Tocharians
193710
220693767
2008-06-21T03:03:51Z
Phlyming
3364150
/* Historic role */
{{Indo-European topics}}
The '''Tocharians''' were the [[Tocharian language|Tocharian]]-speaking inhabitants of the [[Tarim basin]], making them the easternmost speakers of an [[Indo-European language]] in antiquity.
==Name==
The term '''Tocharians''' has a somewhat complicated history. It is based on the ethnonym ''Tokharoi'' ([[Greek language|Greek]] Τόχαροι) used by Greek historians (e.g. [[Ptolemy]] VI, 11, 6). The first mention of the Tocharians appeared in the [[1st century BCE]], when [[Strabo]] presented them as a [[Scythian]] tribe, and explained that the Tokharians — together with the Assianis, Passianis and Sakaraulis — took part in the destruction of the [[Greco-Bactrian kingdom]] in the second half of the [[2nd century BCE]]:
: ''"Most of the [[Scythians]], beginning from the [[Caspian Sea]], are called [[Dahae]] Scythae, and those situated more towards the east [[Massagetae]] and [[Saka|Sacae]]; the rest have the common appellation of Scythians, but each separate tribe has its peculiar name. All, or the greatest part of them, are nomads. The best known tribes are those who deprived the Greeks of [[Bactria]]na, the [[Asii]], Pasiani, '''Tochari''', and Sacarauli, who came from the country on the other side of the [[Jaxartes]], opposite the Sacae and [[Sogdians|Sogdiani]]."'' <br>([[Strabo]], [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Strab.+11.8.1 11-8-1])
These Tochari are identified with the [[Yuezhi]] and one of their major tribes, the [[Kushans]].{{Fact|date=December 2007}} The geographical term ''[[Tokharistan]]'' usually refers to [[1st millennium]] [[Bactria]] (Chinese ''[[Daxia]]'' 大夏).
Today, the term is associated with the [[Indo-European languages]] known as "[[Tocharian language|Tocharian]]". Based on a Turkic reference to Tocharian A as ''twqry'', these languages were associated with the Kushan ruling class, but the exact relation of the speakers of these languages and the Kushan ''Tokharoi'' is uncertain, and some consider "Tocharian languages" a misnomer. Tocharian A is also known as East Tocharian, or Turfanian (of the city of [[Turfan]]), and Tocharian B is also known as West Tocharian, or Kuchean (of the city of [[Kucha]]){{Fact|date=December 2007}}
The term is so widely used, however, that this question is somewhat academic. Tocharians in the modern sense are, then, defined as the speakers of the Tocharian languages. These were originally [[nomad]]s{{Fact|date=March 2007}}, and lived in today's [[Xinjiang]] ([[Tarim basin]]). The native name of the historical Tocharians of the [[6th century|6th]] to [[8th century|8th]] centuries was, according to [[J. P. Mallory]], possibly ''kuśiññe'' "Kuchean" (Tocharian B), "of the kingdom of Kucha and Agni", and ''ārśi'' (Tocharian A); one of the Tocharian A texts has ''ārśi-käntwā'', "In the tongue of Arsi" (''ārśi'' is probably cognate to ''argenteus'', i.e. "shining, brilliant"). According to [[Douglas Q. Adams]], the Tocharians may have called themselves ''ākñi'', meaning "borderers, marchers".
==Archaeology==
[[Image:QizilDonors.jpg|thumb|left|300px|"Tocharian donors", possibly the "Knights with Long Swords" of Chinese accounts, depicted with light hair and light eye color and dressed in [[Sassanian]] style. 6th century AD fresco, [[Qizil]], [[Tarim Basin]]. Graphical analysis reveals that the third donor from left is performing a [[Buddhist]] [[Mudra#Vitarka_Mudr.C4.81|Vitarka Mudra]] gesture. These frescoes are associated with annotations in [[Tocharian languages|Tocharian]] and [[Sanskrit]] made by their painters.]]
