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Pāradas (alternatively Varadas, Parita) was an Iron Age kingdom described in various ancient and classical Indian texts. The exact location of the kingdom is unknown. The Vayu Purana locates the tribe on the upper course of the Amu Darya (also known as Chaksu) and Syr Darya rivers in Central Asia.[1] The Mahabharata, however, associates the Paradas with the tribes of Uttarapatha, and places them on the Sailoda River in the Xinjiang province of China. Additionally, the Ramayana locates the people in the Himalayas.[2]
It is thought that the Pāradas are connected to the later Paratarajas, an Indo-Parthian dynasty in Pakistan during the 1st-3rd century CE.[3]