Yungdrung Chakshing

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Drenpa Namkha holds a Yungdrung Chakshing in his right hand to indicate the indestructibility and permanence of the Bon teachings.

"Yungdrung Chakshing is a symbol of continuity and willpower in the Bon religion which its followers say was the pre-Buddhist faith of the Tibetan people. It's interesting to note that the swastika here is widdershins which is unlike the Hindu one....Widdershins is a term meaning to go counter-clockwise, or to walk around an object by always keeping it on the left.....The Swastika (also known as the gammadion cross, cross cramponnée, or wanzi) (as a character: 卐 or 卍) is an ancient religious symbol that generally takes the form of an equilateral cross, with its four legs bent at 90 degrees. It is considered to be a sacred and auspicious symbol in Hinduism, Buddhism, Bon and Jainism ....It has been used as a decorative element in various cultures since at least the Neolithic. It is known most widely as an important symbol long used in Indian religions, denoting "auspiciousness....The name swastika comes from the Sanskrit word svastika (Devanāgarī: स्वस्तिक), meaning "lucky or auspicious object".....The word finds its origin in Vedic Sanskrit. As noted by Monier-Williams in his Sanskrit-English dictionary, according to Alexander Cunningham, its shape represents a monogram formed by interlacing of the letters of the auspicious words su-astí (svasti) written in Ashokan characters."......

The flag of the Yungdrung Bön with each of the colors of the five elements and the golden chakshing with 2 turquoise-colored yungdrungs as held by Buddha Tönpa Shenrap Miwoche....http://ravencypresswood.com/2013/09/24/flag-of-the-yungdrung-bon/

"The swastika, old symbol of good luck, is very present in bön and represents eternity, mostly in its anti-clockwise version......The flag has five horizontal stripes (blue, white, red, green, yellow). In the middle of the flag there is a golden yungdrung chakshing (g.yung-drung phyag-shing in Wylie transliteration), which is a bönpo scepter and symbol of immortality. On each end of the yungdrung there is a square with a swastika. The squares are shown with a blue swastika on yellow field in one instance, and with several colours between the arms of the yellow swastika in the other (blue to the left, red on top, green on the right, and white on the bottom), all on a red field within yellow border."........ Sources: http://blog.amdotibet.cn/tibetmonk/archives/103962.aspx ........http://ravencypresswood.com/2013/09/24/flag-of-the-yungdrung-bon/ .......Corentin Chamboredon, 10 February 2014........http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/xt_bonpo.html

"Almost all of western Tibet constituted, before the Tibetan emperor Songtsen Gampo invaded it in the 8th c. AD, the kingdom of Zhangzhung..... Modern bönpo claim their religion had roots in this old country......some texts even claim bön was imported from old Persia to Zhangzhung before that.".....http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/xt_bonpo.html

"A gleaming and spirited statue of Drenpa Namkha, the venerated long-life deity of Bön. He is regarded as the Protector of the Dark Age, and believed to be the all-embodying manifestation of the three kayas of Buddhas in Tibetan tradition. As shown in this rare bronze Drenpa Namkha as a Mahasiddha, he is seated in royal ease on a lotus throne wearing only a tiger skin. On his youthful face at the ajna chakra, he has a third-eye that revealed his transcendent knowledge. For his power to transform delusion into perfect wisdom, his left hand is holding a white kapala (skull cup) filled with blood. To affirm the absolute truth and eternal teachings of the Bön, his right hand is raised with the yungdrung chakshing (swastika vajra emblem). Whereas the one eye on his foot indicated that he could visualizes five hundred past lives. Beautifully gilded in gold and ornamented with semi-precious stones, with a swastika on a double-thunderbolt embossed on the copper base plate, this immaculate statue emanated the presence of Drenpa Namkha in an unshakeable equipoise.".....http://www.buddhamuseum.com/gilded-drenpa-namkha_93.html

"Drenpa Namkha (Tibetan: dran pa nam mkha' ) was born in the 8th century near Mount Kailash in Chunlung Ngul Kha in south-western Tibet. As a young student he was a blessed with eight principal Bon teachers. Drenpa Namkha became a self-realized supreme master of the three Bon practices, known as Sutra, Tantra and Dzogchen. Drenpa Namkha is the primary long-life deity according to Bon....Drenpa Namkha's biography in eight volumes was published by sPa-tshang Sonam Gyantsan, Delhi in 1983. Drenpa Namkha is said to have had twin sons: Tshe-dbang Rig-'dzin, a Bon teacher, and Pad-ma 'Byung-gnas..."

