Editing History of Pakistan (section)

==Ancient history==
=== Achaemenid Empire ===
{{Main|Achaemenid invasion of the Indus Valley}}
[[File:Eastern Satrapies of the Achaemenid Empire.jpg|thumb|Much of the area corresponding to modern-day Pakistan was subordinated to the Achaemenid Empire and forced to pay tributes to Persia.|left]]
The main Vedic tribes remaining in the [[Indus Valley]] by 550 BC were the ''Kamboja'', ''Sindhu'', ''Taksas'' of Gandhara, the ''Madras'' and ''Kathas'' of the [[River Chenab]], ''Mallas'' of the [[River Ravi]] and ''Tugras'' of the [[River Sutlej]]. These several tribes and principalities fought against one another to such an extent that the Indus Valley no longer had one powerful Vedic tribal kingdom to defend against outsiders and to wield the warring tribes into one organized kingdom. King [[Pushkarasarin]] of [[Gandhara]] was engaged in power struggles against his local rivals and as such the [[Khyber Pass]] remained poorly defended. [[King Darius I]] of the [[Achaemenid Empire]] took advantage of the opportunity and planned for an invasion. The Indus Valley was fabled in Persia for its gold and fertile soil and conquering it had been a major objective of his predecessor [[Cyrus The Great|Cyrus the Great]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Petrie |first1=Cameron A. |last2=Magee |first2=Peter |title=Histories, epigraphy and authority: Achaemenid and indigenous control in Pakistan in the 1st millennium BC |url=https://www.arch.cam.ac.uk/bannu-archaeological-project/petrie2007_02.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110611053344/https://www.arch.cam.ac.uk/bannu-archaeological-project/petrie2007_02.pdf |archive-date=2011-06-11 |access-date=18 April 2024}}</ref> In 542 BC, Cyrus had led his army and conquered the Makran coast in southern [[Balochistan]]. However, he is known to have campaigned beyond Makran (in the regions of [[Kalat, Pakistan|Kalat]], [[Khuzdar]] and [[Panjgur]]) and lost most of his army in the ''Gedrosian Desert'' (speculated today as the [[Kharan Desert]]).

In 518 BC, Darius led his army through the Khyber Pass and southwards in stages, eventually reaching the [[Arabian Sea]] coast in Sindh by 516 BC. Under Persian rule, a system of centralized administration, with a bureaucratic system, was introduced into the Indus Valley for the first time, establishing several [[satrap]]ies: [[Gandāra]] around the general region of Gandhara, [[Hindush]] around Punjab and Sindh, [[Arachosia]], encompassing parts of present-day [[Khyber Pakhtunkhwa]], and [[Balochistan]],<ref name="Iranicaarticle">{{cite encyclopedia|last=Schmitt|first=Rüdiger|title=Arachosia |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Iranica |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/arachosia |date=10 August 2011}}</ref> [[Sattagydia]] around the [[Bannu District|Bannu]] basin,<ref name="arch.cam.ac.uk" /> and [[Gedrosia]] covering much of the [[Makran]] region of southern Balochistan.<ref>[A.B. Bosworth, "Conquest and Empire: The Reign of Alexander the Great." 1988. p. 146]</ref>

What is known about the easternmost satraps and borderlands of the Achaemenid Empire is alluded to in the [[Darius the Great|Darius]] inscriptions and from Greek sources such as the ''Histories'' of [[Herodotus]] and the later ''Alexander Chronicles'' (Arrian, Strabo et al.). These sources list three Indus Valley tributaries or conquered territories that were subordinated to the Persian Empire and made to pay tributes to the Persian Kings.<ref name="arch.cam.ac.uk">{{cite web |url=http://www.arch.cam.ac.uk/bannu-archaeological-project/petrie2007_02.pdf |title=Microsoft Word - GS_Alexander_Arrian.doc |access-date=4 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120519044446/http://www.arch.cam.ac.uk/bannu-archaeological-project/petrie2007_02.pdf |archive-date=19 May 2012}}</ref>

