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{{short description|Ancient kingdom in north-western South Asia}}
{{About|the mythological kingdom in the Ramayana and Mahabharatam, and the Iron Age kingdom proper|the historical region|Gandhara}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2022}}
{{Use Indian English|date=June 2022}}

{{Infobox country
| conventional_long_name = Gandhāra
| common_name = Gandhāra
| native_name =
| image_map = Mahajanapadas (c. 500 BCE).png
| capital = [[Taxila|Takṣaśila]] [[Pushkalavati|Puṣkalāvatī]]
| religion = [[Historical Vedic religion]] [[Jainism]] [[Buddhism]]
| demonym = Gāndhārī
| government_type = [[semi-constitutional monarchy]]
| currency =
| status =
| status_text =
| empire =
| year_end = {{c.|
500 BCE}}
| year_start = {{c.|
2000 BCE}}
| image_map_alt =
| image_map_caption = Gandhāra among the [[Mahajanapadas|Mahājanapada]]s in the Post Vedic period
| common_languages = [[Prakrit]]s
| title_leader = [[Raja]]
| year_leader1 = {{circa|2000 BCE}}
| leader1 = [[Nagnajit]]
| year_leader2 = {{circa|1950 BCE}}
| leader2 = Subala
| year_leader3 = {{circa|1900 BCE}}
| leader3 = Achala
| event_start = Established
| date_start =
| event_end = Conquered by the [[Achaemenid Empire]]
| date_end =
| p1 =
| s1 = Gandāra{{!}}{{center|{{Transliteration|peo|Gaⁿdāra}} (Achaemenid Empire)}}
| flag_s1 = Standard of Cyrus the Great (Blue).svg
| today = [[Pakistan]] and eastern [[Afghanistan]]
| era = Bronze Age
}}
'''Gandhāra''' ({{langx|sa|गन्धारः|Gandhāra}}) [[Pali]]: {{Transliteration|pi|Gandhāra}}) was an ancient [[Indo-Aryan peoples|Indo-Aryan]] [[Monarchy|kingdom]] of northwestern Indian Subcontinent whose existence is attested during the [[Iron Age in India|Iron Age]]. The inhabitants of Gandhāra were called the '''Gāndhārīs'''.

== Location ==
{{multiple image
| align = left
| caption_align = center
| direction = vertical
| total_width = 250
| image1 = Early Vedic Culture (1700-1100 BCE).png
| caption1 = Location of the Gāndhārīs the Vedic tribes
| image2 = Late Vedic Culture (1100-500 BCE).png
| caption2 = Location of Gandhāra during the late Vedic period
| image3 = Mahajanapadas (c. 500 BCE).png
| caption3 = Location of Gandhāra during the post-Vedic period
| footer =
}}
{{HistoryOfSouthAsia}}
The Gandhāra kingdom of the late Vedic period was located on both sides of the [[Indus River|Indus]] river, and it corresponded to the modern [[Rawalpindi District]] of modern-day [[Punjab, Pakistan|Pakistani Punjab]] and [[Peshawar District]] of [[Khyber Pakhtunkhwa]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Singh |first=Upinder |url= |title=A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century |date= |publisher=[[Longman|Pearson Education India]] |isbn= |location= |page=264 |author-link=Upinder Singh}}</ref>{{sfn|Raychaudhuri|1953|p=59-62}} By the 6th century BCE, Gandhāra had expanded to include the [[Kashmir Valley|valley of Kaśmīra]].{{sfn|Raychaudhuri|1953|p=146-147}}

The capitals of Gandhāra were [[Taxila|Takṣaśila]] ([[Pali|Pāli]]: {{Transliteration|pi|Takkasilā}}; [[Ancient Greek]]: {{langx|grc|Ταξιλα|Taxila}}), and [[Pushkalavati|Puṣkalāvatī]] ({{langx|pra|Pukkalāoti}}; {{langx|grc|Πευκελαωτις|Peukelaōtis}}) or Puṣkarāvatī ([[Pali]]: {{Transliteration|pi|Pokkharavatī}}).

