Hindu Kush

Lore & Background

The Hindu Kush range region was a historically significant center of Buddhism, with sites such as the Bamiyan Buddhas. The range and communities settled in it hosted ancient monasteries, important trade networks and travelers between Central Asia and South Asia. While the vast majority of the region has been majority-Muslim for several centuries now, certain portions of the Hindu Kush only became Islamized relatively recently, such as Kafiristan, which retained ancient polytheistic beliefs until the 19th century when it was converted to Islam by the Emirate of Afghanistan and renamed Nuristan ('land of light'). The Hindu Kush range has also been the passageway for invasions of the Indian subcontinent, and continues to be important to contemporary warfare in Afghanistan. From a historical perspective, the name Hindu Kush (also written as Hindukush) is relatively recent. It does not appear in the writings of the early Arab geographers and is first mentioned in the works of Ibn Battuta, in the 14th century. Hindu Kush is generally translated as 'Killer of Hindus' or 'Hindu-Killer' in the popular literature. The earliest explanation offered for the name comes from Ibn Battuta. According to him, Hindu Kush means Hindu-slayer as slaves from the Indian subcontinent died in the harsh climatic conditions of the mountains while being taken to Turkestan by traders. Several other scholars believe the name to be a corruption of Hindu Koh ('mountains of India'). The 16th-century Mughal court historian Abu al-Fazl ibn Mubarak also refers to the range as Hindu Koh in his Ain-i-Akbari. According to Nigel Allan, the term Hindu Kush had two alternate meanings popular for centuries i.e 'mountains of India' and 'sparkling snows of India', with Kush respectively being a soft variant of kuh ('mountain') or referring to the quality of snow. Allan further states that to the Arab geographers Hindu Kush was the frontier boundary of Hindustan. Another theory posits the name to may have been derived from ancient Avestan, meaning 'water mountain', with Kush probably being a corruption of the Persian word kuh ('mountain'). According to Hobson-Jobson, a 19th-century British dictionary, Hindukush might be a corruption of the ancient Latin Indicus [Caucasus] ('Caucasus of India'); the entry mentions the interpretation first given by Ibn Battuta as a popular theory already at that time, despite doubts cast upon it. Some 19th-century encyclopedias and gazetteers state the term Hindu Kush to originally have applied only to the peak in the area of the Kushan Pass, which had become a center of the Kushan Empire by the first century. In Vedic Sanskrit, the range was known as upariśaina, and in Avestan, as upāirisaēna (from Proto-Iranian *upārisaina- 'covered with juniper'). It can alternatively be interpreted as 'beyond the reach of eagles'. In the time of Alexander the Great, the mountain range was referred to as the Caucasus Indicus (as opposed to the Greater Caucasus range between the Caspian and Black Seas), and the extension of the former as Paropamisos (see Paropamisadae) by Hellenic Greeks in the late first millennium BCE. The Macedonians who served with Alexander called it Kaukasos. The range was also known as Hindu Koh during the medieval period, as referred to as in the works of Abu al-Fazl during the reign of Mughal emperor Akbar.

