'.■■■- 



90 HISTORY OF CASHMIR. 



some of the Transactions recorded in the history of Cashmir, and those which 

 took place in the neighbouring countries in collateral periods, especially 

 the Turushka or Scythian invasions of Persia. 



The temporary occupation of Media by the Scythians, took place accord- 

 ing to the most approved computations about the end of the seventh cen- 

 tury before the christian sera and they were defeated and expelled about 

 the beginning of the 6th.* This period should correspond in Cashmirian 

 history, on the principles we have adopted for its chronology, with the reign 

 of Asoka the third prince anterior to the Tartar rulers, and we find it par- A 

 ticulaiiy noticed in his reign that Cashmir was over-run with Mleclichhas 

 or barbarians, possibly some of the fugitives from the power of the Persian 

 monarch, who endeavoured in their retreat to establish themselves in 

 Cashmir. 



The Scythian subjugation of Media appears as a single and transitory 

 revolution as recorded by Herodotus, but in the pages of the Persian wri- 

 ters it occurs, only as one.of various vicissitudes, in the long struggle for 

 superiority between the sovereigns of Iran and Turan. This war began it ap- 

 pears with Feridun, whom modern writers agree to place about 748 B. C.f 

 Kai Kaus according to the Persians, and Cyrus according to the Greeks, in- 

 vaded the Massagetce and was defeated if not slain in the engagement. It 

 was in the reign of this prince and that of his successor, Kai Khosru, 

 that the prowess of Rustem was displayed so fatally in opposition to 

 Afrasiab, and the armies of Turan, and whatever Grecian princes may be 

 regarded as the representative of his masters, it is unquestionable that the 

 periods in which they reigned approach to those of the Tartar conquest of 

 Cashmir. Perhaps however it may be still more satisfactorily associated 

 with events, undoubtedly posterior to the wars, in which Rustem's celebrity 



* According to Larcher (Traduction D'Herodote) The first 633 B.C. and the second 605 B.C. Ac- 

 cording to Volney (Chronologie D'Herodote.) The Scythian invasion occurred B.C. 625 and their ex- 

 pu sion in 598. 



f Malcolm, i. 213. 220. Kennedy, (Bombay Transactions,) ii. 120. 



