Swat District in the context of "2023 Pakistani census"

Gandhara (IAST: Gandhāra) was an ancient Indo-Aryan civilisation in present-day northwestern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan. The core of the region of Gandhara was the Peshawar and Swat valleys, extending up to Kabul and Bagram in the west and the Pothohar Plateau in the east. However, the cultural influence of Greater Gandhara extended as far as the Bamyan valley in the west and the Karakoram range in the northeast. The region was a central location for the spread of Buddhism to Central and East Asia, with many Chinese Buddhist pilgrims visiting the region.

Between the third century BCE and third century CE, Gāndhārī, a Middle Indo-Aryan language written in the Kharosthi script and linked with the modern Dardic language family, acted as the lingua franca of the region, and through Buddhism, the language spread as far as China based on Gandhāran Buddhist texts. Famed for its unique Gandharan style of art, the region attained its height from the 1st century to the 5th century CE under the Kushan Empire, which had their twin capitals at Kapiśi and Puruṣapura, ushering the period known as Pax Kushana.

Gandhara (IAST: Gandhāra) was an ancient Indo-Aryan civilization in present-day northwestern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan. The core of the region of Gandhara was the Peshawar and Swat valleys, extending up to Kabul and Bagram in the west and the Pothohar Plateau in the east. However, the cultural influence of Greater Gandhara extended as far as the Bamyan valley in the west and the Karakoram range in the northeast. The region was a central location for the spread of Buddhism to Central and East Asia, with many Chinese Buddhist pilgrims visiting the region.

Between the third century BCE and third century CE, Gāndhārī, a Middle Indo-Aryan language written in the Kharosthi script and linked with the modern Dardic language family, acted as the lingua franca of the region, and through Buddhism, the language spread as far as China based on Gandhāran Buddhist texts. Famed for its unique Gandharan style of art, the region attained its height from the 1st century to the 5th century CE under the Kushan Empire, which had their twin capitals at Kapiśi and Puruṣapura, ushering the period known as Pax Kushana.

Chitral District (Khowar: ݯھیترارو ضلع; Urdu: ضلع چترال) was a district in the Malakand Division of the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from 14 August 1947 to 2018. It was the northernmost and the largest district of the province, covering an area of 14,850 km, before the district was split in two forming the new districts of Upper Chitral and Lower Chitral.

It shared district borders with Swat and Dir to the south, a provincial border with Gilgit-Baltistan to the east and the Durand Line as international border with Afghanistan to the north and west. Afghanistan's narrow strip of Wakhan Corridor separated Chitral from Tajikistan in the north.

Kohistan District, also known as Indus Kohistan (Kohistani: سندھُ کوستَیں) and Hazara Kohistan, was a district within the Hazara Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Consisting of eastern portion of the larger Kohistan region, it was bifurcated into two districts in 2014: Upper Kohistan and Lower Kohistan. In 2017, the Lower Kohistan District was further bifurcated and a district Kolai-Palas was established. It has an area of 7,492 square kilometres (2,893 sq mi) and a population of 472,570 according to the 1998 Census.

Geographically, Kohistan stretched from Gilgit-Baltistan in the north to the Mansehra District in the east to the Battagram District and Shangla and Swat districts in the west.

The Torwali people are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group located in the Swat district of Pakistan. The Torwali people have a culture that values the telling of folktales and music that is played using the sitar. They speak an Indo-Aryan language called Torwali.

Shina (ݜݨیاٗ, Ṣiṇyaá, [ʂiɳjá]), also known by its exonym Gilgiti, is an Indo-Aryan language of the Dardic branch in the Indo-European language family, primarily spoken by the Shina people, native to northern Pakistan, specifically Gilgit-Baltistan and Kohistan. A small community of Shina speakers is also found in India, in the Gurez valley of Jammu and Kashmir and in Dras valley of Ladakh. Outliers of Shina language such as Brokskat are found in Ladakh, Kundal Shahi in Azad Kashmir, Palula and Sawi in Chitral, Ushojo in the Swat Valley and Kalkoti in Dir.

It is one of the major regional languages of Pakistan, being the most-widely spoken one in Gilgit-Baltistan. It is also spoken outside of Gilgit-Baltistan and Kohistan by Shina communities in major metropolitan areas around the country, particularly Islamabad–Rawalpindi, Karachi, Lahore, and Peshawar.

The Sultanate of Swat was a medieval kingdom of Dardic origin centred around the city of Manglawar between the 12th and 16th centuries. It was strongest of the several Dardic-speaking states in the region, encompassing the present-day Malakand, Buner, Swat and Dir valleys, as well as the Kohistan region.

During the most of 15th century, the kingdom bordered Kashmir Sultanate to the east, Delhi Sultanate to the south, Timurid Empire to the west and the kingdom of Chitral to the north. The last notable ruler was Sultan Awes Jahangiri, during whose reign Swat was ultimately conquered between 1510 and 1518 after a series of battles by Yousafza'i Pashtuns under the leadership of Malik Ahmad Baba. This led to the Pashtunization of the Swat and Dir regions. Some accounts trace the origins of Shah Mir dynasty of Kashmir from these rulers of Swat.

The Yusufzai or Yousafzai (Pashto: یوسفزی, pronounced [jusəpˈzai]), also referred to as the Esapzai (ايسپزی, pronounced [iːsəpˈzai]), or Yusufzai Afghans historically, are one of the largest tribes of Pashtuns. They are natively based in the northern part of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Malakand, Dir, Swat, Shangla, Buner, Swabi, Mardan, Bajaur, Peshawar, Tor Ghar), to which they migrated from Kabul during the 16th century, but they are also present in parts of Afghanistan, including Kunar, Kabul, Kandahar and Farah. Outside of these countries, they can be found in Ghoriwala District Bannu (Mughal Khel), Balochistan Sibi (Akazai), Chagai (Hassanzai) and Rohilkandh.

Most of the Yusufzai speak a northern variety of Pashto and some southern variety of Pashto (as in case of Mughal Khel) and Afghan dialect Persian.