India As Described In Early Texts Of Buddhism and Jainism

Author(s): Bimla Charn Law
Publisher: Bimlacharan Law

Page 96

88 INDIA AS DESCRIBED IN EARLY TEXTS invasion of India in B.C. 327, the kingdom was ruled over by Taxiles (Tákşasilā) who was succeeded by his son Mophis or Omphis (Sk. Ambhi). As the Divyāvadāna 1 and Asoka's Rock Edicts (V and XIII) attest, Gandhāra was included in the Maurya empire, the Gandhāras as a people enjoying some degree of independence along with their neighbours, the Yonas and Kambojas. According to the Mahāniddesa (vol. i, p. 154), Takkasilā was one of the great centres of trade, while the Rgveda bears testimony to the good wool of the sheep of the Gandhāris. The local script of the Gandhåras was Kharosthi which was in use in that part of Eastern Turkistan where the people of Gandhāra founded a colony.
The Maddas (Sk. Madras) as a people founded their territory in the central Punjab with Sāgala or šākala (modern Sialkot) as their capital. Sāgala was the capital of king Milinda (Menander) when he ruled over the kingdom of Madda. The Maddas find mention not only in the Jātakas and Epios but also in the Aitareya. Brāhmaṇa. This Vedic text (vii, 14.3) speaks of the Uttarakuravas and Uttaramadras as two peoples who had established, a special kind of sovereignty called vairājya and lived in countries beyond the Himavanta. The existence of an
1 Divyivadāna, p. 61.