Source: here.
‘Nysa in India’ & the Related Narratives
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The Question of ‘Greek Descent’
The claims that these Greek settlements, either Alexandrian or pre-Alexandrian left such an imprint on the Indian sub-continent that some tribes believe themselves to be their descendants has been alluded to in the start of the post. Why is that? And how is that connected to the ‘Nysa in India’? To explain the point further – the ancient Indian north-west, the main region with which this post is concerned, is also the habitat of some of the peculiar tribes, with fascinating culture and traditions. In the current times, the Kalash tribe in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan represents remnants of such people. They belong to the Dardic Indo-Aryan group of people. Before late nineteenth century, the Kalash were part of a much more widespread zone of the Dardic Indo-Aryan indigenous culture that included the erstwhile Kafiristan (the land of infidels for Kafir means an infidel) region of Afghanistan whose people were called the Kafirs. Despite the violent rise of Islam in the region, they had for a very long time preserved their indigenous religion and culture. However, in 1896-7, they were forcefully converted to Islam by Amir of Afghanistan, Abdur Rahim Khan (Cacopardo, 2011: 53) and the region was renamed as Nuristan (the land of light i.e. the light of Islam). The Kalash survived because they were on the Indian side (now Pakistani side) of the Durand Agreement of 1893 between Afghanistan and the British Colonial Government of India.
Interestingly, there even were claims by some of these people themselves (including the Kalash and the erstwhile Kafirs) that they were the descendants of the Greeks. Though, they were claiming their descent not from the tradition of Nysa but through either Alexander or his generals or members of his entourage left in India.
The Genetic Studies
Before moving further in analysis of these narratives, explaining the similarities and what could be the reasons of these parallelisms and their various aspects, it is important to declare at the outset that such claims have been found baseless after various genetic studies done on the topic in the twentieth century.
A genetic study done back in 2004 found that Kalash were genetically distinct and that the Burusho and Pathan populations are genetically close to each other and the Greek population. The study claimed that – “the admixture estimates suggest a small Greek contribution to the genetic pool of the Burusho and Pathan and demonstrate that these two northern Pakistani populations share a common Indo-European gene pool that probably predates Alexander’s invasion.”⁴⁹
Another genetic study done in 2007 of “the Y diversity within Greeks and three Pakistani populations – the Burusho, Kalash and Pathan – who claim descent from Greek soldiers,” compared Y lineages within these populations and re-evaluated their suggested Greek origins. The study excluded a large Greek contribution to any Pakistani population, confirming previous studies.[^50] But, the study claimed strong evidence in support of the Greek origins for a small proportion of Pathans.
New results from more advanced genetic study in 2015 found no evidence of any recent admixture in the Kalash. It stated that “despite the claims that the Kalash are descendants of Alexander’s soldiers, this wasnot supported by Y chromosomal analysis of the Kalash by this study.” Instead, they observed that “the Kalash share a substantial proportion of drift with a Paleolithic ancient Siberian hunter-gatherer, who has been suggested to represent a third northern Eurasian genetic ancestry component for present-day Europeans.”[^51]
The latest genetic research in 2019 by Narsimhan et al. found that Kalash had the highest ANI (Ancestral North Indian) ancestry proportion.**⁵² **Therefore, successive genetic studies unfounded the claims of any pre or post Alexandrian or Greek descent in the Kalash population and founded the claims of any recent substantial Greek admixture to be baseless. However, many earlier scholars since the nineteenth century had suggested that these tribes of the Kafirs and the Kalash represented the Nysa of India mentioned in the western classical sources. What were these similarities that gave them such impressions? And, if these people are not connected to the Greeks (as confirmed by successive genetic studies), then how can we explain these commonalities?