The [[Tarim mummies]] suggest that precursors of these easternmost speakers of an Indo-European language may have lived in the region of the [[Tarim Basin]] from around [[1800 BC]] until finally they were assimilated by [[Uyghur]] Turks in the 9th century AD.{{Fact|date=April 2008}}
There is evidence both from the [[mummies]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/chinamum/taklamakan.html|title=The Takla Makan Mummies |publisher=PBS|date=|accessdate=17 January|accessyear=2008}}</ref> and [[China|Chinese]] writings.<ref>[[Xuanzang]] is said to have reported upon this [http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/exhibit/religion/buddhism/tarim/tarim.html The Oases of the Northern Tarim Basin at http://depts.washington.edu]</ref>
A later group of Tocharians were the [[Kushans]] and maybe some Iranian tribes of the [[Hephthalites]] whose Iranian population also settled in modern Afghanistan, North-Eastern Iran, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkestan, whereas the nomadic Turkic ones were defeated by Bahram Gur and the Gok-Turks, who pushed them over the Hindukush mountains to Sindh (Pakistan) and North-West India.
The Tarim Basin mummies ([[1800 BC]]) and the [[Tocharian languages|Tocharian]] texts and frescoes from the Tarim Basin ([[800|AD 800]]) have been found in the same general geographical area, and are both connected to an Indo-European origin. The mummies and the frescoes both point to [[White (people)|White]] types with light eyes and hair color. However it is unknown if the frescos and Tarim Basin mummies are directly connected.
{{Harvcoltxt|Mallory|Mair|2000|pp=294–296, 314–318}} argue that the [[Tocharian languages]] were introduced to the [[Tarim]] and [[Turpan]] basins from the [[Afanasevo culture]] to their immediate north. The [[Afanasevo culture]] (''c.'' 3500–2500 BC) displays cultural and genetic connections with the Indo-European-associated cultures of the European steppe yet predates the specifically [[Indo-Iranians|Indo-Iranian]]-associated [[Andronovo culture]] (''c.'' 2000–900 BC) enough to isolate the [[Tocharian languages]] from [[Indo-Iranian languages|Indo-Iranian]] linguistic innovations like [[satemization]].<ref name=mm2000>{{Harvcoltxt|Mallory|Mair|2000}}</ref>{{rp|260, 294–296, 314–318}}<!--This needs sorting out by a grownup:[Textile]] analysis has shown some similarities to the [[Iron Age]] civilizations of [[Europe]] dating from 800 BC, including woven [[twill]] and [[tartan]] patterns strikingly similar to Celtic tartans from Northwest Europe. One of the unusual finds with one of the mummies was a classical [[pointy hat]] (similar in shape to a [[witch's hat]]), worn by some European cultures in Ancient and Medieval times, suggesting very ancient Indo-European roots for this tradition. The female mummies also wore the same kind of skirts as have been found preserved in graves from the [[Nordic Bronze Age]]. This TEXTILE analysis has been authoritatively been debunked (a PBS documentary {{Fact|date=December 2007}} on the Tocharians, states that this so-called analysis was erroneous and has been excised from subsequently editions of the PBS documentaries on the Tocharians - pretty idiotic to leave this myth in your article.<!--If the following piece of information HAS to be in the text to combat "white supremacy", as the anon phrases it, there should be more explanations of its relevance. It should also be referenced, especially the Lappland hats intrigue me: Similar hats were traditionally worn by women of Lapland, and in ancient times by Saka (Scythians),and shown on Hindu temples and Hittite reliefs.-->{{Fact|date=January 2008}}
==Language==
{{main|Tocharian languages}}
[[Image:Tocharian.JPG|thumb|350px|Wooden plate with inscriptions in the [[Tocharian language]]. [[Kucha]], [[China]], 5th-8th century. [[Tokyo National Museum]].]]