===Macedonian Empire===
{{Main|Indian campaign of Alexander the Great|Macedonian Empire}}
[[File:AlexanderConquestsInIndia.jpg|thumb|Alexander's campaigns in modern-day Pakistan|left]]
[[File:Surrender_of_Porus_to_the_Emperor_Alexander.jpg|thumb|[[Porus]], with [[Alexander the Great]]]]
By spring of 326 BC, Alexander began on his Indus expedition from Bactria, leaving behind 3500 horses and 10,000 soldiers. He divided his army into two groups. The larger force would enter the Indus Valley through the Khyber Pass, just as Darius had done 200 years earlier, while a smaller force under the personal command of Alexander entered through a northern route, possibly through [[Broghol]] or [[Dorah Pass]] near [[Chitral]]. Alexander was commanding a group of shield-bearing guards, foot-companions, archers, Agrianians, and horse-javelin-men and led them against the tribes of the former Gandhara satrapy.

The first tribe they encountered were the [[Aspasioi]] tribe of the [[Kunar Valley]], who initiated a fierce battle against Alexander, in which he himself was wounded in the shoulder by a dart. However, the Aspasioi eventually lost and 40,000 people were enslaved. Alexander then continued in a southwestern direction where he encountered the [[Assakenoi]] tribe of the [[Swat, Pakistan|Swat]] and [[Buner]] valleys in April 326 BC. The Assakenoi fought bravely and offered stubborn resistance to Alexander and his army in the cities of Ora, Bazira ([[Barikot]]) and Massaga. So enraged was Alexander about the resistance put up by the Assakenoi that he killed the entire population of Massaga and reduced its buildings to rubble – similar slaughters followed in Ora.<ref>{{cite book|title=History and Culture of Indian People, The Age of Imperial Unity, Foreign Invasion|author=Mukerjee, R. K.|page=46}}</ref> A similar slaughter then followed at Ora, another stronghold of the Assakenoi. The stories of these slaughters reached numerous Assakenians, who began fleeing to Aornos, a hill-fort located between [[Shangla]] and [[Kohistan District, Pakistan|Kohistan]]. Alexander followed close behind their heels and besieged the strategic hill-fort, eventually capturing and destroying the fort and killing everyone inside. The remaining smaller tribes either surrendered or like the Astanenoi tribe of [[Pushkalavati]] ([[Charsadda]]) were quickly neutralized where 38,000 soldiers and 230,000 oxen were captured by Alexander.<ref>Curtius in McCrindle, p. 192, J. W. McCrindle; ''History of Punjab'', Vol I, 1997, p 229, Punjabi University, Patiala (editors): Fauja Singh, L. M. Joshi; ''Kambojas Through the Ages'', 2005, p. 134, Kirpal Singh.</ref> Eventually Alexander's smaller force would meet with the larger force which had come through the Khyber Pass met at [[Attock]]. With the conquest of Gandhara complete, Alexander switched to strengthening his military supply line, which by now stretched dangerously vulnerable over the [[Hindu Kush]] back to [[Balkh]] in Bactria.

After conquering Gandhara and solidifying his supply line back to Bactria, Alexander combined his forces with the King Ambhi of Taxila and crossed the River Indus in July 326 BC to begin the Archosia (Punjab) campaign. His first resistance would come at the [[River Jhelum]] near [[Bhera]] against King [[Porus the Elder|Porus]] of the [[Paurava]] tribe. The famous [[Battle of the Hydaspes]] ([[Jhelum]]) between Alexander (with Ambhi) and Porus would be the last major battle fought by him. After defeating Porus, his battle weary troops refused to advance into India<ref name="Plutarch1994">{{cite book|last1=Plutarch|first1=Mestrius|translator-last=Perrin|translator-first=Bernadotte|title=Plutarch's Lives|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oJhpAAAAMAAJ|access-date=23 May 2016 |volume=7|year=1994|publisher=Heinemann|location=London|isbn=978-0-674-99110-1|chapter=Chapter LXII}}</ref> to engage the army of [[Nanda Dynasty]] and its vanguard of trampling elephants. Alexander, therefore proceeded south-west along the Indus Valley.<ref name="PlutarchLXIII">{{cite book|last1=Plutarch|first1=Mestrius|translator-last=Perrin|translator-first=Bernadotte|title=Plutarch's Lives|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oJhpAAAAMAAJ|access-date=23 May 2016|volume=7|year=1994|publisher=Heinemann|location=London|isbn=978-0-674-99110-1|chapter=Chapter LXIII}}</ref> Along the way, he engaged in several battles with smaller kingdoms in [[Multan]] and [[Sindh]], before marching his army westward across the [[Makran]] desert towards what is now [[Iran]]. In crossing the desert, Alexander's army took enormous casualties from hunger and thirst, but fought no human enemy. They encountered the "Fish Eaters", or Ichthyophagi, primitive people who lived on the Makran coast, who had matted hair, no fire, no metal, no clothes, lived in huts made of whale bones, and ate raw seafood.

