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The Mahabharata War occurred in 3138 B.C. By that time India or Bharata Varsha consisted of two parts, Sindhusthan, the region to the east of the Indus and Mlechcha-sthan, to the west of the river. Sindhusthan is known as Bharata-Khanda. This is the distinction embodied in the description ‘Bharata Varshe’ ‘Bharata Khande’ in the mention of the place and the time by all Bharatiyas at the commencement of their ordinary daily as well as extraordinary and occassional ritual observances. Of the Indian continent, known as a whole as Bharata Varsha, the part inhabited by the Bharatiyas who belonged to the traditional cultural fold was known as Bharata-Khanda or "Sindhusthan." The part to the west of the Indus which was inhabited and resorted to by all the Bharatiyas who had disregarded the traditional cultural restrictions and observances and left the parent fold, was known as "Mlechcha-sthan."
The land of the Aryans was known as ‘Sindhusthan’;(or Hindustan, Prakrit form). The land beyond the Indus was called by them ‘Mlechchasthan.’ The boundaries of this Mlechchasthan or "Uttarapatha" were :-
To the east ..........The river Indus.
To the South .........The Arabian Sea.
To the West ..........Iran.
To the North..........Sagdiana (Southern Persia.)
The regions known as Daradasthan, Bactria (Capital Balkh), Aria (Capital Herat) to the north of Modern Afghanistan were all within the borders of the ancient Bharata-varsha.
The part designated "Mlechchasthan" was originally known as “Uttarapatha.” The Aryan race originated in the region called "Brahmavartha" situated between the rivers Saraswathi and Drushadwati. From there, as they grew in numbers in course of time, they spread gradually over the entire region of Aryavartha enclosed between the Himalayas and the Vindhya
mountains.
After covering the entire Aryavartha, the land to which the Aryans further spread proceeding westward to the North was known as "Uttarapatha" and the land beyond the Vindhyas, to which they spread proceeding Southwards- was known as "Dakshinapatha! The word ‘patha’ in Sanskrit indicates the path or direction and the names themselves indicate the meanings attached to them (Nortlrward direction and Southward direction.) The Kingdoms comprised in Uttarapatha were:-
Ancient Name................Modern Name.
1. Gramaniya................Gedrosia.
2. The Sindhu Valley........Included in the above.
3. Amaraparvatha............}To the north-west of Gedro-
4. Ramatha..................}sia, which together with
5. Hara ....................}Gedrosia now Constitute
6. Huna.....................}modern Beluchisthan.
7. Saka stan................}In the Helmand river valley
8, Suttala..................}now known as Drangiana.
9. Aryanaka.................} Aria Capital Herat.
10. North Bahlika.........} Bactria- Capital Balkh. A
..........................}colony of the Bahlikas, unor-
..........................}thodox Kshatriyas who inha.
..........................}bited the region of the Indus
..........................}and its tributaries and later
..........................}migrated to north and named
..........................}it North Bahlika.
11. Darada................}Dardisthan-Now included in
..........................}Russian Turkisthan.
12. Uttarajyotisha to the....}Forming the central region
South of Sakasthan...........}of modern Afghanisthan to
No. 7........................}the north-east of which up to
.............................}Kashmir were located13,14,
.............................}15,16,the Yavana kingdoms.
13. Divya Kataka .........}Included in modern Afgha-
14. Simhapura.............}nisthan.
15. Uraga or Urasa........}.
16. Abhisara..............}Included in Kashmir.
17. Gandhara..............}Included now partly in Afganisthan and partly in the
..........................}N. W. Frontier Province.
Gandhara was originally and from the beginning an Aryan kingdom. But in course of time, after the Mahabharata War, it became gradually a Mlechcha state. Between the two states of
Simhapura and Uraga, now included in Afghanistan, and through them, the Hindu kush Mountain range runs northward. In this state of Simhapura are to be found the mountain-peak known an "Kohi·Mor" and the town
"Nysa" at its £oot. The region to the northwest of the Kohi-mor peak is called Kafir-i-sthan. In the same Hindukush mountains and in the neighbourhood of‘Nysa’ is another peak known as ‘Meru’. The Yavana legends (of
ancient Greece) describe Dionysius of Greek mythology as having been born in this place 'Nysa’ from the thigh of ‘Zeus’ (Sun-God) i.e.: Suryavamsi Kshatriya and engaged in religious austarities on this ‘Meru’. All ovr this mountain the “Ivy" (sacred to the
Greeks )grew plentifully. It is said the great Alexander when he came upon this mountain in the course of his march for conqueat and found the sacred (to them) 'ivy’ on it,felt immencely delighted (Vide EJ. Rapson·· Cambridge History of India Vol I,pp. 353, 354 ).
