• Gandhara was an ancient kingdom in modern-day states of northern Pakistan and northeastern Afghanistan.
• Evidence of Stone Age human inhabitants of Gandhara, including stone tools and burnt bones, was discovered at Sanghao near Mardan in area caves. The artifacts are 15,000 to 30,000 years old.
  

  1.Mother Goddess (fertility divinity), possibly derived from the Indus Valley Civilization,terracotta, Sar Dheri, Gandhara, 1st century BC. 2.Female spouted figure, terracotta, Charsadda, Gandhara, 3rd to 1st century BC .

• The region shows an influx of southern Central Asian culture in the Bronze Age with the Gandhara grave culture, likely corresponding to immigration of Indo-Aryan speakers and the nucleus of Vedic civilisation. This culture flourished from 1500 to 500 BC. The name of the Gandharis is attested in the Rigveda, Atharvaveda. Gandharas are included in the Uttarapatha division of Puranic and Buddhistic traditions.
• Gandhara and Kamboja was governed by the Achaemenian Dynasty during the reign of Cyrus the Great or in the first year of Darius I.  In the book “Histories” by Herodotus, Gandhara is named as a source of tax collections for King Darius. The Gandhara and Kamboja had constituted one of the satrapies of the Achaemenid Empire. Then Maurya, greace-Bacrians, Sakas, Indo-Parthians, Kushanas, Huns, Kabulshahi (Hindushahi) ruled here.
• The Persian term Shahi is used by history writer Al-Biruni to refer to the ruling dynasty that took over from the Kabul Shahi and ruled the region during the period prior to Muslim conquests of the 10th and 11th centuries. After it was conquered by Mahmud of Ghazni in 1021 AD, the name Gandhara disappeared.
• The travel records of many Chinese Buddhists pilgrims record that Gandhara was going through a transformation during these centuries. Buddhism was declining and Hinduism was rising. Fa-Xian travelled around 400 CE, when Prakrit was the language of the people and Buddhism was flourishing. 100 years later, when Song-Yun visited in 520 CE, the area had been destroyed by the White Huns and was ruler did not practice the laws of the Buddha. Xuan-Zang visited India around 644 and found Buddhism on the wane in Gandhara and Hinduism in the ascendant. Gandhara was ruled by a king from Kabul, who respected Buddha’s law, but Taxila was in ruins and Buddhist monasteries were deserted. Instead, Hindu temples were numerous and Hinduism was popular.
• The Chinese Buddhist monk Xuanzang visited a Lokottaravada monastery in the 7th century CE, at Bamiyan, Afghanistan. Birchbark and palm leaf manuscripts of texts in this monastery’s collection, including Mahayana sutras, have been discovered at the site. Some manuscripts are in the Gandhari language and Kharosthi script, while others are in Sanskrit and written in forms of the Gupta script.
• Gandhara is noted for the distinctive Gandhara style of Buddhist art, which developed out of a merger of Greek, Syrian, Persian, and Indian artistic influence. This development began during the Parthian Period (50 BC – AD 75). Gandharan style flourished and achieved its peak during the Kushan period, from the 1st to the 5th centuries. It declined and suffered destruction after invasion of the White Huns in the 5th century.
  

  1.The Buddha preaching at the Deer Park in Sarnath(2nd–3rd century).2.The Great Departure from the Palace (2nd–3rd century)3.Buddha in acanthus capital.4.The Greek god Atlas, supporting a Buddhist monument, Hadda.5.Wine-drinking and music, Hadda (1st–2nd century).6.The end of ascetism (2nd–3rd century).7.The death of the Buddha, or parinirvana (2nd–3rd century)

  1.Standing Bodhisattva (1st–2nd century).2. Standing Buddha (1st–2nd century).3. Bodhisattva seated inmeditation 4.Buddha head (2nd century). 5.The Buddha and Vajrapani under the guise of Heracles(a devine hero in greek mythology).6.The Bodhisattva and Chandeka, Hadda (5th century).7.The Bodhisattva and Chandeka, Hadda (5th century). 8.The birth of Siddharta (2nd–3rd century).9.Scene of the life of the Buddha (2nd–3rd century)10.Hellenistic decorative scrolls from Hadda, Afghanistan

