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224 PART—EIGHT Chronology of Important Events connected with the history of Afghanistan (I) Pre-Islamic Period : c. 3000 B.C. : First settlement of the Aryans at Bakhdi (modern Balkh). We do not know much about the original home of the Aryans. Bactrai, Chinese Turkestan, the Pamirs, Germany, the plains of the Middle Danube, the Steppes of Southern Russia and even Western Siberia have all been suggested as the original habitat of these Indo-European races. According to Avesta, this original home of the Aryans (Aryana-Vaejo as it is called) was a region of delight, a kind of earthly paradise. Some geological convulsions changed the climate of this country, and the primeval happy home of the Aryans became suddenly very cold and sullen, which induced the migration of the Aryans to neighbouring countries. According to other traditions, the original home of the Aryans (Arya-Vesta, Arya-Varstha or Arya-Versha, as it is variously called, meaning the Abode of Honourable Men) seems to be the country watered by the Oxus and the Murghab, and bounded by the Caspian Sea on the west, the Hindukush on the south, the Kailas range on the east and the Kizil-Kum and other sandy deserts on the north. It was at Bakhdi, northern Afghanistan, that the Aryan