Paropamisan Mountains, Or Paropamisns, a name formerly generally applied to a western portion of the Hindoo Koosh range in central Asia. (See Hindoo Koosh.) It is of very ancient origin, having been used before the time of Alexander; but its application in ancient works is very indefinite, and there is a considerable difference of opinion among modern geographers as to what part of the western Hindoo Koosh it properly designated. On the best maps it appears as the name of the range along the N. boundary of Cabool, the N. E. district of Afghanistan, and extending from the pass of Khawak on the east to the peak of Koh-i-baba on the west; and it is also applied to the more northerly of the two branches into which the main range divides still further westward. Many of the best classicists believe the name to have been used for the whole chain now known as the Hindoo Koosh, and some receive it as the designation of all the mountain group between the Caucasus and the Himalaya.