KAOFU, an ancient name for the region now called Afghanistan. For several centuries, both before and after the Christian era, the Indian language and religion were predominant through out all Afghanistan, from the Bolan pass in the south, to Bamian and Kandahar on the west. This large tract was then known by the general name of Kaofu, but was divided into ten different states, of which Kapisa was the chief. The Tributary States were Kabul and Ghazni on the west, Lamghan and Jalalabad in the north, Swat and Peshawur in the east, Bolor in the north-east, and Bannu and Opokien in the south.
That Kandahar then belonged–to Persia, is proved by the fact that the begging - pot of Buddha, which Hiwen Thsang (ii. p. 106) mentions as having been removed from Gandhara to Persia, still lies at Kandahar. The removal must have taken place durine. the 6th century, after the conquest of GandEara by the king of Kissin or Kipin. It is called the Kasligul-i-Ali. The
Kaofu of the Chinese would therefore have embraced the whole of modern Afghanistan. Kaofu was the appellation of one of the five tribes of the Yuchi or Tochari, who are said to have given their own name to the town which they occupied towards the end of the 2d century before Christ. This statement of the Chinese writers is confirmed by the historians of Alexander, who notice the city of Ortospana, without making any mention of Kabul. The latter name is first given by Ptolemy, who describes Kabura or Ortospana as the capital of the Paropainisadm. General A. Cunningham concludes, therefore, that Ortospana was most probably the original metropolis of the country, which was supplanted by Alexandria during the Greek domination, and restored by the earlier Indo-Scythian princes.—Cunningham, Ancient Geog. of India, p. 18.