m Under Cyrus II (559-529 b.C.

), Persia had become an

Empire.
m His dynasty is known as the Achaemenid.
m Their big rivals were the western Empires: Babylon,
Lidia, and Egypt: all of them besieged.
m India appears in inscriptions dated ca. 518, where the
territories belonging to Persia were listed (those under
the flow of Indo, where today¶s Sind is located). The
ruler of Persia by those days was Darius.
m The region of the Indo becomes then a satrapy.
m Indian archers are to take a part:
m 1) in the Persian wars against the Greeks, during
Xerxes. The Persian emperor was defeated at
Platea in 479 b.C.
m 2) The battle of Gaugamela (331 b.C.) together
with Daryus III vs. Alexander the Great. Are once
again defeated.
m Persian cultural influence would last and well be
seen until the times of Emperor Asoka.
m _ahapadma Nanda first king whose
transcendence is so big that Roman and Greek
tales talk about him.
m Born of a Sudra woman, killed the whole Ksatriya
aristocracy that was between him and his
interests.
m Had eight sons who ruled one after the other until
they were finally dethroned. All of them are
remembered as the navanandah (nine ±or new-
nandas).
m The navanandahs stole enormous loots from the
surrounding kingdoms as well as the tributes from
their own people. It is said they hid the treasures
inside the currents of the Ganges.
m The troops of the Nandas were counted in the
highs of 20K riders, 200K infantry soldiers, 2K
combat chariots each with 4 horses and 3K
elephants.
m 336 b.C. Alexander was proclaimed king of
_acedonia.
m After conquering and unifying the whole of
Greece, Alexander continues his campaign
towards the east beginning with Persia.
m By 327 he begins his campaign towards India.
m Historians taken with him by the Emperor narrate
very descriptively about this phase of the
campaign.
m Alexander departed in 327 from Bactria (todays
Afgan-Russian frontier) with 30K men towards
india.
m As the fine strategist he was, he first tries to
convince as many Indian rulers to pact with him to
avoid fighting as much as possible.
m Taxila immediately accepts.
m And now, a narration of the Alexander¶s Saga«
m The cultural result of the contact of both worlds can be
seen in the art of Gandhara.
m In it Buddhist content and Greek style are fused.
m Astronomy is one of the main areas of co-influence.
Old Indian texts in the matter utilize Greek terms.
m The [
 
(VI C. a.D.), a quite famous
Geometry/Astronomy/_athematics treaty written by V-
_, Greek technicalities are commonly used. It is
considered one of the  
.
m The same happens in the a    and the
    .
m There is no single historical text written by any
Indian source that even mentions Alexander and
his campaign.
m He is remembered in India nowadays not as ³The
Great´ but has only commercial merits recognized.