Explaining the Parallelisms
When the British encountered these tribes particularly the Kafirs, their habits, culture, religion and their ‘European’ physical appearance intrigued them. Fairly early on, there were speculations by these British travelers, the writers and scholars that they could be connected to the Nysa of India mentioned in the western classical sources. There were some similarities with the culture of this region and some finds that seemingly supported their connection to the Nysa of India founded by Dionysus. The earlier claims were mostly related to the Kafirs and not the Kalash as the Kalash tribe was by and large ignored before and came into the focus of studies only in the 20^(th) century and even in these later studies, any Greek connection – Alexander or not was mostly not mentioned. The claims of any Greek connection to the Kalash are very recent.[^53]
Coffins
The practice of the Kafirs of keeping the dead body of the departed in a wooden coffin without burial at the outskirts of the village (Wilber, 1962: 51) reminded the earlier scholars of the wooden coffins mentioned by Curtius with regard to the Nysaeans. The funeral customs of the Siah Posh tribe (the former Kafirs inhabiting the Bashgal Valley) were documented by M. Mohun Lal who accompanied Lieutenant Burnes on his journey. The details were based on the oral report of a Muslim mufti who visited the tribe. –
“The funeral of the Siah Posh people is triumphantly solemnized. The corpse is generally attended by young men, who sing, skip, dance, and play upon drums. The deceased, unwashed is carried away upon the shoulders of men, in a large box, as among the Muhammedeans. It is taken upon the top of a high mountain, and put open to the sun. They sacrifice a cow, and give a feast to the attendantsof the funeral. Then they return home, and do not weep at all.’ After sixty days, when the body is putrefied, and eaten by birds, the women of the family go in an assembly upon the mountain. They pick up the bones, and after washing them in a stream, they bring them home, sit round them, and then mourn for a short time; after this, the men come and convey the bones, they say, “This is the heaven for you.”[^54]
Again the mention of wooden coffins this early on in the nineteenth century gave fire to the narrative that these Kafirs were descendants of the Greeks of Nysa. A carved wooden effigy of the deceased was placed in the cemetery amid feasting and dancing continued for two to three days.[^55] The same is in the case of Kalash where they also use wooden coffins. The importance of the wooden boxes however, is also attested in the traditions of the native culture of the Gilgit region which connects them to larger Dardic traditions. In the Gilgit traditions, cremation was practiced in some areas, the ashes being buried in wooden boxes or earthen jars (Jettmar, 2002: 21). They also believed that witches rode on wooden boxes and were believed to devour the souls of their neighbours, even their own sons during black masses. “In such secret meetings they were assisted by a henchman, feigning reluctance, who had to slaughter the alter ego of the victim shaped as a goat. On the other hand, the witches themselves were haunted by another type of spiritual specialist who might occasionally succeed in saving the endangered person otherwise destined to die after a few days” (Jettmar, 2002: 20).
Juniper and goat
The importance of juniper in the rituals of Kafir-Kalash tribes has been used by some to connect them to the ‘Dionysiac’ tradition. The Kafirs also kept goats, cattle and until recently sacrificed cows and goats to their gods;[^56] this practice again suggested the possibility to some scholars that they could be related to Dionysus because goat sacrifice was a big part of worship of Dionysus. The goat/ibex cult always played a big role in the religion of the Kafirs. The Kalash also gave huge importance to the goats in their religion (Parkes, 1987: 645). The reason is that goat husbandry was always much more prominent in the region than that of cattle. While the Kafirs did use to sacrifice cows, in the Kalash tradition, cattle are considered unclean and impure animals and so the consumption of beef, cow’s milk and butter were avoided.**⁵⁷ **Markhor (capra falconeri) – a giant wild caprid with beautiful spiraling horns are still considered by the Kalash people to be extremely sacred. Such is the value of these animals that goat-markhor horns are one the most prominent motif of the Kalash ritual iconography (Parkes, 1987: 647). Interestingly, the ritual importance of juniper and goat – both the ibex and markhor (collectively called mayaro) is well attested in the Shin traditions of Gilgit as well.[^58]
Therefore, being situated in the mountainous region, environment played a big role in increasing the importance of goats/ibex. Their significance in the culture and art of the region can be explained by the role that these animals play in the economy of these tribes which consequently led to their religious importance as well.
Ivy and wine
The growth of ivy in these regions, as mentioned above, was also cited by the western classical authors as the sign that Dionysus founded the city of Nysa. And, growth of ivy in the region of erstwhile Kafirs-Kalash therefore became also a point that related them to Nysa.