Reader's Guide

The Hindu Kush range has been a passageway for invasions of the Indian subcontinent and continues to be important to contemporary warfare in Afghanistan. The range forms the western section of the Hindu Kush Himalayan Region (HKH) and is the westernmost extension of the Pamir Mountains, the Karakoram and the Himalayas. It divides the valley of the Amu Darya (the ancient Oxus) to the north from the Indus River valley to the south. The range has numerous high snow-capped peaks, with the highest point being Tirich Mir or Terichmir at 7,708 metres (25,289 ft) in the Chitral District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Many peaks of the range are between 4,400 and 5,200 m (14,500 and 17,000 ft); however, some are much higher, with an average peak height of 4,500 metres (14,800 feet). The mountains of the Hindu Kush range diminish in height as they stretch westward. Near Kabul, in the west, they attain heights of 3,500 to 4,000 metres (11,500 to 13,100 ft); in the east they extend from 4,500 to 6,000 metres (14,800 to 19,700 ft). Numerous high passes ('kotal') transect the mountains, forming a strategically important network for the transit of caravans. The most important mountain pass in Afghanistan is the Salang Pass (Kotal-e Salang) (3,878 m or 12,723 ft) north of Kabul, which links southern Afghanistan to northern Afghanistan. The Salang Tunnel at 3,363 m (11,033 ft) and the extensive network of galleries on the approach roads was constructed with Soviet financial and technological assistance and involved drilling 2.7 km (1.7 mi) through the heart of the Hindu Kush; since the start of the wars in Afghanistan it has been an active area of armed conflict with various parties trying to control the strategic tunnel. The range has several other passes in Afghanistan, the lowest of which is the southern Shibar pass (2,700 m or 9,000 ft) where the Hindu Kush range terminates. Before the Salang Tunnel, another feat of engineering was the road constructed through the Tang-e Gharu gorge near Kabul, replacing the ancient Lataband Pass and greatly reducing travel time towards the Pakistani border at the Khyber Pass. Other mountain passes are at altitudes of about 3,700 m (12,000 ft) or higher, including the Broghil Pass at 12,460 feet in Pakistan, and the Dorah Pass between Pakistan and Afghanistan at 14,000 feet. Other high passes in Pakistan include the Lowari Pass at 10,200 feet, the Gomal Pass. The Darmodar Aghost Pass is at elevation of 4,371 m (14,341 ft). The Ishkoman Aghost Pass is at elevation of 4,587 m (15,049 ft). The Hindu Kush form the boundary between the Indus watershed in South Asia, and Amu Darya watershed in Central Asia. Melt water from snow and ice feeds major river systems in Central Asia: the Amu Darya (which feeds the Aral Sea), Helmand River (which is a major source of water for the Sistan Basin in southern Afghanistan and Iran), and the Kabul River – the last of which is a major tributary of the Indus River. Smaller rivers with headwaters in the range include the Khash, the Farah and the Arashkan (Harut) rivers. The basins of these rivers serve the ecology and economy of the region, but the water flow in these rivers greatly fluctuates, and reliance on these has been a historical problem with extended droughts being commonplace. The eastern end of the range, with the highest peaks, high snow accumulation allows to long-term water storage. Geologically, the range is rooted in the formation of the subcontinent from a region of Gondwana that drifted away from East Africa about 160 million years ago, around the Middle Jurassic period. The Indian subcontinent, Australia and islands of the Indian Ocean rifted further, drifting northeastwards, with the Indian subcontinent colliding with the Eurasian Plate nearly 55 million years ago, towards the end of Palaeocene. This collision gradually formed the Himalayas, including the Hindu Kush. The Hindu Kush are a part of the 'young Eurasian mountain range consisting of metamorphic rocks such as schist, gneiss and marble, as well as of intrusives such as granite, diorite of different age and size'. The northern regions of the Hindu Kush witness Himalayan winter and have glaciers, while its southeastern end witnesses the fringe of Indian subcontinent summer monsoons. The Hindu Kush range remains geologically active and is still rising; it is prone to earthquakes. The Hindu Kush system stretches about 966 kilometres (600 mi) laterally, and its median north–south measurement is about 240 kilometres (150 mi). The mountains are orographically described in several parts. Peaks in the western Hindu Kush rise to over 5,100 m (16,700 ft) and stretch between Darra-ye Sekari and the Shibar Pass in the west and the Khawak Pass in the east. The central Hindu Kush peaks rise to over 6,800 m (22,300 ft), and this section has numerous spurs between the Khawak Pass in the east and the Durāh Pass in the west. In 2005 and 2015 there were some major earthquakes. The eastern Hindu Kush, also known as the 'High Hindu Kush', is mostly located in northern Pakistan and the Nuristan and Badakhshan provinces of Afghanistan with peaks over 7,000 m (23,000 ft). This section extends from the Durāh Pass to the Baroghil.

Did You Know?

• The name Hindu Kush is first mentioned in the works of Ibn Battuta in the 14th century, and is generally translated as 'Killer of Hindus' or 'Hindu-Killer' in popular literature.
• The highest peak is Tirich Mir at 7,708 metres (25,289 ft) in the Chitral District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.
• The Salang Tunnel at 3,363 m (11,033 ft) was constructed with Soviet financial and technological assistance, involving drilling 2.7 km (1.7 mi) through the heart of the Hindu Kush.
• Kafiristan retained ancient polytheistic beliefs until the 19th century, when it was converted to Islam by the Emirate of Afghanistan and renamed Nuristan ('land of light').
• In Vedic Sanskrit, the range was known as upariśaina, and in Avestan, as upāirisaēna, meaning 'covered with juniper' or alternatively 'beyond the reach of eagles'.