The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c5.s1.1

c5.s1.1

For several centuries, both before and after the Christian era, the provinces of Northern India beyond the Indus, in which the Indian language and religion were predominant, included the whole of Afghanistan from Bamian and Kandahar on the west to the Bholân Pass on the south. This large tract was then divided into ten* separate states or districts, of which Kapisa was the chief. The tributary states were Kabul and Ghazni in the west, Lamghân and Jalâlâbâd in the north, Swât and Peshâwar in the east, Bolor in the north-east, and Banu and Opokien in the south. The general name for the whole would appear to have been *Kao-fu*, which in the second century before Christ is described as being divided between the Parthians, the Indians, and the Su or Sacæ of Kipin. According to this statement, the south-west district of Kandahar would have belonged to the Parthians, the eastern districts of Swât, Peshâwar, and Banu, to the Indians, and the north-western districts of Kabul and Ghazni with Lamghân and Jalâlâbâd to the Sacæ Scythians. *Kaofu* has usually been identified with Kabul on account of its similarity of name and correspondence of position; but this can only be accepted as politically correct, by extending the boundaries of Kabul into Parthia† on the west, and into India on the east. The *Kaofu* of the Chinese would, therefore, have embraced the whole of modern Afghanistan. Etymologically, however, it seems quite possible that the two names may be the same, as *Kaofu* was the appellation of one of the five tribes of the *Yuchi* or *Tochari*, who are said to have given their own name to the town which they occupied, towards the end of the second century before Christ. This statement of the Chinese writers is confirmed by the historians of Alexander, who notice the city of Ortospana, without making any mention of Kabul. The latter name is first given by Ptolemy, who describes *Kabura* or *Ortospana* as the capital of the Paropamisadæ. I conclude, therefore, that Ortospana was most probably the original metropolis of the country, which was supplanted by Alexandria during the Greek domination, and restored by the earlier Indo-Scythian princes. But it would appear to have been again abandoned before the seventh century, when the capital of Kapisene was at Opiân.