Samanid Empire
The Samanid Empire known as the Samanian Empire, Samanid dynasty, Samanid Emirate, or Samanids, was a Sunni Iranian empire, ruling from 819 to 999. The empire was centered in Transoxiana during its existence; the Samanid state was founded by four brothers. In 892, Isma'il ibn Ahmad united the Samanid state under one ruler, thus putting an end to the feudal system used by the Samanids, it was under him that the Samanids became independent of Abbasid authority. The Samanid Empire is part of the Iranian Intermezzo, which saw the creation of a Persianate culture and identity that brought Iranian speech and traditions into the fold of the Islamic world; this would lead to the formation of the Turko-Persian culture. The Samanids promoted the arts, giving rise to the advancement of science and literature, thus attracted scholars such as Rudaki and Avicenna. While under Samanid control, Bukhara was a rival to Baghdad in its glory. Scholars note that the Samanids revived Persian language and culture more than the Buyids and the Saffarids, while continuing to patronize Arabic for sciences as well as the religious studies.
They considered themselves to be descendants of the Sasanian Empire. In a famous edict, Samanid authorities declared that "here, in this region, the language is Persian, the kings of this realm are Persian kings." The eponymous ancestor of the Samanid dynasty was Saman Khuda, a Persian noble who belonged to a dehqan family, a class of land-owning magnates. The original home of the Samanids is unclear, for some Arabic and Persian texts claim that the name was derived from a village near Samarkand, while others assert it was a village near Balkh or Tirmidh; the latter is more probable since the earliest appearance of the Samanid family appears to be in Khorasan rather than Transoxiana. In some sources the Samanids claimed to be descended from the noble Mihran family of Bahram Chobin, whereas one author claimed that they belonged to the Turkish Oghuz tribe, although this is most unlikely. A Zoroastrian, Saman Khuda converted to Islam during the governorship of Asad ibn Abdallah al-Qasri in Khorasan, named his oldest son as Asad in the governor's honour.
In 819, the governor of Khorasan, Ghassan ibn Abbad, rewarded the four sons of Asad for their aid against the rebel Rafi ibn al-Layth. This marked the beginning of the Samanid dynasty. Ilyas died in 856, was succeeded by his son Ibrahim ibn Ilyas—the Tahirid governor of Khorasan, Muhammad ibn Tahir, thereafter appointed him as the commander of his army, sent him on an expedition against the Saffarid ruler Ya'qub ibn al-Layth al-Saffar in Sistan, he was defeated at a battle near Pushang in 857, fled to Nishapur, where he was captured by Ya'qub al-Saffar and sent to Sistan as a hostage. The Tahirids thereafter assumed direct control over Herat. In 839/40, Nuh seized Isfijab from the nomadic pagan Turks living in the steppe, he thereafter had a wall constructed around the city to protect it from their attacks. He died in 841/2—his two brothers Yahya and Ahmad, were appointed as the joint rulers of the city by the Tahirid governor of Khorasan. After Yahya's death in 855, Ahmad took control over Châch, thus becoming the ruler of most of Transoxiana.
He died in 864/5. Meanwhile, the Tahirids authority had weakened after suffering several defeats by the Saffarid ruler Ya'qub al-Saffar, thus losing their grip over the Samanids, who became more or less independent. Nasr I used this opportunity to strengthen his authority by sending his brother Isma'il to Bukhara, in an unstable condition after suffering from raids by the Afrighid dynasty of Khwarazm; when Isma'il reached the city, he was warmly received by its inhabitants, who saw him as one who could restore order. Although the Bukhar Khudahs continued to autonomously rule in Bukhara for a few more years. After not so long, disagreement over where tax money should be distributed, started a conflict between the brothers. Isma'il was victorious in the dynastic struggle, took control of the Samanid state. However, Nasr had been the one, invested with Transoxiana, the Abbasid caliphs continued to recognize him as the rightful ruler; because of this, Isma'il continued to recognize his brother as well, but Nasr was powerless, a situation that would continue until his death in August 892.
