| Achaemenid Gandhāra | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Satrapy of theAchaemenid Empire | |||||||||||||||||||||
| c. 535 BCE–c. 338 BCE | |||||||||||||||||||||
 Gandāra was the easternmost territory of theAchaemenid Empire | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Government | |||||||||||||||||||||
| • Type | Monarchy | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Kingor King of Kings | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Cyrus II (first) | |||||||||||||||||||||
• 359/8–338 BCE | Artaxerxes III (last) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Historical era | Achaemenid era | ||||||||||||||||||||
| c. 535 BCE | |||||||||||||||||||||
• Disestablished | August/Septemberc. 338 BCE | ||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||
Gandāra, orGadāra in Achaemenid inscriptions (Old Persian cuneiform:𐎥𐎭𐎠𐎼,Gadāra, also transliterated asGaⁿdāra since the nasal "n" before consonants was omitted in the Old Persian script, and simplified asGandāra or sometimesGandara)[1] was one of the easternmost provinces of theAchaemenid Empire inSouth Asia, following theAchaemenid invasion of the Indus Valley. It appears in various Achaemenid inscriptions such as theBehistun Inscription, or theDNa inscription ofDarius the Great.[2]
The province was also referred to asPara-uparisaina (Ancient Greek:Παροπαμισάδαι,Paropamisádai;Latin:Paropamisadae) in theBabylonian andElamite versions of the Behistun inscription.[2] The extent of the province was apparently wider than the actual geographical region ofGandhara.[3]
During the 6th century BCE, Gandhāra was an important imperial power in north-west Iron Age South Asia, with the other states of the Punjab region, such as theKekayas,Madrakas,Uśīnaras, andShivis being under Gāndhārī suzerainty.[4] The Gāndhārī kingPukkusāti, who reigned around 550 BCE, engaged in expansionist ventures which brought him into conflict with the kingPradyota of the rising power ofAvanti. Pukkusāti was successful in this struggle with Pradyota, but war broke out between him and thePāṇḍava tribe located in thePunjab region, and who were threatened by his expansionist policy.[4][5] Pukkusāti also engaged in friendly relations with the kingBimbisāra ofMagadha.[4]
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By the later 6th century BCE, the founder of thePersianAchaemenid Empire,Cyrus, soon after his conquests ofMedia,Lydia, andBabylonia, marched into Gandhara and annexed it into his empire.[11]
The scholarKaikhosru Danjibuoy Sethna advanced that Cyrus had conquered only the trans-Indus borderlands around Peshawar which had belonged to Gandhāra while Pukkusāti remained a powerful king who maintained his rule over the rest of Gandhāra and the western Punjab.[12] However, according to the scholarBuddha Prakash, Pukkusāti might have acted as a bulwark against the expansion of thePersianAchaemenid Empire into north-west South Asia. This hypothesis posits that the army whichNearchus claimedCyrus had lost inGedrosia had in fact been defeated by Pukkusāti's Gāndhārī kingdom. Therefore, following Prakash's position, the Achaemenids would have been able to conquer Gandhāra only after a period of decline of Gandhāra after the reign of Pukkusāti, combined with the growth of Achaemenid power under the kingsCambyses II andDarius I.[4]
However, the presence of Gandhāra, referred to as Gandāra inOld Persian, among the list of Achaemenid provinces in Darius'sBehistun Inscription confirms that his empire had inherited this region from conquests carried out earlier by Cyrus,[11] with the annexation under Cyrus being limited to Gandhāra proper, after which the peoples of the Punjab region previously under Gāndhārī authority took advantage of the new power vacuum to form their own small states.[4]
It is unknown whether Pukkusāti remained in power after the Achaemenid conquest as a Persian vassal or if he was replaced by a Persian satrap (governor),[13] althoughBuddhist sources claim that he renounced his throne and became a monk after becoming a disciple of theBuddha.[14]
Under Persian rule, a system of centralized administration, with a bureaucratic system, was introduced into the Indus Valley for the first time. Provinces or "satrapy" were established with provincial capitals.
