Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c12.s1.4

c12.s1.4

Beyond the limits of the Nanda dominions lay the Indus basin conquered long before by the Achaemenids, but divided at this period into a group of small kingdoms and republics. Politically as disorganised as was Madhyadeśa at the time of the Buddha more than a century earlier, it stood now at a high level of economic prosperity. The accounts of Alexander's officers inform us not only of numbers of rich and populous cities located in the land of the Five Rivers, but also of the wealth of the royal courts and republics. The devastating effects of Alexander's invasion could not but have affected disastrously the economic condition of the territories subdued by his arms and none of his measures for laying the foundation of an extensive commerce between India and the Hellenistic world took root immediately.