Goths in Ancient India Author(s): Sten Konow Reviewed work(s): Source: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great

Britain and Ireland, (Apr., 1912), pp. 379-385 Published by: Cambridge University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25190030 . Accessed: 04/06/2012 13:50
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XII GOTHS IN ANCIENT INDIA

By STEN KONOW rilHE Weber oldest yona, in his instances of the use were discussed of word yavanaT the late Professor by in India.1 He main the

in India

paper on the Greeks tained that the Indians adopted this denomination of the He also remarked (j!reeks from the Persians. that the name was then later on transferred to the Indo-Scythian successors in North-Western of the Greeks India, and,

can and Arabs. There further, to the Parthians, Persians, in later times commonly that the word was be no doubt the Musalm?ns, in and sometimes used to denote also, a more with mleccha.2 On way, as synonymous general was 'a Greek'. its original meaning certainly in theAsoka in the Besnagar That is the inscriptions, column and in some of the Nasik and Karle inscription, the other hand case In the Nasik of the nineteenth epigraphs. inscription year of Siri-Pulum?yi (EI, 8. 60) we find the V?sith?puta mentioned saleas and palhavas, with yavanas together some that the word and it is just possible here denotes not exactly In the the Greeks. of Rudrad?man of the year 72, Jun?gadh inscription i.e. probably of A.D. 150;* we hear of a yavana 'king' who was governor of K?thi?v?d under (rdjan) Tus?spha, Indo-Scythian tribe and the emperor A6oka. The name Tus?spha but must be Iranian. Still he is called shows was
1"

that

in the

not restricted
Die (kriechen

second century to the Greeks.

" :

cannot be Greek, a yavana. This A.D., the name yavana

in Indien

Sitzungsberichte 1890, pp. vol. Indira, 901

ischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2 Kielhorn, Compare Epigraphia 3 vol. viii, pp. 36 ff. Ind., Epi.

der K?niglich ff.

Preuss

iv, p. 246.

380
The word

GOTHS IN ANCIENT

INDIA

which

also occur? in three Junnar yavano inscriptions to the second century.1 be assigned One of does not give any further No. 7, them, Burgess-Indraji can be meant The two indication of what by the name. must ones both mention remaining as gatas. further characterized runs :? Indraji No. 5, yavanasa " Gift The of two Irilasa cisterns gat?na by some The are who yavanas first of them, Burgess

deyadhama the yavana No.

be podhiyo. Irila of the gatas." :? saghe. yavana

second,

Burgess-Indraji

33, reads

Citasa yavanasa gat?na bhojanamatapo deyadhama " to the community of a refectory Gift by the Cita of the gatas." The occur factorily names in other Irila and Cita and and the word have

represents is certain belonging Junnar

explained. a Sanskrit that

inscriptions, Professor the

they L?ders

goto do not not been satis that which gato is as

thinks

The garla.2 two yavanas

only thing are characterized

to the gatas. a role of considerable played the

the Western it was

any the Junnar than

According Ksatrapas. of Nahap?na. capital to explaining the word objection as a name

under importance to Dr. Bhandarkar,3 then be There cannot in yavano yavana, tribes of other foreign lludrad?man tribes which

inscriptions the Greek, just as in the case in the It may denote any of those inscription. formed the following of the Ksatrapas. The name

of the yavana of No. 5 is Irila, and this word were in reality leads me to think that the gata-yavanas Goths. is the Gothic form of a well-known Irila regular name. from Germanic It is found in Runic inscriptions
1 See & Bhagwanlal Indraji, Inscriptions Burgess India, 1881, pp. 41 ft". temples of Western Bombay, 2 Listof Brahmi Epi. Ind., vol. x,appendix, Inscriptions, 3 vol. Gazetteer i, pt. ii, p. of the Bombay Presidency, from Nos. 160. the Cave

1154,1182.

