PERSIAN CONTACT WHITH ANCIENT INDIA 550-330 B.C WHITH REFERENCE TO ACHAMMANAID EMPIRE

The main objective of this Ph.D research work titled” Persian contact with Ancient India 550 - 330B.C”.with reference to Achammanid empire ,is to project all the historical and cultural facts about the Ancient Persian contact with Ancient India and vice versa pertaining to the period- 550 B.C to 330 B.C, especially in relation to the Achamenid Empire.These facts have been analysed by the evidence drawn from the available Archaeological and literary sources. The first Prime Minister of India,Jawaharlal Nehru said that Iranians were among the oldest people of the world and that the life and culture of India has been influenced a lot by Iranian civilization and culture. It is clear that both people Indian and Iranian,have had close relations in the literary,culture,civilization,architectural and artistic fileds.The Rig Veda and Avesta, which are ancient Indian and Iranian Scriptures respectively have close relation in terms of religious ideas.Around 600 B.C,much of northern India witnessed the spread of the famous northern Black Polished ware. Around that time,the king of Magadha in modern Bihar named Bimbisara,is reported to have had contacts with king Pushkarasarin of Gandhara,beyond the northern frontier Region;the son of Bimbisara,called Ajatashatru ,is said to have fought against king Pradyota of Avanti,which lay around modern Ujjain,in the center of the southern Region along the road from Magadha to the Arabian Sea.In the same context we may point to the world as it was known to the Indian grammarian Panini,who was born in or near ancient Gandhara,probably around 500 B.C.On the basis of his work a map can be drawn which covers almost all of northern India,stretching from the mountains of the Indo-Iranian borderlands in the northwest to the jungles of northeastern India in the northeast,and deep into the Deccan to the south. It would appear then that both archaeological and historical information can be used to show that by the time of the Achaemenid advent in the Indus Valley,in the second half of the sixth century B.C,The Persians who were coming into contact with some scattered Indian tribes earlier on the north western frontier region ,instead they encountered representatives of a civilization which was rapidly developing both politically and culturally towards the unity of the sub-continent which Chandragupta Maurya could finally achieve in the aftermath of Alexander's campaigns in northwestern India at the end of the fourth century B.C. The contact of Ancient Persia with Ancient India pertaining to the period 550 B.C to 330 B.C is an interesting phase in the Annals of Ancient World History.The sheer Magnitude of the contact had far reaching effects on the History and Culture of both the ancient civilizations