The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c5.s1.t3: 2. Kophene, or Kabul.
The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c5.s1.t3
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2. Kophene, or Kabul.
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The district of Kabul is first mentioned by Ptolemy, who calls the people *Kabolitæ*, and their capital *Kabura*, which was also named *Ortospana*. The latter name alone is found in Strabo and Pliny, with a record of its distance from the capital of Arachosia, as measured by Alexander's surveyors, Diognetes and Baiton. In some copies of Pliny the name is written *Orthospanum*, which, with a slight alteration to *Orthostana*, as suggested by H. H. Wilson,[*] is most probably the Sanskrit *Urddhasthána*, that is, the "high place," or lofty city. The same name is also given to the Kabul district by the Chinese pilgrim Hwen Thsang. But I strongly suspect that there has been some accidental interchange of names between the province and its capital. On leaving Ghazni, the pilgrim travelled to the north for 500 *li*, or 83 miles, to *Fo-li-shi-sa-tang-na*, of which the capital was *Hu-phi-na*. Now by two different measured routes the distance between Ghazni and Kabul was found to be 81 and 88½ miles.[†] There can be no doubt, therefore, that Kabul must be the place that was visited by the pilgrim. In another place the capital is said to be 700 *li*, or 116 miles, from Bamian, which agrees very well with the measured distance of 104 miles[‡] between Bamian and Kabul, along the shortest route.
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∗ ‘Travels,’ p. 98.
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The name of the capital, as given by the Chinese pilgrim, has been rendered by M. Vivien de St. Martin as *Vardasthána*, and identified with the district of the Wardak tribe, while the name of the province has been identified with Hupiân or Opiân. But the Wardak valley, which receives its name from the Wardak tribe, lies on the upper course of the
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[*] ‘Ariana Antiqua,’ p. 176. [†] Thornton’s ‘Gazetteer,’ Appendix. [‡] Lieutenant Sturt, Engineers, by perambulator.
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Logarh river, at some distance to the south of Kabul, and only 40 miles to the north of Ghazni, while Hupiân or Opiân lies 27 miles to the north of Kabul, or more than 70 miles distant from Wardak. My own researches lead me to conclude that both names refer to the immediate neighbourhood of Kabul itself.
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Professor Lassen has already remarked that the name of *Kipin*, which is so frequently mentioned by other Chinese authors, is not once noticed by Hwen Thsang. Remusat first suggested that *Kipin* was the country on the Kophes or Kabul river; and this suggestion has ever since been accepted by the unanimous consent of all writers on ancient India, by whom the district is now generally called Kophene. It is this form of the name of *Kipin* that I propose to identify with the *Hu-phi-na* of Hwen Thsang, as it seems to me scarcely possible that this once famous province can have remained altogether unnoticed by him, when we know that he must have passed through it, and that the name was still in use for more than a century after his time.* I have already stated my suspicion that there has been some interchange of names between the province and its capital. This suspicion is strengthened when it is found that all difficulties are removed, and the most complete identification obtained, by the simple interchange of the two names. Thus *Hu-phi-na* will represent *Kophene*, or *Kipin*, the country on the Kabul river, and *Fo-li-shi-sa-tang-na*, or *Urddhasthána*, will represent *Ortostana*, which, as we know from several classical authorities, was the actual capital of this province.
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∗ Lassen, ‘Points in the History of the Greek Kings of Kabul,’ p. 102.
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I may remark that *Huphina* is a very exact Chinese transcript of *Kophen*, whereas it would be a very imperfect transcript of *Hupián*, as one syllable would be altogether unrepresented, and the simple *p* would be replaced by an aspirate. The correct transcript of Hupiân would be *Hu-pi-yan-na*.
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M. Vivien de St. Martin has objected* to the name of *Urddhasthána* that it is a “conjectural etymology without object.” I am, however, quite satisfied that this reading is the correct one, for the following reasons:—1st. The name of Ortospana is not confined to the Paropamisadæ; but is found also in Karmania and in Persis. It could not, therefore, have had any reference to the Wardak tribe, but must be a generic name descriptive of its situation, a requirement that is most satisfactorily fulfilled by *Urddhasthána*, which means literally the “high place,” and was most probably employed to designate any hill fortress. 2nd. The variation in the reading of the name to *Portospana* confirms the descriptive meaning which I have given to it, as *porta* signifies “high” in Pushtu, and was, no doubt, generally adopted by the common people instead of the Sanskrit *urdha*.
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The position of Ortospana I would identify with Kabul itself, with its Bala Hisár, or “high fort,” which I take to be only a Persian translation of *Ortospana*, or *Urddhasthána*. It was the old capital of the country before the Macedonian conquest, and so late as the tenth century it was still believed “that a king was not properly qualified to govern until he had been inaugurated at Kabul.”† Hekatæus also describes a "royal town" amongst the *Opiai*,* but we have no data for determining either its name or its position. It seems most probable, however, that Kabul must be intended, as we know of no other place that could have held this position after the destruction of Kapisa by Cyrus; but in this case Kabul must have been included within the territories of the *Opiai*.
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∗ ‘Hiouen Thsang,’ iii. 416.
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† Ouseley, ‘Oriental Geography,’ p. 226.
