An ancient Indo-Aryan civilization and Mahajanapada in what is now northwestern Pakistan and northeastern Afghanistan, conquered by Alexander the Great in 327 BCE.
The ancient Gandhara kingdom (Peshawar Valley / Taxila region) was conquered by the Achaemenid Persian Empire under Cyrus the Great c. 535 BCE and consolidated under Darius I (attested in the Behistun Inscription c. 518 BCE) as the 7th Achaemenid satrapy; it was subsequently conquered by Alexander the Great in 327 BCE and later passed to the Maurya Empire c. 304 BCE.
Covers Gandhara as a Mahajanapada in the northwestern frontier of the subcontinent.
Era/regional: surveys the northwestern Mahajanapada of Gandhara up to Alexander's conquest of the region.