=== Mauryan Empire ===
{{Main|Maurya Empire|Greco-Bactrian Kingdom|Greco-Buddhism}}
[[File:Upper_Boulder_with_Inscriptions_-_Mansehra_Rock_Edicts.jpg|left|thumb|[[Mansehra Rock Edicts]], one of the [[edicts]] of the [[Mauryan]] emperor [[Ashoka]]]]
The Maurya Empire was a geographically extensive [[Iron Age]] [[list of ancient great powers|historical power]] in [[South Asia]] based in [[Magadha (Mahajanapada)|Magadha]], having been founded by [[Chandragupta Maurya]] in 322 BCE, and existing in loose-knit fashion until 185 BCE.<ref name="Dyson2018-lead-maurya">
{{citation
|last=Dyson|first=Tim|title=A Population History of India: From the First Modern People to the Present Day|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3TRtDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA16|year=2018|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-882905-8|pages=16–17}} Quote: "Magadha power came to extend over the main cities and communication routes of the Ganges basin. Then, under Chandragupta Maurya (c.321–297 bce), and subsequently Ashoka his grandson, Pataliputra became the centre of the loose-knit Mauryan 'Empire' which during Ashoka's reign (c.268–232 bce) briefly had a presence throughout the main urban centres and arteries of the subcontinent, except for the extreme south."</ref> The Maurya Empire was centralized by the conquest of the [[Indo-Gangetic Plain]], and its capital city was located at [[Pataliputra]] (modern [[Patna]]). Outside this imperial centre, the empire's geographical extent was dependent on the loyalty of military commanders who controlled the armed cities sprinkling it.<ref name="Ludden2013-lead-maurya">
{{citation
|last=Ludden
|first=David|title=India and South Asia: A Short History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EbFHAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA29|year=2013|publisher=Oneworld Publications|isbn=978-1-78074-108-6|pages=29–30}} |quote=The geography of the Mauryan Empire resembled a spider with a small dense body and long spindly legs. The highest echelons of imperial society lived in the inner circle composed of the ruler, his immediate family, other relatives, and close allies, who formed a dynastic core. Outside the core, empire travelled stringy routes dotted with armed cities. Outside the palace, in the capital cities, the highest ranks in the imperial elite were held by military commanders whose active loyalty and success in war determined imperial fortunes. Wherever these men failed or rebelled, dynastic power crumbled. ... Imperial society flourished where elites mingled; they were its backbone, its strength was theirs. Kautilya's ''Arthasastra'' indicates that imperial power was concentrated in its original heartland, in old ''Magadha'', where key institutions seem to have survived for about seven hundred years, down to the age of the Guptas. Here, Mauryan officials ruled local society, but not elsewhere. In provincial towns and cities, officials formed a top layer of royalty; under them, old conquered royal families were not removed, but rather subordinated. In most ''janapadas'', the Mauryan Empire consisted of strategic urban sites connected loosely to vast hinterlands through lineages and local elites who were there when the Mauryas arrived and were still in control when they left.</ref>{{sfn|Hermann Kulke|2004|pp=xii, 448}}<ref>{{cite book | first1=Romila | last1=Thapar | title=A History of India, Volume 1 | publisher=Penguin Books | author-link=Romila Thapar | year=1990 | page=384 | isbn=0-14-013835-8}}</ref> During [[Ashoka]]'s rule (ca. 268–232 BCE) the empire briefly controlled the major urban hubs and arteries of the [[Indian subcontinent]] excepting the deep south.<ref name="Dyson2018-lead-maurya"/> It declined for about 50&nbsp;years after Ashoka's rule, and dissolved in 185&nbsp;BCE with the assassination of Brihadratha by [[Pushyamitra Shunga]] and foundation of the [[Shunga Empire]] in Magadha.

