The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c24.123

v1.c24.123

Vedic scholars, for example, will agree with Avestan students that the partly common Indo-Irānian domains comprised in the river-system above the Indus basin, and verging toward the north-western border adjacent to Irān, are referred to in the Rigveda in certain allusions to the district indicated by the rivers Kubhā (Kābul), Krumu (Kurram), and Gomatī (Gumal). They will equally unite in emphasising the fact that there are other incidental allusions in the Veda, such as those to Gandhāra and Gandhārī, which may certainly be interpreted as referring to the districts of Peshāwar and Rāwalpindi S.E. from Kābul². A part of these districts has belonged rather to Irān than to India in historic times, but it is equally impossible to deny or to minimise the rôle they have played in India's development ever since the remote age when the tribal ancestors of the present Hindus occupied them on their way into their later established home³. For the earliest period, we may well agree with the opinion expressed by Eduard Meyer in an encyclopaedia article on Persia: 'The dividing line between Iranian and Indian is drawn by the Hindu-Kush and the Soliman mountains of the Indus district. The valley of the Kabul (*Cophen*) is already occupied by Indian tribes, especially the Gandarians; and the Satagydae (Pers. *Thatagu*) there resident were presumably also of Indian stock'¹. These facts, because of their importance in regard to this bridge between India and Irān, will be touched upon again below (pp. 338–9).