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Dalbergia Sissoo Roxburgh

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

K. R. Maxwell-Hyslop
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Extract

The identification of Old Persian yakā- with Dalbergia sissoo Roxburgh was suggested by Ilya Gershevitch in a memorable article in 1957 after extensive investigations in the Bashākard mountains of northern Iranian Makran (east of L. 58, c. 100 miles north-east of Jask). The sissoo has been defined as a “large deciduous tree, bark grey, heartwood brown with darker veins, leaflets 3–5, broadly elliptical or ovate”, and K. A. Chowdhury has studied its distribution in northern India, starting from the Indus, spreading east to Assam, sticking to the sub-Himalayan tracts and usually going up to 1,000 m. above sea level. It also extends far into the plains along river banks. In Baluchistan it grows in the Suleiman range between the Indus and the Zhob rivers, having been noted as early as 1890 by J. H. Lace in his study of the vegetation of Baluchistan in the Wam Tangi forest situated in the limestone ranges in the Hurnai district, where it reached a height of 35 feet. Its distribution within Pakistan includes the districts of Dera Ghazi Khan, Dera Ismail Khan, Bannu, Hazara, and it can be seen in Peshawar growing on the University campus and in front of Dean's Hotel (Pl. XXIIIa). A specimen from Nepal was given to Sir Max Mallowan in 1973 and is illustrated here (Fig. 1).

Type
Research Article
Information
Anatolian Studies , Volume 33 , December 1983 , pp. 67 - 72
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute at Ankara 1983

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References

1 Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies XIX (1957), 319–20Google Scholar.

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13 Written MES.MÁ.GAN.AN.NA which may denote uncertainty in the description of a rare foreign wood. cf. UET VII 28 obv. 2. Professor Gurney informs me that he would read GIŠ.MES.MÁ.GAN.AN.NA as GIŠ.MES.MÁ.GANan.NA, interpreting the AN as a phonetic indicator.

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21 See f.6.

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24 CAD (s.v. ṣulmu) suggests that mēsu could be identified with the Celtis tree but no reasons are given. Celtis australis – the Nettle tree – is used today for many of the same purposes as the sissoo tree and its distribution in sub-tropical regions of the Northern hemisphere includes the Himalaya ranges from swampy sites at 2,000 feet to dry rocky ground at 8,000 feet. It has not been recorded in Oman or from Harappan sites.

25 Burhān-i qāṭi definition, Gershevitch op. cit., 319.