GOTHS IN ANCIENT INDIA

381

in Norway, in Denmark, Kragehul By and Veblungsnes as Erila, in Sweden and Lind holm and Varnum Eirila} is essentially identical with Anglo-Saxon The word corl>, English further There contain The No. earl, Old connected are also name the base Cita also be Norse with jarl, Old Saxon name the ethnic in Germanic of erl, and eruli, languages it heruli. which is

several erla. of

names

the

gata

explained from Tjurk? old Runic inscription a name Helda. The Gothic form of The initial German h must ch have the modern

33 can

the Junnar inscription as a Gothic name. In an in Sweden this word a sound occurs would similar of be to the

Hild-. second

had

language and it is quite conceivable that an Indian century, have tried to mark would this sound by the palatal c. An Id would become the It, It, as is commonly probably case in modern vernaculars. enough Id becomes, In the latter different in the to inform me case that, at in some mouths the two has been good the present day, the English l-d. It, and in other mouths as if in letters are separated Dr. Grierson

in the Gothic

name Hilda were adopted syllables. form Cilta or Cilia, the result in a Prakrit dialect would be Cita or Citta, both of which would be written It is therefore Cita. that Cita is an attempt quite possible at reproducing the sounds of a Gothic name Hild-. Both latter Latin The which Irila word goti, oldest occur and is the the Goths. forms indigenous in the inscription of and in the the name on the in of the Goths, from gold ring words gut of a Gothic
[vol. i],

If a Gothic

Cita

are

characterized Indian form

as gatas,

and

this to

regular

corresponding

Pietroassa,2 gutaniowihailag, in the Gothic j>iudai, people,

us Norges Bugge, Soph 100 ff, 195 ff. ; Kristiania, 2 See Rudolf Die Henning, See 27 ff. 1

the

fragment
de

pp.

Indskrifter 1893 95. deutschen

med

ldre Runer,

Runendenhn?ler

; Strassburg,

1889, pp.

382
calendar contain Gothic

OOTHS IN ANCIENT

INDIA A of Wulh'hi,

The syllable. in from other Germanic differs tongues language an old u in such cases where the following retaining contains an a or an o. The Goths must accordingly syllable or or gut?s and not gotans have called themselves gutans

preserved an u and

in the Codex Ambrosianus not an o in the first

remarkable It is, however, that their ethnic name got?s.1 in so many has been adopted in forms languages foreign seem to presuppose an or got?s. which gotans original The o of Anglo-Saxon does not, Old Norse gotar, gotan, it can be explained is true, prove because anything, due to the laws prevailing in Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse The state is different, of affairs respectively. the name of however, when we turn to the forms which it as the Goths The is Pliny. Germanic assumed He in Latin and Greek. the Goths who mentions authority the five the guitones among lived on the to him, nations who, according In another shores of the Baltic xxxvii, passage, (iv, 99). a statement from made 35, he reproduces by Pytheas about a tribe which lived near the Frische Haff Marseilles, in amber. The name of the tribe has been and traded oldest classical mentions handed guiones, be read teutones. down in the manuscripts and gotones, guitones, though the in the and famous forms German guiones, probably scholar should

guitones, was of M?Uenhoff

gutans. of r?O(j)V <? Ptolemy use forms however,

into correct that we should opinion or gotones the old Gothic Guttones represent same form is the case with the Greek The (III, v,

Most classical authors, 20). an o in the first syllable. containing calls the Goths gotones Thus Tacitus ii, 62) or (Annals, forms apparently both of which 43), (Germania, gothones a Gothic The commonest forms arc gotans. reproduce the base The latter is probably Latin goti, Greek T?rtioi. of Slavonic
1 It seems

gotthi,
as if the

which
oldest

already
form was an

occurs
n-base

in the Legend
and not an a base.

