The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c24.197

v1.c24.197

The Bahistān Inscription itself (1, 13–17) does not include India in the list of the twenty-three provinces which ‘came to Darius,’ as the Old Persian text says, or ‘obeyed him,’ as the Babylonian version expresses it¹. The inference to be drawn, therefore, is that the Indus region did not form a part of the empire of Darius at the time when the great rock record was made, though it was incorporated shortly afterwards, as is shown by the two other inscriptions in question. Both of these latter (Dar. Pers. e. 17–18, and NR. a. 25) expressly mention *Hi(n)du*, that is, the Punjab territory, as a part of the realm. The Northern Indian domain must therefore have been annexed sometime between the promulgation of the Bahistān edict and the completion of the two records just cited. The present tendency of scholarly opinion is to assign the Indus conquest to about the year 518 B.C.²