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.