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which was also named Ortospana. The latter name alone is found in Strabo and Pliny, with a record of its distance from the capital of Arachosia, as measured by Alexander's surveyors, Diognetes and Baiton. In some copies of Pliny the name is written Orthospanum, which, with a slight alteration to Orthostana, as suggested by H. H. Wilson,* is most probably the Sanskrit Urddhasthana, that is, the "high place," or lofty city. The same name is also given to the Kabul district by the Chinese pilgrim Hwen Thsang. But I strongly suspect that there has been some accidental interchange of names between the province and its capital. On leaving Ghazni, the pilgrim travelled to the north for 500 li, or 83 miles, to Fo-li-shi-sa-tang-na, of which the capital was Hu-phi-na. Now by two dif ferent measured routes the distance between Ghazni and Kabul was found to be 81 and 88 miles.† There can be no doubt, therefore, that Kabul must be the place that was visited by the pilgrim. In another place the capital is said to be 700 li, or 116 miles, from Bamian, which agrees very well with the measured distance of 104 miles between Bamian and Kabul, along the shortest route.

The name of the capital, as given by the Chinese pilgrim, has been rendered by M. Vivien de St. Martin as Vardasthána, and identified with the district of the Wardak tribe, while the name of the province has been identified with Hupiân or Opiân. But the Wardak valley, which receives its name from the Wardak tribe, lies on the upper course of the

*Ariana Antiqua,' p. 176.

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+ Thornton's Gazetteer,' Appendix.

Lieutenant Sturt, Engineers, by perambulator.

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Logarh river, at some distance to the south of Kabul, and only 40 miles to the north of Ghazni, while Hupiân or Opiân lies 27 miles to the north of Kabul, or more than 70 miles distant from Wardak. My own researches lead me to conclude that both names refer to the immediate neighbourhood of Kabul itself.

Professor Lassen has already remarked that the name of Kipin, which is so frequently mentioned by other Chinese authors, is not once noticed by Hwen Thsang. Remusat first suggested that Kipin was the country on the Kophes or Kabul river; and this suggestion has ever since been accepted by the unanimous consent of all writers on ancient India, by whom the district is now generally called Kophene. It is this form of the name of Kipin that I propose to identify with the Hu-phi-na of Hwen Thsang, as it seems to me scarcely possible that this once famous province can have remained altogether unnoticed by him, when we know that he must have passed through it, and that the name was still in use for more than a century after his time.* I have already stated my suspicion that there has been some interchange of names between the province and its capital. This suspicion is strengthened when it is found that all difficulties are removed, and the most complete identification obtained, by the simple interchange of the two names. Thus Hu-phi-na will represent Kophene, or Kipin, the country on the Kabul river, and Fo-lishi-sa-tang-na, or Urddhasthána, will represent Ortostana, which, as we know from several classical authorities, was the actual capital of this province.

* Lassen, Points in the History of the Greek Kings of Kabul,'

p. 102.

I may remark that Huphina is a very exact Chinese transcript of Kophen, whereas it would be a very imperfect transcript of Hupián, as one syllable would be altogether unrepresented, and the simple p would be replaced by an aspirate. The correct transcript of Hupiân would be Hu-pi-yan-na.

M. Vivien de St. Martin has objected to the name of Urddhasthana that it is a "conjectural etymology without object." I am, however, quite satisfied that this reading is the correct one, for the following reasons-1st. The name of Ortospana is not confined to the Paropamisada; but is found also in Karmania and in Persis. It could not, therefore, have had any reference to the Wardak tribe, but must be a generic name descriptive of its situation, a requirement that is most satisfactorily fulfilled by Urddhasthana, which means literally the "high place," and was most probably employed to designate any hill fortress. 2nd. The variation in the reading of the name to Portospana confirms the descriptive meaning which I have given to it, as porta signifies "high" in Pushtu, and was, no doubt, generally adopted by the common people instead of the Sanskrit urddha.

The position of Ortospana I would identify with Kabul itself, with its Bala Hisár, or "high fort," which I take to be only a Persian translation of Ortospana, or Urddhasthana. It was the old capital of the country before the Macedonian conquest, and so late as the tenth century it was still believed "that a king was not properly qualified to govern until he had been inaugurated at Kabul."+ Hekatæus also describes * ‘Hiouen Thsang,' iii. 416.

Ouseley, Oriental Geography,' p. 226.

a "royal town" amongst the Opiai,* but we have no data for determining either its name or its position. It seems most probable, however, that Kabul must be intended, as we know of no other place that could have held this position after the destruction of Kapisa by Cyrus; but in this case Kabul must have been included within the territories of the Opiai.

It is strange that there is no mention of Kabul in the histories of Alexander, as he must certainly have passed through the town on his way from Arachosia to the site of Alexandria. I think, however, that it is most probably the town of Nikaia, which was Alexander's first march from his new city on his return from Bactria. Nikaia is described by Nonnus as a stone city, situated near a lake. It was also called Astakia, after a nymph whom Bacchus had abused. The lake is a remarkable feature, which is peculiar in Northern India to Kabul and Kashmir. The city is also said to have been called Indophon, or "Indian-killer," on account of the victory which Bacchus had gained over the Indians on this spot. From this name I infer, that Nonnus had most probably heard of the popular meaning which is attributed to the name of Hindu-kush, or "Hindu-killer," and that he adopted it at once as corroborative of the Indian conquests of Dionysius.

* Steph. Byz. in v. Ωπίαι. Ἐν δὲ τεῖχος Βασιλήϊον μέχρι τούτου Ωπίαι, ἀπὸ τούτων ἐρημίη μέχρι Ινδων.

Dionysiaca,' xvi., last three lines :

Καὶ πτόλιν εὐλάϊγγα φιλακρήτῳ, παρὰ λίμνη,
Τεύξε θεὸς Νίκαιαν ἐπώνυμον, ἣν από Νύμφης

Αστακίης ἐκάλεσσε, καὶ Ἰνδοφόνον μετὰ νίκην.

The meaning of which appears to be, that "Bacchus built a stone city, named Nikaia, near a lake, which he also called Astakia, after the nymph, and Indophôn, in remembrance of his victory."

The province is described as being 2000 li, or 333 miles, in length from east to west, and 1000 li, or 166 miles, in breadth from north to south. It is probable that this statement may refer to the former extent of the province, when its king was the paramount ruler of Western Afghanistan, including Ghazni and Kandahar, as the actual dimensions of the Kabul district are not more than one-half of the numbers here stated. Its extreme length, from the sources of the Helmand river to the Jagdalak Pass, is about 150 miles, and its extreme breadth, from Istâlif to the sources of the Logarh river, is not more than 70 miles.

The name of Kophes is as old as the time of the Vedas, in which the Kubhá river is mentioned as an affluent of the Indus; and as it is not an Arian word, I infer that the name must have been applied to the Kabul river before the Arian occupation, or, at least, as early as B.C. 2500. In the classical writers we find the Khoes, Kophes, and Khoaspes rivers, to the west of the Indus, and at the present day we have the Kunar, the Kuram, and the Gomal rivers to the west, and the Kunihar river to the east of the Indus, all of which are derived from the Scythian ku, "water." It is the guttural form of the Assyrian hu in Euphrates and Eulæus, and of the Turki su and the Tibetan chu, all of which mean water or river. The district of Kophene must, therefore, have received its name from the river which flowed through it, like as Sindh from the Sindhu or Indus, Margiana from the Margus, Aria from the Arius, Arachosia from the Arachotus, and others. It is not mentioned by Alexander's historians, although the river Kophes is noticed by all of them.

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