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 ofthe eastern-most reaches of the empire, which lie within the bounds of modern-day Pakistan is relatively limited. Whilethere is evidence for the eastern provinces in imperial art and references to them in Achaemenid Royal inscriptions, thearchaeological record in the subcontinent is far more ephemeral and less straightforward to interpret. Some of the clearestinformation about these eastern regions comes from the historians who wrote about the conquest of Alexander at theend of the 4th century BC. The evidence for the Achaemenid period in the east is also informed by an understanding ofthe archaeological evidence from the preceding periods, which implies that the Achaemenid Empire annexed existingregional entities during the 6th century BC, and employed a layered administrative system in the east that saw differingdegrees of control exerted in different regions.