Persian and Greek invasion: Persian invasion; Alexander, the Great and his legacy.
India has a varied culture and traditions, many of them have been influenced by the foreign culture. India being a prosperous and rich country with great civilisation, it attracted the empires from long and many civilisations like Persian and Macedonian have invaded India for riches and few settled back while others left country with gold and diamonds. In all the great invasions of Ancient India Persian and Greek
are the major ones.
Iranian (Persian) & Macedonian (Greek) Invasion
Persian Invasion (550 BC)-
- Contemporary to reign of Bimbisara, Persian attacked N-W front of India & Magadha continued to rise in N-E & Central-north in India
- In N-W front of India, several small provinces like Kamboja, Gandhara & Madra did not have a political unity & continuously fought with each other
- Archaemadian ruler of Iran, Cyprus took advantage of this political disunity & invaded west front of India.
- All Indian tribes west of Indus River submitted to him including Gandhar
- Darius 1, Grandson of Cyprus conquered Indus valley as a whole & annexed Punjab & Sindh (N W India)
- Xerxes, Successor of Darius, employed Indian infantry & cavalry in war against Greece but got defeated & hence could not move forward in India. However, control of Persians over India slackened only after Alexander’s invasion on India
Effects of Persian Invasion
- Impetus to Indo Iranian commerce & trade, which finally became the ground for Alexander’s invasion
- Use of Kharoshti script bought by Iranian gain popularity in N-W India & some inscription of Ashoka (250 BC) are written in this language (derived from Aramaic script, written from right to left)
- Influence of Persian art in India, Particularly monolithic pillars , & sculptures found on them along with inscriptions
Alexander’s Invasion (327 BC)
After 2 centuries of Persian invasion, Alexander from Macedonia invaded India. Alexander conquered minor Asia along with Iraq & Iran and from Iran he marched into India
- Alexander conquered whole of Persia by defeating Darius 3 in battle of Arabela (330 BC).
- Herodotus, Father of history, wrote that fabulous wealth of India attracted Alexander & moreover his interest in Geographical enquiry & love of natural history urged him to invade India
- Alexander believed that on eastern side of India lies continuation of the sea & hence by conquering India, he would conquer eastern boundary of the world
- After conquest of Iran, he marched into India through Khyber pass 327 BC & crossed Indus in 326 BC.
- Ambhi, the ruler of taxila readily submitted to him but Porus whose kingdom lay between Jhelum & Chenab refused to submit to Alexander