The Gates of India: Being an Historical Narrative — John Shaqi
The Gates of India: Being an Historical NarrativeHoldich, Thomas Hungerford, Sir
History
The Gates of India: Being an Historical Narrative
Holdich, Thomas Hungerford, Sir
Afghanistan -- Description and travel; Balochistan (Pakistan) -- Description and travel
These are Seistan
tribes. The Sagartoi were nomads of Seistan, mentioned both amongst
tribes paying tribute and those who were exempt. The Zarangai were the
inhabitants of Drangia (Seistan), where their ancient capital fills
one of the most remarkable of all historic sites. The Zarangai are
said to be recognizable in the Afghan Durani. No Afghan Durani would
admit this. He claims a very different origin (as will be explained),
and in the absence of authoritative history it is never wise to set
aside the traditions of a people about themselves, especially of a
people so advanced as the Duranis. More probable is it that the
ancient geographical appellation Zarangai covers the historic Kaiani
of Seistan supposed to be the same as the Kakaya of Sanscrit.
The Uxoi may be the modern Hots of Makran--a people who are
traditionally reckoned amongst the most ancient of the mixed
population which has drifted into the Makran ethnographic cul-de-sac,
and who were certainly there in Alexander's time. In eastern Makran,
Herodotus mentions only the Parikanoi and the Asiatic Ethiopian.
Parikan is the Persian plural form of the Sanscrit Parva-ka, which
means "mountaineer." This bears exactly the same meaning as the word
Kohistani, or Barohi, and is not a tribal appellation at all, although
the latter may possibly have developed into the Brahui, the well-known
name of a very important Dravidian people of Southern Baluchistan
(highlanders all of them) who are akin to the Dravidian races of
Southern India. The Asiatic Ethiopian presents a more difficult
problem. During the winter of 1905 careful inquiries were made in
Makran for any evidence to support the suggestion that a tribe of
Kushite origin still existed in that country. It is of interest in
connection with the question whether the earliest immigrants into
Mesopotamia (these people who, according to Accadian tradition,
brought with them from the South the science of civilization) were a
Semitic race or Kushites. It is impossible to ignore the existence of
Kushite races in the east as well as the south. We have not only the
authority of the earliest Greek writings, but Biblical records also
are in support of the fact, and modern interest only centres in the
question what has become of them. Bellew suggests that it was after
the various Kush or Kach, or Kaj tribes that certain districts in
Baluchistan are called Kach Gandava or Kach (Kaj) Makran, and that the
chief of these tribes were the Gadara, after whom the country was
called Gadrosia. This seems mere conjecture. At any rate the term
Kach, sometimes Kachchi, sometimes Katz, is invariably applied to a
flat open space, even if it is only the flat terrace above a river
intervening between the river and a hill, and is purely geographical
in its significance. But it was a matter of interest to discover
whether the Gadurs of Las Bela could be the Gadrosii, or whether they
exhibited any Ethiopian traits. The Gadurs, however, proved to be a
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