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It is strange that there is no mention of Kabul in the histories of Alexander, as he must certainly have passed through the town on his way from Arachosia to the site of Alexandria. I think, however, that it is most probably the town of *Nikaia*, which was Alexander's first march from his new city on his return from Bactria. *Nikaia* is described by Nonnus as a stone city, situated near a lake. It was also called *Astakia*, after a nymph whom Bacchus had abused.† The lake is a remarkable feature, which is peculiar in Northern India to Kabul and Kashmir. The city is also said to have been called *Indophón*, or "Indian-killer," on account of the victory which Bacchus had gained over the Indians on this spot. From this name I infer, that Nonnus had most probably heard of the popular meaning which is attributed to the name of *Hindu-kush*, or "Hindu-killer," and that he adopted it at once as corroborative of the Indian conquests of Dionysius.
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∗ Steph. Byz. in v. ’Ωπίαι. ’Εν δὲ τεῖχος Βασιλήϊον μέχρι τούτου ’Ωπίαι, ἀπὸ τούτων ἐρημίη μέχρι ’Ινδων. † ‘Dionysiaca,’ xvi., last three lines :— Καὶ πτόλιν εὐλαΐγγα φιλακρήτῳ, παρὰ λίμνη, Τεῦξε θεὸς Νίκαιαν ἐπώνυμον, ἥν ἀπὸ Νύμφης ’Αστακίης ἐκάλεσσε, καὶ ’Ινδοφόνον μετὰ νίκην. The meaning of which appears to be, that "Bacchus built a stone city, named *Nikaia*, near a lake, which he also called *Astakia*, after the nymph, and *Indophón*, in remembrance of his victory."
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The province is described as being 2000 *li*, or 333 miles, in length from east to west, and 1000 *li*, or 166 miles, in breadth from north to south. It is probable that this statement may refer to the former extent of the province, when its king was the paramount ruler of Western Afghanistan, including Ghazni and Kandahar, as the actual dimensions of the Kabul district are not more than one-half of the numbers here stated. Its extreme length, from the sources of the Helmand river to the Jagdalak Pass, is about 150 miles, and its extreme breadth, from Istâlif to the sources of the Logarh river, is not more than 70 miles.
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The name of Kophes is as old as the time of the Vedas, in which the *Kubhâ* river is mentioned as an affluent of the Indus; and as it is not an Arian word, I infer that the name must have been applied to the Kabul river before the Arian occupation, or, at least, as early as B.C. 2500. In the classical writers we find the *Khoes*, *Kophes*, and *Khoaspes* rivers, to the west of the Indus, and at the present day we have the *Kunar*, the *Kuram*, and the *Gomal* rivers to the west, and the *Kunihar* river to the east of the Indus, all of which are derived from the Scythian *ku*, "water." It is the guttural form of the Assyrian *hu* in Euphrates and Eulæus, and of the Turki *su* and the Tibetan *chu*, all of which mean water or river. The district of *Kophene* must, therefore, have received its name from the river which flowed through it, like as Sindh from the Sindhu or Indus, Margiana from the Margus, Aria from the Arius, Arachosia from the Arachotus, and others. It is not mentioned by Alexander's historians, although the river Kophes is noticed by all of them.
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In Ptolemy’s ‘Geography’ the city of *Kabura* and the *Kabolitæ*, with the towns of *Arguda*, or *Argandi*, and *Locharna*, or *Logarh*, are all located in the territories of the Paropamisadæ along the Kabul river. Higher up the stream he places the town of *Bagarda*, which corresponds exactly in position, and very closely in name with the valley of *Wardak*. All the letters of the two names are the same; and as the mere transposition of the guttural to the end of the Greek name will make it absolutely identical with the modern name, there is strong evidence in favour of the reading of *Bardaga* instead of *Bagarda*. According to Elphinstone,[*] the *Wardak* tribe of Afghans occupy the greater part of the Logarh valley. This is confirmed by Masson,[†] who twice visited the district of Wardak; and by Vigne,[‡] who crossed it on his way from Ghazni to Kabul. The only objection to this identification that occurs to me is, the possibility that *Bagarda* may be the Greek form of *Vaekereta*, which is the name given in the ‘Zend Avesta’ to the seventh country that was successively occupied by the Arian race. From its position between Bactria, Aria, and Arachosia, on one side, and India on the other, *Vaekereta* has usually been identified with the province of Kabul. This, also, is the opinion of the Parsis themselves. *Vaekereta* is further said to be the seat or home of *Duzhák*, which further tends to confirm its identification with Kabul, as the acknowledged country of *Zohâk*. If the *Wardaks* had ever been a ruling tribe, I should be disposed to infer that the name of *Vaekereta* might, probably, have been derived from them. But in our present total ignorance of their history, I think that it is sufficient to note the very great similarity of the two names.
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∗ ‘Kabul,’ i. 160.
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† ‘Travels,’ ii. 223.
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‡ ‘Ghazni,’ p. 140.
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In the seventh century the king of Kophene was a Turk, and the language of the country was different from that of the people of Ghazni. Hwen Thsang mentions that the alphabet of Kapisene was that of the Turks, but that the language was not Turki. As the king, however, was an Indian, it may reasonably be inferred that the language was Indian. For a similar reason it may be conjectured that the language of Kophene was some dialect of Turki, because the king of the district was a Turk.