Persian and Greek invasions

Invasions by Persians and Greeks:

About 518 B.C., Persians gained control of the Gandhara region in the northwest, now in Pakistan.

Alexander the Great of Macedonia led his Greek army into India in 326 B.C., but he went only as far as the Beas River in the northwest. He wanted to push eastward to the Ganges River, but his troops, tired and worn out by disease, refused to go farther. Alexander left India and named some of his generals as satraps (governors) of the conquered provinces. In a few years, Indian forces drove most of the satraps out.

The Mauryan Empire was established by Chandragupta Maurya about 324 B.C. By the end of Chandragupta Maurya's rule in about 298 B.C., the empire extended over nearly all of northern India and into what are now Afghanistan and parts of central Asia. Chandragupta Maurya's grandson Ashoka became one of India's most famous emperors. He ruled from about 272 to 232 B.C. In 261 B.C., Ashoka conquered the kingdom of Kalinga (now Orissa). The bloodshed caused by his war of conquest left Ashoka stricken with sorrow and regret. Ashoka gave up war. Ashoka spent the rest of his life trying to spread a message, based on Buddhist teachings, that emphasized nonviolence and the importance of duty. He sent members of his family as Buddhist missionaries to other parts of India and to what is now Sri Lanka. Ashoka had laws and moral teachings carved on great pillars that were installed throughout his kingdom. India's state emblem, a group of lions, is taken from one of these pillars.

The Mauryan Empire began to break up after the death of Ashoka in 232 B.C. The empire ended about 185 B.C. For about the next 500 years, groups of central Asian peoples, including the Scythians and the Kushans, moved into northern India. The Kushans established a dynasty in northern India around A.D. 50.