The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c24.232

v1.c24.232

Emphasis may be laid anew on the fact that the sphere of Persian influence in these early times can hardly have reached beyond the realm of the Indus and its affluents. We may assume, accordingly, that when Alexander reached the river Hyphasis, the ancient Vipāç and modern Beās, and was then forced by his own generals and soldiers to start upon his retreat, he had touched the extreme eastern limits of the Persian domain, over which he had triumphed throughout³. The interesting articles by Dr D. B. Spooner in the *Jour. R.A.S.* for 1915 (pp. 63–89, 405–455), entitled *The Zoroastrian Period of Indian History*, make the strongest possible plea for a far wider extension of Persian influence upon India in the early historic period. While scholars are fully agreed to allow for the general and far-reaching theory of Persian influence, they have not found themselves prepared to accept many of the hypotheses put forward in Dr Spooner's two articles, as the criticisms which succeeded their publication show⁴.