Mit Wema Takhtu unterwegs, auch in Almosi und Reh?

Abstract

In 2022, several texts were found written on stone in the Almosi Gorge, in the mountains north of Dushanbe, Tajikistan. One mentions the name and the title of the second Kushan king, Wema Takhtu, in standard Bactrian. In terms of geographical location, this gorge today marks the northernmost evidence of Kushan dominance. Two other texts were found nearby, written in an “unknown” script. In one of them, the same name and title were soon recognized by several scholars and so this script ceased to be “entirely undecipherable”. Despite the identical spelling of the name and title, some explained the language behind the text in the unknown script as non-standard Bactrian. The paper suggests a new and full reading and a circumstantial interpretation of two of the three inscriptions and asserts a general identity of the languages concerned. It is also suggested that the site was a dakhme , a place for the exposition of the dead bodies of Zoroastrians and the deposition of their excarnated bones. Wema Takhtu is mentioned because one or two of the dead left in the graveyard were his sons. J. Cribb deduced from a mutilated inscription that Wema Takhtu had advanced militarily as far east as Reh, near Kaushambi. The inscription of Reh is inspected and a restoration of the visible part is proposed. Wema Takhtu has nothing to do with the Liṅga inscription found there, which instead seems to recall the fights of advancing Scythian kingdoms against Indian defenders, particularly Khāravela of Kaliṅga.