Tushara
The kingdom of Tushara according to Ancient Indian literature, such as the epic Mahabharata was a land located beyond north-west India. In the Mahabharata, its inhabitants, known as the Tusharas, are depicted as mlechchas and fierce warriors.
Modern scholars generally see Tushara as synonymous with the historical Tukhara, also known as Tokhara or Tokharistan – another name for Bactria. This area was the stronghold of the Kushan Empire, which dominated India between the 1st and 3rd centuries CE.
Tukhara
The historical Tukhara appears to be synonymous with the land known by Ancient Chinese scholars as Daxia, from the 3rd century BCE onwards.Its inhabitants were known later to Ancient Greek scholars as the Tokharoi and to the Ancient Romans as Tochari. Modern scholars appear to have conflated the Tukhara with the so-called Tocharians – an Indo-European people who lived in the Tarim Basin, in present-day Xinjiang, China, until the 1st millennium. When the Tocharian languages of the Tarim were rediscovered in the early 20th century, most scholars accepted a hypothesis that they were linked to the Tukhara. However, the subjects of the Tarim kingdoms appear to have referred to themselves by names such as Agni, Kuči and Krorän. These peoples are also known to have spoken centum languages, whereas the Tukhara of Bactria spoke a satem language.
The Tukhara were among Indo-European tribes that conquered Central Asia during the 2nd century BCE, according to both Chinese and Greek sources. Ancient Chinese sources refer to these tribes collectively as the Da Yuezhi. In subsequent centuries the Tukhara and other tribes founded the Kushan Empire, which dominated Central and South Asia.
The account in Mahabharata 1:85 depicts the Tusharas as mlechchas and descendants of Anu, one of the cursed sons of King Yayati. Yayati's eldest son Yadu, gave rise to the Yadavas and his youngest son Puru to the Pauravas that includes the Kurus and Panchalas. Only the fifth son of Puru's line was considered to be the successors of Yayati's throne, as he cursed the other four sons and denied them kingship. The Pauravas inherited the Yayati's original empire and stayed in the Gangetic plain who later created the Kuru and Panchala Kingdoms. They were followers of the Vedic culture. The Yadavas made central and western India their stronghold. The descendants of Anu, known as the Anavas, are said to have migrated to Iran.
Various regional terms and proper names may have originated with, or been derived from, the Tusharas including: Takhar Province in Afghanistan; the Pakistani village of Thakra; the surname Thakkar, found across India; the Bengali surname Thakur, including the Tagore family; the Marathi surname Thakere, sometimes anglicised as Thackeray; the Takhar Jat clan in Rajasthan, and; the Thakar tribe of Maharashtra. It is also possible that the Thakor caste of Gujarat, the Thakar caste of Maharashtra and; the title Thakur originated with names such as Tushara/Tukhara. The Sanskrit word thakkura "administrator" may be the source of some such names, or may itself be derived from one of them.
Indian literature
In the Puranas and other Indian texts
texts like Vayu Purana, Brahmanda Purana and Vamana Purana, etc., associate the Tusharas with the Shakas, Barbaras, Kambojas, Daradas, Viprendras, Anglaukas, Yavanas, Pahlavas etc and refer to them all as the tribes of Udichya i.e. north or north-west. The Kambojas, Daradas, Barbaras, Harsavardhanas, Cinas and the Tusharas are described as the populous races of men outside.Puranic literature further states that the Tusharas and other tribes like the Gandharas, Shakas, Pahlavas, Kambojas, Paradas, Yavanas, Barbaras, Khasa, and Lampakas, etc., would be invaded and annihilated by Lord Kalki at the end of Kaliyuga. And they were annihilated by king Pramiti at the end of Kaliyuga.
According to Vayu Purana and Matsya Purana, river Chakshu flowed through the countries of Tusharas, Lampakas, Pahlavas, Paradas and the Shakas, etc.
The Brihat-Katha-Manjari of Pt Kshemendra relates that around 400 CE, Gupta king Vikramaditya , had "unburdened the sacred earth by destroying the barbarians" like the Tusharas, Shakas, Mlecchas, Kambojas, Yavanas, Parasikas, Hunas etc.
The Rajatarangini of Kalhana records that king Laliditya Muktapida, the 8th-century ruler of Kashmir had invaded the tribes of the north and after defeating the Kambojas, he immediately faced the Tusharas. The Tusharas did not give a fight but fled to the mountain ranges leaving their horses in the battlefield. This shows that during the 8th century CE, a section of the Tusharas was living as neighbours of the Kambojas near the Oxus valley.
