Dahae

The Dahae, also known as the Daae, Dahas

or Dahaeans (Latin: Dahae; Persian: ‫داﻫﺎن‬
Dahae
Daae
Dahan; Ancient Greek: Δάοι, Δάαι, Δαι,
Δάσαι Dáoi, Dáai, Dai, Dasai; Sanskrit: Dasa;
People
Chinese Dayi ⼤益)[1][2] were a people of
ancient Central Asia. A confederation of
three tribes – the Parni, Xanthii and Pissuri –
the Dahae lived in an area now comprising
much of modern Turkmenistan. The area has
consequently been known as Dahestan,
Dahistan and Dihistan.

Relatively little is known about their way of

Location present-day
life. For example, according to the
Turkmenistan
Iranologist A. D. H. Bivar, the capital of "the
ancient Dahae (if indeed they possessed one) Branches Parni, Xanthii and
is quite unknown."[3] Pissuri

The Dahae dissolved, apparently, some time before the beginning of the 1st millennium.
One of the three tribes of the Dahae confederation, the Parni, emigrated to Parthia
(present-day north-eastern Iran), where they founded the Arsacid dynasty.

Contents
Origins

History

See also

References

Bibliography

Origins
The Dahae may be connected to the Dasas (Sanskrit दास Dāsa), mentioned in ancient
Hindu texts such as the Rigveda as enemies of the Ārya. The proper noun Dasa appears
to share the same root as the Sanskrit dasyu, meaning "hostile people" or "demons" (as
well as the Avestan dax́iiu and Old Persian dahyu or dahạyu, meaning "province" or
"mass of people"). Because of these pejorative implications, a tribe called the Dāhī –
mentioned in Avestan sources (Yašt 13.144) as adhering to Zoroastrianism – is not
generally identi�ed with the Dahae.[4] Conversely the Khotanese word daha- meaning
"man" or "male" was linked to the Dahae by the Indologist Sten Konow (1912). This
appears to be cognate with nouns in other Eastern Iranian languages, such as a Persian
word for "servant", dāh and the Sogdian dʾyh or dʾy, meaning "slave woman".[4]

Some scholars also maintain that there were etymological links between the Dahae and
Dacians (Dacii), a people of ancient Eastern Europe.[5] Both were nomadic Indo-
European peoples who shared variant names such as Daoi. David Gordon White, an
Indologist and historian of religion, has reiterated a point made by previous scholars –
that the names of both peoples resemble the Proto-Indo-European root: *dhau meaning
"strangle" and/or a euphemism for "wolf". (Similarly, the Massagetae, the northern
neighbors of the Dahae, have been linked to the Getae, a people related to the Dacians.)

The country neighbouring the Dahae to the south, Verkāna – often known by its Greek
name, Hyrcania (Ὑρκανία) – has sometimes been con�ated with Dahistan. Like Dahae
and Dacia, Verkâna appears to have a root in an Indo-European word for "wolf", the
Proto-Iranian: *vrka.[6] The name of Sadrakarta (later Zadracarta), the capital of
Verkâna, apparently has the same etymological roots, and may be synonymous with one
of two modern cities in Iran: Sari or Gorgan. (The modern name Gorgan is also derived
ultimately from the Proto-Iranian *vrka for "wolf" and is cognate with the New Persian
gorgān (i.e. v > g).[7]

History
Berossus's biography of Cyrus the Great (c. 589–530 BCE) claims that he was killed by
the Dahae near the Syr Darya (Jaxartes) river (modern Uzbekistan/Kazakhstan). [8] Later
sources, such as Alexander the Great and Strabo also claimed that some of the Dahae
were located near the Jaxartes. The Encyclopedia Iranica considers that the Dahae "were
said to have lived in ... wastes northeast of Bactria and east of Sogdiana. At least some
of the Dahae must thus be placed along the eastern fringes of the Karakum desert, near
ancient Margiana..."[4] This suggests that elements of the Dahae were near neighbours
of a now-obscure Bronze Age civilisation known to archaeologists as the Bactria-
Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC).

It is possible that the Dahae were confused in secondary accounts with a

contemporaneous, possibly related people from Balkh (Bactria), who were known in
ancient China as Daxia ⼤夏 (also Ta-Hsia, or Ta-Hia). Whereas the Dahae were known
in Chinese sources as Dayi ⼤益.[1] Later historical accounts place the Dahae entirely on
the south-eastern shores of the Caspian Sea.

