Paropamisadae or Parapamisadae ( Greek: Παροπαμισάδαι) was a

satrapy A satrap () was a governor of the provinces of the ancient Median and Achaemenid Empires and in several of their successors, such as in the Sasanian Empire and the Hellenistic empires. The satrap served as viceroy to the king, though with consid ...

of the

Alexandrian Empire Macedonia (; grc-gre, Μακεδονία), also called Macedon (), was an ancient kingdom on the periphery of Archaic and Classical Greece, and later the dominant state of Hellenistic Greece. The kingdom was founded and initially ruled by ...

in modern Afghanistan and Pakistan, which largely coincided with the Achaemenid province of Parupraesanna. It consisted of the districts of Sattagydia (

Bannu Bannu ( ps, بنو, translit=banū ; ur, , translit=bannū̃, ) is a city located on the Kurram River in southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It is the capital of Bannu Division. Bannu's residents are primarily members of the Banuchi tribe ...

basin),

Gandhara Gandhāra is the name of an ancient region located in the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent, more precisely in present-day north-west Pakistan and parts of south-east Afghanistan. The region centered around the Peshawar Vall ...

( Kabul, Peshawar, and

Taxila Taxila or Takshashila (; sa, तक्षशिला; pi, ; , ; , ) is a city in Punjab, Pakistan. Located in the Taxila Tehsil of Rawalpindi District, it lies approximately northwest of the Islamabad–Rawalpindi metropolitan area and ...

), and Oddiyana ( Swat Valley). Paruparaesanna is mentioned in the Akkadian language and Elamite language versions of the Behistun Inscription of

Darius the Great Darius I ( peo, 𐎭𐎠𐎼𐎹𐎺𐎢𐏁 ; grc-gre, Δαρεῖος ; – 486 BCE), commonly known as Darius the Great, was a Persian ruler who served as the third King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 522 BCE until his d ...

, whereas in the

Old Persian Old Persian is one of the two directly attested Old Iranian languages (the other being Avestan language, Avestan) and is the ancestor of Middle Persian (the language of Sasanian Empire). Like other Old Iranian languages, it was known to its native ...

version it is called Gandāra. The entire satrapy was subsequently ceded by Seleucus I Nicator to

Chandragupta Maurya Chandragupta Maurya (350-295 BCE) was a ruler in Ancient India who expanded a geographically-extensive kingdom based in Magadha and founded the Maurya dynasty. He reigned from 320 BCE to 298 BCE. The Maurya kingdom expanded to become an empi ...

following a treaty.

Name

''Paropamisadae'' is the Latinized form of the Greek name ''Paropamisádai'' (), which is in turn derived from

''Para-uparisaina'', meaning "Beyond the Hindu Kush", where the Hindu Kush is referred to as ''Uparisaina'' ("higher than the eagle"). In the Greek language and Latin, "Paropamisus" Mela, '' De Situ Orbis'', Bk. I, Ch. 15, §2. Plin., '' Nat. Hist.'', Bk. VI, Ch. 17, §20. (, ''Paropamisós'') came to mean the Hindu Kush.. In many Greek and Latin sources, particularly editions of Ptolemy's '' Geography'' where their realm is included on the 9th Map of Asia, the names of the people and region are given as Paropanisadae and Paropanisus. They also appeared less frequently as ''Parapamisadae'' and ''Parapamīsus'' (, ''Parapámisos''), ''Paropamīsii'', etc. The name was also applied to a nearby river, probably the Obi river. The mountain range Selseleh-ye Safīd Kūh is also called ''Paropamisus'' or ''Paropamisus Mountains''.

Geography and peoples

Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-sighted that he could see ...

describes the region as follows: Thus the region was north of Arachosia, stretching up to the Hindu Kush and

Pamir mountains The Pamir Mountains are a mountain range between Central Asia and Pakistan. It is located at a junction with other notable mountains, namely the Tian Shan, Karakoram, Kunlun, Hindu Kush and the Himalaya mountain ranges. They are among the world ...

, and bounded in the east by the

Indus river The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayan river of South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in Western Tibet, flows northwest through the disputed region of Kashmir, ...

