:Paropamisadae

Paropamisadae is the Latinized form of the Greek name Paropamisádai ({{lang|grc|Παροπαμισάδαι}}), which is in turn derived from Old Persian Para-uparisaina, meaning "Beyond the Hindu Kush", where the Hindu Kush is referred to as Uparisaina ("higher than the eagle").{{sfn|Eggermont, Alexander's Campaigns in Sind and Baluchistan|1975|p=176}}

In the Greek language and Latin, "Paropamisus"Mela, De Situ Orbis, Bk. I, Ch. 15, §2.Plin., Nat. Hist., Bk. VI, Ch. 17, §20. ({{lang|grc|Παροπαμισός}}, Paropamisós)Strabo, Geog., Bk. XV, p. 689. came to mean the Hindu Kush.{{citation |last=Short |first=Charles |author2=Charlton T. Lewis |display-authors=1 |title=A Latin Dictionary |contribution=Paropamisus or Paropanisus |contribution-url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0059:entry=Paropamisus |date=1879 |publisher=Clarendon Press |author3=Andrews |author4=Freund |location=Oxford }}.

In many Greek and Latin sources, particularly editions of Ptolemy's GeographyPtol., Geog., Bk. VI, Ch. 11, §17. where their realm is included on the 9th Map of Asia,Versions of Ptolemy's 9th regional map of Asia at Wikicommons. the names of the people and region are given as Paropanisadae and Paropanisus. They also appeared less frequently as Parapamisadae and Parapamīsus ({{lang|grc|Παραπάμισος}}, Parapámisos),Arrian, Anab., Bk. V, Ch. 4, §5. Paropamīsii, etc.

File:The Quarterly journal of the Geological Society of London (13369425644).jpg Here it is the whole northern side of the extensions of Hindukush, map from 1873]]

File:Oriental rugs, antique and modern (1922) (14780619865).jpg, map from 1922]]

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.

File:Achaemenid Empire En.svg

File:Tabula Nona dAsia.jpg's 1482 Seven Days of Geography.]]

Strabo describes the region as follows:

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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.{{sfn|Eggermont, Alexander's Campaigns in Sind and Baluchistan|1975|pp=175–176}}

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Thus the region was north of Arachosia, stretching up to the Hindu Kush and Pamir mountains, and bounded in the east by the Indus River. It mainly included the Kabul region, Gandhara and the northern regions such as Swat and Chitral.{{sfn|Eggermont, Alexander's Campaigns in Sind and Baluchistan|1975|pp=175–183}}

The nations who composed the Paropamisadae are recorded as the Cabolitae ({{lang|grc|Καβολῖται}}) in the north near modern Kabul; the Parsii (Πάρσιοι) in the northwest, the Ambautae ({{lang|grc|Ἀμβαῦται}}) in the east and the Par(g)yetae ({{lang|grc|Παρ(γ)υῆται}}) in the south, who were also found in Arachosia. The major cities of the land were the city of Ortospana ({{lang|grc|Ὀρτοσπάνα}}) or Carura (Κάρουρα), probably identifiable with Kabul,Sir William Smith, A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography: [https://books.google.com/books?id=oTIGAAAAQAAJ&dq=Ambantae&pg=PA552 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.{{citation needed|date=October 2018}}

In the ancient Buddhist texts, the Mahajanapada kingdom of Kamboja compassed the territories of Paropamisus and extended to the southwest of Kashmir 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 or Darius I.{{cite journal |last1=Zournatzi |first1=Antigoni |title=The Apadana Coin Hoards, Darius I, and the West |journal=American Journal of Numismatics |volume=15 |year=2003 |pages=1–28 |jstor=43580364 }}

File:The Hellenistic World in late 281 BC.png

In the 320s BC, Alexander the Great conquered the entire Achaemenid Empire, 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 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, which gave the region to the Mauryan Dynasty of India in 305 BC.{{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/asokadeclineofma0000romi|title=Asoka and the Decline of the Mauryas|page=16|quote=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.|last=Romila Thapar|date=1963|others=Internet Archive}} 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.

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| caption1 = Xerxes I tomb, Gandharan soldier of the Achaemenid army, circa 480 BCE.

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| caption2 = Xerxes I tomb, Gandharan soldier circa 480 BCE (enhanced detail).

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| caption1 = Xerxes I tomb, Sattagydian soldier of the Achaemenid army, circa 480 BCE.

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| caption2 = Xerxes I tomb, Sattagydian soldier circa 480 BCE (enhanced detail).

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• Indo-Greek kingdom
• Greco-Bactrian kingdom

{{Reflist|30em}}

• {{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

• [https://books.google.com/books?id=URdCAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA408 Ptolemy's section on the Paropanisadae in English translation]
• John Watson McCrindle's [https://books.google.com/books?id=A3UIAAAAQAAJ Ancient India as Described in Ptolemy]

Category:States and territories established in the 6th century BC

Category:States and territories disestablished in the 2nd century BC

Category:Achaemenid satrapies

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Category:History of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

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