A few months Ya'qub al-Saffar died and was succeeded by his brother Amr ibn al-Layth, who saw himself as the heir of the Tahirids, thus claiming Transoxiana and other parts of Iran for himself. He thereafter forced the Abbasid caliph to recognize him as the ruler of those territories, which they did. In the spring of 900, he was defeated and taken to captivity. Isma'il thereafter sent him Baghdad. Isma'il was thereafter recognized as the ruler of all of Transoxiana by the caliph. Furthermore, he received the investiture over Tabaristan and Isfahan, it was during this period that the Afrighid dynasty was forced into submission. Before his major victory against the Saffarids, he had made various expeditions in Transoxiana.
Abbasid Caliphate
The Abbasid Caliphate was the third of the Islamic caliphates to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttalib, from whom the dynasty takes its name, they ruled as caliphs for most of the caliphate from their capital in Baghdad in modern-day Iraq, after having overthrown the Umayyad Caliphate in the Abbasid Revolution of 750 CE. The Abbasid Caliphate first centred its government in Kufa, modern-day Iraq, but in 762 the caliph Al-Mansur founded the city of Baghdad, near the ancient Sasanian capital city of Ctesiphon; the Abbasid period was marked by reliance on Persian bureaucrats for governing the territories as well as an increasing inclusion of non-Arab Muslims in the ummah. Persianate customs were broadly adopted by the ruling elite, they began patronage of artists and scholars. Baghdad became a centre of science, culture and invention in what became known as the Golden Age of Islam. Despite this initial cooperation, the Abbasids of the late 8th century had alienated both non-Arab mawali and Iranian bureaucrats.
They were forced to cede authority over al-Andalus to the Umayyads in 756, Morocco to the Idrisid dynasty in 788, Ifriqiya to the Aghlabids in 800 and Egypt to the Isma'ili-Shia caliphate of the Fatimids in 969. The political power of the caliphs ended with the rise of the Iranian Buyids and the Seljuq Turks, who captured Baghdad in 945 and 1055, respectively. Although Abbasid leadership over the vast Islamic empire was reduced to a ceremonial religious function, the dynasty retained control over its Mesopotamian domain; the Abbasids' period of cultural fruition ended in 1258 with the sack of Baghdad by the Mongols under Hulagu Khan. The Abbasid line of rulers, Muslim culture in general, re-centred themselves in the Mamluk capital of Cairo in 1261. Though lacking in political power, the dynasty continued to claim religious authority until after the Ottoman conquest of Egypt in 1517; the Abbasid caliphs were Arabs descended from Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib, one of the youngest uncles of Muhammad and of the same Banu Hashim clan.
The Abbasids claimed to be the true successors of Prophet Muhammad in replacing the Umayyad descendants of Banu Umayya by virtue of their closer bloodline to Muhammad. The Abbasids distinguished themselves from the Umayyads by attacking their moral character and administration in general. According to Ira Lapidus, "The Abbasid revolt was supported by Arabs the aggrieved settlers of Merv with the addition of the Yemeni faction and their Mawali"; the Abbasids appealed to non-Arab Muslims, known as mawali, who remained outside the kinship-based society of the Arabs and were perceived as a lower class within the Umayyad empire. Muhammad ibn'Ali, a great-grandson of Abbas, began to campaign in Persia for the return of power to the family of Prophet Muhammad, the Hashimites, during the reign of Umar II. During the reign of Marwan II, this opposition culminated in the rebellion of Ibrahim the Imam, the fourth in descent from Abbas. Supported by the province of Khorasan though the governor opposed them, the Shia Arabs, he achieved considerable success, but was captured in the year 747 and died assassinated, in prison.
