Dardistan refers to a linguistic area where Dardic languages are spoken. The terms "Dardic" and "Dardistan" are not indigenous to the region, and were coined by

Gottlieb Wilhelm Leitner Gottlieb Wilhelm Leitner (14 October 1840 – 22 March 1899), also known as Gottlieb William Leitner, was a British orientalist. Early life and education Gottlieb Wilhelm Leitner was born in Pest, Hungary, on 14 October 1840 to a Jewish fam ...

. The legitimacy of the term has been called into question. The region also includes a number of non-Dardic peoples and languages.

History

The initial efforts by the British grouped almost all the people and languages of the upper

Indus River The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayas, Himalayan river of South Asia, South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in the Western Tibet region of China, flows northw ...

, between

Kashmir Kashmir ( or ) is the Northwestern Indian subcontinent, northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term ''Kashmir'' denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir P ...

and

Kabul Kabul is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province. The city is divided for administration into #Districts, 22 municipal districts. A ...

, into a single category. This led to the creation of distinct identities for all other groups in the region, giving rise to terms such as ''Dard'', ''Dardistan'', and ''Dardic''. None of the inhabitants in the region identify themselves as ''Dards'', their homeland as ''Dardistan'', or their language as ''Dardic''. The term ''Dard'' is not recognized in any of the local languages, with the exception of

Khowar Khowar (, ''Khōwār'', ), also known by its common exonym Chitrali, is an Indo-Aryan language of the Dardic group, primarily spoken by the Kho (Chitrali) people, native to the Chitral region and surrounding areas of Pakistan. Khowar is th ...

, where it translates to 'way of the language' or 'dialect'. The broad application of this term have been criticised by many scholars. The languages and peoples are often referred to as "Kohistani", mostly by the

Pashtuns Pashtuns (, , ; ;), also known as Pakhtuns, or Pathans, are an Iranian peoples, Iranic ethnic group primarily residing in southern and eastern Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan. They were historically also referred to as Afghan (ethnon ...

. In academic linguistic contexts, however, Kohistani refers to one subgroup of Dardic languages which is mainly spoken in Kohistan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In a historic context,

Herodotus Herodotus (; BC) was a Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus (now Bodrum, Turkey), under Persian control in the 5th century BC, and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria, Italy. He wrote the '' Histori ...

(4th century B.C.), in one of his stories, mentioned a war-like people by the name of ''Dadikai'' on the frontier of

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. Subsequently,

Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo, Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-si ...

and Pliny made references to the warlike tribe known as ''Dardae''.

Alexander Alexander () is a male name of Greek origin. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here ar ...

, whose journeys contribute significantly to the classical geography of the subcontinent, did not encounter any Dard people. However, he did visit a location named ''Daedala'', where he reportedly engaged in combat with a group known as the '' Assakenoi''. Herodotus ''Dadikai'' appears to be the Persian name derived from the '' Daradas'' given in the

Puranic Puranas (Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature
(1995 Editio ...

sources. Instead of identifying a specific group, the term was used to describe a fierce population living in the northwest, beyond the confines of established society. In ''

Rajatarangini ''Rājataraṅgiṇī'' (Sanskrit: Devanagari, राजतरङ्गिणी, IAST, romanized: ''rājataraṅgiṇī'', International Phonetic Alphabet, IPA: Help:IPA/Sanskrit, �ɑː.d͡ʑɐ.t̪ɐˈɾɐŋ.ɡi.ɳiː ) is a metrical legend ...

'',

Kalhana Kalhana (c. 12th century) was the author of '' Rajatarangini'' (''River of Kings''), an account of the history of Kashmir. He wrote the work in Sanskrit between 1148 and 1149. All information regarding his life has to be deduced from his own wri ...

refers to the Darads as inhabitants of the area north of

, known for their frequent attempts to invade and plunder Kashmir. The term eventually gained acceptance through frequent use. The labels 'Dard' and 'Dardistan' were introduced by G.W. Leitner, despite the fact that no local population identified as 'Dard'. John Biddulph, who resided in

Gilgit Gilgit (; Shina language, Shina: ; ) is a city in Pakistani-administered Gilgit-Baltistan, Gilgit–Baltistan in the disputed Kashmir region.The application of the term "administered" to the various regions of Kashmir and a mention of the Kas ...

for an extended period, also noted that none of the tribes typically referred to as 'Dard' recognized the term. Biddulph acknowledged that Leitner's label 'Dardistan' was based on a misunderstanding, but he accepted it as a useful term for referring to the complex, diverse, and largely unexplored

Karakoram The Karakoram () is a mountain range in the Kashmir region spanning the border of Pakistan, China, and India, with the northwestern extremity of the range extending to Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Most of the Karakoram mountain range is withi ...

region between

and the Hindukush Range. Interestingly, this usage mirrors the Sanskrit interpretation, where it refers to unspecified fierce outsiders residing in the mountainous regions beyond the area's borders.

External links

Dardistan on Britannica

Dardistan on Iranica

References

{{reflist Dardic languages Regions of Asia Historical regions Linguistic history Ethnic groups by language family