The Tocharians appear to have originally spoken two distinct languages of the [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] [[Tocharian languages|Tocharian family]], an Eastern ("A") form and a Western ("B") form. According to some, only the Eastern ("A") form can be properly called "Tocharian", as the native name for the Western form is referred to as [[Kuchean]] (see below). Commonalities between the Tocharian languages and various other Indo-European language families (as with [[Celtic languages|Celtic]], [[Germanic languages|Germanic]], [[Balto-Slavic languages|Balto-Slavic]], even [[Italic languages|Italic]] or [[Greek language|Greek]]) have been suggested, but the evidence does not support any close relationship with any other family. The only consensus is that Tocharian was already far enough removed, at an early date, from the other eastern Indo-European proto-languages ([[Balto-Slavic languages|Proto-Balto-Slavic]] and [[Indo-Iranian languages|Proto-Indo-Iranian]]), not to share some of the common changes that PBS and PII share, such as [[Centum-Satem isogloss|early palatalization of velars]].
Tocharian A of the eastern regions seems to have declined in use as a popular language or mother tongue faster than did Tocharian B of the west. Tocharian A speakers probably yielded their original language to [[Turkic language]] of immigrating Turkic peoples, while Tocharian B speakers were more insulated from outside linguistic influences.{{Fact|date=December 2007}} It appears that Tocharian A ultimately became a [[liturgical language]], no longer a living one, at the same time that Tocharian B was still widely spoken in daily life. Among the monasteries of the lands inhabited by Tocharian B speakers, Tocharian A seems to have been used in ritual alongside the Tocharian B of daily life.{{Fact|date=December 2007}}
Besides the religious Tocharian texts, the texts include monastery correspondence and accounts, commercial documents, caravan permits, [[medicine|medical]] and [[magic and religion|magical]] texts, and a [[love poem]]. Their manuscript fragments, of the [[8th century|8th centuries]], suggest that they were no longer either as nomadic{{Fact|date=March 2007}} or "[[barbarian]] (''hu'')" as the Chinese had considered them.{{Fact|date=December 2007}}
<br clear=all>
According to the theory of former USSR scholar Ü.A. Zuev<ref>Zuev, Ü. A. 2002, ''Early Türks: Outline of history and ideology'', p.6.</ref> the Tocharians in the [[Khitan|Kidan]] state in the territory of [[Manchuria]] spoke proto-[[Mongolian language|Mongolian]] language, the medieval Tochars ([[Oguz|Dügers]]) in the future [[Turkmenia]] spoke [[Oguz]], and the Tochars ([[Ossetia|Digors]]) in the Northern [[Caucasus]] spoke in [[Alanian]], i.e. in [[Sogdian language|Sogdian-Türkic]] per [[Biruni]]. Meanwhile, Zuev concludes, their ideological traditions in many respects remained similar.
==Historic role==
[[Image:Asia_001ad.jpg|thumb|300px|Asia in AD 1, showing the location of the Tocharian/Yue-Chi tribes and their neighbors.]]
[[Image:Central Asian Buddhist Monks.jpeg|thumb|200px|Blue-eyed [[Central Asia]]n (Tocharian?) and East-Asian Buddhist monks, [[Bezeklik]], Eastern [[Tarim Basin]], 9th-10th century.]]
The Tocharians, living along the [[Silk Road]], had contacts with the Chinese, Persians, Indian and Turkic tribes. They might be the same as, or were related to, the Indo-European [[Yuezhi]] who fled from their settlements in eastern [[Tarim Basin]] after attacks by the [[Xiongnu]] in the [[2nd century BC]] ([[Shiji]] Chinese historical Chronicles, Chap. 123) and expanded south to [[Bactria]] and northern India to form the [[Kushan Empire]].
