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education. Taxila is situated on the northern route connecting, whose west was Gandhar, in the west (Modern Kabul), Ganga valley in the east (modern times-Grand trunk road), Another route was connecting Kashmir to Indian ocean in the south. Finally, the Khugrab pass waa connecting Kashmir to Zin Ziyang in China. It was called as the silk route connecting Babilonia to west china.
Gandhara was a name of a satrapy of the ancient Achaemnid empire, roughly equivalent to the valley of the river Copen ( Modern Kabul). The Greeks called the western part of the region "Parapamisos" which may be derived from the old Persian name of the Hindukushmountain range. The valley of Copen is on three sides North-west & Soputh surrounded by mountaimns, but there ae accessible passes. As a result Gandhara could bcome an important link between India and Mesopotmia. The capital of Gandhara was later called Kapisa. The city controlled the roads to the Etimandrus valley (Ref: Jona Lendering: Ancient Persia] to the Copen valleyand to the passes leading to Bactria. It is 75 Kms north of Kabul, near Charikai. In the first months of 329BC Alexander refounded Kapisa. It was called Alexandria and surnamed” near the Caucasus". In 329-327 BCAlexandria was fighting in Bacrtria and Sogadia. During the war in Copen valley, the Mesedonians captured a city named Peucelaotis (modern Charsadda). Peucelaotis is known in Indian sources as 'Pushkalavati', the city of lotus flowers. One of the Alexander's campaign in Gandhara was the discovery of town Nysa and the mountain Meros. Indians call this Mt. Meru. According to Mesodonians and Greeks this was the place where God Dionysus was born. Indians had identified as Jaina a deity. A king Antiochus III of Selucid Empire was defeated by the Romans and their leader Euthydemus and his son Demetrius expanded his kingdom into Drangrana Gandhara Archosia and Punjab. King Meanander (C 125) (in Indian source-Minedra) as mentioned in a holy book of Milindapanha Bahubali, the seond son of the first Tirhankara Lord Rishabh, though not a Tirthankara himself, but is worshipped by the Jainas as an enlightened soul, and iis revered for his severe auaterities. According to one description in Ramayana, the two sons of Bharata named Taksha and Pushkar, conquered Gandhar and established two cities-Taxila and Pushkaravati. Taxila was controlling the route from Punjab to Kashmir and from Punjab to Kapish.
Pushkarvati was situated on the crossing of Nagar Kumbha {Kabul) and Suwasti (Swati). A route going from the plains of Northern Indiia to Kapish and Uddiyan was passing through Pushkaravati. In the 1st century BC Kushans, when
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