The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c5.s1.t3.16

c5.s1.t3.16

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.