Gandhara[broken anchor] satrapy, established 518 BCE with its capital atPushkalavati (Charsadda).[15] Gandhara Satrapy was established in the general region of the old Gandhara grave culture, in what is todayKhyber Pakhtunkhwa. During Achaemenid rule, theKharosthi alphabet, derived from the one used for Aramaic (the official language of Achaemenids), developed here and remained the national script of Gandhara until 200 CE.
The inscription on Darius' (521–486 BC) tomb atNaqsh-i-Rustam near Persepolis records Gadāra (Gandāra) along withHindush (Hənduš, Sindh) in the list ofsatrapies. By about 380 BC the Persian hold on the region had weakened. Many small kingdoms sprang up in Gandhara.
In 327 BCE,Alexander the Great conquered Gandhara as well as the Indiansatrapies of the Persian Empire. The expeditions of Alexander were recorded by his court historians and byArrian (around 175 AD) in hisAnabasis Alexandri and by other chroniclers many centuries after the event.
In the winter of 327 BC, Alexander invited all the chieftains in the remaining five Achaemenid satraps to submit to his authority.Ambhi, then ruler of Taxila in the formerHindush satrapy complied, but the remaining tribes and clans in the former satraps of Gandhara, Arachosia, Sattagydia and Gedrosia rejected Alexander's offer.[citation needed]
The first tribe they encountered were theAspasioi tribe of theKunar Valley, who initiated a fierce battle against Alexander, in which he himself was wounded in the shoulder by a dart. However, the Aspasioi eventually lost and 40,000 people were enslaved. Alexander then continued in a southwestern direction where he encountered theAssakenoi tribe of theSwat &Buner valleys in April 326 BC. The Assakenoi fought bravely and offered stubborn resistance to Alexander and his army in the cities of Ora, Bazira (Barikot) and Massaga. So enraged was Alexander about the resistance put up by the Assakenoi that he killed the entire population of Massaga and reduced its buildings to rubble. A similar slaughter then followed at Ora,[16] another stronghold of the Assakenoi. The stories of these slaughters reached numerous Assakenians, who began fleeing to Aornos, a hill-fort located betweenShangla andKohistan. Alexander followed close behind their heels and besieged the strategic hill-fort, eventually capturing and destroying the fort and killing everyone inside. The remaining smaller tribes either surrendered or like the Astanenoi tribe ofPushkalavati(Charsadda) were quickly neutralized where 38,000 soldiers and 230,000 oxen were captured by Alexander.[17] Eventually Alexander's smaller force would meet with the larger force which had come through the Khyber Pass met atAttock. With the conquest of Gandhara complete, Alexander switched to strengthening his military supply line, which by now stretched dangerously vulnerable over theHindu Kush back toBalkh in Bactria.[citation needed]
After conquering Gandhara and solidifying his supply line back to Bactria, Alexander combined his forces with the King Ambhi of Taxila and crossed the River Indus in July 326 BC to begin the Archosia (Punjab) campaign. Alexander nominated officers as Satraps of the new provinces, and in Gandhara,Oxyartes was nominated to the position of Satrap in 326 BC.[citation needed]
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According toHerodotus, soldiers of Gandāra participated to theSecond Persian invasion of Greece around 480 BC.[18] They had a different equipment from theHindush, rather akin to that of the Bactrians, and were under the command ofArtyphius, son ofArtabanus:
The Bactrians in the army wore a headgear most like to the Median, carrying their native bows of reed, and short spears. (...) The Parthians, Chorasmians, Sogdians, Gandarians, and Dadicae in the army had the same equipment as the Bactrians. The Parthians and Chorasmians had for their commanderArtabazus son of Pharnaces, the Sogdians Azanes son of Artaeus, the Gandarians and DadicaeArtyphius son ofArtabanus.
— HerodotusVII 64-66
The depiction of Indian soldiers and the names of the threeAncient Indian provinces including Gandāra still appear in trilingual cuneiform labels above their respective figures on the tomb ofArtaxerxes II (c.358 BC).[19][20][21]
One should, therefore, be careful to distinguish the limited geographical unit of Gandhāra from the political one bearing the same name
The Gandarians thus make their last appearance as Persian tribute paying subjects in the lists of Artaxerxes, though the land continued to be known under the name of Gandhara down to classic Indian times
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See alsoTaxation districts of the Achaemenid Empire(according toHerodotus) | ||