On 9 June 747, Abu Muslim, rising from Khorasan initiated an open revolt against Umayyad rule, carried out under the sign of the Black Standard. Close to 10,000 soldiers were under Abu Muslim's command when the hostilities began in Merv. General Qahtaba followed the fleeing governor Nasr ibn Sayyar west defeating the Umayyads at the Battle of Gorgan, the Battle of Nahāvand and in the Battle of Karbala, all in the year 748; the quarrel was taken up by Ibrahim's brother Abdallah, known by the name of Abu al-'Abbas as-Saffah, who defeated the Umayyads in 750 in the battle near the Great Zab and was subsequently proclaimed caliph. After this loss, Marwan fled to Egypt; the remainder of his family, barring one male, were eliminated. After their victory, As-Saffah sent his forces to Central Asia, where his forces fought against Tang expansion during the Battle of Talas; the noble Iranian family Barmakids, who were instrumental in building Baghdad, introduced the world's first recorded paper mill in the city, thus beginning a new era of intellectual rebirth in the Abbasid domain.
As-Saffah focused on putting down numerous rebellions in Mesopotamia. The Byzantines conducted raids during these early distractions; the first change the Abbasids, under Al-Mansur, made was to move the empire's capital from Damascus, in Syria, to Baghdad in Iraq. This was to both appease as well to be closer to the Persian mawali support base that existed in this region more influenced by Persian history and culture, part of the Persian mawali demand for less Arab dominance in the empire. Baghdad was established on the Tigris River in 762. A new position, that of the vizier, was established to delegate central authority, greater authority was delegated to local emirs; this meant that many Abbasid caliphs were relegated to a more ceremonial role than under the Umayyads, as the viziers began to exert greater influence, the role of the old Arab aristocracy was replaced by a Persian bureaucracy. During Al-Mansur's time control of Al-Andalus was lost, the Shia revolted and were defeated a year at the Battle of Bakhamra.
The Abbasids had depended on the support of Persians in their overthrow of the Umayyads. Abu al-'Abbas' successor, Al-Mansur welcomed non-Arab Musli
Maryland
Maryland is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, the District of Columbia to its south and west. The state's largest city is Baltimore, its capital is Annapolis. Among its occasional nicknames are Old Line State, the Free State, the Chesapeake Bay State, it is named after the English queen Henrietta Maria, known in England as Queen Mary. Sixteen of Maryland's twenty-three counties border the tidal waters of the Chesapeake Bay estuary and its many tributaries, which combined total more than 4,000 miles of shoreline. Although one of the smallest states in the U. S. it features a variety of climates and topographical features that have earned it the moniker of America in Miniature. In a similar vein, Maryland's geography and history combines elements of the Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic regions of the country. One of the original Thirteen Colonies of Great Britain, Maryland was founded by George Calvert, a Catholic convert who sought to provide a religious haven for Catholics persecuted in England.
In 1632, Charles I of England granted Calvert a colonial charter, naming the colony after his wife, Queen Mary. Unlike the Pilgrims and Puritans, who enforced religious conformity in their settlements, Calvert envisioned a colony where people of different religious sects would coexist under the principle of toleration. Accordingly, in 1649 the Maryland General Assembly passed an Act Concerning Religion, which enshrined this principle by penalizing anyone who "reproached" a fellow Marylander based on religious affiliation. Religious strife was common in the early years, Catholics remained a minority, albeit in greater numbers than in any other English colony. Maryland's early settlements and population centers clustered around rivers and other waterways that empty into the Chesapeake Bay, its economy was plantation-based, centered on the cultivation of tobacco. The need for cheap labor led to a rapid expansion of indentured servants, penal labor, African slaves. In 1760, Maryland's current boundaries took form following the settlement of a long-running border dispute with Pennsylvania.
Maryland was an active participant in the events leading up to the American Revolution, by 1776 its delegates signed the Declaration of Independence. Many of its citizens subsequently played key military roles in the war. In 1790, the state ceded land for the establishment of the U. S. capital of Washington, D. C. Although a slave state, Maryland remained in the Union during the U. S. Civil War, its strategic location giving it a significant role in the conflict. After the war, Maryland took part in the Industrial Revolution, driven by its seaports, railroad networks, mass immigration from Europe. Since the Second World War, the state's population has grown to six million residents, it is among the most densely populated states in the nation; as of 2015, Maryland had the highest median household income of any state, owing in large part to its close proximity to Washington, D. C. and a diversified economy spanning manufacturing, higher education, biotechnology. Maryland has been ranked as one of the best governed states in the country.
