Indo-Scythian Kingdom

Nomadic Saka horsemen from the Central Asian steppe pushed south in the second and first centuries BCE and carved out a series of kingdoms in what is now Afghanistan, Pakistan and north-western India. Known to historians as the Indo-Scythians, and shown on our maps as the Saka Kingdom, they displaced the last Greek kings of the region, patronised Buddhism, and left governors whose descendants ruled parts of western India until the end of the fourth century CE.

The movement began far to the east. Chinese chronicles record that the Xiongnu drove the Yuezhi out of their homeland near Dunhuang around 175 BCE, and that the Yuezhi in turn pushed the Saka, called the Sai in Chinese, off their pastures in the Ili valley. Some Saka moved into Ferghana and Sogdiana, then on towards Bactria and Parthia. Between 138 and 124 BCE Saka groups and their Massagetae allies fought the Parthians and killed two of their kings. Many settled in Drangiana, a region that came to be called Sakastan, the land of the Saka, and later Sistan.

The first Saka king known in the subcontinent was Maues, who reigned around 85–60 BCE. Rock inscriptions left by Saka soldiers along the upper Indus suggest he crossed the Karakoram to seize Taxila from the Indo-Greek ruler Apollodotus II. His realm broke up after his death and Greek kings briefly recovered, but around 55 BCE Azes I defeated Hippostratos and secured Saka control of the north-west. Saka governors also took the Mathura region in the Ganges plain, perhaps around 60 BCE, and another branch ruled Surastrene, today's Gujarat.

The Saka adopted the Persian title of satrap for their provincial rulers. At Mathura the satrap Rajuvula is said to have ended the rule of Strato II, the last Indo-Greek king, around 10 CE. Saka coins kept the Indo-Greek pattern, with Greek lettering on one face and Kharoshthi on the other, but replaced the royal portrait with the king on horseback or seated cross-legged. Coinage from Rajuvula's later years is debased, with less silver, which may point to economic strain.

Several Saka rulers made Buddhist gifts. Rajuvula's queen donated a relic of the Buddha recorded on the Mathura lion capital, and coins of Azes were found inside the Bimaran casket, which carries one of the earliest images of the Buddha. Gandharan reliefs show Saka soldiers in tunics, trousers and pointed caps, sometimes as worshippers at stupas.

Around the turn of the era, though the dating is disputed, the Indo-Parthian king Gondophares took over much of the Saka north-west, leaving local Saka chiefs as his subordinates. The Kushans then expanded from Bactria, retaking the north-west around 75 CE and Mathura by about 100. Saka satraps such as Kharapallana now governed as Kushan vassals.

In Gujarat and Malwa, Saka rulers known as the Western Satraps lasted far longer. Rudradaman I won victories over the Satavahanas, recorded in the Junagadh rock inscription, although an earlier Satavahana king, Gautamiputra Satakarni, had dealt Saka power a heavy defeat. The line ended when the Gupta ruler Chandragupta II defeated Rudrasimha III, in 395 CE according to the standard dating. Indian epics and law books remember the Shakas as warlike outsiders from the north-west.

Our maps draw the Saka Kingdom in -1, 100, 200 and 300; by the later years this mainly reflects the Western Satraps in western India. It sits beside the Indo-Parthian kingdom, the Kushan Empire and the Parthian Empire, with the Satavahana dynasty to the south; its end came at the hands of Chandragupta II of the Gupta Empire. Its steppe roots lie with the Scythians and the Yuezhi.