors
of the Dahae, have been linked to the Getae, a people related to
the Dacians.)
The
country neighbouring the Dahae to the south, Verkana – often
known by its Greek name, Hyrcania – has sometimes been conflated
with Dahistan. Like Dahae and Dacia, Verkâna appears to have
a root in an Indo-European word for "wolf", the Proto-Iranian:
*vrka. The name of Sadrakart (later Zadracart), the capital of Verkâna,
apparently has the same etymological roots, and may be synonymous
with one of two modern cities in Iran: Sari or Gorgan. (The modern
name Gorgan is also derived ultimately from the Proto-Iranian *vrka
for "wolf" and is cognate with the New Persian gorgan
(i.e. v > g).
History
:
Berossus's biography of Cyrus the Great (c. 589–530 BCE) claims
that he was killed by the Dahae near the Syr Darya (Jaxartes) river
(modern Uzbekistan / Kazakhstan). Later sources, such as Alexander
the Great and Strabo also claimed that some of the Dahae were located
near the Jaxartes. The Encyclopedia Iranica considers that the Dahae
"were said to have lived in ... wastes northeast of Bactria
and east of Sogdiana. At least some of the Dahae must thus be placed
along the eastern fringes of the Karakum desert, near ancient Margiana..."
This suggests that elements of the Dahae were near neighbours of
a now-obscure Bronze Age civilisation known to archaeologists as
the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC).
It
is possible that the Dahae were confused in secondary accounts with
a contemporaneous, possibly related people from Balkh (Bactria),
who were known in ancient China as Daxia (also Ta-Hsia, or Ta-Hia).
Whereas the Dahae were known in Chinese sources as Dayi. Later historical
accounts place the Dahae entirely on the south-eastern shores of
the Caspian Sea.
The
first reliable mention of the Dahae is considered to be the Daev
inscription by Xerxes the Great of Persia (reigned 486–465
BCE). In a list in Old Persian of the peoples and provinces of the
Achaemenid Empire, the Daev identifies the Daha as neighboring the
Saka.
It
is unclear whether the Dahae are also the *Daha or *Dånha
(only attested in the feminine Dahi) mentioned by the Avestani Yasht
(13.144), which may date from the 5th century BCE. Moreover, any
etymological relationship would not be proof that both names refer
to exactly the same people.
Dahae
and Saka tribes are known to have fought at the Battle of Gaugamela
(331 BCE), in which the armies of the Achaemenid Empire were defeated
by Alexander the Great. After the Achaemenid dynasty collapsed the
following year, Alexander recruited Dahae – famed as mounted
archers – for the Greek invasion of India.
Some
"Saka" coins from the Seleucid era (312–63 BCE)
are sometimes attributed to the Dahae. By the 3rd century BCE, the
Parni Dahae had risen to prominence under a chief named Ashk (c.
250 – c. 211 BCE; Persian: Arshak; Latin Arsaces). The Parni
invaded Parthia, which had just previously declared independence
from the Seleucids, deposed the reigning monarch, and Ashk crowned
himself king (Arsaces I in classical sources). His successors are
often referred to as the Arsacids; they would eventually assert
military control over the entire Iranian plateau. By then, the Parni
would be indistinguishable from the Parthians, and would also be
called by that name.
During
the 1st Century BCE, the Dahae were reported to have sent envoys
to China. According to the Chinese historian Yu Taishan, a contemporary
Chinese account (the Shijii) mentions separate envoys from Huanqian
(Khwarezm), Dayi (the Dahae) and Suxie (Soghdia), among others.
In
the 1st century BCE, Strabo (Geographika 11.8.1) also refers to
the Dahae as a "Scythian" people, who were located in
the vicinity of present-day Turkmenistan. However, while the terms
Scythians and Saka are usually regarded as synonymous, that is not
always the case with Strabo.
Source
:
https://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Dahae