Geographical and Economic Studies in the Mahabharata: Upayana Parva c5.51

c5.51

A laconic statement in Ts'ien Han Shu states that the Sai-wangs after their defeat by the Yüe-Chï went southwards and made themselves masters of Kipin.³⁵ The routes over which they passed was the Hien-fu (the hanging passage) which according to M. Chavannes is the Bolar route through the Yasin Valley by which the travellers went to Wakhan, then to Indus and further to Kashmir or Udyāna.³⁶ According to Sten Konow however, the Kipīn country comprised the Swat valley and it extended westward towards Arachosia; whether it extended to Kabul is uncertain. The Saka occupation of Kipin is further supported by the description of Sha-mi, the present Mastuj by Yuan Chwang which mentions that the king of that country was of Śākya race. Sten Konow also quotes *Abhidhānacintāmaṇi* (V. 960) of Hemacandra in which the Lampākās are said to be *muruṇḍas* which shows that even at a comparatively late period the memory of the rule of the Saka Muruṇḍas had been preserved. This theory of the Saka occupation of Kipin has been rejected.³⁷ Their main movement, impeded by the Yavana power in Kabul, according to the *Cambridge History*, would naturally be westwards in the direction of Herat and thence southwards to Seistan.