How the recent name Swat came in form?

Swat pronounced with a soft "t"at the end, more like "swa'th" has not been found in ancient history. The region of Swat is mentioned in history with different name from time to time. At the Buddhist time (300 BC) the Swat was know as Udhyana (Garden). While the Chinese travelers dictionary mentioned swat as Soto. And its make sense that the recent form of name (Swat) is the distorted form of Soto.

While the Greek mentioned Swat as "Asoconoi" during the invasion. But the word Asoconoi is not strong enough to form the recent shape of Swat. But there is another mention in history about greek:

The Historians of the Alexander the great wrote down and linked this land with river SWADISTU means pure, white water. Later on the word changed in to SWAD and then SWAT.

History also mentioned that the name Swat is the formation of Arabic word "Aswad" (Black). It is been so called Aswad due to the black physical structure of Swat Mountains. But later the name forms the recent shape "Swat".

The final conclusion is lying in the fact that when Mehmood Ghaznavi conquered Swat. He settled two tribes the Swati and Dalazak here to maintain the control of conquered area. As the Swati tribe was larger, the zone was called by the name of this tribe, Swat.

Written by: Irfan Amin   From: Ningolai   Veiwed: 1057 Times since Date:2005-09-09