The Kingdom of Kapisa, appearing in contemporary Chinese sources as () and (), was a state located in what is now Afghanistan during the late 1st millennium. Its capital was the city of Kapisa. The kingdom stretched from the Hindu Kush in the north to Bamiyan and Kandahar in the south and west, out as far as the modern Jalalabad District in the east.Journal of the Asiatic Society of Pakistan, Volumes 4–6. Asiatic Society of Pakistan, 1959.
The name Kapisa appears to be a Sanskritized form of an older name for the area, from prehistory.Dr S. Chattopadhyaya 1974: 58; India as Known to Panini, 1953, p. 71, Dr V. S. Aggarwala; Foreign Elements in Ancient Indian Society, 2nd Century BC to 7th Century AD, 1979, p. 86, Dr Uma Prasad Thapliyal. Following its conquest in 329 BC by Alexander the Great, Bagram and the surrounding area were known in the Hellenic world as Alexandria on the Caucasus in reference to the Hindu Kush as the "Indic Caucasus", although the older name appears to have survived.
In the early 7th century, the Chinese Buddhist monk Xuanzang made a pilgrimage to Kapisa, and described there the cultivation of rice and wheat, and a king of the Suli tribe. In his chronicle, he relates that in Kapisa were over 6,000 monks of the Mahayana school of Buddhism.Dust in the wind: retracing Dharma Master Xuanzang's Western pilgrimage. Rhythms Monthly, 2006. , In a 7th-century Chinese chronicle, the Book of Sui, Kapisa appears as the realm of CaoGandhāran Buddhism: archaeology, art, texts. Asian religions and society series. Pia Brancaccio, Kurt A. Behrendt. UBC Press, 2006. , (Middle Chinese pronunciation *Dzaw). In other Chinese works, it is called Jibin (*Kjej-pjin), a name appearing as early as the Book of Han (Old Chinese *Krads-pin or Krats-pin) in reference to Kashmir and surrounding areas.
Between the 7th and 9th centuries, the kingdom was ruled by the Turk Shahi dynasty.Buddha Prakash . Glimpses of ancient Panjab. Sita Ram Kohli memorial lectures. Punjabi University, Dept. of Punjab Historical Studies, 1966 At one point, Bagram was the capital of the kingdom, though in the 7th century, the center of power of Kapisa shifted to Kabul.Giovanni Verardi, Elio Paparatti. Buddhist caves of Jāghūrī and Qarabāgh-e Ghaznī, Afghanistan. Volume 2 of Reports and. IsIAO, 2004. ,
Kapisi
Kapisi (; ) or Kapisa was the capital city of the Kingdom of Kapisa. While the name of the kingdom has been used for the modern Kapisa Province in Afghanistan, the ancient city of Kapisa was located in Parwan Province, in or near present-day Bagram.
The first references to Kapisa appear in the writings of 5th-century BC Indian scholar Pāṇini. Pāṇini refers to the city of Kāpiśī, a city of the Kapisa kingdom.Ashtadhyayia Sutra IV.2.99. Pāṇini also refers to Kāpiśāyana,Sutra IV.2.29. a famous wine from Kapisa.Dr S. Chattopadhyaya 1974: 58; India as Known to Pāṇini, 1953, p 71, Dr V. S. Aggarwala; Foreign Elements in Ancient Indian Society, 2nd Century BC to 7th Century AD, 1979, p 86, Dr Uma Prasad Thapliyal. The city of Kapiśi also appeared as Kaviśiye on Indo-Greek coins of Apollodotus/Eucratides,See: Notes on Indian coins and Seals, Part IV, E. J. Rapson in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland, 1905, p 784, (Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland). as well as the Nezak Huns.