The state's central role in American history is reflected by its hosting of some of the highest numbers of historic landmarks per capita. Maryland is comparable in overall area with Belgium, it is the 42nd largest and 9th smallest state and is closest in size to the state of Hawaii, the next smaller state. The next larger state, its neighbor West Virginia, is twice the size of Maryland. Maryland possesses a variety of topography within its borders, contributing to its nickname America in Miniature, it ranges from sandy dunes dotted with seagrass in the east, to low marshlands teeming with wildlife and large bald cypress near the Chesapeake Bay, to rolling hills of oak forests in the Piedmont Region, pine groves in the Maryland mountains to the west. Maryland is bounded on its north by Pennsylvania, on its west by West Virginia, on its east by Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean, on its south, across the Potomac River, by West Virginia and Virginia; the mid-portion of this border is interrupted by District of Columbia, which sits on land, part of Montgomery and Prince George's counties and including the town of Georgetown, Maryland.
This land was ceded to the United States Federal Government in 1790 to form the District of Columbia.. The Chesapeake Bay nearly bisects the state and the counties east of the bay are known collectively as the Eastern Shore. Most of the state's waterways are part of the Chesapeake Bay watershed, with the exceptions of a tiny portion of extreme western Garrett County, the eastern half of Worcester County, a small portion of the state's northeast corner. So prominent is the Chesapeake in Maryland's geography and economic life that there has been periodic agitation to change the state's official nickname to the "Bay State", a nickname, used by Massachusetts for decades; the highest point in Maryland, with an elevation of 3,360 feet, is Hoye Crest on Backbone Mountain, in the southwest corner of Garrett County, near the bo
Arachosia
Arachosia is the Hellenized name of an ancient satrapy in the eastern part of the Achaemenid, Parthian, Greco-Bactrian, Indo-Scythian empires. Arachosia was centred on the Arghandab valley in modern-day southern Afghanistan, although its influence extended east to as far as the Indus River; the main river of Arachosia was called Arachōtós, now known as the Arghandab River, a tributary of the Helmand River. The Greek term "Arachosia" corresponds to the Aryan land of Harauti, around modern-day Helmand; the Arachosian capital or metropolis was called Alexandria Arachosia or Alexandropolis and lay in what is today Kandahar in Afghanistan. Arachosia was a part of the region of ancient Ariana. "Arachosia" is the Latinized form of Greek Ἀραχωσία - Arachōsíā. "The same region appears in the Avestan Vidēvdāt under the indigenous dialect form Haraxvaitī-." In Old Persian inscriptions, the region is referred to written h-r-u-v-t-i. This form is the "etymological equivalent" of Vedic Sanskrit Sarasvatī-, the name of a river meaning "rich in waters/lakes" and derived from sáras- "lake, pond.".
"Arachosia" was named after the name of a river that runs through it, in Greek Arachōtós, today known as the Arghandab, a left bank tributary of the Helmand. Arachosia bordered Drangiana to the west, Paropamisadae to the north, a part of ancient present day Pakistan to the east, Gedrosia to the south. Isidore and Ptolemy each provide a list of cities in Arachosia, among them Alexandria, which lay on the river Arachotus; this city is mis-identified with present-day Kandahar in Afghanistan, the name of, thought to be derived from "Alexandria", reflecting a connection to Alexander the Great's visit to the city on his campaign towards India. But a recent discovery of an inscription on a clay tablet has provided proof that'Kandahar' was a city that traded with Persia well before Alexander's time. Isidore and Pliny refer to the city as "metropolis of Arachosia." In his list, Ptolemy refers to a city named Arachotus or Arachoti, the earlier capital of the land. Pliny the Elder and Stephen of Byzantium mention.