"The flag of Jainism was first mentioned in a holy text dating 5th century BC. It has five colors: orange or red, yellow, white, green and black or dark blue.....The swastika in the centre of the flag represents the four states of existence of soul. The four stages may be: heaven-beings or deities....human beings.....animal/birds/insects/plants.....hell beings.....It represents that the soul can embody any of these forms, owing to karma, which may escalate it to higher-level forms such as heavenly beings, or degrade it to lower-level forms such as lesser animals or hell beings....The three dots above the swastika represent the Ratnatraya (three jewels) of Jainism.....The curve above the three dots denotes Siddhashila, a place in the highest realms of Universe, composed of pure energy. It is above hell, earth, or heaven.".....

http://ravencypresswood.com/category/yungdrung-bon-sacred-symbols/

"Other names for the symbol include:
hook cross (German: Hakenkreuz), angled cross (German: Winkelkreuz) or crooked cross (German: Krummkreuz).
fylfot, chiefly in heraldry and architecture. The term was coined in the 19th century based on a misunderstanding of a Renaissance manuscript.
gammadion, tetragammadion (Greek: τετραγαμμάδιον), or cross gammadion (Latin: crux gammata; French: croix gammée), as each arm resembles the Greek letter Γ (gamma).
tetraskelion (Greek: τετρασκέλιον), literally meaning "four legged", especially when composed of four conjoined legs (compare triskelion [Greek: τρισκέλιον]).
whirling logs (Navajo (native american): can denote abundance, prosperity, healing, and luck.
The swastika has been a standardized Sanskrit character. "卍" (pinyin: wàn) and as such entered various other East Asian languages such as Japanese where the symbol is called "卍" (Hepburn: manji) or "卍字" (manji)."

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March 2016

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The Pashto Language & Pashtun Origins

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"French Buddhist Alexandra David-Néel associated Shambhala with Balkh, also offering the Persian Sham-i-Bala, "elevated candle" as an etymology of its name. In a similar vein, the Gurdjieffian J. G. Bennett published speculation that Shambalha was Shams-i-Balkh, a Bactrian sun temple.".....https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balkh

"Pashto first appeared in writing during the 16th century in the form of an account of Shekh Mali's (King Sardar Sheikh Milli ) Conquest of Swat. It is written with a version of the Arabic script. There are two standard written forms: one based on the dialect of Kandahar, the other on the dialect of Peshawar.......The name Pashto is thought to derive from the reconstructed proto-Iranian form, parsawā 'Persian language. In northen Afghanistan speakers of Pashto are called Pakhtūn; in sourthen Afghanistan they are known as Pashtūn, and as Pathān or Afghan in Pakistan. "......http://www.omniglot.com/writing/pashto.htm

"The Pashtun, or Pushtun, are a race of warriors who live primarily in Afghanistan and Pakistan. They consist of about sixty tribes, each with its own territory. Although their origin is unclear, their legends say that they are the descendants of Afghana, grandson of King Saul. However, most believe they probably arose from ancient Aryans intermingling with subsequent invaders.".... http://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/14256/AF

"The peaks of the Safed Koh, between Jalabad and Kabu, bear the names of Sita, Ram, etc....."

"The vast majority of Pashtuns are found in the traditional Pashtun homeland, located in an area south of the Amu Darya in Afghanistan and west of the Indus River in Pakistan, which includes Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and part of Balochistan. Additional Pashtun communities are located in western and northern Afghanistan, the Gilgit–Baltistan and Kashmir regions and northwestern Punjab province of Pakistan. Throughout the Indian subcontinent, they are often referred to as Pathans."

Click on the map to enlarge

"Pashto (پښتو)........ a member of the southeastern Iranian branch of Indo-Iranian languages spoken in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran. There are three main varieties of Pashto: Northern Pashto, spoken mainly in Pakistan; Southern Pashto, spoken mainly in Afghanistan; and Central Pashto, spoken mainly in Pakistan. "

