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Sagala
Sagala, Sakala (), or Sangala () was a city in ancient India, which is generally identified as the predecessor of the modern city of Sialkot that is located in what is now Pakistan's northern Punjab province. The city was the capital of the Madra kingdom and it was razed in 326 BC during the Indian campaign of Alexander the Great. In the 2nd century BC, Sagala was made capital of the Indo-Greek kingdom by Menander I. Menander embraced Buddhism after extensive debating with a Buddhist monk, as recorded in the Buddhist text '' Milinda Panha''. Sagala became a major centre for Buddhism under his reign, and prospered as a major trading centre. History Sagala is likely the city of Sakala () mentioned in the ''Mahabharata'', a Sanskrit epic of ancient India, as occupying a similar area as Greek accounts of Sagala. The city may have been inhabited by the ''Saka'', or Scythians, from Central Asia who had migrated into the Indian subcontinent. The region was noted in the ''Mahabharat ...
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Indo-Greek
The Indo-Greek Kingdom, also known as the Yavana Kingdom, was a Hellenistic period, Hellenistic-era Ancient Greece, Greek kingdom covering various parts of modern-day Afghanistan, Pakistan and northwestern India. The term "Indo-Greek Kingdom" loosely describes a number of various Hellenistic states, ruling from regional capitals like Taxila, Sagala, Pushkalavati, and Bagram. Other centers are only hinted at; e.g. Ptolemy's ''Geographia (Ptolemy), Geographia'' and the nomenclature of later kings suggest that a certain Theophilos (king), Theophilus in the south of the Indo-Greek sphere of influence may also have had a royal seat there at one time. The kingdom was founded when the Graeco-Bactrian king Demetrius I of Bactria invaded India from Bactria in about 200 BC. The Greeks to the east of the Seleucid Empire were eventually divided to the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, Graeco-Bactrian Kingdom and the Indo-Greek Kingdoms in the North Western Indian Subcontinent. During the two cent ...
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Sialkot
Sialkot (Punjabi language, Punjabi, ) is a city located in Punjab, Pakistan. It is the capital of the Sialkot District and the List of most populous cities in Pakistan, 12th most populous city in Pakistan. The boundaries of Sialkot are joined by Jammu in the north east, the districts of Narowal District, Narowal in the southeast, Gujranwala District, Gujranwala in the southwest and Gujrat District, Gujrat in the northwest. Sialkot is known as the city of Muhammad Iqbal, Allama Iqbal. Sialkot is believed to be the successor city of Sagala, the capital of the Madra Kingdom, Madra kingdom which was destroyed by Alexander the Great in 326 BCE. It was made capital of the Indo-Greek kingdom by Menander I in the 2nd century BCE — a time during which the city greatly prospered as a major center for trade and Buddhist thought. In the 6th century CE, it again become capital of the Taank Kingdom, which ruled Punjab for the next two centuries. Sialkot continued to be a major political ce ...
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Menander I
Menander I Soter (, ; ), sometimes called Menander the Great, was an Indo-Greek king (reigned /155Bopearachchi (1998) and (1991), respectively. The first date is estimated by Osmund Bopearachchi and R. C. Senior, the other Boperachchi –130 BC) who administered a large territory in the northwestern regions of the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia. Menander is noted for having become a patron of Greco-Buddhism and is regarded as the greatest and most well-known of the Indo-Greek kings. Menander might have initially been a prince or king of Bactria. After conquering the Punjab, as far as Taxila and Sagala, he established an empire which stretched from the Kabul River in the west to the Ravi River in the east, and from the Swat River valley in the north to Arachosia (the Helmand Province). The Greek geographer Strabo wrote that he "conquered more tribes than Alexander the Great." Ancient Indian writers indicate that he possibly launched unsuccessful expeditions ...