Hsuan Tsang refers to the name as Kaofu. This city is identified today with Arghandab; the inhabitants of Arachosia were Iranian peoples, referred to as Arachoti. It is assumed that they were called Paktyans by ethnicity, that name may have been in reference to the ethnic Paṣtun tribes. Isidorus of Charax in his 1st century CE "Parthian stations" itinerary described an "Alexandropolis, the metropolis of Arachosia", which he said was still Greek at such a late time: "Beyond is Arachosia, and the Parthians call this White India. As far as this place the land is under the rule of the Parthians." Ptolemy mentions several tribes of Arachosia by name, the Pargyetae, and, to the south, the Sidri and Eoritae. Despite attempts to connect the Eoritae with the "Arattas" of the Mahabharata or with present-day Aroras, who populated this land and migrated to India after partition, the identity of these tribes is unknown, Ptolemy's orthography is disputed; the region is first referred to in the Achaemenid-era Elamite Persepolis fortification tablets.
It appears again in the Old Persian and Aramaic inscriptions of Darius I and Xerxes I among lists of subject peoples and countries. It is subsequently identified as the source of the ivory used in Darius' palace at Susa. In the Behistun inscription, the King recounts that a Persian was thrice defeated by the Achaemenid governor of Arachosia, who so ensured that the province remained under Darius' control, it has been suggested that this "strategically unintelligible engagement" was ventured by the rebel because "there were close relations between Persia and Arachosia concerning the Zoroastrian faith." The chronologically next reference to Arachosia comes from the Greeks and Romans, who record that under Darius III the Arachosians and Drangians were under the command of a governor who, together with the army of the Bactrian governor, contrived a plot of the Arachosians against Alexander. Following Alexander's conquest of the Achaemenids, the Macedonian appointed his generals as governors. Following the Partition of Babylon, the region became part of the Seleucid Empire, which traded it to the Mauryan Empire in 305 BCE as part of an alliance.
The Shunga dynasty overthrew the Mauryans in 185 BC, but shortly afterwards lost Arachosia to the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom. It became part of the break-away Indo-Greek Kingdom in the mid 2nd century BCE. Indo-Scythians expelled the Indo-Greeks by the mid 1st century BCE, but lost the region to the Arsacids and Indo-Parthians. At what time Parthian rule over Arachosia was reestablished cannot be determined with any authenticity. From Isidore 19 it is certain that a part of the region was under Arsacid rule in the 1st century CE, that the Parthians called it Indikē Leukē, "White India."The Kush
Alchon Huns
The Alchon Huns known as the Alchono, Alkhon, Alkhan and Walxon, were a nomadic people who established states in Central Asia and South Asia during the 4th and 6th centuries CE. They were first mentioned as being located in Paropamisus, expanded south-east, into the Punjab and central India, as far as Eran and Kausambi; the Alchon invasion of the Indian subcontinent contributed to the fall of the Gupta Empire. The invasion of India by the Huna peoples follows invasions of the subcontinent in the preceding centuries by the Yavana, the Saka, the Palava, the Kushana; the Alchon Empire was the third of four major Huna states established in South Asia. The Alchon were preceded by the Kidarites and the Hephthalites, succeeded by the Nezak Huns; the names of the Alchon kings are known from their extensive coinage, Buddhist accounts, a number of commemorative inscriptions throughout the Indian subcontinent. To contemporaneous observers in India, the Alchon were one of the Hūṇa peoples, whose origins are controversial.