• Stucco and stone was widely used by sculptors in Gandhara for the decoration of monastic and cult buildings. Stucco provided the artist with a medium of great plasticity, enabling a high degree of expressiveness to be given to the sculpture. Sculpting in stucco was popular wherever Buddhism spread from Gandhara – India, Afghanistan, Central Asia and China.
• Gandhara’s language was a Prakrit usually called Gandhari. Texts are written right-to-left in the Kharosthi script, which had been adapted for Indo-Aryan languages from the Aramaic script. Gandhara was then controlled by the Achaemenid dynasty of the Persian Empire, which used the Aramaic script to write the Iranian languages of the Empire.
• The primary cities of Gandhara were Purushapura (now Peshawar), Takshashila (or Taxila) and Pushkalavati. The latter remained the capital of Gandhara down to the 2nd century AD, when the capital was moved to Peshawar.
• An important Buddhist shrine helped to make the city a centre of pilgrimage until the 7th century. Pushkalavati in the Peshawar Valley is situated at the confluence of the Swat and Kabul rivers, where three different branches of the River Kabul meet. That specific place is still called Prang (from Prayaga) and considered sacred and where local people still bring their dead for burial. Similar geographical characteristics are found at site of Prang in Kashmir and at the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna, at Prayag (Allahabad).

• In the Sikar District of Rajasthan. Excavations in the area revealed the remains of a 4,000 year old civilization.
• Pottery similar to Jodhpura was found here.
• Red pottery was found here with black portraiture. The period was estimated to be 2500–2000 BC. Ganeshwar is located near the copper mines of the Sikar-Jhunjhunu area of the Khetri copper belt in Rajasthan. Excavations revealed copper objects including arrowheads, spearheads, fish hooks, bangles and chisels.
• With its microliths and other stone tools, Ganeshwar culture can be ascribed to the pre-Harappan period.
• Ganeshwar mainly supplied copper objects to Harappan cities.
• Three cultural phases in Ganeshwar:

1. Period1 (3800 BCE onward) reflects hunting gathering community using microliths made of chert and quartz. Charred bone of wild animals were found.
2. Period2 (2800BCE onward) marked beginning of smelting. A few copper objects were found. Circular huts were found. Microliths, animal bones, handmade and wheelmade pottery were excavated. There was profusion of Jodhpura-Ganeshwar Ware, a few pots made of well fired clay.
3. Period III (2000 BCE onward) had a wide range of pots, many copper objects with decline in microliths and animal bones.

• Ganeshwar was having copper working centre and supplying these items to communities elsewhere.There are similarities between wheel made pottery of Ganeshwar (period2) and early Harappan pottery. Harappan potteries were found in two Ganeshwar culture cities. At Ganeshwar itself, a reserved slip ware which is only found in the Harappan city (Banwali and few other places). Double spiral-headed pins from Ganeshwar have been found at some Harappan cities.

• Before the 12th century, the area was home to pagans, Zoroastrians, Buddhists, Muslims and a small number of Jews. The conversion of the Ghauris to Islam is attributed to Mahmud Ghazni who converted them to Islam after his conquest of Ghor.
• Ghor was also the centre of the Ghurid dynasty in the 12th and 13th century.The inhabitants of Ghor were completely Islamized during the Ghurids era.

Girnar Hill is a collection of mountains situated near Junagadh in Kathiawar of Gujarat.

One of the major rock edicts of Ashoka is found here. The edict is on black granite in Brahmi script. On the same rock there are inscriptions in Sanskrit added around 150 CE by Rudradaman I, the Saka ruler of Malwa, a member of the Western Kshatrapas dynasty. Another inscription dates from about 450 CE and refers to Skandagupta.

Inscription of Rudradaman is the earliest Sanskrit inscription. It mentions renovation of the famous Sudarshana Lake which was originally built by Pusyagupta the provincial governor of Chandragupta.

Many Jain and Hindu temples are located in Girnar.

(14) Goa (Panjim / Panaji)

Between the 2^nd century BC and the 6^th century AD, Goa was ruled by the Bhojas of Goa. The rule later passed to the Chalukyas of Badami between 6^th and 8^th century and then under the between 8^th and 10^th century. From 8^th to 10^th century, the Southern Silharas of Konkan ruled Goa as the feudatories of the Chalukyas and the Rashtrakutas. Over the next few centuries, Goa was successively ruled by the Kadambas as the feudatories of the Chalukyas of Kalyani. They patronised Jainism in Goa.

In 1312, Goa came under the governance of the Delhi Sultanate. By 1370 it was forced to surrender it to Harihara I of the Vijayanagara Empire. Later it was appropriated by the Bahmani sultans of Gulbarga. After that dynasty crumbled, the area fell into the hands of the Adil Shahis of Bijapur.

In 1510, the Portuguese catured Goa by defeated the ruling Bijapur sultan Yousuf Adil Shah. They set up a permanent settlement in Velha Goa (or Old Goa). Portuguese made many faus churches and buildings here. In 1843 the Portuguese moved the capital to Panjim from Velha Goa.

In 1962, Goa was taken over by India from the Portuguese.

(15) Golkonda