Geographical and Economic Studies in the Mahabharata: Upayana Parva c6.133

c6.133

Their association with Bāhlīkas or Bactrians shows (M.B., II, 48, 12) that here probably they could be identified with the Parthians, a Śaka tribe, the forerunners of the Saka migration of 130 B.C., who after nomadizing first in the plains south-east of Caspian, invaded and conquered Parthava, the modern Khurāsān (Herzfield, *The Archaeological History of Iran*, pp. 53-4). If the Pāradas are the Parthians then their presence in Gedrosia could be explained by the long association of the country with the ancient Iran of Darius¹⁴³ (522—486 B.C.) and Xerxes (486—465).