== History ==
=== Religious Mythology of the Kingdom ===
The first mention of the Gandhārīs is attested once in the religious text [[Rigveda|{{Transliteration|sa|Ṛgveda}}]] as a tribe that has sheep with good wool. In the [[Atharvaveda|{{Transliteration|sa|Atharvaveda}}]], the Gandhārīs are mentioned alongside the Mūjavants, the [[Anga|Āṅgeyas]] and the [[Magadha (Mahajanapada)|Māgadhīs]] in a hymn asking fever to leave the body of the sick man and instead go those aforementioned tribes. The tribes listed were the furthermost border tribes known to those in [[Madhyadesha|{{Transliteration|sa|Madhyadeśa}}]], the Āṅgeyas and Māgadhīs in the east, and the Mūjavants and Gandhārīs in the north.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Macdonell |first1=Arthur Anthony |title=Vedic Index of Names and Subjects |last2=Keith |first2=Arthur Berriedale |publisher=John Murray |year=1912 |pages=218–219}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Chattopadhyaya |first=Sudhakar |title=Reflections on the Tantras |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publishers |year=1978 |pages=4}}</ref>

The Gāndhārī king Nagnajit and his son Svarajit are mentioned in another religious text, the [[Brahmana|{{Transliteration|sa|Brāhmaṇa}}s]], according to which they received Brahmanic consecration, but their family's attitude towards ritual is mentioned negatively,{{sfn|Raychaudhuri|1953|p=59-62}} with the royal family of Gandhāra during this period following non-Brahmanical religious traditions. According to the [[Jainism|Jain]] [[Uttaradhyayana|{{Transliteration|sa|Uttarādhyayana-sūtra}}]], Nagnajit, or Naggaji, was a prominent king who had adopted Jainism and was comparable to Dvimukha of [[Pancala|Pāñcāla]], Nimi of [[Videha]], Karakaṇḍu of [[Kalinga (historical region)|Kaliṅga]], and Bhīma of [[Vidarbha]]; [[Buddhism|Buddhist]] sources instead claim that he had achieved [[Pratyekabuddhayāna|{{Transliteration|pi|paccekabuddhayāna}}]].{{sfn|Raychaudhuri|1953|p=146-147}}<ref name="Prakash">{{cite journal |last=Prakash |first=Buddha |date=1951 |title=Poros |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41784590 |journal=Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=198–233 |doi= |jstor=41784590 |access-date=12 June 2022}}</ref>{{Sfn|Macdonell|Keith|1912|p=218-219, 432}}

By the later Vedic period, the situation had changed, and the Gāndhārī capital of [[Taxila|Takṣaśila]] had become an important centre of knowledge where the men of {{Transliteration|sa|Madhya-deśa}} went to learn the three Vedas and the eighteen branches of knowledge, with the {{Transliteration|sa|Kauśītaki Brāhmaṇa}} recording that [[Brahmin|{{Transliteration|sa|brāhmaṇa}}s]] went north to study. According to the [[Shatapatha Brahmana|{{Transliteration|sa|Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa}}]] and the {{Transliteration|pi|Uddālaka Jātaka}}, the famous Vedic philosopher [[Uddālaka Āruṇi]] was among the famous students of Takṣaśila, and the {{Transliteration|pi|Setaketu Jātaka}} claims that his son [[Śvetaketu]] also studied there. In the [[Chandogya Upanishad|{{Transliteration|sa|Chāndogya Upaniṣad}}]], Uddālaka Āruṇi himself favourably referred to Gāndhārī education to the [[Videha|Vaideha]] king [[Janaka]].{{sfn|Raychaudhuri|1953|p=59-62}}

===History of the Kingdom ===
During the 6th century BCE, Gandhāra was an important imperial power in north-west Iron Age South Asia, with the [[Kashmir Valley|valley of Kaśmīra]] being part of the kingdom,{{sfn|Raychaudhuri|1953|p=146-147}} while the other states of the Punjab region, such as the [[Kekaya]]s, [[Madra]]kas, [[Uśīnara]]s, and [[Shivi]]s being under Gāndhārī suzerainty. According to Buddhist narratives written a few centuries later, the Gāndhārī king [[Pushkarasarin|Pukkusāti]], engaged in expansionist ventures which brought him into conflict with the king [[Pradyota]] of the rising power of [[Avanti (Ancient India)|Avanti]]. Pukkusāti was successful in this struggle with Pradyota, but war broke out between him and the [[Arjunayanas|Pāṇḍava]] tribe located in the [[Punjab]] region, and who were threatened by his expansionist policy.<ref name="Prakash" /><ref>{{cite book |last=Jain |first=Kailash Chand |url= |title=Malwa Through the Ages |date=1972 |publisher=[[Motilal Banarsidass]] |isbn=978-8-120-80824-9 |location=[[Delhi]], [[India]] |pages=98–104 |author-link=}}</ref> Pukkusāti also engaged in friendly relations with the king [[Bimbisara|Bimbisāra]] of [[Magadha (Mahajanapada)|Magadha]].<ref name="Prakash" />

