Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c13.s2.37

c13.s2.37

Strabo observes² that the kingdom was situated among the mountains above the Taxilā country. The position of this state was correctly defined by Stein who pointed out that *Dārvābhisāra*³ included the whole tract of the lower and middle hills lying between the Jhelum and the Chenāb. Roughly speaking, it corresponded to the Punch and some adjoining districts in Kaśmīra with a part at least of the Hazāra District of the North-West Frontier Province. It was probably an offshoot of the old kingdom of Kamboja. Abisares, the contemporary of Alexander, was a shrewd politician of the type of Charles Emanuel III of Sardinia. When the Macedonian invader arrived in Taxila he informed him that he was ready to surrender himself and the land which he ruled. And yet before the battle which was fought between Alexander and the famous Poros, Abisares intended to join his forces with those of the latter.¹