stylistic:tone, structural:scholar_edition
Settlement in Sakastan

The Saka settled in Drangiana, a region of southern Afghanistan, western Pakistan and southern Iran which was then named Sakastan or Sistan. The mixed Scythian hordes who migrated to Drangiana and the surrounding regions later spread into north and south-west India via the lower Indus valley. They spread into Sovira, Gujarat, Rajasthan and north India, including kingdoms on the Indian mainland.

The Arsacid emperor Mithridates II (c. 123–88/87 BCE) pursued an aggressive military policy in Central Asia and added a number of provinces to the Parthian Empire. This included western Bactria, which he seized from the Indo-Scythians.

Following military pressure from the Yuezhi (predecessors of the Kushana), some Indo-Scythians moved from Bactria to Lake Helmond (or Hāmūn) and settled in or near Drangiana (Sigal). The region came to be known as "Sakistana of the Skythian Sakai " towards the end of the first century BCE.

The presence of the Saka in Sakastan in the first century BCE is mentioned by Isidore of Charax in "The Parthian Stations". According to Isidore, they were bordered by Greek cities on the east (Alexandria of the Caucasus and Alexandria of the Arachosians) and the Parthian-controlled territory of Arachosia on the south:

Beyond is Sacastana of the Scythian Sacae, which is also Paraetacena, 63 schoeni. There are the city of Barda and the city of Min and the city of Palacenti and the city of Sigal; in that place is the royal residence of the Sacae; and nearby is the city of Alexandria (Alexandria Arachosia), and six villages.