INDOSCY´THIA
INDOSCY´THIA (
Ἰνδοσκυθία: Eth.
Ἰνδοσκύθης), a district of wide extent along the Indus, which probably comprehended the whole tract watered by the Lower Indus,
Cutch, Guzerat, and
Saurashiran. It derived its name from the Scythian tribes, who gradually pressed onwards to the south and the sea-coast after they had overthrown the Graeco-Bactrian empire, about A.D. 136.
It is first mentioned in the Periplus M. E. (p. 22) as occupying the banks of the Indus; while in Ptolemy is a fuller description, with the names of some of its principal subdivisions, as Pattalene, Abiria, and Syrastrene (
Saurashtran), with an extensive list of towns which belonged to it (7.1. § § 55--61). Some of them, as Binagara (properly Minnagara), have been recognised as partially Scythic in form. (Lassen,
Pentap. p. 56; cf. Isidor. Char. p. 9.) In Dionysius Periegetes (5.1088) the same people are described as
νότιοι Σκύθαι. As late as the middle of the sixth century A.D.. Cosmas Indicopleustes speaks of White Huns, or Mongolians, as the inhabitants of the
Pansjáb (ii. p. 338).
These may be considered as the remains of the same Scythic empire, the predecessors of the hordes who subsequently poured down from the north under Jinghíz Khan. (Ritter,
Erdkunde, vol. i. p. 558.)
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