The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c25.5

v1.c25.5

Takshaçilā guarded the chief gate of India from the north-west: it was the first great Indian city at which merchants who had come down the Kābul Valley and crossed the Indus about Attock arrived, three days’ journey beyond the river. Its ruler was the first among the kings of the Punjab to hear any tidings which might come down from the highlands of Afghānistān of events happening behind those tremendous mountain walls. For many generations now the Punjab must have had some knowledge of what went on in the dominions of the King of Kings. For the Persian Empire founded two centuries before by Cyrus had been a huger realm than had ever, so far as we know, existed in the world under the hand of one man, and the power and glory of the man who ruled it, the splendour of Ecbatana and Persepolis, must have been carried by fame over the neighbouring lands.