Archeology discoveries in 1939 confirmed that the city of Kapisa was an emporium for Kapiśayana wine, discovering numerous glass flasks, fish-shaped wine jars, and drinking cups typical of the wine trade of the era.A Grammatical Dictionary of Sanskrit (Vedic): 700 Complete Reviews of the Best Books for ..., 1953, p 118, Dr Peggy Melcher, Vasudeva Sharana Agrawala, Surya Kanta, Jacob Wackernagel, Arthur Anthony Macdonell. The grapes (Kāpiśāyanī Drakṣa) and wine (Kāpiśāyanī Madhu) of the area are referred to by several works of ancient Indian literature.Cultural History of Ancient India: A Socio-economic and Religio-cultural Survey of Kapisa and ..., 1979, p 29, Jaya Goswami; India as Known to Pāṇini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashṭādhyāyī, 1953, 118, Dr Vasudeva Sharana Agrawala The Mahabharata also noted the common practice of slavery in the city.Mahabharata 2.48.7.; Tribes in the Mahabharata: A Socio-cultural Study, 1987, pp 94,314, Krishna Chandra Mishra - Mahābhārata; Geographical and Economic Studies in the Mahābhārata: Upāyana Parva, 1945, p 44, Dr Moti Chandra - India The Begram ivories, inlays surviving from burnt furniture, were important artistic finds.
In later times, Kapisa seems to have been part of a kingdom ruled by a Buddhist Kshatriya king holding sway over ten neighboring states including Lampaka, Nagarahara, Gandhara and Banu, according to the Chinese pilgrim Xuan Zang who visited in 644 AD.Su-kao-seng-chaun, Chapter 2, (no. 1493); Kai-yuan-lu, chapter 7; Publications, 1904, p 122–123, published by Oriental Translation Fund (Editors Dr T. W. Rhys Davis, S. W. Bushel, London, Royal Asiatic Society). Xuan Zang notes the Shen breed of horses from the area, and also notes the production of many types of cereals and fruits, as well as a scented root called Yu-kin.
The Mahābhārata, particularly the Drona Parva, explicitly refers to Rājapura as the capital of the Kamboja kingdom, describing Kamboja as a centralized polity with organized cavalry forces and sustained military participation alongside Bāhlika, Pahlava, Śaka, and Yavana groups. This context requires Rājapura to have been a major political and logistical center situated on transregional routes of the Uttarāpatha, rather than a minor or isolated settlement. Some modern scholarship has identified Rājapura with present-day Rajouri, largely on the basis of name similarity. However, this identification has been increasingly questioned, as Rajouri lacks independent textual, archaeological, Greek, or Chinese attestations linking it to the Kambojas, and it does not correspond to the geographic, economic, or strategic profile consistently associated with Kamboja in ancient sources. By contrast, a substantial body of linguistic, textual, and historical evidence supports the identification of Rājapura with Kapisa (also known as Kapisha or Ki-pin in Chinese sources). Classical Chinese accounts, most notably those of Xuanzang, describe Kapisa as a major kingdom located south of the Hindu Kush and north of Gandhāra, functioning as a political and commercial hub linking India, Central Asia, and Iran. Multiple Sanskrit, Buddhist, Greek, and Chinese sources equate Kapisa with Kamboja, including the Mahāmāyūrī, Rāmāyaṇa-mañjarī of Kṣemendra, and the geographical notices of Ptolemy, who distinguishes northern and southern Kamboja regions across the Hindu Kush.Scholars such as Sylvain levi, Moti Chandra, and K. C. Mishra, as well as the History and Culture of the Indian People series, have therefore concluded that Kapisa and Kamboja are equivalent geographical designations, and that Kapisa represents the historical capital zone of the Kambojas. This identification accounts for Kamboja's repeated association with Bactria, Paropamisadae, Parthia, Scythian regions, and Indo-Greek corridors, and coherently explains its prominent military and economic role in the Mahābhārata.
Accordingly, while the Rajouri identification is based primarily on toponymic resemblance, the identification of Rājapura with Kapisa is supported by converging evidence from Indian epic literature Mahabharata, Buddhist texts, Greco-Roman geography, and Chinese travel accounts Xuanzang, making it the more consistent and widely corroborated location for the Kamboja capital.