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Pushyamitra Shunga
Pushyamitra Shunga ( IAST: ; reigned ), also known as Pushpamitra Shunga ( IAST: ) was the founder and the first ruler of the Shunga Empire which he established to succeed the Maurya Empire. His original name was Puṣpaka or Puṣpamitra and the confusion between Puṣyamitra and Puṣpamitra arose because of the erroneous readings of 'p' and 'y' in the manuscripts. Pushyamitra is recorded to have performed the Ashvamedha ritual to legitimize his right to rule. Inscriptions of the Shungas have been found as far as the Ayodhya (the Dhanadeva–Ayodhya inscription), and the '' Divyavadana'' mentions that his empire stretched as far as Sakala (now Sialkot) in Punjab region, now in Pakistan. Though Buddhist texts claim that Pushyamitra persecuted Buddhists, past and contemporary scholars have rejected these claims. Foundation of the Shunga Empire Pushyamitra Shunga founded the Shunga Empire after assassinating the last Mauryan emperor Brihadratha Maurya. Subsequently, ...
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Shunga Empire
The Shunga Empire (IAST: ') was a ruling entity centred around Magadha and controlled most of the northern Indian subcontinent from around 187 to 75 BCE. The dynasty was established by Pushyamitra, after taking the throne of Magadha from the Mauryas. The Shunga empire's capital was Pataliputra, but later emperors such as Bhagabhadra also held court at Besnagar (modern Vidisha) in eastern Malwa. This dynasty is also responsible for successfully fighting and resisting the Greeks in Shunga–Greek War. Pushyamitra ruled for 36 years and was succeeded by his son Agnimitra. There were ten Shunga rulers. However, after the death of Agnimitra, the second king of the dynasty, the empire rapidly disintegrated:K.A. Nilkantha Shastri (1970)''A Comprehensive History of India: Volume 2'' p.108: "Soon after Agnimitra there was no 'Sunga empire'." inscriptions and coins indicate that much of northern and central India consisted of small kingdoms and city-states that were independent ...
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Punjab (Pakistan)
Punjab (, ) is a province of Pakistan. With a population of over 127 million, it is the most populous province in Pakistan and the second most populous subnational polity in the world. Located in the central-eastern region of the country, it has the largest economy, contributing the most to national GDP in Pakistan. Lahore is the capital and largest city of the province. Other major cities include Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala and Multan. It is bordered by the Pakistani provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the north-west, Balochistan to the south-west and Sindh to the south, as well as Islamabad Capital Territory to the north-west and Azad Kashmir to the north. It shares an international border with the Indian states of Rajasthan and Punjab to the east and Indian-administered Kashmir to the north-east. Punjab is the most fertile province of the country as the Indus River and its four major tributaries Ravi, Jhelum, Chenab and Sutlej flow through it. The provin ...
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Madra Kingdom
Madra kingdom (; ) was a kingdom grouped among the western kingdoms in the Indian epic poetry, ancient Indian epic ''Mahabharata''. Its capital was Sagala in the Madra region. The Kuru (kingdom), Kuru king Pandu's (''Pāṇḍu'') second wife was from Madra kingdom and was called Madri (; ; Help:IPA/Sanskrit, IPA/Sanskrit: ). The Pandava twins, Nakula and Sahadeva, were her sons. Madri's brother Shalya was the king of Madra. Though affectionate to the Pandavas, he was tricked to give support to Duryodhana and fought against the Pandavas during the Kurukshetra War. He was killed by Yudhishthira, the eldest Pandava. Other than the Madra kingdom (Eastern Madra or Purva Madra) with Sagala as its capital, it is believed that there was a Western Madra (Apara Madra) and a Northern Madra (Uttara Madra). Origin According to the Vayu Purana, the Madra kingdom was founded by King Ushinara Shibi of the Anu race. Anu was the son of Yayati. According to Bhagavata Purana, The kingdom of Mad ...
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Expedition Of Chenab By Alexander The Great And Porous
The Indian campaign of Alexander the Great began in 327BC and lasted until 325BC. After conquering the Achaemenid Persian Empire, the Macedonian army undertook an expedition into the Indus Valley of Northwestern Indian subcontinent. Within two years, Alexander expanded the Macedonian Empire, a kingdom closely linked to the broader Greek world, to include Gandhara and the Indus Valley of Punjab and Sindh (now in India and Pakistan), surpassing the earlier frontiers established by the Persian Achaemenid conquest. Following Macedon's absorption of Gandhara (a former Persian satrapy), including the city of Taxila, Alexander and his troops advanced into Punjab, where they were confronted by Porus, the regional Indian king. In 326 BC, Alexander defeated Porus and the Pauravas during the Battle of the Hydaspes,Fuller, p. 198 but that engagement was possibly the Macedonians' most costly battle. Alexander's continued eastward march was leading his army into a confrontation with th ...
