ABSTRACT
Alexander’s invasion in the latter part of the fourth century BCE was of only limited importance to Indian history. After overrunning the Persian empire of Darius III, Alexander crossed the Hindu Kush Range and entered Northwest India in 327 BCE. The Mauryan rulers did not have a precedent in the form of administration of a large empire spread from present-day Afghanistan, covering all of North India, and extending to the Deccan and the Konkan in peninsular India. The Mauryan empire collapsed within fifty years of Asoka’s death in 231 BCE. After Asoka’s death, his empire was most likely divided among his sons. Some Yueh-chih tribes, including a branch called the Kushanas, had lived for more than a century in northeastern Iran, speaking a variant of the Iranian language. The Kushanas remained a power until the third century CE, when they were defeated by the Sassanian rulers of Persia, who brought Northwest India under their rule for about sixty years.
