|
| |
Naming
The term Tocharians has a somewhat complicated history. It is based on the
ethnonym Tokharoi (Greek Τ?χαροι) 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 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 Bactriana, the Asii, Pasiani, Tochari, and Sacarauli,
who came from the country on the other side of the Jaxartes, opposite the Sacae
and Sogdiani."
(Strabo, 11-8-1)
These Tochari are identified with the Yuezhi and one of their major tribes, the
Kushans. 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". 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)
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 nomads , and lived in today's
Xinjiang (Tarim basin). The native name of the historical Tocharians of the 6th
to 8th centuries was, according to J. P. Mallory, possibly ku?i??e "Kuchean"
(Tocharian B), "of the kingdom of Kucha and Agni", and ār?i (Tocharian A); one
of the Tocharian A texts has ār?i-k?ntwā, "In the tongue of Arsi" (ār?i is
probably cognate to argenteus, i.e. "shining, brilliant"). According to Douglas
Q. Adams, the Tocharians may have called themselves āk?i, meaning "borderers,
marchers".
| |
|
