Mardan District

Mardan
District
Country	Pakistan
Province	Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
Headquarters	Mardan
Area
• Total	1,632 km2 (630 sq mi)
Population (1998)
• Total	1,460,000
• Density	895/km2 (2,320/sq mi)
Time zone	PKT (UTC+5)
Languages	98.4% Pashto

Mardan District is in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. The city of Mardan is the headquarters of the district. The district also contains the famous archaeological sites of Takht Bhai, Jamal Garhi and Sawal Dher.

Mardan District is a part of the Peshawar valley the whole area was once part of the ancient kingdom of Gandhara, the remains of which are scattered throughout the district.

The armies of Alexander the Great reached the Indus Valley by two separate routes, one through the Khyber Pass and the other led by Alexander himself through Kunar, Bajaur, Swat, and Buner in 326 BCE. After Alexander's death, the valley came under the rule of Chandragupta, who ruled the valley from 297 to 321 BCE. During the reign of the Buddhist emperor Ashoka (the grandson of Chandragupta) Buddhism became the religion of the Peshawar Valley. The valley saw the revival of Brahmanism after the Greeks took over in the time of King Mehanda. The Scythians and Indians followed and retained control of the valley till the 7th century CE.

By the 8th century, the Afghans had appeared in the valley. At that time the Peshawar valley was under control of the rulers at Lahore. The Afghans joined the Gakkhars who held the country between the Indus and the Jhelum rivers and compelled the Lahore rulers to cede to them the hill country west of the Indus and south of the Kabul River.

In the 10th century the area came under the control of Sultan Sabuktigin who defeated Raja Jaipal, the Hindu ruler of Lahore. Sabuktgin's son Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni made this area the rallying point for his numerous raids into the interior of India. In the 12th century the Pashtun of Ghor overthrew the Ghaznavis and the era of Ghaznavis came to an end.

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Wikipedia