Lands of Asia layouts (Eng) 26.11.21

part i | civilisations
Asia was Dravidian-speaking. Archaeological confirmation of this otherwise wholly
unsupported thesis has come from the discovery of the Shortugai settlement on the
left bank of the Amu Darya, founded by the Harappan culture, whose population was
most likely Dravidian-speaking.
It is possible that representatives of peoples from the Indian subcontinent entered
Central Asia during the Achaemenid period (6th-4th centuries B.C.), when Central
Asia and the northwestern regions of the Indian subcontinent were also part of the
Achaemenid state. The same can be said about the Central Asian peoples of the
time of Alexander the Great, who began his campaign to India from the territory of
Bactria. His army included Bactrian soldiers.
When the powerful Indian state of Maurya was at its height, its northeastern
borders nearly reached Central Asia, as evidenced by an edict of King Ashoka
(273–236 BC) found in Kandahar (southeastern Afghanistan). It is precisely to this
time that the eminent Indian scholar P.C. Bagchi dates the arrival of Buddhism in
the southern part of Central Asia, and the bearers of this religion at that time were
without doubt peoples from India.
The intensive influx of people from the Indian subcontinent into Central Asia
and vice versa intensified after the conquest of the Northwest Indian subcontinent
by the Graeco-Bactrian king Demetrius the Great (200–185 BC). This meant that
the Bactrian population had continuous contact and familiarity with Indian scripts
and languages, as testified by a significant number of Demetrius’ coins bearing
inscriptions in Sanskrit written in Kharoshthi script found at Kampyrtepa, Termez
and Takht-i Sangin.
The fragmentary inscription written in Kharoshthi script on the gates of the
citadel at Kampyrtepa, probably dating to the 2nd century BC (the exact date is yet
to be determined), is particularly significant in this regard. Its importance lies firstly
in the fact that it is the earliest known inscription in an Indian script in Central Asia.
Secondly, in contrast to all other inscriptions, which are predominantly of Buddhist
content, this inscription is related to non-religious, state matters. Its presence on the
gates of the citadel shows that Kampyrtepa was inhabited by people familiar with
Sanskrit and the Kharoshthi script, i.e. people from India. The especially large influx
of peoples from the Indian subcontinent to the south of Central Asia, into Bactria,
occurred during the period of the Kushan state (in the 1st to the mid-3rd century AD).
It is connected with the spread of Buddhism and the erection of a great number of
Buddhist structures in this region, especially in Tarmita, Airtam, Dalverzintepa and
other cities of northern Bactria.
The size of the Indian population in this area was very large, and it is possible that
they even constituted the majority of the population in one of the cities.
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