"The three last-named clans are branches of the Yusufzais) Sheikh Mali, who acted as assistant and Counselor of Malik Ahmed, was a wise and learned man. The Yusufzais having completed their plan of settlement in a land of their choice, elected Malik Ahmed their sovereign chief and Sheikh Mali his Vazir. It was an organization within the tribe. Sheikh Mali, who was a revenue expert, wrote a book in Pashto on distribution of land, known as ‘Wesh’ among Pathans. The book not only set forth in detail the rules and regulations of ‘Wesh’ system and was used as a guide by the Yusufzais, but is also a valuable manuscript of Pashto literature in the fifteenth century. The great thinker and poet of Pashto, Khushal Khan Khattak, mentions Sheikh Mali with respect in his ‘Swat Nama’. Though the system of land distribution as introduced by Sheikh Mali was not very useful on the whole, it rather hampered the productivity of land and permanent settlement, it was nevertheless a system perfectly suitable to the political vicissitudes of the times and one upon which all the Yusufzais agreed. In Swat the system was in force as late as the twentieth century. After Malik Ahmed, Khan Kajju and Ali Asghar were two other brave and famous chiefs of the Yusufzais Zahir-ud-Din Babur usurped the throne of Kabul after the death of Ulugh Beg. Being ambitious, he soon out to conquer India as well. Partly owing to the instigation of the Dilazaks and partly believing Yusufzais to be naturally opposed to the Mughals, he thought it expedient to crush them before going any further. He, therefore, assumed the aggressive against them. Thousands of innocent men and women were ruthlessly slain, miles of cultivated fields were trampled and scores of villages were burnt to ashes. By now a monster of rage and vengeance, Babur struck camp at ‘Qatlang’ near Mardan and planned ways and means of totally eradicating the Yusufzai tribe. In the meantime a jirga of the chiefs of Yusufzais waited on him and pleaded for mercy. Babur himself appreciated the advantages of establishing amicable terms with them. He reached an agreement with the Yusufzai chiefs, ‘whom he rewarded with robes and presents. A nominal tribute of rupees one thousand was levied on them. To assure them of his good intentions he married the daughter of Shah Mansur, an important chief of the Yusufzais. He had to fight against the Sultan of India, Ibrahim Lodhi, and the successful attempt at winning the friendship of a powerful Pathan tribe was a clever move which greatly strengthened his hands.".......https://www.reddit.com/r/Swatvalley/comments/2atzgt/history_of_swat/

"Paṧtō is an Iranic language spoken in south and southeastern Afghanistan, by recent settlers in northern Afghanistan, in Pakistan (North-West Frontier Province and Baluchistan), and on the eastern border of Iran..... Indo-Aryan Paṭhān must have been adopted from Paṧtō *Paṧtan-.......Paҳt’o denotes not only the Paštūn language, but also the national code of honor: Paҳtūn haγa na daγ či Paҳto wāyi, lekin haγa či Paҳto ləri “a Paṧtūn is not he who (only) speaks Paṧtō, but he who has Paṧtō. ” This expression symbolizes the strong feeling of Paṧtun national unity—unique among Iranic ethnic groups—in spite of the numerous tribes, subtribes, clans, and continuous inter-tribal fighting......http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/afghanistan-vi-pasto

"There are two major dialects of Pashto: Western Pashto spoken in Afghanistan and in the capital, Kabul, and Eastern Pashto spoken in northeastern Pakistan. Most speakers of Pashto speak these two dialects. Two other dialects are also distinguished: Southern Pashto, spoken in Baluchistan (western Pakistan and eastern Iran) and in Kandahar, Afghanistan......Pushto has been written in a variant of the Persian script (which in turn is a variant of Arabic script) since the late sixteenth century......The first written records of Pushto are believed to date from the sixteenth century and consist of an account of Shekh Mali's conquest of Swat......Traces of the history of Pushto are present in its vocabulary. While the majority of words can be traced to Pushto's roots as member of the Eastern Iranian language branch, it has also borrowed words from adjacent languages for over two thousand years. The oldest borrowed words are from Greek, and date from the Greek occupation of Bactria in third century BC. There are also a few traces of contact with Zoroastrians and Buddhists. Starting in the Islamic period, Pushto borrowed many words from Arabic and Persian. Due to its close geographic proximity to languages of the Indian sub-continent, Pushto has borrowed words from Indian languages for centuries.".....http://www.afghan-network.net/Ethnic-Groups/pashtu-history.html

"Not only the Pathans, but also the Afghan Royal Family has a very well known tradition placing its origin in ancient Israel, they came from the Tribe of Benjamin.......This tradition was first published in 1635 in a book called Mahsan-I-Afghani and has often been mentioned in the research literature. According to this tradition, King Saul had a son called Jeremiah who had a son called Afghana. Jeremiah died at about the time of King Saul's death and Afghana was raised by King David and remained in the royal court during King Solomon's reign.......About 400 years later in the time of disorder of Israel, the Afghana family fled to a land called Gur which is in central Afghanistan. They settled and traded with the people of the area and in the year 662, with the arrival of Islam, the sons of Israel in Gur converted to the prophet with 7 representatives of the Afghan. The leader of the sons of Israel was Kish like the name of Saul's father. "......http://www.moshiach.com/tribes/afghanistan.html

