Gandahara

Gandhāra
c. 1500 BC–535 AD
Gandhāra and other Mahajanapadas in the Post Vedic period.
Approximate boundaries of the Gandhara Mahajanapada, in present-day northwest Pakistan and northeast Afghanistan.
Capital		Puṣkalavati (modern Charsadda) and Taxila, and later Peshawar (Puruṣapura)
Government		Monarchy
Historical era		Ancient Era
•	Established	c. 1500 BC
•	Disestablished	535 AD
Succeeded by Achaemenid Empire
Today part of		Afghanistan  Pakistan

Gandhāra was one of sixteen Mahajanapada of ancient India, currently situated in modern-day northern Pakistan, in the Peshawar valley and Potohar plateau, and extending to Jalalabad district of modern-day Afghanistan. During the Achaemenid period and Hellenistic period, its capital city was Charsadda, but later the capital city was moved to Peshawar by the Kushan emperor Kanishka the Great in about AD 127.

Gandhara existed since the time of the Rigveda (c. 1500–1200 BC), as well as the Zoroastrian Avesta, which mentions it as Vaēkərəta, the sixth most beautiful place on earth, created by Ahura Mazda. Gandhara was conquered by the Achaemenid Empire in the 6th century BC. Conquered by Alexander the Great in 327 BC, it subsequently became part of the Maurya Empire and then the Indo-Greek Kingdom. The region was a major center for Greco-Buddhism under the Indo-Greeks and Gandharan Buddhism under later dynasties. It was also a central location for the spread of Buddhism to Central Asia and East Asia. It was also a center of Bactrian Zoroastrianism and Hinduism. Famed for its local tradition of Gandhara (Greco-Buddhist) Art, Gandhara attained its height from the 1st century to the 5th century under the Kushan Empire. Gandhara "flourished at the crossroads of Asia," connecting trade routes and absorbing cultural influences from diverse civilizations; Buddhism thrived until 8th or 9th centuries, when Islam first began to gain sway in the region. Pockets of Buddhism persisted in Pakistan's Swat valley until the 11th century.