The etymological view supported by numerous noted scholars is that the name Afghan evidently derives from Sanskrit Aśvakan, q.v. the Assakenoi of Arrian. This view was propounded by scholars like Christian Lassen, J. W. McCrindle, M. V. de Saint Martin, and É. Reclus, and has been supported by numerous modern scholars. In Sanskrit, the word ashva (Avestan aspa, Prakrit assa) means horse, and ashvaka (Prakrit assaka) means horseman, horse people, land of horses, as well as horse breeders. Pre-Christian times knew the people of the Hindu Kush region as Ashvakan, which literally means horsemen, horse breeders, or cavalrymen, since they raised a fine breed of horses and had a reputation for providing expert cavalrymen. The 5th-century-BCE Sanskrit grammarian Pāṇini calls them Ashvakayana and Ashvayana.