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September 2015

John Hopkins....Northern New Mexico

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Word Origins…..-i-stan….-asan….-isan….-ezm...-i-ana....-asam

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Land of, land from which....Khorasan, Afghanistan, Pakistan,Tajikistan, Khwarezm, Khorasam, Harezm, Horezm, Od-iana

Stan…..Persian ستان (stān) and Sanskrit स्थान (sthā́na), both deriving from common Indo-Iranian verbal stem √sthā (“to stand, stay”), from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand”), whence also English verbs stay and stand.

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……√sthā…..तिष्ठति…From Proto-Indo-European *steh₂-. Cognates include Latin stō, Ancient Greek ἵστημι (hístēmi), Old English standan (English stand)….

"The name Pakistan literally means "Land of the Pure" in Urdu and Persian. It was coined in 1933 as Pakstan by Choudhary Rahmat Ali, a Pakistan Movement activist, who published it in his pamphlet Now or Never,using it as an acronym ("thirty million Muslim brethren who live in PAKSTAN") referring to the names of the five northern regions of the British Raj: Punjab, North-West Frontier Province (Afghania Province), Kashmir, Sindh, and Baluchistan". The letter i was incorporated to ease pronunciation and form the linguistically correct and meaningful name."…..http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakistan

"Tajikistan means the "Land of the Tajiks". The word Tajik was used by medieval Turks to refer to Iranian-speaking peoples. From the 11th century, the term referred to East Iranian people, but by the 15th century came to be applied to Persian speakers. In medieval Persian literature, Tajik appears as a synonym of "Persian". As a self-designation, the term Tajik (Tajik: Тоҷик), has become acceptable only during the last decades of the 20th century, particularly as a result of Soviet administration in Central Asia. The term does not denote an ethnic group in the narrow sense, but remains a general designation of a variety of Persian-speaking peoples in Central Asia…..Tajikistan was frequently spelled as Tadjikistan or Tadzhikistan in English, transliterated from the Russian. (In Russian the phoneme /d͡ʒ/ in Таджикистан is spelled дж, that is, dzh or dj.) Tadzhikistan is the most common alternate spelling and is widely used in English literature derived from Russian sources. "Tajikistan" is the spelling in French and can occasionally be found in English language texts."….http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tajikistan

"Khorasan….The name "Khorasan" is derived from Middle Persian khor (meaning "sun") and asan (or ayan literally meaning "to come" or "coming" or "about to come"), hence meaning "land where the sun rises" the same etymology also having been suggested for Khwarezm. The Persian word Khāvar-zamīn (Persian: خاور زمین‎), meaning "the eastern land", has also been used as an equivalent term…….is is also written as Khurasan (Persian: خراسان بزرگ or خراسان کهن‎), …. a historical regionlying in the northeast of Persia (Iran) that has been mentioned in various sources in the past. "In pre-Islamic and early Islamic times, the term "Khurassan" frequently had a much wider denotation, covering also parts of Central Asia and Afghanistan; early Islamic usage often regarded everywhere east of western Persia, sc. Djibal or what was subsequently termed 'Irak 'Adjami, as being included in a vast and ill-defined region of Khurasan, which might even extend to the Indus Valley and Sind." Before Islamization of the region, the inhabitants of Khorasan had mostly practiced Zoroastrianism, but there were also followers of Buddhism and other religions."….http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Khorasan

"Khwarezm /kwəˈrɛzəm/ or Chorasmia /kəˈræzmiə/(Persian:خوارزم) is a large oasis region on the Amu Darya river delta in western Central Asia, which borders to the north the (former) Aral Sea, to the east the Kyzylkum desert, to the south the Karakum desert and to the west the Ustyurt Plateau. It was the center of the (indigenous) Khwarezmian civilization and a series of kingdoms, whose capitals were (among others) Kath, Gurganj (the modern Köneürgenç) and, from the 16th century on, Khiva. Today Khwarezm belongs partly to Uzbekistan, partly to Kazakhstan and partly to Turkmenistan."….http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khwarezm