A seal from Kausambi associated with Toramana, bears the title Hūnarāja. The Hunas appear to have been the peoples known in contemporaneous Iranian sources as Xwn and similar names, which were Romanised as Xionites or Chionites; the Hunas are linked to the Huns that invaded Europe from Central Asia during the same period. The word Hun has three different meanings, depending on the context in which it is used: 1) the Huns of Europe; the Alchon have been labelled "Huns", with the second meaning, as well as elements of the third. The name "Alchon" given to them comes from the Bactrian legend of their early coinage, where they imitated Sassanian coins to which they added the name "alchono" in Bactrian script and the tamgha symbol of their clan. Several original coins such as those of Khingila bear the mention "alchono" together with the Tamgha symbol. Philologically, "alchono" may be a combination of al- for Aryan and -xono for Huns, although this remains hypothetical. Another ethymology could be al-, Turkish for scarlet, -xono for Huns, meaning "Red Huns", red being a symbol of the south among steppe nomads.
Early confrontations between the Sasanian Empire of Shapur II with the nomadic hordes from Central Asia called the "Chionites" were described by Ammianus Marcellinus: he reports that in 356 CE, Shapur II was taking his winter quarters on his eastern borders, "repelling the hostilities of the bordering tribes" of the Chionites and the Euseni making a treaty of alliance with the Chionites and the Gelani, "the most warlike and indefatigable of all tribes", in 358 CE. After concluding this alliance, the Chionites under their King Grumbates accompanied Shapur II in the war against the Romans at the Siege of Amida in 359 CE. Victories of the Xionites during their campaigns in the Eastern Caspian lands were witnesses and described by Ammianus Marcellinus. Around 370 CE, still during the reign of Shapur II, the Sasanian Empire and the Kushano-Sasanians lost the control of Bactria to these invaders from Central Asia, first the Kidarites the Hephthalites and the Alchon Huns, who would follow up with the invasion of India.
The Alchon Huns emerged in Kapisa around 380, taking over Kabulistan from the Sassanian Persians, at the same time the Kidarites ruled in Bactria and Ghandara. They are said to have taken control of Kabul in 388; the Alchon Huns issued anonymous coins based on Sasanian designs. Several types of these coins are known minted in Bactria, using Sasanian coinage designs with busts imitating Sasanian kings Shapur II and Shapur III, adding the Alchon Tamgha and the name "Alchono" in Bactrian script on the obverse, with attendants to a fire altar, a standard Sasanian design, on the reverse. Around 430 King Khingila, the most notable Alchon ruler, the first one to be named and represented on his coins and took control of the routes across the Hindu Kush from the Kidarites; as the Alchons took control, diplomatic missions were established in 457 with China. In 460, the Alchons conquered Taxila. Between 460 and 470 CE, as they took over Gandhara and the Punjab, they undertook the mass destruction of Buddhist monasteries and stupas at Taxila, a high center of learning, which never recovered from the destruction.
It is thought that the Kanishka stupa, one of the most famous and tallest buildings in antiquity, was destroyed by them during their invasion of the area in the 460s CE. The rest of the 5th century marks a period of territorial expansion and eponymous kings, several of which appear to have overlapped and ruled jointly. In the First Hunnic War, the Alchon reached their maximum territorial extent, with King Toramana pushing deep into Indian territory, reaching Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh in Central India, contributing to the downfall of the Gupta Empire. To the south, the Sanjeli inscriptions indicate that Toramana penetrated at least as far as northern Gujarat, to the port of Bharukaccha. To the east, far into Central India, the city of Kausambi, where seals with Toramana's name were found, was sacked by the Alkhons in 497–500, before they moved to occupy Malwa. In p
Indo-Greek Kingdom
The Indo-Greek Kingdom or Graeco-Indian Kingdom was a Hellenistic kingdom spanning modern-day Afghanistan and the northwest region of the Indian subcontinent, during the last two centuries BC and was ruled by more than thirty kings conflicting with one another. The kingdom was founded when the Graeco-Bactrian king Demetrius invaded the subcontinent early in the 2nd century BC; the Greeks in the Indian Subcontinent were divided from the Graeco-Bactrians centered in Bactria, the Indo-Greeks in the present-day north-western Indian Subcontinent. The most famous Indo-Greek ruler was Menander, he had his capital at Sakala in the Punjab. The expression "Indo-Greek Kingdom" loosely describes a number of various dynastic polities, traditionally associated with a number of regional capitals like Taxila and Sagala. Other potential centers are only hinted at. During the two centuries of their rule, the Indo-Greek kings combined the Greek and Indian languages and symbols, as seen on their coins, blended Greek and Indian ideas, as seen in the archaeological remains.
