Pakthas

The Pakthas were one of the tribes that fought against Sudas in the Dasarajna battle. Heinrich Zimmer connects them with a tribe already mentioned by Herodotus ("Pactyans"), and with Pakhtuns in Afghanistan and Pakistan. [Macdonell, A.A. and Keith, A.B. 1912. The Vedic Index of Names and Subjects.] [Map of the Median Empire, showing "Pactyans" territory in what is now Afghanistan... [http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/shepherd/oriental_empire.jpgLink] ]

The Greek historian Herodotus first mentioned a people called "Pactyan" living on the eastern frontier of the Persian Satrapy Arachosia as early as the 1st millennium BCE. [ [http://www.piney.com/Heredotus7.html The History of Herodotus Chapter 7, Written 440 B.C.E, Translated by George Rawlinson] ] It has been conjectured that these may be the ancestors of today's Pashtuns, but there is no specific evidence for this. In addition, the Rig-Veda mentions a tribe called the "Paktues" (in the region of "Pakhat") as inhabiting present-day Afghanistan and some have speculated that they may have been early ancestors of the Pashtuns, but this too remains unproven. [ [http://www.geocities.com/turlandi2000/history1.html Book review-History of the Pathans: The Sarabani Pathans Volume I by Haroon Rashid] ] The Bactrians appear to have spoken a related Middle Iranian language and it is conceivable that some Pakhtuns are at least partially related to them.

See also

*Alexandria in Arachosia
*Kandahar
*Pashtun people
*Demographics of Pakistan

References and footnotes

External links