…..Khwarezm etymology….."Khwarezm has been known also as Chorasmia, Khwarezmia, Khwarizm, Khwarazm, Khorezm, Khoresm, Khorasam, Harezm, Horezm, and Chorezm…..In Avestan the name is Xvairizem, in Old Persian Huwarazmish, in Modern Persian خوارزم (Khwārazm), in Arabic خوارزم Khwārizm, in Old Chinese *qʰaljɯʔmriɡ(呼似密), modern Chinese Huālázǐmó (花剌子模), in Kazakh Хорезм, in Uzbek Xorazm, in Turkmen Horezm, in Turkish Harezm, in Greek Χορασμία and Χορασίμα, by Herodotus…..The Arab geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi in his Muʿǧam al-buldan wrote that the name was a compound (in Persian) of khwar (خوار), and razm (رزم), referring to the abundance of cooked fish as a main diet of the peoples of this area….C.E. Bosworth however, believes the Persian name to be made up of (خور) meaning "the sun" and (زم) meaning "Earth", designating "the land from which the sun rises", although the same etymology is also given for Khurasan. Another view is that the Iranian compound stands for "lowland" from kh(w)ar "low" and zam "earth, land.". Khwarezm is indeed the lowest region in Central Asia (except for the Caspian Sea to the far west), located on the delta of the Amu Darya on the southern shores of the Aral Sea. Various forms of khwar/khar/khor/hor are commonly used also in the Persian Gulf to stand for tidal flats, marshland, or tidal bays (e.g., Khor Musa, Khor Abdallah, Hor al-Azim, Hor al-Himar, etc.)….The name also appears in Achaemenid inscriptions as Huvarazmish, which is declared to be part of the Persian Empire….Some of the early scholars believed Khwarezm to be what ancient Avestic texts refer to as Airyanem Vaejah ("Ariyaneh Waeje"; later Middle Persian Iran vij). These sources claim that Old Urgench, which was the capital of ancient Khwarezm for many years, was actually Ourva, the eighth land of Ahura Mazda mentioned in the Pahlavi text of Vendidad. However, Michael Witzel, a researcher in early Indo-European history, believes that Airyanem Vaejah was located in what is now Afghanistan, the northern areas of which were a part of ancient Khwarezm and Greater Khorasan. Others, however, disagree. University of Hawaii historian Elton L. Daniel believes Khwarezm to be the "most likely locale" corresponding to the original home of the Avestan people, and Dehkhoda calls Khwarezm "مهد قوم آریا" ("the cradle of the Aryan tribe")."….http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khwarezm

Turkmenistan…..Turkish Türkmen ("Turk-like; Turkmen") + Persian ستان (stān, "-stan")…Persian ستان (stān) and Sanskrit स्थान (sthā́na), both deriving from common Indo-Iranian verbal stem √sthā (“to stand, stay”), from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand”), whence also English verbs stay and stand.

Map: http://sogdcoins.narod.ru/english/sogdiana/history.html

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John Hopkins.....Northern New Mexico….December 2013

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Etymology: Sakya, Shaka, Shakya, Saka, Sacae

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HERODOTUS..."Anyone who does business with the Scyths (Sakae) needs seven interpreters speaking seven languages. Sharp divisions among the pastoral tribes has to be recognized." (Rudenko: 1970..pg 226)...

"Dawa Zangpo was the first of the seven "SHAKYA" kings of Shambhala.(Bryant:Wheel of Time Sand Mandala)...Sucandra died two years after receiving the Kalachakra teachings. The six religious Kings of Shambhala were descended from the Shakya clan......"The father of Sucandra was Shakya Shambha" (Bernbaum:1980..pg 285)......"King Dawa Zangpo (Sucandra) (Zla-ba bZang po) (Lord of Humanity)..(Kongtrul: 1995..pg 276)..."King Suchandra compiled the Kalachakra Tantra in its long form, said to be 12,000 stanza. This version no longer being extant. Suchandra was from Shambhala, near the Tarim river." (Hopkins 1985..pg 60)

Sakya (Shakya): derived or descended from the Sakas, from whom the historical Buddha came, whence his honorific Sakymuni. "Sage of the Sakyas." Many people of the Sakya tribe followed the Buddha after his enlightenment.

Sakyamuni (Shakyamuni): The author or reviver of Buddhism, whose birth appears to have occurred in the seventh, and death in the sixth century before Christ He was the son of Suddhodama, king of Kapila-Vastu (Kapilavatthu) or of Magadha. He was also called Sakyasimha ("lion of the Sakyas").