By the 6th century CE, the Brihat Samhita of Varahamihira also locates the Tusharas with Barukachcha and Barbaricum near the sea in western India. The Romakas formed a colony of the Romans near the port of Barbaricum in Sindhu Delta. This shows that a section of the Tusharas had also moved to western India and was living there around Vrahamihira's time.
There is also a mention of Tushara-Giri in the Mahabharata, Harshacharita of Bana Bhata and Kavyamimansa of Rajshekhar.÷
Kingdom
Historical references
Early Chinese & Greek sources
Little is known of the Tukhara before they conquered the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom in the 2nd century BCE. They are known, in subsequent centuries, to have spoken Bactrian, an Eastern Iranian language. The Yuezhi are generally believed to have had their ethnogenesis in Gansu, China. However, Ancient Chinese sources use the term Daxia for a state in Central Asia, two centuries before the Yuezhi entered the area. Hence the Tukhara may have been recruited by the Yuezhi, from a people neighbouring or subject to the Greco-Bactrians.Likewise the Atharvaveda also associates the Tusharas with the Bahlikas, Yavanas/Yonas and Sakas, as following: "Saka.Yavana.Tushara.Bahlikashcha". It also places the Bahlikas as neighbors of the Kambojas. This may suggest suggests that the Tusharas were neighbours to these peoples, possibly in Transoxiana.
Later Chinese sources
In the 7th century CE, the Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang, by way of the "Iron Pass" entered Tukhara. Xuanzang stated that it lay south of the Iron Pass, north of the "great snow mountains", and east of Persia, with the Oxus "flowing westward through the middle of it."During the time of Xuanzang, Tukhāra was divided into 27 administrative units, each having its separate chieftain.
Tibetan chronicles
The Tukharas are mentioned in the Tibetan chronicle Dpag-bsam-ljon-bzah, along with people like the Yavanas, Kambojas, Daradas, Hunas, Khasas etc.Possible connection to the Rishikas
remarks that the Asii were lords of the Tochari. It is generally believed that they are same as the Rishikas of the Mahabharata which people are equivalent to Asii. V. S. Aggarwala also equates the Rishikas with the Asii or Asioi. In 1870, George Rawlinson commented that "The Asii or Asiani were closely connected with the Tochari and the Sakarauli who are found connected with both the Tochari and the Asiani".If the Rishikas of the Mahabharata were same as the Tukharas, then the observation from George Rawlinson is in line with the Mahabharata statement which also closely allies the Rishikas with the Parama Kambojas and places them both in the Sakadvipa. The Kambojas, are the same as the classical Assaceni/Assacani and the Aśvayana and Aśvakayana of Panini. They are also mentioned by Megasthenes who refers to them as Osii, Asoi, Aseni etc., all living on upper Indus in eastern Afghanistan. The names indicate their connection with horses and horse culture. These Osii, Asoi/Aseni clans represent earlier migration from the Parama Kamboja land, lying between Oxus and Jaxartes, which happened prior to Achamenid rule. Per epic evidence, Parama Kamboja was the land of the Loha-Kamboja-Rishikas.
The Rishikas are said by some scholars to be the same people as the Yuezhi. The Kushanas are also said by some to be the same people. Kalhana claims that the three kings he calls Huṣka, Juṣka and Kaniṣka were "descended from the Turuṣka race". Aurel Stein says that the Tukharas were a branch of the Yuezhi. P. C. Bagchi holds that the Yuezhi, Tocharioi and Tushara were identical. If he is correct, the Rishikas, Tusharas/Tukharas, the Kushanas and the Yuezhi, were probably either a single people, or members of a confederacy.
Sabha Parva of Mahabharata states that the Parama Kambojas, Lohas and the Rishikas were allied tribes. Like the "Parama Kambojas", the Rishikas of the Transoxian region are similarly styled as "Parama Rishikas". Based on the syntactical construction of the Mahabharata verse 5.5.15
and verse 2.27.25, Ishwa Mishra believe that the Rishikas were a section of the Kambojas i.e. Parama Kambojas. V. S. Aggarwala too, relates the Parama Kambojas of the Trans-Pamirs to the Rishikas of the Mahabharata and also places them in the Sakadvipa. According to Dr B. N. Puri and some other scholars, the Kambojas were a branch of the Tukharas. Based on the above Rishika-Kamboja connections, some scholars also claim that the Kambojas were a branch of the Yuezhi themselves. Dr Moti Chander also sees a close ethnic relationship between the Kambojas and the Yuezhi.
Modern scholars are still debating the details of these connections without coming to any firm consensus.