Archaeological evidence places human habitation in Parahyangan at least as far back as 9,500 BCE. In the Padalarang karst area west of Bandung, the Pawon cave has yielded prehistoric remains of early settlements clustered around what was then a large natural lake filling the Bandung basin. The Sundanese legend of Sangkuriang preserves a cultural memory of this lake - a story in which a demigod attempts to dam a river overnight to win his mother's hand in marriage, fails, and kicks the half-built dam into what became Mount Tangkuban Perahu, the upturned boat. The story is myth, but the lake was real. Geologists have confirmed that a large body of water once filled the Bandung plateau before draining through gaps in the surrounding volcanic ridges. The ruins of the Bojongmenje temple, discovered in the Rancaekek area east of Bandung, date to the early 7th century CE - as old as or possibly older than the famous Dieng temples of Central Java. Written references to the region appear by the 14th century in the Cikapundung inscription, placing Parahyangan within the Kingdom of Pajajaran.

Parahyangan was the sacred interior of the Sunda Kingdom, whose rulers practiced Sunda Wiwitan, an animist belief system that held the mountains sacred. The kabuyutan of Jayagiri - a spiritual sanctuary mentioned in ancient Sundanese texts - was located somewhere in these highlands, probably on the slopes of Mount Tangkuban Perahu north of Bandung. After the Sunda Kingdom fell in the 16th century, Sundanese aristocrats in Cianjur, Sumedang, and Ciamis established the Sumedang Larang Kingdom and claimed descent from the legendary King Siliwangi. They maintained relative autonomy even as the powerful Banten and Cirebon Sultanates dominated the coasts. That autonomy ended in 1618, when Sultan Agung of Mataram conquered Ciamis and Sumedang in a military campaign that swept across Java. After quashing rebellions in 1630, he deported much of the native population. But the Mataram Sultanate's rivalry with the Dutch East India Company weakened both powers, and successive Mataram kings made territorial concessions to the VOC. By the early 18th century, the highlands had passed into Dutch hands.

The Dutch called the region De Preanger, and under their administration it became one of Java's most productive plantation zones. The construction of the Great Post Road under Governor-General Daendels connected the highland plantations to the port of Batavia and transformed Parahyangan from an isolated interior into an accessible economic asset. The Preanger Regencies Residency, founded in 1818, produced coffee, tea, quinine, and other cash crops that enriched Dutch plantation owners and shaped global commodity markets. The coffee grown here was marketed worldwide simply as Java coffee - a name that became so synonymous with the drink that Americans still use it. The capital shifted from Cianjur to Bandung, which grew from a minor settlement into a planned colonial city. By the early 20th century, Dutch planners had begun designing Bandung as the future capital of the entire Dutch East Indies, a tropical administrative center surrounded by tea gardens and volcanic peaks. World War II ended that ambition. After independence, Parahyangan became a romantic historical name for the highlands around Bandung, its Dutch title shed like a colonial uniform.

Parahyangan is the cultural heart of the Sundanese people, but the Sundanese world extends beyond its mountain borders. Scholars divide the Sundanese cultural area into four zones: Banten Sundanese in the west, extending into Lampung on Sumatra; Priangan Sundanese in the central and southern highlands - Parahyangan itself; Jalawastu Sundanese in the east, reaching into Brebes and Cilacap in Central Java; and Pantura Sundanese in the northern coastal lowlands including Cirebon and Indramayu. Each zone has its own dialects, customs, and artistic traditions, but they share a common language and a cultural identity rooted in these highlands. The region today encompasses the regencies and cities of Central, Eastern, and Western Parahyangan - from Bandung and Cimahi at its core to Tasikmalaya and Pangandaran in the east and Sukabumi and Cianjur in the west. The mountains that ancient Indonesians believed to be the homes of gods still define the landscape, still draw the rain that feeds the tea terraces, and still give the Sundanese a geography that feels, if not divine, then at least set apart.