The Achaemenid Expansion to the Indus and Alexander’s Invasion of North-West South Asia

Abstract

There is a range of evidence that informs us about the organisation of the Achaemenid Empire, but our understanding of<br />the eastern-most reaches of the empire, which lie within the bounds of modern-day Pakistan is relatively limited. While<br />there is evidence for the eastern provinces in imperial art and references to them in Achaemenid Royal inscriptions, the<br />archaeological record in the subcontinent is far more ephemeral and less straightforward to interpret. Some of the clearest<br />information about these eastern regions comes from the historians who wrote about the conquest of Alexander at the<br />end of the 4th century BC. The evidence for the Achaemenid period in the east is also informed by an understanding of<br />the archaeological evidence from the preceding periods, which implies that the Achaemenid Empire annexed existing<br />regional entities during the 6th century BC, and employed a layered administrative system in the east that saw differing<br />degrees of control exerted in different regions.