E.J.Rapson writes in Vol I. of his Cambridge History of India:“On the lower spurs of three-peaked ‘Kohi·Mor’ dwelt a people who told the Yavanas. or, so the invaders understood them. that they were descendants of the western people, who had come into those parts with their god Dionysius; for Dionysius, the Greeks believed, had gone conquering across Asia, at the head of his revellers. in the old heroic days. The Greeks always experienced a keen joy of recognition, when they could connect foreign things with the figures of their own legends, and they were delighted with the suggestion. The assonance of names lent itself immediately to confirm the theory as easily as it does to confirm
the adventurous speculations of modern Archaeologists. In the legend the name of ‘Nysa` was specially connected with Dionysius. It was the name of his Nurse or of the place where he was born or of his holy hill and the name of this little town in the Hindukush, as it was pronounced to Alexander. had a similar sound.
Again the legend said that Dionysius had been born from the thigh (Meros) of Zeus, and a neighbouring summit the Greeks discovered, was called "Meru". What could be clearer? And when they saw the sacred plants of the god. the Vine and ivy, running wild over the mountain, as they knew them at home.(See Holdich,Gates of India p. 133) no doubt could be left".
Modern travellers have come upon certain fair Kafir tribes in this region whose religious processions with music and dance have a Bacchanalian look. and the Nysaeans discovered by Alexander, they suggest may have been the ancestors of these Kafirs; their processions may have led the Greeks to connect them with Dionysius."
"Hostilities, at any rate, with these interesting kinsmen, could not be thought of, and the Nysaeans were themselves prepared to act in character; three hundred of them on their mountain horses joined the army of the Greek king and followed him to lattle in the plains of the Punjab." (Rapson’s Cambridge History of India, Vol.I pp 353- 354)
Prof. J. B. Bury writes:- "lt was perhaps not far from Jelalabad that the army came to a city which was called "Nysa". The name immediately awakened in the minds of all the Greeks the memory of their god Dionysius. For Mount "Nysa" was the mythical place where he had been nursed by nymphs when he was born from the thigh of Zeus. The mountain was commonly supposed to be in Thrace; but an old hymn placed it "near the streams of Nile," it had no place on the travellers chart. But here was an actual "Nysa;" and close to the town was a hill whose name resembled Meros; the Greek word for "thigh" and whose slopes were covered with the ‘god's own ivy'. Therefore *Nysa,’ they said, was founded by Dionysius, the god had fared eastward to subdue India; and now Alexander was marching on
his tracks. Every where on their further march the Greeks and Macedonians were alert to discover traces of the progress of the bacchic god.” (History of Greece. Chap. XVIII, page 801 by J. B. Bury,D.Litt., L.Ld., F.B.A.. Ed. 1916 )
There is an obvious inconsistency in the above statement of the learned J.B. Bury. If Dionysius, who was born at °Nysa’ and had performed austerities on Mount ‘Meru,’ had proceeded to other lands for invasion, he must have proceeded to the west and not the West. To The east of the Yavana kingdoms there lies the river Indus and beyond the Indus there were then vast kingdoms ruled by powerful kings. Compared with these eastern kingdoms
the extent of even all the Yavana kingdoms put together is inconsiderable. Moreover the Yavanas were dependent on arms for their livelihood, and many of them were employed as
mercenary soldiers in the service of the kings of the east and south of India. The Yavanas crossed the river Indus occasionally for raids but it is not mentioned anywhere in the Sanskrit or any other western Indian literature that they had invaded the kingdoms beyond the river. So the suggestion implied in the statements of Bury as well as Rapson that Dionysius proceeded from the west for invasion to the east does not appear plausible. Dionysius who was born in western Bharat and who performed austerities on Mount ‘meru’ must have been only a Bharatiya Yavana. He might have proceeded to the west on an invading
march up to Greece, established a Yavana colonial kingdom there called ‘Ionia.’ and those people were known as ‘Yaunas or ‘Ionians.' Such an account is supported by the evidence of Indian Puranas as well as the legends and myths of ancient Greece. There were no yavana or Ionian colonies to the east of the river ‘Indus’ in India;.
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