The vastness of the Bharath, the land rich in heritage and cultural diversity
Modern identification: Ancient Persian lands, broadly corresponding to modern Iran, with the historical Persian heartland centred on Fars and the areas around Shiraz, Marvdasht, Persepolis and Pasargadae.
The fifth-century BCE grammarian Pāṇini referred to Kāpiśī, understood as the city of the Kapisa country. The Getty Research Institute’s geographical database identifies Begram with ancient Kapisa and records Pāṇini among the earliest sources referring to the city.
The Markandeya Purana lists the Lampakas among northern peoples, and early geographical scholarship connected this reference directly with the Laghman region. The same tradition groups the Lampakas with several lesser-known northern communities, reinforcing their identification as inhabitants of India’s northwestern mountain frontier.
The northern campaign described in the Sabha Parva takes Arjuna through increasingly distant territories beyond the familiar Punjab and Himalayan kingdoms. Traditional commentaries place Bahlika among these difficult northern countries and describe it as lying beyond the ordinary northwestern frontier.
Kamboja was particularly renowned for its horses and cavalry traditions. The Mahabharata repeatedly refers to Kamboja horses as prized animals, while Kamboja rulers and warriors appear during Arjuna’s northern conquest, Yudhishthira’s Rajasuya and the Kurukshetra War.
The most defensible identification therefore places the ancient Darada heartland in the Upper Indus and adjoining Gilgit-Chilas mountain country, with connections extending towards Chitral and neighbouring Himalayan and Hindu Kush valleys.
Abhisara appears in the Mahabharata as one of the northern territories encountered by Arjuna during his Digvijaya, or campaign of conquest, undertaken before Yudhishthira’s Rajasuya sacrifice. Centuries later, a similarly named kingdom appears prominently in Greek accounts of Alexander’s campaigns in the northwestern subcontinent.
The historical core of Gandhara is generally placed around the Peshawar Valley, Taxila and Pushkalavati, with its wider geographical and cultural sphere extending through the valleys of the Swat and Kabul rivers. In modern terms, this corresponds mainly to northwestern Pakistan and adjoining eastern Afghanistan.
The Kekayas appear among the numerous peoples who participated in the extraordinary political gathering surrounding Yudhishthira’s Rajasuya sacrifice. When Duryodhana later described the wealth and tribute that had poured into Indraprastha, he specifically included the Kaikeyas among the well-born warrior peoples who brought tribute to Yudhishthira.
The kingdom is generally identified with the Sialkot region and surrounding parts of Punjab in present-day Pakistan, with its capital at Sakala, also known as Sagala.
