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An unknown language in an unknown script
Since 1954 a striking series of linguistic documents written in an unknown language
and in an unknown script have come to light in the territory of Central Asia of the Graeco-Bactrian and the Kushan periods. The following documents are known:
1. Surkh Kotal, three lines, written with black ink on a small fragment of stone.
2. Dasht-i Nawur, stone inscription, nine lines.
3. Khalchayan, one inscription on a potsherd, another on a tile.
4. Kara-tepe, three fragmentary inscriptions on potsherds.
5. Ay Khanum, inscription on a silver ingot.
6. Issîk (50 km to the east of Alma Ata), inscription on a silver cup.
* See Map 4.
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7. Khatîn-Rabat (in southern Tajikistan), fragmentary inscription on a potsherd.
8. Tekkuz-tepe (in southern Tajikistan), inscription on a potsherd, unpublished.
9. Old Merv, inscription (s?) on a potsherd, unpublished.
10. Fayaz-tepe (near Termez), several inscriptions on earthenware, unpublished.
11. Kafirnigan-tepe (40 km to the south of Dushanbe), fragment of a wall inscription (?), unpublished.
Consequently, the spread of this unknown script and language covers a vast territory from Alma Ata up to Merv, Dasht-i Nawur and Ay Khanum.
There have been speculations about the character and ethnic background of the
script, but only one suggestion really deserves consideration – the theory that the script
goes back to the Kharosthı alphabet and the language written in this script may be a Saka dialect, perhaps also spoken by the Kushans.
In fact, in spite of the similarity of several
letters to the characters of the Orkhon–Yenisey Türk runic script, it is clear that the
number and shape of the letters, the system of vowel matras and the presence of compound
aksaras prove without any doubt the Kharosthı origin of the alphabet. The coincidence of some
aksaras with runic characters is restricted to the cases where the Aramaic
prototypes of both the Kharosthı and the Sogdian letters (the latter serving as models for the Türk runic signs) were similar.
If we tentatively substitute the syllabic values of the Kharosthı alphabet, the resulting text has a Saka character. So one of the two inscriptions from Khalchayan,
containing only one compound aksara, can be read as lya.
This reading can be interpreted as a personal name and compared to the well-known Saka name
Liaka (cf. Khotanese Sakarya
‘young’).
| It should be presumed that J. Harmatta understands that the name Hotan is an allophone of
the term Hatyn/Hatun “Queen” in Old Türkic titulature, Hotan refers to the Hatun's
estate palace, a counterpart of the Kagan's estate palace commonly called Sarai (Saraj,
Serai) “palace”. Toponyms Hotan and Sarai, in different allophonic forms, are
scattered across Eurasia, including Hungary, they mark the sites where the Türkic nomadic migrants
had established their courts. Association of the term Hotan with Saka is quite legitimate,
the Türkic dynastic tribe Ashina was a Saka tribe, but association
of the Türkic language of the Saka with the trade Sprachbund vernacular of the Tarim Basin is pure
nonsense, not any better than associating the Norman French of the 12th century with the Germanic
Gothic of the 1st century. Such manipulations do a major disservice to the author, his science, and
the reputation of the IE linguistics. |
The reading of the other inscription from Khalchayan is more uncertain because it is
not clear whether it is to be read in the position given by the publication or upside
down.In the first case, its reading may be jha-yi-ka
(i.e. *Zayika,
a name to be compared with the Middle Iranian name Zık);
in the second, it can be read as [ja(m)–] mi(m)- pa(m) (i.e. *Zamipa,
similarly a name, representing the same type as Denipa).
Both names could be, however, equally of Saka origin.
One fragment from Kara-tepe can be read as ]´sı(m)-m´si[
and connected with Khotanese Saka ´sımja
‘the thorny jujube’ used for preparing juice in Khotan. The other fragment from Kara-tepe may be read as ]na(m)-sa(m) ks. a[, i.e. ]nasa ks. a[
‘]portion six[’ and nasa
may be the same word as Khotanese Saka nasa-
‘portion’, while ks. a[ can
be compared to Khotanese Saka ks. a,
ks. äs. ˇa ‘six’. Nor is the
fragmentary text from Khatîn Rabat longer: e 1 yo[sa ‘whole [is] 1
musk’, e
being equal to Khotanese Saka ı (one, whole), and the spelling
yo[sa representing the same word as Khotanese Saka yausa ‘musk’.
The texts of the inscriptions from Dasht-i Nawur and Surkh Kotal are rather long and reading them presents great difficulties because of their being poorly preserved.
Line 1 of the inscription of Dasht-i Nawur (DN III) can tentatively be read as follows: sa-[li]mi
pam-
ja-sa[bra]-ka-´simmi ma-ste[pamju]-sa[ha]-d.
a ‘The year [is] now 50, Braka´si [is] now the month, 15 days’. To illustrate the character of the language, we may compare the
same text in Khotanese Saka (in Brahmı orthography) with it:
Dasht-i Nawur: sail mi pamjasa braka´simmi maste pamjusa had. a Khotanese Saka:
salä mı pamjsasä bramkhaysji mı mastä pamjsusa had. a.
The similarity is obvious and if the proposed reading of the date proves to be
correct, it follows that the Southern Sakas (or the Kushans) had a knowledge of the month names used also in Khotan and of the time reckoning by cycles of sixty years or by another
era, different from the one used in the Bactrian inscription (DN I) of Dasht-i Nawur.
The text of lines 2–9 of the inscription DN III runs as follows:
1. ye rva-da-ti
ri a-[ja]-ti
vi(m)-ja-rka
ka-[tvi-sa]
[ku]-sa-na
2. mi mri pa(m)-ra-mmi-na sta-nampa(m)-ri-vam´si-da va-[ri]kamham.