Due to this important position, Buddhist texts listed the Gandhāra kingdom as one of the sixteen [[Mahajanapadas|{{Transliteration|sa|Mahājanapada}}s]] ("great realms") of Iron Age Indian subcontinent.<ref name="Higham2014">{{citation |last=Higham |first=Charles |title=Encyclopedia of Ancient Asian Civilizations |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H1c1UIEVH9gC&pg=PA209 |pages=209– |year=2014 |publisher=Infobase Publishing |isbn=978-1-4381-0996-1 |access-date=24 June 2022 |archive-date=31 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220331110711/https://books.google.com/books?id=H1c1UIEVH9gC&pg=PA209 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Devi2007">{{cite book |author=Khoinaijam Rita Devi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R0UwAQAAIAAJ |title=History of ancient India: on the basis of Buddhist literature |date=1 January 2007 |publisher=Akansha Publishing House |isbn=978-81-8370-086-3 |access-date=24 June 2022 |archive-date=24 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220624210747/https://books.google.com/books?id=R0UwAQAAIAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref>

== Conquest by Persia ==
{{main|Gedrosian campaign|Achaemenid conquest of the Indus Valley|Gandāra}}

By the later 6th century BCE, the founder of the [[Persians|Persian]] [[Achaemenid Empire]], [[Cyrus the Great|Cyrus]], soon after his conquests of [[Medes|Media]], [[Lydia]], and [[Neo-Babylonian Empire|Babylonia]], marched into Gandhara and annexed it into his empire.<ref name="CAH">{{cite book |author-last=Young |author-first=T. Cuyler |url= |title=The Cambridge Ancient History |date=1988 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-0-521-22804-6 |editor1-last=Boardman |editor1-first=John |editor1-link=John Boardman (art historian) |volume=4 |location=[[Cambridge]] |pages=1–52 |chapter=The early history of the Medes and the Persians and the Achaemenid empire to the death of Cambyses |author-link= |editor2-last=Hammond |editor2-first=N. G. L. |editor2-link=N. G. L. Hammond |editor3-last=Lewis |editor3-first=D. M. |editor3-link=David Malcolm Lewis |editor4-last=Ostwald |editor4-first=M. |editor4-link=Martin Ostwald}}</ref> The scholar [[K. D. Sethna|Kaikhosru Danjibuoy Sethna]] advanced that Cyrus had conquered only the trans-Indus borderlands around Peshawar which had belonged to Gandhāra while Pukkusāti remained a powerful king who maintained his rule over the rest of Gandhāra and the western Punjab.<ref>{{cite book |last=Sethna |first=Kaikhosru Danjibuoy |url= |title=Problems of Ancient India |date=2000 |publisher=Aditya Prakashan |isbn=978-8-177-42026-5 |location= |pages=121–172 |chapter=To Pāṇini's Time from Pāṇini's Place |author-link=K. D. Sethna}}</ref>

However, according to the scholar [[Buddha Prakash]], Pukkusāti might have acted as a bulwark against the expansion of the [[Persians|Persian]] [[Achaemenid Empire]] into the north-west Indian Subcontinent. This hypothesis posits that the army which [[Nearchus]] claimed [[Cyrus the Great|Cyrus]] had lost in [[Gedrosia]] had in fact been defeated by Pukkusāti's Gāndhārī kingdom. Therefore, following Prakash's position, the Achaemenids would have been able to conquer Gandhāra only after a period of decline of Gandhāra after the reign of Pukkusāti combined the growth of Achaemenid power under the kings [[Cambyses II]] and [[Darius the Great|Darius I]].<ref name="Prakash" /> However, the presence of Gandhāra, referred to as {{Transliteration|peo|Gaⁿdāra}} in [[Old Persian]], among the list of Achaemenid provinces in Darius's [[Behistun Inscription]] confirms that his empire had inherited this region from conquests carried out earlier by Cyrus.<ref name="CAH" />