of

aomS

IN ANCIENT INDIA

383

St. Konstantinos Goti and T?i6?i (lived ninth century). seem to a Gothic got?s. reproduce in such as gotans, Forms not be possible got?s would of Wulfila. the Gothic The usual classical forms must, either belong therefore, n in the name of the must have come some other Germanic rendering the galas of to other the nation Gothic had dialects become in which o, or they

through peoples indirectly be an inaccurate tribe, or they might of the Gothic word. If I am right in identifying the J?nnar will which

to the classical

with the Goths, the inscriptions suit the facts is, I think, that the only theory forms goti, TotOoi, gata have all been taken from various some Gothic dialect which with most Germanic agreed an old u to o when an a or o occurred in changing tongues in the following For the Indians have always syllable. been keen an observers o and of an u, confound gata original
themselves.

and would not easily sounds, and those who wrote the word have of heard these the gafas

in the Junnar denomination we know

can inscriptions only from the mouth

Now TJie

next

the Gepides, Goths, and the Rugians Heniles, tribes, and the Goths who the middle unmixed of the Crimea of tribe. the

to nothing about Gothic dialects. the Vandals, the Burgunds, the form a distinct group of Teutonic began to push century were to Richard southwards about not an certainly the Goths Lowe,1 in and their dialect

second

later times One of these is of interest in the present viz. the substitution connexion, of o for u before an a or o ; compare There boga, bow. is no reason for doubting that this change is old in the and we would then have a Gothic of dialect, language the To
1 Die

According were Heniles, properly some peculiar features. presents

kind

needed

in order

to explain that

the forms Latin the word

Halle,

goti, which
Ill ff.

Greek

TorOoi, sum up,

Reste

Indian

galo. it will be seen

am

gala,
1896, pp.

der Germanen

schwarzen

Meere,

384
has hitherto Latin base. to be names.

GOTHS IN ANCONI' remained that we names

INDIA

goti, and the name of the Goths The the Both two Gothic Irila was

to corresponds unexplained, exactly in which know of a Gothic dialect must Irila of have and two are contained an o in the seem Cita, moreover, well-known Teutonic and yavanas, restricted century, this to

forms and Cita not,

called

denomination the Greeks.

in the second it seems

to explain the Finally, impossible in any other way. Taken and Cito words gata, Irila, that it highly all these points make probable together, two Goths, who had found their way Irila and Cita were the service of the Western to India and entered Ksatraps. It come is more difficult We to see whence know from these Goths that can about have the to India. Ptolemy the Goths were Their had some

of the second century middle on the banks of the Vistula.

still dwelling movement southward connexion with

to have believed is generally the Markomanni the war against often stated that

they did not Irila and Cita could of the third century. the beginning come from that neighbourhood. not, in that case, well have Their home must have been the north, either the country on or Scandinavia, the Vistula, (ch. 4) tells us that the and the Herules insulo, of Southern inhabitants Diiuish isles have or the Danish Goths who are had isles. come as Jordanes ex Scandza the and

(166-80 A.D.), and it is reach the Black Sea before

mentioned

old the

Denmark, Scandinavia, The been their near kindred. certainly can hardly hail from any names Irila and Cito, however, forms of these the old northern because of these countries, It names contain an e and not an i in the first sj'llable. therefore come viz. we some from the seems the banks necessary to infer that Irila this traded and Cita connexion had country where Ptolemy In of the Vistula. locates the Goths, the

statement

adopt interest.

that the Goths of Plin}r, the reading guttonibus It might be

in xxxvii, conceived that

in amber, if is of 35, Irila and

OOTHS IN ANCIENT Cita had had left their

INDIA

385

proceeded were attracted desire as we later some Black to find times. Sea see and wealth

in amber, that home as traders to Asia, where and thence to Rome, by the fame of the riches of India. countries them and to accumulate their the home, to leave state been

they they The fame just in are

foreign

probably urged it to have been

the case with

however, Archaeologists, indications have that the Goths at a much earlier date than case

Vikings that there settled

on the assumed.

the appearance of Goths is India more easily explained. It has already been remarked that a form which seems the word to represent is in gala accordance the Goths is perhaps with of that the rules the Crimea, Irila and Cita prevailing and the most originally in the dialect of likely assumption came from that

In that

is usually in Ancient

neighbourhood.