ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the evidence for Achaemenid control at the far eastern reaches of the empire, which lie in modern Pakistan. The three easternmost provinces: Gandhāra, Thatagush and Hindush, had previously been characterised by regionally distinct cultural assemblages, which suggest that they were pre-existing polities. There is limited evidence of Achaemenid control over these regions, largely in the form of relief depictions, references to these regions and their inhabitants in administrative and historical texts, and the adoption of ceramic versions of the Achaemenid tulip bowl. Evidence from the Alexander historians demonstrates that the rulers of these provinces needed to show fealty to the Achaemenid Empire, but also operated in a complex and politically charged local milieu.