The prominent use of wine in the culture of these tribes contributed to more claims by some scholars that there was a genuine connection.
However, as intriguing as it is to see similarities of these cultures with the traditions of the Dionysiac worship, these similarities can be easily explained as representing the indigenous religion of this region which has its roots in the Dardic Indo-Aryan/Indo-Iranian continuum (Cacopardo, 2011: 70). And these native bases were considered even back in the nineteenth century by many scholars when the outcome of the genetic studies was not known and many disagreed with the theories that they had any Greek or recent European roots. The roots of these traditions were found, even back then, not in the Greek traditions but the ancient Indo-Aryan/Iranian culture. For example, Wilson[^59] in his translation of the Viṣṇu Purāṇa had noticed the similarity in the name of the Caumojees (Kam-Kamtoz)⁶⁰ of Kafiristan to the ancient Kāmboja-s who he thought may have retreated to the mountains before the advance of the Turk tribes.
Dionysiac claims
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History of the Claims of ‘Greek Descent’
Badakhshan
When it is confirmed that the Kafir-Kalash traditions and culture have their ancient independent roots in the native Dardic, Indo-Aryan/Indo-Iranian culture of the north-west of the Indian sub-continent, it is even more intriguing to think why these tribes themselves have made claims of being descendants of either Alexander himself or his generals and soldiers that he left behind in India.
Chronologically, the first time we hear of the claim by a people from the East of being Alexander’s descendants is in the accounts of the famous Venetian traveler – Marco Polo. Scholar Cacopardo informs us that this claim was made by the Shahs of Badakhshan who considered themselves direct descendants from Alexander’s marriage with the daughter of Darius, and for that reason all the kings of that line called themselves Zulkarnein, in memory of their great ancestor (Cacopardo, 2011: 48). Babur in his work Babur Nama also confirms the claim and says that these rulers descended from Iskander Filkus,[^71] Filkus/Filikus being the Oriental corruption of the name Philip, and the father of Alexander. However, this royal dynasty of Badakhshan was later replaced at the end of the 16^(th) century by an Uzbek dynasty who used the title of Mir, instead of Shah. The members of this family when spread out after the fall of their rule, they took with them the claim of being Alexander’s descendants.
Mirza Haidar Dughlat (1895: 107), the author of Tarikh-i-Rashidi, who was a relative and contemporary of Babur also states the connection with Sikander Zulkarnain (Cacopardo, 2011: 49). The British authors of the nineteenth century also continued to make these claims of Greek ancestry. Again similar claims were made by the rulers form nearby principalities like the ruler of Darwaz and the ruler of Talikhan (Cacopardo, 2011: 49). This continued until it reached a point when all the princes of upper Oxus were claiming descent from Alexander. Cacopardo is of the opinion that the source of all these claims was ultimately one and the same – the royal dynasty of Badakhshan.[^72]
South of Hindu Kush
South of the Hindu Kush, the claims of Greek ancestry were made in the twentieth century by Mir of Nager. As there was no trace of such claims in the oral traditions of the place, caco suggests that it could have been made to seek favours from the British (Cacopardo, 2011: 49). Similar lack of coherence was seen in the case of claims from Skardu which seems to have arisen from the tradition that Skardu as a town was established by Alexander and was called Iskanderia by the natives. The tradition of the town being established by Alexander was later transformed to ancestral claims (Cacopardo, 2011: 50).