Chandragupta Maurya raised an army, with the assistance of [[Chanakya]], author of [[Arthasastra]],<ref>{{Cite book|title=India: A History|last=Keay|first=John|publisher=Grove Press|year=2000|isbn=978-0-8021-3797-5|pages=82}}</ref> and overthrew the [[Nanda Empire]] in {{circa|322 BCE}}. Chandragupta rapidly expanded his power westwards across central and western India by conquering the [[satrap]]s left by [[Alexander the Great]], and by 317 BCE the empire had fully occupied northwestern India.{{sfn|R. K. Mookerji|1966|p=31}} The Mauryan Empire then defeated [[Seleucus I Nicator|Seleucus I]], a [[Diadochi|diadochus]] and founder of the [[Seleucid Empire]], during the [[Seleucid–Mauryan war]], thus acquiring territory west of the Indus River.<ref>[[Seleucus I]] ceded the territories of [[Arachosia]] (modern Kandahar), [[Gedrosia]] (modern [[Balochistan]]), and [[Paropamisadae]] (or [[Gandhara]]). [[Aria (satrapy)|Aria]] (modern [[Herat]]) "has been wrongly included in the list of ceded satrapies by some scholars ... on the basis of wrong assessments of the passage of Strabo ... and a statement by Pliny" (Raychaudhuri & Mukherjee 1996, p. 594).</ref>{{sfn|John D Grainger|2014|p=109|ps=: Seleucus "must ... have held Aria", and furthermore, his "son [[Antiochus I Soter|Antiochos]] was active there fifteen years later".}}

Under the Mauryas, internal and external trade, agriculture, and economic activities thrived and expanded across South Asia due to the creation of a single and efficient system of finance, administration, and security. The Maurya dynasty built a precursor of the [[Grand Trunk Road]] from Patliputra to Taxila.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://roadsandkingdoms.com/2016/dinner-on-the-grand-trunk-road/|title=Dinner on the Grand Trunk Road|last=Bhandari|first=Shirin|date=2016-01-05|publisher=Roads & Kingdoms|language=en-US|access-date=2016-07-19}}</ref> After the [[Kalinga War]], the Empire experienced nearly half a century of centralized rule under Ashoka. Ashoka's embrace of [[Buddhism]] and sponsorship of Buddhist missionaries allowed for the expansion of that faith into [[Sri Lanka]], northwest India, and Central Asia.{{sfn|Hermann Kulke|2004|p=67}}

The population of South Asia during the Mauryan period has been estimated to be between 15 and 30 million.<ref name="Dyson2018-lead-maurya-4">
{{citation
|last=Dyson|first=Tim|title=A Population History of India: From the First Modern People to the Present Day|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3TRtDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA24|year=2018|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-882905-8|page=24}} Quote: "Yet Sumit Guha considers that 20 million is an upper limit. This is because the demographic growth experienced in core areas is likely to have been less than that experienced in areas that were more lightly settled in the early historic period. The position taken here is that the population in Mauryan times (320–220 BCE) was between 15 and 30 million—although it may have been a little more, or it may have been a little less."</ref> 
The empire's period of dominion was marked by exceptional creativity in art, architecture, inscriptions and produced texts.<ref name="Ludden2013-lead-4">
{{citation
|last=Ludden
|first=David|title=India and South Asia: A Short History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EbFHAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA28|year=2013|publisher=Oneworld Publications|isbn=978-1-78074-108-6|pages=28–29}}Quote: "A creative explosion in all the arts was a most remarkable feature of this ancient transformation, a permanent cultural legacy. Mauryan territory was created in its day by awesome armies and dreadful war, but future generations would cherish its beautiful pillars, inscriptions, coins, sculptures, buildings, ceremonies, and texts, particularly later Buddhist writers."
</ref>