Achaemanid’s Influence on Maurya Dynasty

Abstract

The age of Cyrus, founder of Achaemenids dynasty, is known as the beginning of the relationship between Iran and  India. King Cyrus  extended his reign  to  the  East and reached the border of India during his war in central Asia. According to historical documents, Cyrus and after him Darius, calculated the northwest regions(Kabul and  Indus )as their lands, that age  has been  called Zoroastrian era by Indian historians. We can tell about influence of Achaemenids in India: One-third of  gold that flowed into the imperial treasury of  Iran came as tribute from India which was sent to the treasury of the kingdom as tribute are from India. Iranians stayed in India till 320 B.C.E as Alexander the Great attacked Iran, and Indians came to help the Achaemenids king to fight against Alexander in the war.Dr.Spooner, famous Indologist, believes that forming the Mauryan dynasty in India was not only on the basis of Alexander dominating west Asia but also the Achaemenids dynasty influenced the Mauryan dynasty. Mauryans imitated Achaemenids form of government. The history of India may be traced from the time of the Achaemenids, who first developed so highly the art of empire-building among the Aryans. The Achaemenids  built good roads, studded with posts; raised strong forts and grand palaces; developed a centralized and efficient administration; minted coins on a uniform system of weight; and engraved their  orders and ideas in numerous stone inscriptions. All these features appear in the first empire of  India, the Mauryan empire, which, rising on the ruins of the Achaemenids empire in the Indus valley, spread all over India. Alexander the Great intervened between the two empires and the accounts of his Indian conquests give some idea of the unrecorded similar exploits of Darius I  on one hand, and Chandragupta and Ashoka  Maurya on the other.