" The linguistic history indicates that the Aryans ("Indo-Europeans"..."Iran") originally formed a single people until the beginning of the 2nd millenium BC when the Deva worshipping Indian Aryans and the Asura worshiping Iranian Aryans went separate ways." (Yarshater: 1987..pg 684)...The Kalachakra discusses the expulsion of the Deva worshippers from Shambhala and refers to the Rigden kings as Asura...... "
Rigden..."the eighth Rigden and subsequent Kings were called Kulika (rigs ldan) "one who bears the lineage". (Hopkins: 1985..pg 60)...

The 7 Shakya Kings and the 25 Kulika Kings (Kalki)...

"the 1047 verses of the Kalachakra Tantra used today (the original is 12,000 verses) was composed by the eighth King of Shambhala, the first Kulika (Kalki), Jampal Trakpa. The original 12,000 verses have never been translated into Tibetan." (Kongtrul: 1995..pg 271)..

"The country of Sambhala, protected by the 32 chieftans." (Kongtrul: 1995..pg 153)...

"Northern India was originally populated by Aryans of the Tarim Basin (Xinjiang Province of Western Mongolia) who migrated through Afghanistan. "

Saka (Scythian) and Shakya (the Buddha's tribe) are likely unrelated, although both were probably Indo-Aryan (since the Shakya were Kshatriya).

Professor Michael Witzel - one of the world's leading Indologists - said: "The name of the Buddha’s clan, the Sakya (Skt. s'aakya [i.e. śākya]), cannot be separated from the designation of the northern Iranian Saka (Skt. S'aka [i.e. śaka]) that entered India only after c. 140 BC via Sistan." ...... though the Śākya's are portrayed as kṣatriya, the Buddha was called "Gautama" which is a distinctive and prestigious Brahmin name (associated with the ṛṣi Gotama who composed book 4 of the Ṛgveda)

The Shakas first conquered Sogdia from the Graeco-Bactrians and then, in 139 BCE, during the reign of King Menandros, took Bactria as well. There, the Shakas turned to Buddhism.

SAKA..."On the map of Shambhala, Saka is shown exactly where it is supposed to be: north of Bactria near Lake Balkash.(45N-75E).Between 154 and 114 BC the Saka broke through the Parthian defense lines and seized a region in eastern Persia that has retained their name to this day: Sakastan (Seistan).(Kuznetsov: 1970..pg 568)..."Shag-yul: Country of the Saka. This is in the northeast corner of the map and refers to the consolidation of the Saka and Yueh-chi (Tocharians) in the Kushan dynasty."(Kuznetsov: 1970..pg 573)...Shapur: King of the Sakas......"By the testimony of Herodotus, the Greeks called them Scyths and the Persians called them Sakas."...(Rudenko:1970)..."The Sacae conquered Media in 630 BC and ruled for 28 years. Median King Astibar. Zarina, queen of the Sacae. Kydreias, King of the Sacae. Tomyris, queen of the Massagetae. Sacian King Amorg." (Rudenko: 1970..pg 224)... SAKA...MASSAGETAE....OD-MA-BYAMS-SKYA'I-YUL..."Mhgasakata or 'great Saka' the name of the Saka tribes known as the Massagetae to the Greeks. In the northeast is the 'country of strong Saka, reflecting the consolidation of the Saka and the Yueh-chi (Tocharians) in the Kusha dynasty under Kadphises I in the 1st century AD."..."...(Kuznetsov: 1970...pg 574-576)..."Zarina, warrior queen of the Sacae. After the death of her husband Kydreias she married the Parthian Prince Mermer." (Rudenko: 1970..pg 224)... SAKYA (Saka, Shaka, Sacae, Shakya).....The first seven Kings of Shambhala were descended from the Shakya clan..(Bryant: 1992..pg 69)... A Scythian tribe originated near Lake Balkash but were forced to move south in 165 BC. Occupied the Swat Valley and Gandhara after conquering the Indo-Greeks. Alexander fought against the Massagetae, a people of the nomadic Saka confederacy in 328 BC on the site of the modern Leninabad (Khojent) on the Jaxartes. This became Alexandria Eschate, (40 N, 80 E), his farthest excursion into Central Asia. (Encyclopedia Britanica)....Sucandra was the first of the seven Shakya kings of Shambhala.His father was Shakya Shambha." (Bernbaum: 1980..pg 285)...Saka is a Middle Iranian Language.....The Saka peoples appear North East of Iran as mounted nomads in 530 BC. Cyrus failed to subdue the Massagetae beyond the Oxus in 530 BC." (Phillips: 1965..pg 129)...[Sidenote: the Kalachakra initiation is never performed in the Northeast Sector of a community]....In Persian sources, the Scythians (8-3rd C BC) were called Saka......"The Saka tribes who settled in the western Pamir in the 2nd Century BC were obviously not able to continue their nomadic ways."..(Gafurov: 1968..pg 137)...."On the map of Shambhala, Saka is shown exactly where it is supposed to be, north of Bactria, near Lake Balkash (45N-75E). Between 154 and 114 BC the Saka broke the Parthian defense lines and seized a region in eastern Iran known as Sakastan (Seistan)." (Kuznetsov: 1970..pg 568)..."The ancient Persian Sun- worship and the period of the Sakas beginning in the middle of the 2nd Century BC." (Humbach: 1978..pg 241)...."Shaapur, King of the Sakyas"..."Herodotus, the classical Greek historian, went to Scythis and gathered a great deal of first hand information." (Rudenko: 1970..pg xxx)..."Among the Black Sea Scythes, King Scylas did not like the Scythian way and was deposed by Octamasadas." (Rudenko: 1970...pg 216)..."Scythian King Idanthyrus, whom Darius avoided in battle." (Rudenko: 1970..pg 286)...

