The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c24.142

v1.c24.142

There is still another Avestan allusion which may possibly be interpreted as referring in a general way to Indian connexions; it is the mention, in Yt. VIII, 32, of a mountain called Us-Hindava, which stands in the midst of the partly mythical sea Vouru-kasha and is the gathering place of fog and clouds. The name Us-Hindava means 'Beyond (or, Above) India,' according to one way of translating; but another rendering makes it simply 'the mountain from which the rivers rise.' Owing to this uncertainty, and to a general vagueness in three passages in which the mountain is referred to as Usind and Usindam in the Pahlavi, or Middle Persian, texts of Sassanian times (Būndahishn, XII, 6; XIII, 5; Zātsparam, XXII, 3), it seems wiser for the present to postpone an attempt to decide whether the allusion is to the Hindu Kush or possibly the Himālaya, or even some other range¹.