Gandhāra (mahajanapada)
Gandhāra | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6th cent. BCE–c. 535 BCE | |||||||
.png) Gandhāra among the Mahājanapadas during the Second Urbanisation | |||||||
| Capital | Takṣaśila | ||||||
| Common languages | Prakrits | ||||||
| Religion | Historical Vedic religion Jainism Buddhism | ||||||
| Demonym | Gāndhārī | ||||||
| Government | Monarchy | ||||||
| Historical era | Iron Age India | ||||||
• Established | 6th cent. BCE | ||||||
• Conquered by the Achaemenid Empire | c. 535 BCE | ||||||
| |||||||
| Today part of | Pakistan | ||||||
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| History of South Asia |
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Gandhāra (Sanskrit: Gandhāra; Pali: Gandhāra) was a 6th/5th c. BCE Indo-Aryan Mahajanapada in northwestern South Asia. The inhabitants of Gandhāra were called the Gandhārīs.
Location
According to Jataka no. 406 (5th-3rd c. BCE), the 6/5th cent. BCE[1] Gandhāra kingdom of the second urbanisation included the Takṣaśila region and the valley of Kaśmīra,[2][3] corresponding to the modern Rawalpindi District of modern-day Pakistani Punjab and Peshawar District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.[3]
The capital of Gandhāra was Takṣaśila (Pāli: Takkasilā; Ancient Greek: Τάξιλα, romanized: Táxila), and its other major town was Puṣkalāvatī (Prākrit: Pukkalāoti; Ancient Greek: Πευκελαῶτις, romanized: Peukelaôtis) or Puṣkarāvatī (Pāli: Pokkharavatī).[4]
History
Mahajanapada
During the 6th-5th century BCE, Gandhāra was an important imperial power in north-west Iron Age South Asia, with the valley of Kaśmīra being part of the kingdom,[2] while the other states of the Punjab region, such as the Kekayas, Madrakas, Uśīnaras, and Shivis being under Gāndhārī suzerainty.
Due to this important position, Buddhist texts listed the Gandhāra kingdom as one of the sixteen Mahājanapadas ("great realms") of Iron Age South Asia.[5][6]
Buddhist texts mention a Gāndhārī king Pukkusāti, of whom there are no certain historical facts, and who may have ruled before or after the Achaemenid conquest of the Indus Valley.[7]
Conquest by Persia
By the later 6th century BCE, the founder of the Persian Achaemenid Empire, Cyrus, soon after his conquests of Media, Lydia, and Babylonia, marched into Gandhara and annexed it into his empire.[8]
See also
References
- ↑ Singh 2008, p. 260.
- 1 2 Raychaudhuri 1953, p. 76.
- 1 2 Singh 2008, p. 264.
- ↑ Raychaudhuri 1953, p. 59-62.
- ↑ Higham, Charles (2014), Encyclopedia of Ancient Asian Civilizations, Infobase Publishing, pp. 209–, ISBN 978-1-4381-0996-1, archived from the original on 31 March 2022, retrieved 24 June 2022
- ↑ Khoinaijam Rita Devi (1 January 2007). History of ancient India: on the basis of Buddhist literature. Akansha Publishing House. ISBN 978-81-8370-086-3. Archived from the original on 24 June 2022. Retrieved 24 June 2022.
- ↑ Karttunen, Klaus (1989). India in Early Greek Literature. Finnish Oriental Society. pp. 61–62. ISBN 978-951-9380-10-0.
- ↑ Young, T. Cuyler (1988). "The early history of the Medes and the Persians and the Achaemenid empire to the death of Cambyses". In Boardman, John; Hammond, N. G. L.; Lewis, D. M.; Ostwald, M. (eds.). The Cambridge Ancient History. Vol. 4. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 1–52. ISBN 978-0-521-22804-6.
Sources
- Raychaudhuri, Hemchandra (1953) [1923]. Political History of Ancient India: From the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of Gupta Dynasty. University of Calcutta.
- Singh, Upinder (2008). A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Pearson Education India. ISBN 978-8131711200.
Further reading
- Jain, Kailash Chand (1974). Lord Mahāvīra and His Times. Delhi, India: Motilal Banarsidass. p. 66. ISBN 978-8-120-80805-8.
- Sikdar, Jogendra Chandra (1964). Studies in the Bhagawatīsūtra. Muzaffarpur, Bihar, India: Research Institute of Prakrit, Jainology & Ahimsa. pp. 388–464.