Another connection to Alexander is found in Tarikh-i-Hunza, an early 19th century work by Muhammad Riza Beg, where a Shah Rais, ruler of Hunza, Nager and Gilgit is associated with Alexander the Great and is said to have been nominated as a governor of Gilgit by him. This claim very interestingly is also traced in the end by Cacopardo to the royal dynasty of Badakhshan to whom this Shah Rais was actually related. As mentioned above, these dethroned royals and their relatives found their way south of the Hindu Kush after the usurpation of their throne in Badakhshan by the Uzbeks (Cacopardo, 2011: 50). Again, like a fountain head, the same source can be found in the claims by the last ruling dynasty of Chitral, the Kator lineage.[^73]
As most of these claims are now found related to the dethroned Badakhshan royal family, another independent source for the Greek ancestry claim is traced from the regions of Swat and Bajour whose princes, who styled themselves Sultani, claimed descent from a daughter of Alexander (Cacopardo, 2011: 51). The mention of this is apparently found in Ain-i-Akbari of Abul Fazl. These princes were later dethroned by Yusufzai Pathans. A late eighteenth century account also states about a village in the Bajaur region – “…a small village called Kanbat, in which a few hundred families of the former race – the Arab – dwell, who are styled Iskandarì.”[^74]
Islamic lore
The root of all these claims going back to the Marco Polo account has to be seen in the context of the religion of Islam. To explain this, Cacopardo quotes a very interesting extract from Olaf Caroe which gives a context to these oral traditions:
“almost certainly have their origin in the body of western classical learning translated into Arabic in the days of the Abbasids of Baghdad, and are part of the Yunani or Greek lore which so largely influenced Islamic literae humaniores. It was thus that the great deeds of Sikandar Zul-qarnain – Alexander of the Two Horns – became a part of the folk-lore of the Muslim world.”
This clearly provides a reason for the title Zul-qarnain used by the major source for the Greek ancestry claims – the royal Badakhshan family because Zul-qarnain is an Arabic epithet used for Alexander by the Qurán. Therefore, the ultimate connection of these claims is found in the Islamic traditions and folklores.
Modern European influence
Coming particularly to the claims by the erstwhile Kafirs, Cacopardo states that Mountstuart Elphinstone, the first British envoy to the King of Kabul in 1809, when heard about these people (who were still polytheistic), he considered the possibility of them being the same people mentioned in Ain-i-Akbari, who traced their descent from Alexander. He sent an envoy there to confirm his hunch, which he himself later found baseless in his book.⁷⁵ But, the topic was intriguing enough to have captured the imagination of Europeans about some long lost tribe from Europe in such distant lands. As earlier mentioned, even in the nineteenth century, various scholars found the evidence lacking and stated their opinions clearly against such possibility. But, the kinship theory continued to be suggested by many authors. And the speculation that these people could even be the descendents of the Nyseans also found some traction at the time.
In fact, the Kafirs themselves seem to have taken on this idea, being enamoured by this possibility as is shown in one instance where a delegation of Kafirs presented themselves in front of the British in a military camp near Jalalabad in 1839 to Sir William Macnaghten and claimed relationship with the fair skinned British (Wilber, 1962: 51). Cacopardo suggests that they most likely were influenced to assume such connection by their common traits of a fairer complexion, of drinking wine, and of not being Muslims (Cacopardo, 2011: 54). But he also points out that they already might have been prone to this belief due to their Islamic neighbours who were the first to find them similar to the Europeans.[^76] In fact, earlier whenever investigations were done in order to find their origins, it was mostly believed by the Kafirs themselves that they were actually of Arabic descent from the Quraish tribe, an obvious fictitious claim found throughout the Hindu Kush-Karakoram which as scholar caco explains has a fascinating reason behind it (Cacopardo, 2011: 56):
“The true meaning of the legend is in fact a statement of ancient Kafir ancestry because the supposed connection is through Abu Jahel, a member of the Quraish tribe who was an arch-enemy of Islam”⁷⁷
The fact that the oral traditions of the Nuristani people made no mention of any Greek ancestry also strengthens the view that the claim could very well have been a later assumption. Another factor that might have influenced such later claims against the established oral tradition among Nuristanis was the need of survival. By the end of the 19^(th) century, they had got the wind of an impending raid on them by a large force of the Pathans and they demanded protection from it by sending a delegation to Ghulam Haider, the general who later was responsible for converting the region. The delegation, caco relates had stated that their tribe is of European descent, their ancestors having been brought from Europe into Kafiristan by Alexander the Great. This was clearly an attempt at the time to protect their tribe by connecting them to much more powerful Europeans.
