Originally Posted by
Vir9
the indo-aryans migrated via the mountain passes of afghanistan into the indian subcontinent 3500-4000 years ago but some stayed in afghanistan and were later iranized by the iranic people who entered afghanistan a bit later or they survived in remote areas as modern dardic people and could preserve a religion similar to vedism for a long time (kalash,pashayi,). Since more than nearly 3000 years afghanistan is dominated by eastern iranic people who had their own distinct polytheistic religions which shared some similarities with zoroastranism in the west and hinduism in the east but were still quite distinct from both. Pashtuns are descendants of iranic people like saka, kamboja, kushan, hepthalites ,bactrians and Arachosians who mixed with dardic people in some cases.Already in the very old iranic avesta most areas were pashtuns live today are mentioned as land of iranic people.The kings of bactria were mostly worshippers of Mithras,Verethagna,Ahura Mazda,Nana,Atar,Vata and many other iranic gods (fire,sun,..) .In later periods some indian gods were also adopted but their cult was mixed with iranic beliefs very quickly