Afghanistan Now and Then
by Kris iyer on Jun 04, 2008 12:33 PM
Noticed a discussion on Afghanistan below. Not connected with Dr. A.Q. Khan and his reassuring statements. He is a top scientist in Pak., knows the dangers of a nuclear-exchange and I am glad he discounts its use against India. Now, I give some info., on AFGHANISTAN, and may be a few opinions of mine. 2500 B.C.= A wooded Afghanistan, people were Hindu Vaidic. The Vedic/Indus people saw their northern limit in central Afghanistan. Some indications that Indus civilisation spread beyond khyber into "Gandhara". Dhritharashtr, the Kaurava Prince of Haryana/Western U.P. married the princess of the Hindu King of Gandhara. Hindu Traders in touch with central Asian Hunas and Chinese to sell Cotton and Silk (India was the first to know about silk, not China) in markets close to today's Tashkent and what came to be known as the "Silk Road". 500 B.C.: Spread of Buddhism and decline of Vedic Ceremonies. Buddhist missionaries set up their Sangha and convert most of that area to Buddhism. They are followed by Jain monks who are very active in southern Afghanistan. 318-320 B.C.: Alexander (Sikandar) conquers the area, lays waste parts of the city of Gandhara. Leaves behind Greek kingdoms, his Greek and Persian troops, their families. In those days populations were much smaller than today. It was easier to conquer territories. 300 - 200 B.C. Heliodorus, the Greek King of Bactria (the Greek name for Afgh) declares himself a "Krishna Bhakta", takes on the title "Vasudeva Piyya
