222 SCYTHIC INROADS AND NAG A RACES.
Yue-Chi
settle-
ments,
126 B.c. (?)
Kanishka,.40 A.D. (?)
The
Horse-
Sacrifice.
whom Buddha was born. 1 During the two hundred yearsbefore the Christian era, the Scythic movements come a littlemore clearly into sight, and in the first century after Christthose movements culminate in a great Indian sovereignty.About 126 b.c. , the Tartar tribe of Su is said to haveconquered the Greek dynasty in Bactria , and the Grasco-Bactrian settlements in the Punjab were overthrown by theYue-Chi. 2
Two centuries later, we touch solid ground in the dynastywhose chief representative, Kanishka, held the Fourth Buddh-ist Council, circ. 40 a.d., and became the royal founder ofNorthern Buddhism. But long anterior to the alleged Yue-Chi settlements in the Punjab , tribes of Scythic origin hadfound their way into India , and had left traces of non-Aryanorigin upon Indian civilisation. The sovereignty of Kanishkain the first century a.d. was not an isolated effort, but theripened fruit of a series of ethnical movements.
Certain scholars believe that even before the time of Buddha there are relics of Scythic origin in the religion of India . Ithas been suggested that the Asva-medha, or Great Horse-Sacrifice, in some of its developments at any rate, was basedupon Scythic ideas. ‘ It was in effect,’ writes Mr. EdwardThomas , ‘a martial challenge, which consisted in letting thevictim who was to crown the imperial triumph at the year’send, go free to wander at will over the face of the earth; itssponsor being bound to follow its hoofs, and to conquer orconciliate ’ the chiefs through whose territories it passed.Such a prototype seems to him to shadow forth the life of theCentral Asian communities of the horseman class, ‘amongwhom a captured steed had so frequently to be traced fromcamp to camp, and surrendered or fought for at last.’ 3 Thecurious connection between the Horse-Sacrifice and the Man-Sacrifice of the pre-Buddhistic religion of India has often beennoticed. That connection has been explained from the Indian point of view, by the substitution theory of a horse for a humanvictim. But among the early shepherd tribes of Tibet , the
1 Catena of the Buddhist Scriptures from the Chinese , by S. Beal, pp.126-130. See also Herodotus , i. 103 to 106; Csoma de Ivoros, JournalAs. Soc. Beng. 1833 ; and H. H. Wilson , Ario.ua A/utiqua, p. 212, quotedby Weber, Hist. Ind. Lit. p. 285, ed. 1878.
2 De Guignes, supported by Professor Cowell on the evidence of coins.Appendix to Elphinstone’s History of India, p. 269, ed. 1866.
3 Report of Archaeological Survey of Western India , pp. 37, 38 (1876).But see, in opposition to Mr. Thomas’ view, M. Senart in the French Journ. Asiatiquc, 1875, p. 126.