Indo-Aryan peoples
Sunil Kumar Bhattacharya says that the Abhiras are mentioned in the first-century work of classical antiquity, the "Periplus of the Erythraean Sea". He considers them to be a race rather than a tribe. Scholars such as Ramaprasad Chanda believe that they were Indo-Aryan peoples. but others, such as Romila Thapar, believe them to have been indigenous. The Puranic Abhiras occupied the territories of Herat; they are invariably juxtaposed with the Kalatoyakas and Haritas, the peoples of Afghanistan.