SABZ-MITTI. HIND. An earth used to wash the hair.
Getc, Aswa, and Takshak aro names which have crept in amongst tho thirty-six royal Rajput races, common with others also to early civilisation in Europe. Saca3 are supposed by Professor Lassen to be the Szu Tartar who were expelled about B.C. 150 from the Ili valley by the Yue-tchi or White Ifuns, whom lie supposes to be the Tochari. After occupying Tahia or Sogdiana for a time, they are anted by tlie Chinese to have been driven thence, also, by the Yengar some years afterwards, and to have established themselves in Kipen, in which name Lassen recogniaes the Kophen valley in Kohistan. The Saca3 country was Turkestan, and they seem to have been one of the Central .Asia tribes to whom the vague term Scythian was applied. Little is known of the Sacm and their migrations, but they seem to have been widely diffused, occupying and coloniz ing countries remote from Central Asia. It is well known to geographers that the Segistan of the Arabs, whence Seistan, is the aame as the Sake stane or country of the Sacm of the Greeks. The Sacm are located by Strabo and Ptolemy on the north of the Himalaya, but they were also on the south. The Sacm were known as Sakko on the banks of Cheban, in Assyria, and SaC83 are men tioned in tho Behistun inscription. Tod states that Saca3 in Sanskrit has the aspirate, Sao'lite, meaning literally the branches or tribes. This name frequently occura in llindu annals, and Colonel Tod believes that the Saka of the Hindu annals cannot be other than the Sam or Sakai of classical geogmphy. They mem to have been known on tho borders of India or in ita western districts in the first century preceding Christianity. Vikramaditya, king of Ujjain, became known to the Sakari or conqueror of the Sacco ; and as his era dates B.C. 56, it would appear that about his time some northern tribes had aettled themselves along the Indus, constituting the Indo-Scythi of Arrian. Their attempt to penetrate farther to the east, by way of Idalwa, was not improbably arrested by Vikramaditya, whence the epithet Sakari. Some tribes penetrated early into India, making their way in force from the Hindu Kush into Orissa. They have been supposed to give their names to.. the Sasaani, Saxani, or Saxons. Sam) or Buddhu took possession of Kashmir, B.0. 340; some tribes oppoaed Alexander °them of the Sacao over ran India in the retgri of Aaoka, who, according to the Ain Akbari, were expelled by his successor Jaloka. The following plump occura iti Eolairciasemena Geogmphiques sur la carte do Made, p. 42: Ou ignore le tempt atiquel lea Scytlitai aont venus occulter le Sindi. Dans le PdrIple de la tiler Erythrde, la vine do Minnagra, le manie quo Mowers, est qualifide de capitale de la Scythic. Denys Pdriegete dit quo les Scythia! ineridionaux habitents sur le flouve Indus. Eus tathe lea noname Indo-Scythea ; et est quo Ptoldintio appele Indo-Scythie, remonte hang de l'indus jusqu an Ileuve Coos.' A tribe bearing the name of Saca3 ia still found in Jhalawan. It is supposed that they aro the descendants of Saca3 front between the Pare pamisan mountains and the Sea of Aral who accompanied Alexander, and, returning with Craterus through the Moolla pass, settled in their present position.
