Early India and Pakistan to Ashoka c5.5

c5.5

On the north-western frontier of India and thence southward to the Arabian Sea the picture is a very different one. Here the approaches to the subcontinent, though not always easy, are still frequented, with a preference for two or three main routes. They may be grouped into two series: a northern and a southern. The northern group links north Iran and the Oxus region with Kābul and the central reaches of the Indus; the southern group links central and south Iran alternatively with Kandahār, north Baluchistan and the more southerly regions of the Indus, or with Makrān and the Indus delta. These two groups are significant in the cultural relations of Iran and Mesopotamia with India, supplemented less tangibly by the bypass of the Persian Gulf.