3. sa gra-vamti-rma da-bha sa-di pa ka(m)-pi-sa(m) ´sa-di-ña
4. ha-mri(m)-ja kam-[d]a vam-yi-ñam kam-ju-vam´si-ks. a-´si
dha-kam.
5. jham-samka-[d]a ta-rma pa a-jamnam-vamha-mri-ka sa-na ´si-jha
6. mri-kam´si kam -[ju] -vammi-[´sta ha-ra]-[sta]ha-mi
ha-mi ha-ya-da ja-sta ha-sa
7. he-ko mri(m)-ka mi ho-kamjyompa-pam-sa vam-ta ham-mi-ga-´sa
8. mla ka-ña e-´si ham-da-[da]pam.-mri pu-[da]tam.-ka u-da[da-ri ja]-rmi[ja]-sta ja.
On the basis of the far-reaching agreement of the language of this inscription with Khotanese Saka and with the aid of its Bactrian version (see later) its text can be
interpreted in the following way:
1. Behold! [We] King of Kings, the noble, great Katvisa, the Kusana,
2. now, here, we order to erect the commanded text for the welfare as heroic words:
3. He [Katvisa] mounted on the mountains, [he] was able to cross the high region. He inspected Kapisa.
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4. [He] put relief to [his] advancing domestics, moved forward [his] forces,
5. fought a battle, crossed the region, pursued, captured the crushed Sanas [=
Avestan
Saini-], destroyed [them].
6. Graciously he rested [his] servants, he offe[red] pres[ents] to all of them. He
celebrated a feast for the god,
7. being devoted and gracious. Then he held feastings for the officers and the
warriors altogether.
8. He ordered to engrave on the rock the favourable report [that] he removed the tax
and contribution from [the sanctuary of] the supreme god.
The content of this inscription coincides in all essential details with that of the
Bactrian version (discussed below) of the epigraphic monument at Dasht-i Nawur. However, a remarkable phenomenon is that the relation of this inscription is much more detailed
than the Bactrian text. Obviously, the most important version of the report about the
campaign led by Vima Kadphises to the region of Dasht-i Nawur was represented precisely by
this text. From the repeated mentions of the domestics, their rewards, and the festive
banquet given in honour of the officers and warriors, it follows that this was the language
spoken and understood in the royal court of Vima Kadphises and among his retinue and army, whether this was some Saka dialect adopted by the Kushans or the original language
of the Kushans themselves. The central position and the detailed text of this inscription
clearly speak in favour of the latter assumption.
Another interesting document, written in the same language and with the same script, is represented by the inscription from Surkh Kotal. The character of the record is
striking. It was written in black ink on a stone fragment, measuring 22.5 × 11
×
4.9 cm. This fact excludes the possibility of an official document and renders the assumption of
an occasional record probable. The text of the inscription, also coming very likely
from the Kushan age, can tentatively be read as follows:
1. hi-yo
e-se ho ta-na:
mva-ra
ha-mu-di
a-ja hi-rya
pa-´si da-pa
va-rya
2. ka-va-gyo
ja-rya da-ja
ho-la cha-d.
a gyo-rmi va-gyo
dha-na cha-ka
mo-´sa ja-na
3. va-hı
da-hu dam-na.
Contrary to the inscription of Dasht-i Nawur, here we have no support for the
understanding of this text. In spite of this apparent difficulty, however, the interpretation is
not impossible because some terms and phrases can clearly be identified again with the
aid of Khotanese Saka. Thus, the inscription can be interpreted in the following way:
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1. The lord gives orders so: The procedure happened. It is possible to release the
nonperished wealth: the mantle,
2. the coat of mail, the armour, the flamc[-coloured] covering, the miler excellent
racehorse, the grain, the goat will you quickly carry away!
3. The house is given to the man [or to Dahu].
This text obviously represents a report on a judgement about the division of
property either in the case of divorce or by way of inheritance: one party obtained the
movable wealth (the things enumerated in the report), the other one kept the immovable
property (the house). This report was apparently sent by a person who belonged to the retinue
of the ‘lord’ exercising the jurisdiction and who was personally acquainted with at least
one of the parties. The use of the stone fragment for the purpose of this information is
probably due to the lack of other writing materials in Srkh Kotal at that time.
All the records written in this variant of Kharosthı script and Saka language discussed so far date back to the Kushan age. |
The
oldest inscription in Türkic alphabet, the Issyk
Inscription, written on a flat silver drinking cup, was found in 1970 in a royal tomb located
within Balykchy (Issyk), a town in
Kyrgyzstan near Lake Issyk, and was dated by 5th c.
BC. In the tomb was a body of a man dressed from head to toe in magnificent attire, the clothes,
jacket, pants, socks, and boots all had a total of 4,800 attached pieces of pure gold, greatest ever
found in a tomb except Pharaoh Tutankhamen. The top of the cone-shaped crown covering ears and neck
carried golden arrows emblem. A sword on the belt right side and a knife on the left were in
sheaths. Beautiful relief ornaments of animal art decorated shields, belt and front of the hat.
Radiocarbon tests determined the age of the finds as belonging to the fifth century BC. What was the
world in the 5-th century BC? We have archeological discoveries, where dating is almost always
somewhat speculative, and reconstructions of the ancient Greek maps, and the views of the
Mesopotamian and Chinese records. From the Mesopotamian, Chinese, and Greek texts, from the
archeological discoveries of the kurgans, from the written monuments, we get a glimpse of the
nomadic nations of the Central Asia in the 5-th c. BC. The various interpretations of the graphics
and contents of the inscription witness the paucity of the finds and the potential for the studies.
