Place Names And Histories - Hindu Kush

There is a sizeable mountain range in Afghanistan known as the Hindu Kush Mountains. You can Google it.

From Afghanistan it stretches into Tajikistan, Kyrgizstan and into China. You can Google it.

Hindukush is in the Pashto language (Pushtun). Pushtun is widely spoken in northern Pakistan, Afghanistan, parts of Iran and in parts of Central Asia (in some of the 'stan countries).

There is also a village named Hindukush (Hendukosh) deep inside Iran (near Isfahan). 

Hindu Kush means 'Indian Killer'.  Various stories have been suggested why these mountains were called Hindu Kush.  One of them is that the harsh winters and extreme terrain was able to stop invading Indian kings from expanding westwards.

Ancient Indian empires did stretch into Iran in the west and  Central Asia / Russia in the north.  Here is a map of the Maurya Empire circa 265 BC.

These were old civilisations that lasted for centuries. There was massive intermingling of cultures, beliefs and religions from India to the rest of Asia. 

India had significant influence on the Persian civilisation, including Zoroastrianism. 

The Indian civilisation also spread east to Cambodia, Vietnam, the Malay Peninsula,  Indonesia and to all the islands in the northern Indian Ocean. It was both Hindu and Buddhist based, according to historical chronology.

Buddhism yet another Indian religion spread from India all the way to Japan, Korea, China, Indo-China, Tibet, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and into Iran.

In the 5th century BC, Indian Buddhism even converted the eastern Greek civilisation: 

"Greco-Buddhism, or Graeco-Buddhism, is the cultural syncretism between Hellenistic culture and Buddhism, which developed between the 4th century BC and the 5th century AD in Bactria and the Indian subcontinent."

It is important to understand history.