Paropamisadae

The Paropamisadae, also known by other names, were a people who lived in the area of Afghanistan and northern Pakistan during classical antiquity. The name was also used to refer to the lands these people inhabited, properly known as Paropamisus.

Paropamisadae is the latinized form of the Greek name Paropamisádai (Παροπαμισάδαι), used to refer to the inhabitants of the land of "Paropamisus" (Παροπαμισός, Paropamisós) in the Hindu Kush. The name derived from the Old Persian Para-upari-sena (lit. "Beyond the Raised Land"), which properly referred to the Peshawar Valley on the other side of the mountains from Persia, with its major settlements at Peshawar and Charsadda in what is now Pakistan's Gandhara district.

In many Greek and Latin sources, particularly editions of Ptolemy's Geography where their realm is included on the 9th Map of Asia, the names of the people and region are given as Paropanisadae and Paropanisus. They also appeared less frequently as Parapamisadae and Parapamīsus (Παραπάμισος, Parapámisos),Paropamīsii, &c.

The name was also applied to a nearby river, probably the Obi.

In the ancient Buddhist texts, the Mahajanapada kingdom of Kamboja compassed the territories of Paropamisus and extended to the southwest of Kashmir as far as Rajauri. The region came under Achaemenid Persian control in the late 6th century BC, either during the reign of Cyrus the Great or Darius I.

...
Wikipedia