The diffusion of Indo-Greek culture had consequences which are still felt today through the influence of Greco-Buddhist art. The ethnicity of the Indo-Greek may have been hybrid to some degree. Euthydemus I was, according to Polybius, a Magnesian Greek, his son, Demetrius I, founder of the Indo-Greek kingdom, was therefore of Greek ethnicity at least by his father. A marriage treaty was arranged for the same Demetrius with a daughter of the Seleucid ruler Antiochus III; the ethnicity of Indo-Greek rulers is sometimes less clear. For example, Artemidoros may have been of Indo-Scythian ascendency. Following the death of Menander, most of his empire splintered and Indo-Greek influence was reduced. Many new kingdoms and republics east of the Ravi River began to mint new coinage depicting military victories; the most prominent entities to form were the Yaudheya Republic and the Audumbaras. The Yaudheyas and Arjunayanas both are said to have won "victory by the sword"; the Datta dynasty and Mitra dynasty soon followed in Mathura.
The Indo-Greeks disappeared as a political entity around 10 AD following the invasions of the Indo-Scythians, although pockets of Greek populations remained for several centuries longer under the subsequent rule of the Indo-Parthians and Kushans. In 326 BC, Alexander the Great conquered the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent as far as the Hyphasis River, established satrapies and founded several settlements, including Bucephala; the Indian satrapies of the Punjab were left to the rule of Porus and Taxiles, who were confirmed again at the Treaty of Triparadisus in 321 BC, remaining Greek troops in these satrapies were left under the command of general Eudemus. After 321 BC Eudemus toppled Taxiles, until he left India in 316 BC. To the south, another general ruled over the Greek colonies of the Indus: Peithon, son of Agenor, until his departure for Babylon in 316 BC. Around 322 BC, the Greeks may have participated, together with other groups, in the armed uprising of Chandragupta Maurya against the Nanda Dynasty, gone as far as Pataliputra for the capture of the city from the Nandas.
The Mudrarakshasa of Visakhadutta as well as the Jaina work Parisishtaparvan talk of Chandragupta's alliance with the Himalayan king Parvatka identified with Porus, according to these accounts, this alliance gave Chandragupta a composite and powerful army made up of Yavanas, Shakas, Kiratas and Bahlikas who took Pataliputra. In 305 BC, Seleucus I led an army to the Indus; the confrontation ended with a peace treaty, "an intermarriage agreement", meaning either a dynastic marriage or an agreement for intermarriage between Indians and Greeks. Accordingly, Seleucus ceded to Chandragupta his northwestern territories as far as Arachosia and received 500 war elephants: The Indians occupy in part some of the countries situated along the Indus, which belonged to the Persians: Alexander deprived the Ariani of them, established there settlements of his own, but Seleucus Nicator gave them to Sandrocottus in consequence of a marriage contract, received in return five hundred elephants. The details of the marriage agreement are not known, but since the extensive sources available on Seleucus never mention an Indian princess, it is thought that the marital alliance went the other way, with Chandragupta himself or his son Bindusara marrying a Seleucid princess, in accordance with contemporary Greek practices to form dynastic alliances.
An Indian Puranic source, the Pratisarga Parva of the Bhavishya Purana, described the marriage of Chandragupta with a Greek princess, daughter of Seleucus, before detailing early Mauryan genealogy: "Chandragupta married with a daughter of Suluva, the Yavana king of Pausasa. Thus, he mixed the Yavanas, he ruled for 60 years. From him, Vindusara was ruled for the same number of years as his father, his son was Ashoka." Chandragupta, followed
Afghanistan
Farah Province
