Gandhara, Mahajanapadas

Gandhara was located between Kabul and Rawalpindi in the North Western Province. Some parts of Kashmir might have been included in this territorial limit. In the early Vedic times, it was of considerable importance but in the Brahmanical and Buddhist traditions of the later phases it was not given any importance. The capital Taxila was an important city for learning and trading. In the sixth century BCE, Gandhara was ruled by a king Pukkusati who was a friend of Bimbisara but by late sixth century BCE, the kingdom was conquered by Persians. According to Greek historian Herodotus, Gandhara formed the twentieth province of the Archaemenid empire and was the most populous and wealthy, it supplied men and material to the persona army fighting against the Greek.