Charsadda District, Pakistan
| Charsadda District | |
|---|---|
| District | |
| Country | Pakistan |
| Province | Khyber Pakhtunkhwa |
| Headquarters | Charsadda |
| Area | |
| • Total | 996 km2 (385 sq mi) |
| Population (2014) | |
| • Total | 1,626,000 |
| • Density | 1,026/km2 (2,660/sq mi) |
| Time zone | PST (UTC+5) |
| Number of Tehsils | 3 |
Charsadda (Pashto: ضلع چارسدہ) is a district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Prior to its establishment as a separate district in 1998, it was a tehsil within Peshawar District.Pashtuns make up majority of the population of the district. Its headquarters is the town of Charsadda, which was part of the Peshawar ex-metropolitan region.
Charsadda was once part of the kingdom of Gandhara, however around 516 BC Gandhara became part of the seventh satrapy or province of the Achaemenid Empire and paid tribute to Darius the Great of Persia, until its overthrow by Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC.
After the death of Alexander in 323 BC the Indian Emperor Chandragupta Maurya rose to power and brought Gandhara under his sway. According to a popular tradition, Emperor Ashoka built one of his stupas there. This stupa was mentioned by the famous Chinese Buddhist pilgrim Hieun Tsang, who visited in 630, according to him Po-Lu-Sha (as he called the stupa) was 2.5 miles (4.0 km) in circumference.
A Brahminical temple to the east and a monastery to the north which according to Buddhist legends was the place where Buddha preached the Law. The name Gandhara disappeared after Mahmud of Ghazni conquered the area and converted it to Islam in 1026.
This area was also ruled by the Bactrian Greeks between 250–125 BC which was succeeded by the Indo-Greek Kingdom who ruled until 10 AD.
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Wikipedia