Geographical and Economic Studies in the Mahabharata: Upayana Parva c6.64

c6.64

It was a belief of the older Sinologists that Ki-pin in the time of Han and Wei period denoted Kashmir, and in T'ang period it was identified with Kapiśa⁹⁹ or the country drained by the northern tributaries of the Kabul river. In the T'ang period there can be no doubt that Ki-pin and Kapiśa denoted the same locality.¹⁰⁰ Sten Konow has examined in detail the identification of Ki-pin in Han and Wei periods specially by Lévi¹⁰¹ who bases his argument on certain Chinese works which identify Ki-pin with Kashmir. His argument may be summed up as follows: In the old annals which distinguish Ki-pin from Kao-fu or Kabul could be a rendering of the Indian word Kapira comparable with Ptolemy's Kaspeiria (VII, 1, 42) and Kaspeiraioi which may represent Kaspira—Kashmira. After producing impressive arguments based on old Chinese documents and the examination of Fahien's route to India which refers Ki-pin as lying towards the west of Kashmir, Sten Konow comes to the conclusion that Ki-pin did not imply different geographical designations at two different periods but only denoted Kāfiristān.¹⁰² If as M. Lévi believed the original Indian word for Ki-pin was Kapira then it has some connection with Kārpāsika which did not indicate Kashmīr as it is mentioned elsewhere as a separate geographical entity in the *Upāyanaparva* (M.B., II. 48.13).