SAKYA (India): "Saka Kings like Rudradamana had taken to the Sanskrit language and Vaisnava religion. Malwa, Guzerat and Kathiawad had been ruled for centuries by the Saka dynasty" (Dasgupta: 1962..pg cii)....Gautama Buddha was a member of the Shakya tribe. Mahavira, the founder of Jainism, was a member of the Jnatrkas tribe...The earliest Saka King was Maues, (Mauakes Moga) 95-75 BC. Mathura (in modern Uttar Pradesh) was an early headquarters. Their coins not only included the Indian goddess Lakshmi, but also the Greek Palla Athene and Herakles. Malwa, with their capital city of Ujjain in the Western Kshatrapas, from which they ruled Rajputana and Maharashtra for 300 years...."The period of the invasion of the Sakas and Kushans into India in the middle of the 2nd Century BC." (Acta: 1978..pg 239)

Shakya (Sanskrit: Śākya, Devanagari: शाक्य, Pāli: Sākya) was an ancient janapada (kingdom) of Iron Age India. In Buddhist texts, the Śākyas are mentioned as a Kshatriya clan.....Kshatriya, meaning warrior, is one of the four varnas (social orders) in Hinduism. Traditionally Kshatriya constitute the military and ruling elite of the Vedic-Hindu social system outlined by the Vedas and the Laws of Manu.....Sanskrit akṣatra, ruling; one of the ruling order member of the Kṣhatriya caste is the derivation for Old Persian xšaθra ("realm, power"), xšaθrya ("royal"), and xšāyaθiya ("emperor") are related to it, as are the New Persian words šāh ("emperor") and šahr ("city", "realm"). Thai: กษัตริย์ (kasat), "king" or "monarch," and similar-sounding Malay kesatria or satria, "knight" or "warrior", are also derived from it. The term may also denote aristocratic status.

The Sākyas were one of a number of small tribes—Kāmāla, Malla, Vṛji, Licchavi,, etc.—who do not appear in the Ṛgveda. Pāṇini (ca 5th century BCE) knows the Mallas and Vṛji as desert tribes in Rajasthan, and ambassadors of Alexander the Great met a tribe called Malloi in the same region......The Śākya nation was later subsumed into the Kingdom of Kosala under Viḍūḍabha.

Around 200 CE, the Manu Smriti describes the downfall of the Yavanas, as well as many others: "But in consequence of the omission of the sacred rites, and of their not consulting Brahmanas, the following tribes of Kshatriyas have gradually sunk in this world to the condition of Shudras;the Paundrakas, the Chodas, the Dravidas, the Kambojas, the Yavanas, the Shakas, the Paradas, the Pahlavas, the Chinas, the Kiratas, the Daradas and the Khashas." (Manusmritti, X.43–44)......There are important references to the warring Mleccha hordes of the Yavanas, Sakas, Kambojas, Pahlavas, etc. in the Bala Kanda of the Valmiki Ramayana......Indologists like Dr H. C. Raychadhury, Dr B. C. Law, Satya Shrava and others see, in these verses, the clear glimpses of the struggles of the Hindus with the mixed invading hordes of the barbaric Sakas, Yavanas, Pahlavas, Kambojas, etc. from north-west. The time frame for these struggles is 2nd century BCE downwards. Dr Raychadhury fixes the date of the present version of the Valmiki Ramayana around/after 2nd century CE......The invading hordes of the Sakas, Kambojas, Yavanas, Pahlavas, Abhiras, etc. from the north-west had entered Punjab, United Province, Sindhu, Rajasthan and Gujarat in large numbers, wrested political control of northern India from the Indo-Aryans and had established their respective kingdoms and principalities in the land of the Indo-Aryans........There is also a distinct prophetic statement in the Mahabharata which says that the Mlechha (Barbaric) kings of the Sakas, Yavanas, Kambojas, Bahlikas, Abhiras, etc. will rule unrighteously in Kaliyuga.

