KALSI, AN ANCIENT TANTRIC SITE IN DEHRADUN

Kālsi (कालसी), a modest town in the Jaunsar–Bāwar region of Dehradun district, is best known for the Rock Edicts of Ashoka. Carved around 250 BCE, these inscriptions preserve all fourteen Major Rock Edicts, making Kālsi unique among the sites of Mauryan imperial memory. Discovered by Alexander Cunningham in the mid‑19th century, the edicts stand as a testimony to the emperor’s vision of dharma, compassion, and governance. Thus, Kālsi is already inscribed into the historical consciousness of India as a locus of Ashokan authority.

The Temple of Kali at the confluence of the rivers:

Yet, beyond the imperial stone of Ashoka’s edicts, Kālsi shelters another layer of sacred geography. At the confluence of the Amalāva River, flowing down the Chakrāta Road, with the currents of the Yamunā basin, stands a humble yet enigmatic shrine dedicated to Mā Kāli. The sangama itself feels charged: the cool winds of the Uttarakhand valleys carry whispers of purity and secrecy. In Purāṇic imagination, such confluences are never accidental; they are chosen abodes of śakti, liminal thresholds where energies coil and awaken. Kālsi’s shrine is remembered as one such seat, associated with Kubjikā Māta, the goddess of hidden, coiled energy.

Several small rivers like the Amlava, the Bin and the Naro fall
into the Yamuna near Kalsi, making it a sacred spot.

The river’s very name, Amalāva, is a cypher. Derived from amala (अम्लान) — pure, moonlike — it resonates with the Śākta tradition where Amala (अम्ल) signifies “she who is free of impurity.” The Kubjikāmata‑tantra, the earliest and most authoritative text of the Kubjikā cult, speaks of this quality of the goddess. The Kularatnoddyota describes the inner Moon above the brahmarandhra, diffusing nectar, while the Kumārikākhaṇḍa identifies this radiance as the form of the goddess Amā. Emerging from the body of the god, the goddess — pure, radiant, awakened consciousness — manifests as Kubjikā herself. Thus, the Amalāva River is not merely a stream but a living metaphor of lunar purity, sanctifying the temple’s location.

The cave of Kubjika at the temple site:

The mystery of Kālsi does not end with the river. According to the temple’s chief priest, Bharat Bhushan Sharma, there once existed a cave beside the shrine, now sealed. Local tradition holds that during their exile, the Pāṇḍavas rested here, invoking their kuladevatā, Kāli, who appeared to them in fierce splendour. The entrance of the cave is still visible within the temple precinct, a silent witness to epic memory. Its closed mouth radiates secrecy, suggesting hidden energies beneath the surface. In the Kubjikā tradition, the goddess dwells not on the loftiest peaks but in middling heights, in valleys charged with mystery. Kālsi’s terrain resonates with this description, and the sealed cave becomes more than a relic of epic lore — it is a womb‑like cavity, a hidden sanctum of śakti, echoing Kubjikā’s coiled, secret presence.

Once, the Kalsi Temple Site may have looked like this.

The visit of the Pandavas:

Perhaps it was for this very reason that the Pāṇḍavas came seeking the site. On their way to Lakshmaṇādāl, they paused here, drawn not only by hardship but by an instinctive pull toward the hidden śakti (शक्ति) of the sangama. Lore tells us she appeared, blessing them with victory in battles yet unseen. After the war, as they journeyed toward the Himalayas for their final ascent, they are said to have paused once more at Kālsi, reaffirming the sanctity of the goddess’s abode.

The precinct itself bears further marks of antiquity. Scattered around the site are ancient kundas, said to have been used by kings for Aśvamedha yajñas, situating Kālsi as a ritual centre of sacrifice and sovereignty. Tradition also recalls that in the Dvāpara Yuga, this was a site of Navarātri worship, where the goddess was invoked in her nine forms, binding the rhythms of cosmic time to the valley’s sacred geography.

