Badakshan

Badakhshan is a historic region comprising parts of northeastern Afghanistan and southeastern Tajikistan.

History

The name is retained in Badakhshan Province which is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan, in the far northeast of Afghanistan, and contains the Wakhan Corridor. Much of historic Badakhshan lies within Tajikistan's Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province located in the in south-eastern part of the country.

Badakhshan was an important trading center during antiquity. Lapis lazuli was traded exclusively from there as early as the second half of the 4th millennium BC. Badakhshan was an important region when the Silk Road passed through. Its significance is its geo-economic role in trades of silk and ancient commodities transactions between the East and West.

According to Marco Polo, Badashan/ Badakshan was a province where Balas rubies could be found under the mountain "Syghinan" (Shighnan).

Jat clans

• Bheda

Jat History

M.L. Bhargava writes that after the defeat on the Yamuna River they (Jakhars) migrated to the Oxus (Geek name) valley and gave the name to valley as Jaksha or Jaaksha. He opines that Budakhsis and their city Badakshan are known after the combined name of Bheda, the leader of the Yakshas and that of the latter, Bheda is also a Jat clan.