The �rst reliable mention of the Dahae is considered to be the Daeva inscription by
Xerxes the Great of Persia (reigned 486–465 BCE). In a list in Old Persian of the peoples
and provinces of the Achaemenid Empire, the Daeva identi�es the Dāha as neighboring
the Saka.

It is unclear whether the Dahae are also the *Dāha or *Dåŋha (only attested in the
feminine Dahi) mentioned by the Avestani Yasht (13.144), which may date from the 5th
century BCE. Moreover, any etymological relationship would not be proof that both
names refer to exactly the same people.[9]

Dahae and Saka tribes are known to have fought at the Battle of Gaugamela (331 BCE),
in which the armies of the Achaemenid Empire were defeated by Alexander the Great.
After the Achaemenid dynasty collapsed the following year, Alexander recruited Dahae
– famed as mounted archers – for the Greek invasion of India.

Some "Saka" coins from the Seleucid era (312–63 BCE) are sometimes attributed to the
Dahae. By the 3rd century BCE, the Parni Dahae had risen to prominence under a chief
named Ashk (c. 250 – c. 211 BCE; Persian: ‫ ارﺷﮏ‬Arshak; Greek Ἀρσάκης; Latin Arsaces).
The Parni invaded Parthia, which had just previously declared independence from the
Seleucids, deposed the reigning monarch, and Ashk crowned himself king (Arsaces I in
classical sources). His successors are often referred to as the Arsacids; they would
eventually assert military control over the entire Iranian plateau. By then, the Parni
would be indistinguishable from the Parthians, and would also be called by that name.

During the 1st Century BCE, the Dahae were reported to have sent envoys to China.
According to the Chinese historian Yu Taishan, a contemporary Chinese account (the
Shijii) mentions separate envoys from Huanqian 驩潛 (Khwarezm), Dayi ⼤益 (the
Dahae) and Suxie 蘇薤 (Soghdia), among others.[1]

In the 1st century BCE, Strabo (Geographika 11.8.1) also refers to the Dahae as a
"Scythian" people, who were located in the vicinity of present-day Turkmenistan.
However, while the terms Scythians and Saka are usually regarded as synonymous, that
is not always the case with Strabo.

See also
Dasa

References
1. ([spp131_chinese_dynasties_western_region.pdf Yu Taishan, 2004, "A History of
the Relationship Between the Western & Eastern Han, Wei, Jin, Northern &
Southern Dynasties and the Western Regions", Sino-Platonic Papers, no. 131
(March)], p. 19.
2. Francisco Rodríguez Adrados (1994). basileutos – daimōn, Vol 4, p. 859: "Δαι"
(https://books.google.com/books?id=Wr51Nma7JLAC&pg=PA859)
3. Bivar 1993, p. 27.
4. François de Blois & Willem Vogelsang, 2011, "Dahae", Encyclopedia Iranica
(http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/dahae) (23 May 2015).
5. David Gordon White, 1991, Myths of the Dog-Man, Chicago, University of Chicago
Press, pp. 27, 239.
 6. The Old Iranian/Old Persian verka "wolf" was recorded in Darius the Great's
Behistun Inscription of 522 BCE), as well as other Old Persian cuneiform
inscriptions. There is evidence for an etymological link between Verkāna and an
Indo-European root meaning "wolf", in related languages including: Avestan
vəhrka, Gilaki and Mazandarani Verk, Modern Persian gorg, and Sanskrit Vŗka (वृक)
and Old Norse Warg.
7. The 'v > g shift is also seen also seen, for example, in two words for "boar": Avestan
varāza and New Persian gorāz.)
8. M. A. Dandamaev, A political history of the Achaemenid empire, Leiden, Brill, 1989,
p. 67
9. de Blois 1993, p. 581.

Bibliography
Bivar, A.D.H. (1993), "The Political History of Iran under the Arsacids", in Fischer,
W.B.; Gershevitch, Ilya, Cambridge History of Iran, 3.1, London: Cambridge UP,
pp. 21–99
de Blois, François (1993), "Dahae I: Etymology", Encyclopaedia Iranica, 6, Costa
Mesa: Mazda, p. 581

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