"The title of "Shahi".....In ancient time, the title Shahi appears to be a quite popular royal title in Afghanistan and the north-western areas of the Indian sub-continent. It was used by Achaemenids Sakas, Kushanas, Hunas, Bactrians, by the rulers of Kapisa/Kabul, and Gilgit. In Persian form, the title appears as Kshathiya, Kshathiya Kshathiyanam, Shao of the Kushanas and the Ssaha of Mihirakula (Huna chief). The Kushanas are stated to have adopted the title Shah-in-shahi ("Shaonano shao") in imitation of Achaemenid practice.....An ancient Jaina work, Kalakacarya-kathanaka, says that the rulers of the Sakas who had invaded Ujjaini/Malwa in 62 BCE also used the titles of Sahi and Sahnusahi. Since the title Shahi was used by the rulers of Kapisa/Kabul or Gandhara also in imitation of Kushana "Shao", it has been speculated by some writers that the Shahi dynasty of Kapisa/Kabul or Gandhara was a foreign dynasty and had descended from the Kushans or Turks (Turushkas). However, the title has been used by several rulers irrespective of any racial connotations and this may refute the above speculation."

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

John Hopkins.....Northern New Mexico….November 2012

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Ancient Balkh from Google Earth

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"Balkh (/bɑːlx/; Persian/Pashto: بلخ Balkh; Bactrian: βαχλο ẞaxlə) was an ancient city and centre of Buddhism, Sufism and Zoroastrianism in what is now northern Afghanistan. Today it is a small town in the province of Balkh, about 20 kilometers northwest of the provincial capital, Mazar-e Sharif, and some 74 km (46 mi) south of the Amu Darya. It was one of the major cities of Khorasan, since the latter's earliest history. Marco Polo described Balkh as a "noble and great city".....The ancient city of Balkh was under the Greeks renamed Bactra, giving its name to Bactria. It was mostly known as the centre and capital of Bactria or Tokharistan. Balkh is now for the most part a mass of ruins, situated some 12 km from the right bank of the seasonally flowing Balkh River, at an elevation of about 365 m (1,200 ft).....Outside the town was a large Buddhist monastery later known as Naubahar (or Nava Vihāra in Sanskrit).....French Buddhist Alexandra David-Néel associated Shambhala with Balkh, also offering the Persian Sham-i-Bala, "elevated candle" as an etymology of its name. In a similar vein, the Gurdjieffian J. G. Bennett published speculation that Shambalha was Shams-i-Balkh, a Bactrian sun temple.".....David-Néel, A. "Les Nouvelles Littéraires";1954, p.1

From Google Earth, this is the ruins of the outer walls of the ancient city of Balkh (Bactra, 67E..36N)

"At Balkh is the Kalah (Castle) of Bactra....(aka: Bākhtri, Oddiyana, Daxia, Bāxδi)..... a very wealthy region consisting of the fertile plains of the Oxus River and surrounded by the great Pamir and Hindu Kush mountain ranges. Protected with a mild climate, well irrigated land and rich with gold and gemstones. The palaces of the Balkh region were once decorated with silk, gold, and gemstones. Known as the Land of a Thousand Cities....each had a Calah (Castle, Kala) and a King..... Balkh was the largest and most grand......at it height between 1000 BC but of great importance from 600 BC until 600 AD.... Xuanzhang says: "It has many mountains and river-courses. It produces excellent (shen) horses [literally: ‘divine’ or ‘Heavenly’ horses.).... It was a mounted warrior culture. The Bactrian warriors were famous: they are known to have been part of the army of Xerxes, who invaded Greece in 480. Herodotus mentions their turbans, bows, and spears....high-lifted banners ......By 1000 AD it was in decline then destroyed by the Mongols."

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

October 2012

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