Strabo says, the tribes east of the Cas pian are called Scythic, — the Daha3 next the 8Ca, the Maasagetaa (Great Gete), and Sacae more eastward ; but.every tribe has a particular name. All are nomades, the best known being the Asi, Pasiani, Tachari, Saccaranli, who took Bactria from the Greeks. Sam made in Asia irruptions similar to those of the Cimmerians; they possessed themselves of Bactria and the best district of Armenia, called after them Saoasenai.' Of the first migrations of the Indo-Seythic Gete, Takshak and Asi, into India, that of Sehesnag (Takshak) from Sehesnagdes (Tacharisthan 7) or Sehesnag country, six centuries, by calculation, B.0., ia the first noticed by the Hindu Puranas. About this period a grand irruption of the same races conquered Asia Minor, and eventually Scan dinavia; not long after, the Asi and Taehari over turned the Greek kingdom of Bactria, and the Romans felt the power of the Asi, the Catti, and Cimbri from the Baltic shore. The Asi and
Tachari aro the Aswa and Takshak, or Tooralika races of the Puranas of Saca-Dwipa. 'C'est vrai semblablement d'apres le nom de Tachari, que M. D'Anville aura era. devoir placer les tribus ainsi denoremdea dane le territoire qui s'appele aujourd'hui Tokaristlan, situe, dit co grand geo graphe, entre les montagnes et le Gihon ou Amou.1 I3ryant gives the following as a passage from eh:Brains iu the history of the Stumm Cethites, of whose tuicestry he opeaks with great honour in describing the expedition of Alexander the Great : • Next marched the Same, fond of pastoral life, Sprung from the Cuthite nomades, who lived Amid the plains of .Asia, rich in grain ; They from the shepherd race delayed. their source, Those shepherds who in ancient tunes were deemed Tho justest of mankind.' A branch of the Sam on ono occasion invaded the inhabitanta on the bordeni of tho Pontic sea ; whilst engaged in dividing the booty, the Persian generala surprised them at uight and extermiliated them. To eternize the remembrance of this event, the Persians heaped up the earth rouud A rock. in the plain where the battle was fought, on which they erected two temples, ono to. .tho goddess Anaitis, the other to tho divinities Omanus and Anandate, and then founded the annual festival called Sama, long celebrated by the possessors of Zela. Such is the account by some authors of the origin of Sacma. According to others, it dates from the reign of Cyrus only. This prince, they say, having carried the war into the country of the Sam (Massagetm of Hero dotus), lost a battle. Compelled to fall back on his magazines, abundantly stored with provisions, but especially wine, and having halted some time to refresh his army, he departed before the enemy, feigning a flight, and leaving his camp standing full of provisions. The Sam, who pursued, reaching the abandoned camp stored with pro visions, gave themselves up to debauch. Cyrus returned and surprised the inebriated and sense less barbarians. Some, buried in profound sleep, were easily massacred ; others, occupied in drink ing and dancing, without defence, fell into the hands of armed foes ; so that all perished. The conqueror, attributing his success to divine protection, consecrated this day to the goddess honoured in his country, and decreed it should be called the day of the Sac2a. This is the battle related by Herodotus, to which Strabo alludes, between the Persian monarch and Tomyris, queen of the Gets°. Amongst the Rajput Sachm, all grand battles attended with fatal results are termed Saca. When besieged, without hope of relief, in the last effort of despair, the wonaen and girls are immolated, and the warriors, decorated in saffron robes, rush on inevitable destruction. This is to perform Baca, where every branch (sacha) is cut off. Chitore has to boast of having thrice (and a half) suffered saca. Chitore sac'ha ka pap, 'by the sin of the sack of Chitore,' is the most solernn abjuration of the Gehlot Rajput. If such is the origin of the festival from the slaughter of the Sacm of Tomyris, it will be allowed to strengthen the analogy between the Sacm east and west of the Indus. The Sakai who settled in Armenia were named Sacassani (lib. vi. c. 19), Saxons, the Sacosena of Strabo (lit. xi. pp. 776-788).
Sacasenm, the ancestors of the Saxon race, dwelt in Armenia, on the confines of Albania. La Sacasene,' says a French author, etoit une contree de l'Armenie sur les confins de l'Albanie ou du Shirvan ' (note 4, tome p. 191, Strabon).
This Scythic race adored the solar divinity under the name of Gmto-Syrus, the Surya of the Sacha Rajputs.—Rennell's Memoir, p. 185 ; hodore Char. in Hudson's Geog. Memoirs, ii., quoted in Ed. Ferrier Jour. p. 428 ; Hind. Theat.
p. 179 ; Tod's Rajasthan, i. pp. 70,164, quoting Strabo, lib. xi. p. 254 ; Indian Infanticide p. 16 ; Turner's Anglo - Saxons ; Hallam. 'See Afghan.