Kālsi thus presents both aspects of the goddess: the luminous purity that shines through the Amalāva and the mysterious presence of Kubjikā concealed in the cave. And all of this unfolds at the threshold where the Amalāva meets the Yamunā — a sangama that is both natural and supernatural, a confluence where purity flows into secrecy, and secrecy coils into power. Every element — river, cave, shrine, and confluence — becomes a cypher. Kālsi’s Kāli temple is not only a place of worship but a hidden centre of Kubjikā Māta, where the waters of the Yamunā embrace the purity of the Amalāva, and together they guard the mysteries of the goddess in the valley winds.

***********************************************************************************

INDIC-SANSKRITIC ROOTS OF THE NAME OF THE SEA-PEOPLES

Around 1200 BCE, Egyptian inscriptions began to mention mysterious groups arriving by sea. Pharaohs described battles against tribes whose names sounded unfamiliar: Shardana, Shekelesh / Shakalesh, Washesh, Peleset, Denyen, Teresh, and Tajjekaras. Historians later grouped them under the label “Sea Peoples,” and their sudden appearance became one of the great puzzles of ancient history. However, all of these names have Sanskrit roots, a view that the mainstream has not either delved-in or recognised yet.

Who were the Sea-Peoples?

Mainstream scholarship, led by figures such as Michal Artzy and Assaf Yasur‑Landau, places these tribes in the Aegean and Mediterranean world. According to this theory, they were displaced migrants from Cyprus, Anatolia, or the Aegean islands who raided Egypt and settled along the Levantine coast during the Late Bronze Age collapse. Egyptian records like the Medinet Habu inscriptions of Ramesses III and the Merneptah stele are cited as evidence of their incursions, and scholars interpret their ships and weaponry as Aegean in style.

Yet there is another way to understand them. Instead of treating these names as unidentifiable, we can trace them to Sanskrit roots and Indic geography.

• Shardana recalls śṛdh (शृध्)— “defiant, windy.” Or sardha (सार्ध) meaning 'troop'.
• Shakalesh echoes Sakaleśvara (सकलेश्वर)— “lord of all.”
• Washesh, ties to vaṣ (वष्)— “to overpower,” and the Vakṣu river (Amu Darya).
• Peleset  reflects Pala (पाल)— “protector.”
• Denyen derives from dhana (धन)— “wealth” or dāna (दान)— “generosity.”
• Teresh comes from tāra (तार)— “to cross.”
• Tajjekaras from tajjña (तज्ज्ञ)— “resourceful, skilled.”

Seen this way, the tribes listed in Egyptian records were not alien marauders from the Aegean but Indic groups whose movements reflect a sacred‑geographic continuum stretching from the Vakṣu river to the Levant. This reframing situates the Sea Peoples within India’s civilizational ambit and challenges the dominant narrative of purely Mediterranean origins.

By contrast, the Sagartians (Σαγάρτιοι / Asagartiya) appear in Herodotus and Achaemenid records as an Iranian nomadic tribe allied with the Medes and Persians. They were known for their horse‑based pastoralism and distinctive use of the lasso in battle. Their homeland lay on the Iranian plateau, near Media and Yazd, and they were integrated into the Achaemenid imperial system.

Linguistic Resonances

• The name Sagartia / Asagarta has been analysed by mainstream scholars as containing asa (“horse” in Old Iranian, cf. Sanskrit aśva) and garta (“pit, seat, enclosure,” cf. Sanskrit garta).

• This parallels Indic tribal names such as Trigarta (त्रिगर्त), showing the Indo‑Iranian spread of nomenclature.

• Alternatively, the Sagartians may simply derive their name from Sagara (सागर) — “sea” — situating them within the same semantic field as the Sea Peoples, whose identity was tied to maritime movement.

