Geographical and Economic Studies in the Mahabharata: Upayana Parva c5.9

c5.9

In these verses we get some very important information about the situation of the Ṛṣikas and Paramarṣikas. To locate them properly we should try to follow the route taken by Arjuna. After having conquered the Bāhlīkas (M.B. II, 23, 21) or the Bactrians in Northern Afghānistān, he subdued the combined Darada and Kamboja forces (M.B., II, 23, 22). The crux of the problem is the proper identification of Kamboja to which we shall come later on. It is not the Chhibhal country or Kabul but as proposed by Pandit Jayachandra Vidyālaṃkāra Badakshān and the Galcha speaking part of the Parmirs. Now what route Arjuna took from the Bāhlīka country? The key to this problem lies in the proper identification of Valgu. This may be identified with the river Baghlan. In their explorations of the Oxus countries Wood and Lord investigated the route which lay directly south from Kunduz by the river of that name to its junction with the Baghlan. Thence folllowing Baghlan to its head they crossed by the Murgh Pass into the Valley of the Andarab and diverging eastward they adopted the Khawak Pass to reach the Panjishir Valley and so to Kabul. No great difficulties were encountered on the route, involving only two passes between the Oxus and the Kabul, the Murgh (7,400 ft.) and Khawak (11,650 ft.) and it undoubtedly possesses many advantages as the modern popular route between Kabul and Badakshān.¹⁰ Arjuna probably followed this route on his return journey to the Śvetaparvata which may be identified with the Safīd-koh whose rugged ilex-covered spurs centre on the giant peaks of Pirghal and Shuidar, overlooking the plains of Afghānistān towards Ghaznī.¹¹ Arjuna however in his march towards the Paramakāmbojas and the Ṛṣikas left the Baghlan route which might have led him to Kabul and proceeded towards the north, and in the ensuing battle defeated the Kāmbojas and the Daradas, who probably came to help their allies through the Dora Pass, which is the chief pass over the Hindukush, directly connecting India (through Chitral) with Badakshān.¹² The next stage in his campaign took him to the north-easternly direction (*prāguttarām diśam*) (M.B., II, 24, 23) where the robber tribes (*dasyavaḥ*) having obtained asylum (*āśritya*) lived, and also the tribes living in the forest. These were conquered. Apparently these robber tribes were the descendants of the Eastern Iranian speaking ancestors of the Wakhānis, Shighnis, Roshanis and the Sarīkolīs of the Pāmīr plateau. Then comes the most important section of the campaign—the conquest of the allied forces (*sahitān*) of the Lohas, Paramakāmbojas and the Ṛṣikas of the north or the Great Ṛṣikas (M.B., II, 24). The Paramakāmbojas have been identified by Prof. Jayachandra Vidyālaṃkāra¹³ with the Galcha speaking Yāghnobis who live in the Valley of Yaghnob at the head water of the Zarafshān river, a tract of country considerably to the north of the Pāmīrs and separated from them by the hill states subordinate to Bokhārā,¹⁴ though he has not stated his reasons for this identification. The same writer has suggested the identification of the Yüe-chī's with the Ṛṣikas.