Lands of Asia layouts (Eng) 26.11.21

2 .3
the word ‘king’. The same title, but in the form xdeo, was widespread in Bactria and
Tokharistan up to 8th century AD.
An inscription from Surkh Kotal also uses other Bactrian titles of Kanishka,
emphasising his divine origins in titles such as bagoshao – ‘god-king’ and bagopouro –
‘son of god’, equal to the Indian devaputra and Chinese tien-tzu.
From around the end of the 3 rd century or beginning of the 4 th century AD,
after the collapse of the Kushan state, titles such as shao and xoadēo appeared in a
somewhat modified form, sometimes shayo and xdeo, and though preserved, they
had lost their former significance. The rulers who bore these titles were often rulers
of small territories, such as Shao Goboziko in the Termez area or Shao Rogoz(iko) in
Chaganian. This process of losing the former significance of the titulature continued
into the early medieval period.
In the 3rd and 4th centuries AD, the old Aramaic titles MR’Y and MLK’ were
used to designate rulers throughout almost the whole of the Central Asian interfluvial
area, and sometimes used in the combination MR’Y MLK’, as in Khorezm. The only
exceptions were Bukhara and Northern Tokharistan. Copper coins from Bukhara
dating from the 4th century AD include an image of an altar along with the extremely
ancient title k’w.
In Tokharistan, conquered by the Sasanids, probably under Shapur I (241–272),
Middle Persian was used for the titles of rulers. At this time, Tokharistan was a separate
province under the Sassanids, and on Sassanid Kushan coins its rulers are referred to
in the legends as: kws’n MLK’ – King of the Kushans, RB’kws’n MLK’ – Great King of
the Kushans, and RB’kws’n MLK’n MLK’ – Great King of the Kings of the Kushans.
Sassanid Kushan coins use the same titles, but in Middle Persian: instead of
shaonano shao koshano’ they have ‘oozorko koshano shohono shoho’, or ‘oozorko koshano
shoho’ ‘Great King of Kings of Kushan’, or ‘Great King of Kushan’.
This analysis of the evolution of the titulature of the rulers of Transoxiana
demonstrates that the title ‘king’, if this is what the title kavi implies, was being applied
to rulers as early as the beginning of the first millennium BC. There then followed a
big gap in its use until the 5th century AD, when its use is revived on Bukharkhudat
coins. From the middle of the 6th to the end of the 4th century BC, Transoxiana was
incorporated into the Achaemenid kingdom, whose rulers bore ancient Persian royal
titles ‘Shah’ (‘King’) and ‘Shahanshah’ (‘King of Kings’). After Alexander the Great’s
conquest and with the creation of the Seleucid and Graeco-Bactrian kingdoms, the
ancient Persian titles were replaced by the equivalent Greek titles basileus and basileus
basileon, which continued to be used here until the late 1st and early 2nd century AD.
The rulers of the remaining territories in Transoxiana (in Sogdia, Bukhara,
Chach) – to judge from coins found there – were using the title MR’Y, which was
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