Etymology
Scholar community holds that Kapisa is equivalent to Sanskrit Kamboja.The Greeks in Bactria and India 1966 p 170, 461, Dr William Woodthorpe Tarn.The Indian Historical Quarterly, 1963, p 291; Indian historical quarterly, Vol XXV-3, 1949, pp 190–92.Kathakasankalanam: amskrtagranthebhyah sangrahītani Kathhakabrahmana,- 1981, P xii, Surya Kanta.Epigraphia Indica, Vol XIX-1, p 11.Afghanistan: A Study of Political Developments in Central and Southern Asia, 1953, p 58, Sir William Kerr Fraser-Tytler, M. C. Gillet.Kāṭhakasaṅkalanam: Saṃskr̥tagranthebhyaḥ saṅgr̥hītāni Kāṭhakabrāhmaṇa, Kāṭhakaśrautasūtra, 1981, pe xii, Dr Surya Kanta.Prācīna Kamboja, Jana aura Janapada Ancient Kamboja, people and country, 1981, p 44, 147, 155, Dr Jiyālāla Kāmboja, Dr Satyavrat Śāstrī.Cf: Society and Culture in the Time of Daṇḍin, 1972, p 89, Dr Gupta, Dharmendra Kumar.Cf: Main Currents in the Ancient History of Gujarat, 1960, p 26, Bhasker Anand Saletore, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda Deptt. of History; Alexander the Great, 2003, Edition, p 277, Dr W. W. Tarn.Non-Aryan Linguistic Elements in the Atharvaveda, 2000, 137, Abhijit Ghosh - Vedic language. In other words, Kamboja and Kapisa are believed to be two attempts to render the same foreign word (which could not appropriately be transliterated into Sanskrit).Pre Aryan and Pre Dravidian in India, 1993 edition, p 120, Dr Sylvain Lévi, Dr Jules Bloch, Dr Jean Przyluski, Asian Educational Services. See Link: ;.Problems of Ancient India, 2000, p 1, K. D. Sethna; Purana, Vol VI No 1, January 1964, K. D. Sethna.See also: Indian Antiquaries, 52, part 2, 1923; Indian Antiquaries, 203, 1923, p 54.Prācīna Kamboja, Jana aura Janapada Ancient Kamboja, people and country, 1981, pp 44, Dr Jiyālāla Kāmboja, Dr Satyavrat Śāstrī; cf also: Dr J. W. McCrindle, Ptolemy, p 268. Historian S. Levi further holds that old Persian Ka(m)bujiya or Kau(n)bojiya, Sanskrit Kamboja as well as Kapisa, all etymologically refer to the same foreign word.Pre Aryan and Pre Dravidian in India, 1993 edition, p 120, Dr Sylvain Lévi, Dr Jules Bloch, Dr Jean Przyluski, Asian Educational Services.Prācīna Kamboja, Jana aura Janapada Ancient Kamboja, people and country, 1981, pp 44, 147, 155, Dr Jiyālāla Kāmboja, Dr Satyavrat Śāstrī.
Even the evidence from the 3rd-century Buddhist tantra text Mahamayuri (which uses Kabusha for Kapisha) and the Ramayana-manjri by Sanskrit Acharya, Kshemendra of Kashmir (11th century), which specifically equates Kapisa with Kamboja, thus substituting the former with the latter, therefore, sufficiently attest that Kapisa and Kamboja are equivalent.See: Indian Antiquaries, 52, part 2, 1923 .Pre Aryan and Pre Dravidian in India, 1993 edition, p 121, Dr Sylvain Lévi, Dr Jules Bloch, Dr Jean Przyluski, Asian Educational Services. Even according to illustrious Indian history series: History and Culture of Indian People, Kapisa and Kamboja are equivalent.History and Culture of Indian People, Vol III, pp 122, 617, Dr R. C. Majumdar, Dr A. D. Pusalkar, Dr. K. M. Munshi. Scholars like Dr Moti Chandra, Dr Krishna Chandra Mishra etc. also write that the Karpasika (of Mahabharata)Mahabhara 2.48.7. and Kapisa (Ki-pin/Ka-pin/Chi-pin of the Chinese writings) are synonymous terms.Geographical and Economic Studies in the Mahābhārata: Upāyana Parva, 1945, p 44, Dr Moti Chandra - India; Tribes in the Mahabharata: A Socio-cultural Study, 1987, pp 94, 314, Krishna Chandra Mishra - Mahābhārata.