Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India c13.28

c13.28

The name of a country called Kush and a people called Kushiya (i.e. the people of Kush) are found in several old Persian inscriptions. The Hamadan inscription¹ of Darius (c. 522-486 B.C.), for instance, gives the following boundaries of the empire of that great monarch : ‘from the Scythians that are beyond Sogdiana (i.e. the Bukhara region between the Oxus and the Jaxartes) — from there—as far as Kush, from Hindu (i.e. Sindhu or India meaning the land on the river Indus) —therefrom—as far as Sparda (i.e. Sardis in Asia Minor).’ Some scholars identify Kush with Ethiopia while others place it in Central Egypt.² As Mudrāya (i.e. Egypt) and Kush are both mentioned in the list of satrapies of the ancient Persian emperors, the identification of Kush with Ethiopia seems to be more reasonable. There is no doubt that the country called Kush was situated somewhere in North-Eastern Africa beyond Mudrāya or Egypt. It is possible to connect this country with Kuśa-dvīpa which is, like Śaka-dvīpa or Śāka-dvīpa, one of the seven dvīpas constituting the Puranic sapta-dvīpā Vasumatī.