The Tocharians who remained in the [[Tarim Basin]] adopted [[Buddhism]], which, like their alphabet, came from northern India in the first century of the 1st millennium, through the proselytism of [[Kushan]] monks. The [[Kushans]] and the Tocharians seem to have played a part in the [[Silk Road transmission of Buddhism]] to China.{{Fact|date=December 2007}} Many apparently also practised some variant of [[Manichaeanism]].{{Fact|date=December 2007}}
Protected by the [[Taklamakan Desert]] from [[steppe]] [[nomads]], the Tocharian culture survived past the [[7th century]].{{Fact|date=December 2007}}
==In Sanskrit literature==
{{main|Tushara Kingdom}}
[[Sanskrit literature]] in numerous instances refers to the Tocharians as ''[[Tushara Kingdom|Tukhāra]]'' (also ''Tuṣāra'', ''Tuḥkhāra'', ''Tukkhāra'').
The Atharavaveda-[[Parishishta]]<ref>Ed Bolling & Negelein, 41.3.3</ref> associates them with the [[Saka]]s, Yavanas and the Bahlikas.<ref>''Saka. Yavana.Tushara.Bahlikashcha''. </ref> It also juxtaposes the Kambojas with the Bahlikas.<ref>''Kamboja-Bahlika...''...AV-Par, 57.2.5; cf Persica-9, 1980, p 106, Dr Michael Witzel.</ref> This shows the Tusharas probably were neighbors to the [[Shakas]], [[Bactria|Bahlikas]], [[Yavana]]s and the [[Kambojas]] in [[Transoxiana|Transoxian]] region.
The [[Rishikas]] are said to be same people as the [[Yuezhi]].<ref>(India as Known to Panini, p 64, Dr V. S. Aggarwala, Dr V. S. Aggarwala.</ref> The [[Kushana]]s or Kanishkas are also the same people.<ref>Bhartya Itihaas ki Ruprekha, 1941, Dr J. C. Vidyalnkara </ref> M. A. Stein proposed that the Tukharas are same as [[Yuezhi]].<ref>Rajatarangini of Kalhana, I, p 6, trans. M. A. Stein (1900).</ref> P. C. Bagchi holds that the Yuezhi, Tocharioi and Tushara were identical.<ref>India and Central Asia, 1955, p 24.</ref>. The [[Parama Kambojas]] of the Trans-Pamirs, mentioned in the [[Mahabharata]] are said to be related to the [[Rishikas]] <ref>''The Deeds of Harsha: Being a Cultural Study of Bāṇa's Harshacharita'', 1969, p 199, Vasudeva Sharana Agrawala.</ref> who are placed in the [[Sakadvipa]] (or [[Scythia]]).<ref>''India as Known to Pāṇini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashṭādhyāyī'', 1953, p 64, Vasudeva Sharana Agrawala - ''India; A Grammatical Dictionary of Sanskrit (Vedic)'': 700 Complete Reviews of the ..., 1953, p 62, Vasudeva Sharana Agrawala, Surya Kanta, Jacob Wackernagel, Arthur Anthony Macdonell, Peggy Melcher - India.</ref> B. N. Puri takes the Kambojas to be a branch of the Tukharas.<ref>Puri, B. N. ''Buddhism in Central Asia'', p. 90.</ref> Some scholars state that the Kambojas were a branch of the Yuezhi themselves.<ref> ''Journal of Tamil Studies'', 1969, pp. 86, 87, International Institute of Tamil Studies - Tamil philology.</ref>
''Sabha Parva'' of [[Mahabharata]] states that the [[Parama Kambojas]], Lohas and the Rishikas were ''allied tribes''.<ref>''Mahabharata'' 2.26.25: See: trans. by Kisari Mohan Ganguli [http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02026.htm].</ref> Like the "Parama Kambojas" ("most distant Kambojas"), the Rishikas of the [[Transoxiana|Transoxian]] region are similarily styled as "most distant" or "Parama Rishikas"<ref>''Mahabharata'' 2.26.26.</ref>. Based on the syntactical construction of the Mahabharata verses 5.5.15
and 2.27.25, Ishwa Mishra believes <ref>See: Indiancivilization Forum, messages No 64552 dated Sept 27, 2004; Message 64654, dated September 29, 2004 , Adhin88 (alias Ishwa Misra); Jathistory Forum, Message 454, Dated April 15, 2003, Ishwa Misra.</ref> that the Rishikas were a section of the [[Kambojas]] i.e. Parama Kambojas.
