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RESULT OF ALEXANDER’S INVASION 263
5. Sogdian Alexandria,' below the confluence of the Pañjāb rivers.
Asoka recognised the existence of Yona (Yavana) settlers on the north-western fringe of his empire, and appointed some of them (e.g., the Yavana-rāja Tushāspha) to high offices of state. Boukephala Alexandria flourished as late as the time of the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea.3 One of the Alexandrias (Alasanda) is mentioned in the Mahāvaṁsa.
Alexander's invasion produced one indirect result. It helped the cause of Indian unity by destroying the power of the petty states of north-west India, just as the Danish invasion contributed to the union of England under Wessex by destroying the independence of Northumbria and Mercia. If Ugrasena-Mahāpadma was the precursor
of Chandragupta Maurya in the east, Alexander was the · forerunner of that emperor in the north-west.
1 Inv. Alex, pp. 293, 354 ; Bury, History of Greece for Beginners, p. 433.; Camb. Hist. Ind., 1.376f.
2. For the nationality of Tushāspha and significance of the term "Yavana," see Raychaudhuri, Early History of the Vaishnava Sect, 2nd Ed., pp. 28f,
3 Schoff's tr., p. 41. 4 Geiger's tr., p. 194.
