Historical Geography of Ancient India c6.460

c6.460

*Kubhā*.—Among the western tributaries of the Indus this Vedic river is the most important.² According to some classical writers it formed the western boundary of India proper. It is no other than the modern Kābul river, the Kophes of Arrian and the Kophen of Pliny. It is apparently the same river as the Kuhu of the *Purāṇas* and it may be identical with Koa of Ptolemy, which is described to have its source in the Imaos or Himavat.³ The Kubhā cuts a valley through the Sulaiman range. It flows into the Indus a little above Attock (Skt. Hātaka), receives at Prāng a joint flow of its two tributaries called the Svāt (Soastos of Arrian, Skt. Suvāstu) and Gauri (Garroia of Arrian), identified with the modern Panjkorā, a tributary of the Svāt. The *Vāyu* and *Kūrma Purāṇas* refer to this river (XLV, 95; XLVII, 27).