Comparative Table

Group	Region	Era	Identity	Indic Connection
Sea Peoples	Egypt & Levant	ca. 1200 BCE	Tribes listed in Egyptian records	Names linked to Sanskrit roots (śṛdh, pala, dhana, tāra, tajjña)
Sagartians	Iranian plateau (Media, Yazd)	6th–5th c. BCE	Nomadic Iranian tribe under the Achaemenids	Name Asagarta parallels Sanskrit aśva + garta, or derives from Sagara (“sea”)

Taken together, the Sea Peoples and the Sagartians illustrate the Indo‑Iranian continuum of tribal names and identities. Whether through roots like śṛdh, pala, dhana, or through broader terms like aśva, garta, and sagara, these groups reflect a shared linguistic and cultural heritage. The Sagartians, though not part of the Sea Peoples, may well derive their name from Sagara, reinforcing the idea that both sets of tribes belong to the same sacred‑geographic imagination stretching from India to the Mediterranean.

THE VEDIC-HINDU LAND OF NURISTAN IN AFGHANISTAN

We begin our journey from the Sapta Sindhu, and step into Nuristan, the easternmost land of Afghanistan, nourished by the Kunar River, which is mentioned in the Rigveda IV.18.8 as Kusava (कुसावा), its name a combination of kusha ( कुश) 'sacred grass' and the hydronymic suffix ava (अव). In Rigvedic hydronyms (Kusava, Rasava), ‑ava functions as a nominal ending that marks “that which flows”. Hence, ava is a suffix in river names, and avani (अवनि) means 'river'. In Vedic lore, the name Kusava ties water to fertility, ritual purity, and the sacred grass of Vedic rites.

However, the mainstream view, reflected by scholars such as Alexander Cunningham, holds that the name Kusava shares its origin with the Kabul (Kubhā) River. Cunningham asserts that hydronyms such as Kubha, Kunar, Kurram, Gomal, and Kunihar derive from a Scythian root 'ku' meaning 'water'. Cunningham, in his writings, even claimed that the name Kophes (Greek Cophen for Kabul) is 'as old as the Vedas'. 

This argument, however, does not withstand philological scrutiny. We have already established, with scriptural and archaeological support, that Kubhā derives from the Sanskrit root kubha, meaning “crooked,” a descriptive epithet for the Kabul River’s winding course, similar to Kurram, derived from krimi (कृमि), or 'crawl'. Other river names are likewise Sanskritic in origin: the Gomal corresponds to the Rigvedic Gomatī, 'that which roams', the root word linked to gau (गो) or 'cow'.

The root 'ku' is not a Scythian borrowing, and the names are Sanskritic formations. Yāska’s Nirukta provides internal Vedic philological evidence. In glossing water‑terms, Yāska explains kulya (कुल्या) as a 'channel cut through the earth', a rivulet or distributary, and situates it alongside nadī (नदी) 'river' and srutī (सृति) 'flow'. This shows that Vedic tradition itself classified river names within the Indo‑Aryan lexicon, using precise Sanskrit categories. The Nirukta anchors hydronyms like Kubhā and Kusava firmly in Sanskrit semantics, not in Scythian etymology.

Modern Indo‑European linguistics confirms this. The true Indo‑European root for 'water' is wed-, from Sanskrit udaka (उदक), Latin 'unda', English 'water,' not ku. Cunningham’s reliance on a Scythian ku root is therefore speculative and unsustainable. 

Sanskrit names still abound in Nurustan. Parun or Parana,

Mandol or mandal, Kamdesh and Ameshdesh.

These are names with a Sanskrit history.

Courtesy: Map data © Microsoft Bing Maps

Parun-The capital of Nuristan: Mainstream scholarship remains largely silent about the widespread Sanskritic geography of Nuristan and the neighbouring district of Chitral in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan. The capital of Nuristan bears the name Parun. Given the Sanskrit tapestry of names, its etymology must derive either from para (पर), meaning 'boundary' or 'high', or it perhaps has more poetic origins, such as pāraṇa (पारण), meaning 'cloud' or 'flight'. In keeping with the Sanskrit–Purāṇic method of toponomy, the name is best read in relation to its geography.

