Cont'd: Seulucus, another Bactrian King, sends his Ambassador, Megasthanes, to the Mauryan Court in Patna (Patalipura). We owe to this Megasthanes some information on this period and to coins minted by Heliodorus and Seleucus. Afghanistan produces "Gandhara Sculpture" of the Buddha, Krishna and Vishnu [ not Shiva, surprisingly ]. You can see these at the Delhi Museum and also some of the coins including the one showing Heliodorus' Krishna Column and the words "Vasudeva Piyya". Chandra Gupta Maurya takes an army up to Gandhara, asking Seluecus to leave the area, go further West. Marries Seluecus's daughter. Most important:.....World's second UNIVERSITY opened by the Buddhists in TAXA-SHEELA or TAXILA. The first University was in NALANDA in Bihar (did not stop Bihar becoming an uncivilised place in Independent India, did it? - so past glory is no guarantee of present condition!!) 100 A.D.: The biggest statue of Bhagawan Buddha erected in BHAMIYAN by the people of Afghanistan. I forget the dimensions, but at least two or three generations of labourers would have carved it on the moutain side, using extensive scaffolding. 700 - 800 A.D.: Arab cavalry and Persian soldiers conquer Afghanistan, destroy the Sanghas and temples, enslave the Monks and "hard-core" Buddhists and sell them in the slave markets of the middle-east. The Arabs practised slavery for a long time. 800-1100 A.D. A number of small muslim kingdoms established. One of which had a scholar, Al-Beruni.