Many Europeans by the last decade of the 19^(th) century had already visited the Kafirs and the constant prodding to their origins and possibilities suggested by these visits might have made the Kafirs aware of the theories of their European origin amongst these foreigners. Cacopardo therefore states that these theories, coupled with the increasing political stature of the British and the already prevalent Islamic folklore; all of it might very well have induced the Kafirs to use “ the Alexandrian legend because they thought it could have been expedient, in that perilous circumstance, to present themselves as related to the powerful lords of the Indian empire.”[^78]
Taimur
There is one more detail that suggests a relatively recent date for these European/Greek kinship claims. Taimur, the invader who actually passed through the region in 1398 CE, made sure to boast that he had reached and conquered a people who had not been conquered by anyone before, not even Alexander! (Cacopardo, 2011: 56) This statement of Taimur is interestingly corroborated by the route which Alexander took in his campaign. On the authority of various scholars like Stein and Caroe, Cacopardo has mentioned that Alexander never actually advanced into mountains further north of Bajaur and Swat.[^79] And therefore, could not have encountered these particular tribes. However, this culture was surely much more widespread in the region in ancient times and he might have encountered some other tribe who were also natives of the region and practitioners of the very same Dardic, Indo-Aryan/Indo-Iranian religion.
Migration from SW
In their oral tradition, Kalash refer to a vague memory of a migration from the south west under a king called Shalak Shah who came from Tsyam (Cacopardo, 2011: 58). For the historicity of this Tsyam connection, Cacopardo is of the opinion that this land called Tsyam or Sham could most likely refer to northern Chitral and therefore the legend might be related to an ancient expulsion of a particular Kalash group from Northern Chitral due to an expansion of the neighbouring Khowar speakers. (Cacopardo, 2011: 61).They themselves believed that Kalash had earlier held sway over Chitral and were eventually defeated by the Rais Mehtars. It seems certain that earlier Kalash were present in a larger area and were gradually either exterminated or assimilated and that the movements occurred in wake of the rise of Islam in the region.
Cacopardo informs that many researchers studying the Alexander connection of the Kalash tribe were mostly informed by one renowned informant who told a story related to one ‘Sikander Mukada’ with golden horn, clearly suggesting borrowing from the local widespread Islamic folklore. This informant then could be the sources of all the sudden outbursts of the Alexander ancestry claim that was earlier restricted to the Kafirs (Nuristanis) because the Kalash were relatively understudied, as mentioned before.
Lack of unanimity
It is important to note at this point that even in the oral traditions of the Kalash tribe, there is no unanimity regarding their origin. The Tsyam, as an original homeland, is mentioned only in Bumburet and Rumbur regions (Cacopardo, 2011: 62) and even in these regions, the knowledge of Tsyam was not general. To illustrate, one respected elder as per Cacopardo had no knowledge of any ancient migration and believed that they were the real inhabitants (bhumk’i = of the same soil) of that valley.”[^80]
Even the linguistics have confirmed that the languages of these regions were rooted in the Indo-Aryan/Indo-Iranian group and keeping this in mind, any similarities between Kalashamon and Greek would be explained as deriving from the ancient vertical connection that passes through Sanskrit, and not from a horizontal one due to more recent contacts or migrations (Cacopardo, 2011: 59). As there is much strong relation between the languages of Kalash and Khowar and on these linguistic grounds, it could be that these people have been in Chitral from second millennium BCE (Cacopardo, 2011: 66), again negating any scope for the Greek ancestry claims.
“…it is rather to be seen as the last living example of a cultural and religious complex that was formerly spread throughout the Hindu Kush/Karakorum chain; reaching as far as the borders of Ladakh in the East. (Cacopardo, 2011: 70) and extending to the footholds of the mountains in the South, and to the northern slopes of the main ridge in the North.”[^81]
Social practices
There even exist similarity and connection in the social system of the Kalash and the general ancient Indian social practises. In the first place the fundamental exogamic rule governing the formation of lineages, reminds closely of the Indian sapinda system (Cacopardo, 2011: 72). There even was a class of serfs and artisans who were deemed impure in their culture and with whom commensality was not allowed. Thus, there is ample evidence that confirms the Kafir-Kalash people as indigenous to the region with some archaic European connection that certainly cannot be due to either Alexander or any of his soldiers left behind in the military garrisons.
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