India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c7.s3.6

c7.s3.6

The next step lands us into Afghanistan. Here we have two conspicuous mountainous ranges, *viz.*, one in the northeast of Kabul called Hindukush and the other to the south-west of Kabul called Koh-i-Bābā. The old name of Hindukush was Lohitāgiri (cf. *Kāśikā* on IV.3.91 where the military highlanders of Rohitagiri are referred), from which Afghanistan in medieval geography was called Roha (*Ling. Survey of India*, X, p.5). In the route of Arjuna's conquest we read of Lohita with its ten tribes after Kashmir (Sabhā., 27.17). This can apply only to Hindukush and its martial tribes occupying the valleys of Kohistan-Kafiristan.