Assuming that Pukkusāti lived during the 6th century BCE, is unknown whether he remained in power after the Achaemenid conquest as a Persian vassal or if he was replaced by a Persian [[satrap]] (governor),<ref>{{cite book |author-last=Bivar |author-first=A. D. H. |url= |title=The Cambridge Ancient History |date=1988 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-0-521-22804-6 |editor1-last=Boardman |editor1-first=John |editor1-link=John Boardman (art historian) |volume=4 |location=[[Cambridge]] |pages=194–210 |chapter=The Indus Lands |author-link=David Bivar |editor2-last=Hammond |editor2-first=N. G. L. |editor2-link=N. G. L. Hammond |editor3-last=Lewis |editor3-first=D. M. |editor3-link=David Malcolm Lewis |editor4-last=Ostwald |editor4-first=M. |editor4-link=Martin Ostwald}}</ref> although [[Buddhism|Buddhist]] sources claim that he renounced his throne and became a monk after becoming a disciple of the [[Gautama Buddha|Buddha]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Pukkusāti |url=http://www.palikanon.com/english/pali_names/pu/pukkusati.htm |publisher=www.palikanon.com |accessdate=26 July 2020 |archive-date=24 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220624210754/https://www.palikanon.com/english/pali_names/pu/pukkusati.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> The annexation under Cyrus was limited to Gandhāra proper, after which the peoples of the Punjab region previously under Gāndhārī authority took advantage of the new power vacuum to form their own states.<ref name="Prakash" />

However, there are no historical facts known for certain about [[Pushkarasarin|Pukkusāti]], and all theories about his reign are speculative. It is debated whether he ruled before or after the [[Achaemenid conquest of the Indus Valley]], and is unknown what kind of relationship he historically had with the Persian Achaemenid rulers.<ref name="Karttunen">{{cite book | last=Karttunen | first=Klaus | title=India in Early Greek Literature | publisher=Finnish Oriental Society | date=1989 | isbn=978-951-9380-10-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1TxZAAAAMAAJ | pages=61–62}}</ref> With [[The Buddha#Dating|alternative chronologies]] which date the Buddha's lifetime (and his contemporary kings) as much as a century later, it is alternatively possible that Pukkusāti in fact lived as much as a century after the Achaemenid conquest. Among scholars who favour the latter chronology, it remains an open question for debate, what kind of relationship Pukkusāti historically had with the Persian Achaemenid rulers. Possible theories are: he "may belong to a period when the Achaemenids had already lost their hold over Indian provinces," or he may have been holding power in eastern parts of Gandhara such as [[Taxila]] (speculatively considered by some scholars to be outside the Achaemenid dominions), or may have been serving as a vassal of the Achaemenids but with autonomy to conduct warfare and diplomacy with independent Indian states, similar to the "active and often independent role the western satraps had [[Greco-Persian Wars|in Greek politics]]".<ref name="Karttunen"/> Thus it is considered that he may have been an important intermediary for [[Achaemenid conquest of the Indus Valley#Influence of Achaemenid culture in the Indian subcontinent|cultural influence between Ancient Persia and India]].<ref name="Karttunen"/>

== Rulers ==

Known Gandhara rulers include:

* [[Nagnajit]]
* [[List of characters in the Mahabharata|Subala]]
* [[Shakuni]]
* Achala
* Kalikeya
* Suvala
* Vrishaka
* Vrihadvala
* Gaya
* Gavaksha
* Vrishava
* Charmavat
* Arjava
* Suka
* Kulinda
* [[Pushkarasarin]] (or Pukkusati) ({{Circa|535}}–518 BCE), last ruler of Gandhara kingdom probably at time of [[Achaemenid conquest of the Indus Valley]]
* Kandik, (late ruler)

== See also ==
* [[Sindhu-Sauvīra]]
* [[Gandhara]]
* [[Gandhara (Mahabharata)]]
* [[Janapada]]
* [[Mahajanapada]]
* [[Gandhara grave culture]]

== References ==
{{reflist|30em}}

== Further reading ==
{{refbegin}}
*{{cite book |last=Jain |first=Kailash Chand |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.72385 |title=Lord Mahāvīra and His Times |date=1974 |publisher=[[Motilal Banarsidass]] |isbn=978-8-120-80805-8 |location=[[Delhi]], [[India]] |page=66 |author-link=}}
*{{cite book |last=Raychaudhuri |first=Hemchandra |url= |title=Political History of Ancient India: From the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of Gupta Dynasty |date=1953 |publisher=[[University of Calcutta]] |isbn= |location= |author-link=Hem Chandra Raychaudhuri}}
*{{cite book |last=Sikdar |first=Jogendra Chandra |url= |title=Studies in the Bhagawatīsūtra |date=1964 |publisher=Research Institute of Prakrit, Jainology & Ahimsa |isbn= |location=[[Muzaffarpur]], [[Bihar]], [[India]] |pages=388–464 |author-link=}}
{{refend}}

{{Mahajanapada |state=collapsed}}

[[Category:Mahajanapadas]]
[[Category:Archaeology of Afghanistan]]
[[Category:Ancient peoples of Pakistan]]
[[Category:Iron Age Asia]]
[[Category:Kingdoms of the Vedic period]]

Gandhāra (kingdom) - Revision history

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