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Indian Campaign Of Alexander The Great
The Indian campaign of Alexander the Great began in 327BC and lasted until 325BC. After conquering the Achaemenid Persian Empire, the Macedonian army undertook an expedition into the Indus Valley of Northwestern Indian subcontinent. Within two years, Alexander expanded the Macedonian Empire, a kingdom closely linked to the broader Greek world, to include Gandhara and the Indus Valley of Punjab and Sindh (now in India and Pakistan), surpassing the earlier frontiers established by the Persian Achaemenid conquest. Following Macedon's absorption of Gandhara (a former Persian satrapy), including the city of Taxila, Alexander and his troops advanced into Punjab, where they were confronted by Porus, the regional Indian king. In 326 BC, Alexander defeated Porus and the Pauravas during the Battle of the Hydaspes,Fuller, p. 198 but that engagement was possibly the Macedonians' most costly battle. Alexander's continued eastward march was leading his army into a confrontation wi ...
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Mauryan Empire
The Maurya Empire was a geographically extensive Iron Age historical power in South Asia with its power base in Magadha. Founded by Chandragupta Maurya around c. 320 BCE, it existed in loose-knit fashion until 185 BCE. The primary sources for the written records of the Mauryan times are partial records of the lost history of Megasthenes in Roman texts of several centuries later; the Edicts of Ashoka, which were first read in the modern era by James Prinsep after he had deciphered the Brahmi and Kharoshthi scripts in 1838; and the ''Arthashastra'', a work first discovered in the early 20th century,: "... another source that enjoyed high standing as a description of the early Mauryan state was the Arthashastra, a treatise on power discovered in the early twentieth century." and previously attributed to Chanakya, but now thought to be composed by multiple authors in the first centuries of the common era. Archaeologically, the period of Mauryan rule in South Asia falls in ...
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Ashokavadana
The Ashokavadana (; ; "Narrative of Ashoka") is an Indian Sanskrit-language text that describes the birth and reign of the third Mauryan Emperor Ashoka. It glorifies Ashoka as a Buddhist emperor whose only ambition was to spread Buddhism far and wide. ''Ashokavadana,'' also known as ''Ashokarajavadana,'' is one of the avadana texts contained in the Divyavadana (''Divyāvadāna'', "Divine Narrative"), an anthology of several Buddhist narratives. According to Jean Przyluski, the text was composed by the Buddhist monks of the Mathura region, as it highly praises the city of Mathura, its monasteries, and its monks. Date of composition There are several versions of ''Ashokavadana'', dating from 5th century CE to 16th century CE. Some date the earliest finished form of the text back to 2nd century CE, although its oral origins may go back to 2nd century BCE. The extant version of ''Ashokavadana'' is a part of '' Divyavadana'', a Sanskrit-language anthology of Buddhist narrative ...
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Arrian
Arrian of Nicomedia (; Greek: ''Arrianos''; ; ) was a Greek historian, public servant, military commander, and philosopher of the Roman period. '' The Anabasis of Alexander'' by Arrian is considered the best source on the campaigns of Alexander the Great. Scholars have generally preferred Arrian to other extant primary sources, though this attitude has changed somewhat in light of modern studies into Arrian's method. Arrian's life Arrian was born in Nicomedia (present-day İzmit), the provincial capital of Bithynia. Cassius Dio called him Flavius Arrianus Nicomediensis. Sources provide similar dates for his birth, within a few years prior to 90, 89, and 85–90 AD. The line of reasoning for dates belonging to 85–90 AD is because of Arrian being made a consul around 130 AD, and the usual age for this, during this period, being 42 years of age. (ref. pp. 312, & SYME 1958, ''ibid.''). His family was from the Greek provincial aristocracy, and his full name, ''L. F ...
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