==References==
{{reflist}}
==See also==
* [[Tocharian languages]]
* [[Tarim mummies]]
* [[Kizil Caves]]
* [[Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves]]
* [[Kucha]]
* [[Togarmah]]
* [[Göktürks|突厥 Tūjué]]
* [[Hephthalite]]
* [[Kushan Empire]]
* [[Sogdiana]]
* [[Yuezhi]]
* [[Rishikas]]
* [[Parama Kambojas]]
==Books and magazines==
Note: Recent discoveries have rendered obsolete some of René Grousset's classic ''The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia'', published in 1939, which, however, still provides a broad background against which to assess more modern detailed studies.
*Baldi, Philip. 1983. ''An Introduction to the Indo-European Languages.'' Carbondale. Southern Illinois University Press.
* Barber, Elizabeth Wayland. 1999. ''The Mummies of Ürümchi''. London. Pan Books.
* Beekes, Robert. 1995. ''Comparative Indo-European Linguistics: An Introduction.'' Philadelphia. John Benjamins.
*Hemphill, Brian E. and J.P. Mallory. 2004. "Horse-mounted invaders from the Russo-Kazakh steppe or agricultural colonists from Western Central Asia? A craniometric investigation of the Bronze Age settlement of Xinjiang" in ''American Journal of Physical Anthropology'' vol. 125 pp 199ff.
* Lane, George S. 1966. "On the Interrelationship of the Tocharian Dialects," in ''Ancient Indo-European Dialects'', eds. Henrik Birnbaum and Jaan Puhvel. Berkeley. University of California Press.
* {{Citation | last =Mallory | first =J. P. | author-link =J. P. Mallory | last2 =Mair | first2 =Victor H. | author2-link =Victor H. Mair | year =2000 | title =The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West | place =London | publisher =Thames & Hudson}}.
* Walter, Mariko Namba 1998 ''Tocharian Buddhism in Kucha: Buddhism of Indo-European Centum Speakers in Chinese Turkestan before the 10th Century C.E.'' Sino-Platonic Papers No. 85. October, 1998.
* Xu, Wenkan 1995 “The Discovery of the Xinjiang Mummies and Studies of the Origin of the Tocharians” ''The Journal of Indo-European Studies'', Vol. 23, Number 3 & 4, Fall/Winter 1995, pp.357-369.
* Xu, Wenkan 1996 “The Tokharians and Buddhism” In: ''Studies in Central and East Asian Religions'' 9, pp. 1-17.[http://61.54.131.141:8010/Resource/Book/Edu/JXCKS/TS010057/0001_ts010057.htm]
* Zuev, Ü.A. 2002, ''Early Türks: Outline of history and ideology'', Almaty, "Daik-Press" ISBN 9985-441-52-9 (In Russian)
==External links==
*[http://www.omniglot.com/writing/tocharian.htm Tocharian alphabet.]
*[http://titus.fkidg1.uni-frankfurt.de/didact/idg/toch/tochbr.htm Tocharian alphabet]
*[http://www.wordgumbo.com/ie/cmp/toch.htm Modern studies are developing a Tocharian dictionary.]
*[http://www.oxuscom.com/eyawtkat.htm Mark Dickens, 'Everything you always wanted to know about Tocharian'.]
*[http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-1362674044731979808&q=tocharians&total=10&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=2 ''Mysterious Mummies of China''] by [[Nova (TV series)|Nova]] on [[Google Video]]
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[[Category:Scythians]]
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