Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c13.s1.1

c13.s1.1

While the kingdoms and republics of the Indian interior were gradually being merged in the Magadhan Empire, those of North-West India (including modern Western Pākistān) were passing through vicissitudes of a different kind. In the first half of the sixth century B.C., the *Uttarāpatha* (northern region) beyond the *Madhyadeśa* (Mid-India, roughly the Ganges-Jumna Doāb, Oudh and some adjoining tracts), like the rest of India, was parcelled out into a number of small states the most important of which were Kamboja, Gandhāra and Madra. No sovereign arose in this part of India capable of welding together the warring communities, as Ugrasena-Mahāpadma had done in the East. The whole region was at once wealthy and disunited, and formed the natural prey of the strong Achaemenian monarchy which grew up in Persia (Irān).