Parun lies scarcely 300 km from Charsadda, the ancient Puṣkalāvatī, and just over 400 km from Taxila, the Takṣaśilā of the epic tradition. Yet mainstream scholarship remains reluctant to acknowledge the Vedic–Purāṇic elements embedded in Nuristani culture. This reluctance is striking in the case of the Kalash, an Indo‑Aryan community of the Hindu Kush—often described as having traces of Greek ancestry from Alexander’s invasion—who still preserve a polytheistic tradition with clear affinities to Vedic ritual and cosmology.

DNA studies have suggested minor Mediterranean admixture among the Kalash, but they remain inconclusive. What is clear is the predominance of Indo‑Aryan ancestry and the continuity of Indic ritual forms. To concede Greek ancestry on biological grounds is therefore only to acknowledge a limited genetic input, not a cultural inheritance. The living tradition of the Kalash is overwhelmingly Vedic in character.

Alexander himself practised the Olympian polytheism of the Macedonian Greeks, worshipping Zeus, Athena, and Apollo, and later identifying with Zeus‑Ammon in Egypt. His campaigns, however, were political and military, not religious. Greek religion was never established in the Hindu Kush, nor did its armies implant their faith in these valleys.

Nuristan, historically known as Kafiristan, was described vaguely in post‑Islamic sources as “animist.” Tamim Ansary notes that “the people there practised an animist religion involving elaborate graves decorated with images carved of wood.” Yet this characterisation obscures the deeper Indic continuity. The Nuristani tribes worshipped Yama, the Hindu god of death, called Imr’o or Imra in their own tradition. Their polytheism, sacrificial rituals, and cosmologies resonate far more with Vedic Hinduism than with Hellenic cults.

Richard Strand, in his Notes on the Kalasha Religion (Nuristan Language Project), observed: “Their religion is a form of Hinduism that recognises many gods and spirits and has been related to the religion of the Ancient Greeks, who mythology says are the ancestors of the contemporary Kalash […] However, it is much more likely, given their Indo‑Aryan language, that the religion of the Kalasha is much more closely aligned to the Hinduism of their Indian neighbours than to the religion of Alexander the Great and his armies.”

The name Kalash itself has no secure etymology and is best explained either through Sanskrit kalaśa (कलश), meaning a 'ritual pitcher' or 'water vessel'—apt for a region so rich in rivers and glacial streams—or through Kailāsa, the name of the sacred Himalayan peak, evoking the cosmological sanctity of the Hindu Kush.

The largest lake in Nūristān is known as Mondal Lake. In a Vedic land, every name carries meaning. Mondal has no known sense in Dari or Pashto. Mainstream scholarship often seeks Persian cognates to emphasise external influence, overlooking the fact that geographical names—especially of mountains and rivers—rarely change, their toponymy remaining anchored in antiquity. Within that context, one may equate Mondal with the Sanskrit maṇḍala (मण्डल), the closest cognate. 

Yet in the Sanskritic tradition, lakes in the Himalayan region frequently bear the prefix mana (मन), meaning “mind,” signifying the tranquillity and depth of waters, and conveying the nuance of stillness. In that light, the etymology of Mondal Lake may be restored as Manah‑tāla (मनःताल), “the waters of tranquillity.” This restoration lies well within the established phonological framework of Indo‑Aryan sound shifts, where the dental /t/ in tāla regularly softens to /d/, yielding forms such as dol. Thus, Mondal may be understood as a vernacular reflex of the older Sanskritic Manah‑tāla.

Lake Mondol, Nuristan, may derive its name from
Sanskrit manah-taal, the Lake of Serenity
Courtesy: nationalparkassociation.org

Other names in the region too point clearly to Sanskrit origins. In the vicinity of Parun lie the towns of Kamdeśa and Ameśdeśa, still preserving the Sanskritic suffix ‑deśa (देश) and 'country' in their names. There are many such examples. A journey through the land establishes without doubt the deeply embedded Sanskritic toponomy still flourishing.