The Zend Avesta, Part I (SBE04): Vendîdâd: Fargard I

Of these sixteen lands there are certainly nine which have really existed, and of which we know the geographical position, as we are able to follow their names from the records of the Achæmenian kings or the works of classical writers down to the map of modern Iran. They are the following:-- p. 2 ZEND NAME. OLD PERSIAN. GREEK. MODERN NAME. Sughdha (2) Suguda Σογδιανή (Samarkand) Môuru (3) Margu Μαργιανή Merv Bâkhdhi (4) Bâkhtri Βάκτρα Balkh Harôyu (6) Haraiva Ἄρεια Hari-rûd Vehrkâna (9) Varkâna Ὑρκανία Gorgân Harahvaiti (16) Harauvati Ἀράχωτος Harût Haêtumant (11) Ἐτύμανδρος Helmend Ragha (12) Raga Ῥαγαί Raï Hapta hindu (15) Hindavas Ἰνδοί (Pañgâb) [paragraph continues] The real existence of Nisâya (5) is certain, although its position cannot be exactly determined (see the note to § 8). For the other lands we are confined for information to the Pahlavi Commentary. Kakhra (13) is only transliterated, whether the name was then too much known to require any further explanation or too little to allow of any. Urva (8) is described as being Masân ('the land of Masân' or 'the land of the Great'), a name which applied, in the Sassanian ages, to the land around Ispahân (Firdausi, ed. Mohl, V, 270). For 'Varena, the four-cornered' (14), the Commentary hesitates between the Padashkhvârgar mountains (the Elborz) and Kirmân, a hesitation easily accounted for by the fact that Varena is the seat of the struggle between Azis Dahâka and Thraêtaona, between the storm serpent and the storm god, and was formerly 'the four-sided Heaven' (see Introd. IV, 12, 23). Modern tradition decides in favour of Padashkhvârgar, probably because the serpent was at last bound to Demavand, the highest peak in that chain. The claims of Kirmân were probably founded on the popular etymology of its name, 'the land of snakes.'