This article is about the Alexandrian satrapy in Afghanistan and Pakistan. For the Mountain range in northwestern Afghanistan, see Paropamisus Mountains.
Paropamisadae is the Latinized form of the Greek name Paropamisádai (Παροπαμισάδαι),[5] which is in turn derived from Old PersianPara-uparisaina, meaning "Beyond the Hindu Kush", where the Hindu Kush is referred to as Uparisaina ("higher than the eagle").[6]
In the Greek language and Latin, "Paropamisus"[7][8] (Παροπαμισός, Paropamisós)[9] came to mean the Hindu Kush.[5]
In many Greek and Latin sources, particularly editions of Ptolemy's Geography[10] where their realm is included on the 9th Map of Asia,[11] the names of the people and region are given as Paropanisadae and Paropanisus. They also appeared less frequently as Parapamisadae and Parapamīsus (Παραπάμισος, Parapámisos),[12]Paropamīsii, etc.[5]
Note the wider conception of what is today Paropamisus Mts. Here it is the whole northern side of the extensions of Hindukush, map from 1873Note the probably wrong position of what is today Paropamisus Mts. Here it is on the south side of Hari river, map from 1922
The name was also applied to a nearby river, probably the Obi river.[5] The mountain range Selseleh-ye Safīd Kūh is also called Paropamisus or Paropamisus Mountains.
Geography and peoples
The provinces of the Achaemenid EmpireMap from Francesco Berlinghieri's 1482 Seven Days of Geography.
The geographical position of the tribes is as follows: along the Indus are the Paropamisadae, above whom lies the Paropamisus mountain; then, towards the south, the Arachoti; then next, towards the south, the Gedroseni, with the other tribes that occupy the seaboard; and the Indus lies, latitudinally, alongside these places; and of these places, in part, some that lie along the Indus are held by Indians, although they formerly belonged to the Persians. Alexander took these away from the Arians and established settlements of his own, but Seleucus I Nicator gave them to Sandrocottus, upon terms of intermarriage and of receiving in exchange 500 elephants.
Alongside the Paropamisadae, on the west, are situated the Arii, and alongside the Arachoti and Gedrosii the Drangae; but the Arii are situated alongside the Drangae on the north as well as on the west, almost surrounding a small part of their country.[4]
The nations who composed the Paropamisadae are recorded as the Cabolitae (Καβολῖται) in the north near modern Kabul; the Parsii (Πάρσιοι) in the northwest, the Ambautae (Ἀμβαῦται) in the east and the Par(g)yetae (Παρ(γ)υῆται) in the south, who were also found in Arachosia. The major cities of the land were the city of Ortospana (Ὀρτοσπάνα) or Carura (Κάρουρα), probably identifiable with Kabul,[14] Gauzaca (Γαύζακα), probably modern Ghazni, Capissa (Καπίσσα), modern-day Kapisa, and Parsia (Παρσία), the capital of the Parsii.[citation needed]
After Alexander's death in 323 BC, the area came under control of the Seleucid Empire, which gave the region to the Mauryan Dynasty of India in 305 BC.[16] After the fall of the Mauryans in 185 BC, the Greco-Bactrians under King Demetrius I annexed the northwestern regions of the former Mauryan Empire, including Paropamisus, and it became part of his Euthydemid Indo-Greek Kingdom. The Eucratidians seized the area soon after the death of Menander I, but lost it to the Yuezhi around 125 BC.
^Sir William Smith, A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography: Iabadius-Zymethus (J. Murray, 1873) p 553.
^Zournatzi, Antigoni (2003). "The Apadana Coin Hoards, Darius I, and the West". American Journal of Numismatics. 15: 1–28. JSTOR43580364.
^Romila Thapar (1963). Asoka and the Decline of the Mauryas. Internet Archive. p. 16. Certain areas in the north-west were acquired through the treaty with Seleucus... It has been suggested that the territory ceded consisted of Gedrosia, Arachosia, Aria, and the Paropamisadae.