. It mainly included the Kabul region,

and the northern regions such as

Swat In the United States, a SWAT team (special weapons and tactics, originally special weapons assault team) is a police tactical unit that uses specialized or military equipment and tactics. Although they were first created in the 1960s to ...

and

Chitral Chitral ( khw, , lit=field, translit=ćhitrār; ur, , translit=ćitrāl) is situated on the Chitral River in northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It serves as the capital of the Chitral District and before that as the capital of Chitral ...

. The nations who composed the Paropamisadae are recorded as the Cabolitae () in the north near modern Kabul; the Parsii (Πάρσιοι) in the northwest, the Ambautae () in the east and the Par(g)yetae () in the south, who were also found in Arachosia. The major cities of the land were the city of Ortospana () or Carura (Κάρουρα), probably identifiable with Kabul,Sir William Smith, A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography
Iabadius-Zymethus
(J. Murray, 1873) p 553. Gauzaca (Γαύζακα), probably modern Ghazni, Capissa (Καπίσσα), modern-day Kapisa, and Parsia (Παρσία), the capital of the Parsii.

History

In the ancient Buddhist texts, the Mahajanapada kingdom of Kamboja compassed the territories of Paropamisus and extended to the southwest of

Kashmir Kashmir () is the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term "Kashmir" denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal Range. Today, the term encompas ...

as far as Rajauri. The region came under Achaemenid Persian control in the late 6th century BC, either during the reign of

Cyrus the Great Cyrus II of Persia (; peo, 𐎤𐎢𐎽𐎢𐏁 ), commonly known as Cyrus the Great, was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire, the first Persian empire. Schmitt Achaemenid dynasty (i. The clan and dynasty) Under his rule, the empire embraced ...

Darius I Darius I ( peo, 𐎭𐎠𐎼𐎹𐎺𐎢𐏁 ; grc-gre, Δαρεῖος ; – 486 BCE), commonly known as Darius the Great, was a Persian ruler who served as the third King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 522 BCE until his ...

. In the 320s BC, Alexander the Great conquered the entire

Achaemenid Empire The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Based in Western Asia, it was contemporarily the largest em ...

, beginning the Hellenistic period. The Greek name Παροπαμισάδαι or Παροπαμισσός was used extensively in Greek literature to describe the conquests of Alexander and those of the kings of the

Greco-Bactrian Kingdom The Bactrian Kingdom, known to historians as the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom or simply Greco-Bactria, was a Hellenistic period, Hellenistic-era Hellenistic Greece, Greek state, and along with the Indo-Greek Kingdom, the easternmost part of the Helleni ...

and the Indo-Greek Kingdom, from the 3rd to the 1st centuries BC. After Alexander's death in 323 BC, the area came under control of the

Seleucid Empire The Seleucid Empire (; grc, Βασιλεία τῶν Σελευκιδῶν, ''Basileía tōn Seleukidōn'') was a Greek state in West Asia that existed during the Hellenistic period from 312 BC to 63 BC. The Seleucid Empire was founded by the ...

, which gave the region to the Mauryan Dynasty of India in 305 BC. After the fall of the Mauryans in 185 BC, the

Greco-Bactrians The Bactrian Kingdom, known to historians as the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom or simply Greco-Bactria, was a Hellenistic-era Greek state, and along with the Indo-Greek Kingdom, the easternmost part of the Hellenistic world in Central Asia and the India ...

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.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* {{citation , last=Eggermont , first=Pierre Herman Leonard , title=Alexander's Campaigns in Sind and Baluchistan and the Siege of the Brahmin Town of Harmatelia , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nG0_xoDS3hUC&pg=PA177 , year=1975 , publisher=Peeters Publishers , isbn=978-90-6186-037-2 , ref={{sfnref, Eggermont, Alexander's Campaigns in Sind and Baluchistan, 1975 * ''The Greeks in Bactria and India'' by W.W. Tarn, Cambridge University Press

External links

Ptolemy's section on the Paropanisadae in English translation
* John Watson McCrindle'
''Ancient India as Described in Ptolemy''
States and territories established in the 6th century BC States and territories disestablished in the 2nd century BC Achaemenid satrapies Ancient Greek geography Geographic history of Afghanistan Hazarajat History of Pakistan Macedonian Empire