A History of Indian Logic: Ancient, Mediaeval and Modern Schools c19.3

c19.3

Takṣaśilā or Taxila was the capital of a province of Gāndhāra and is situated near the river of Sadheri in the Rawalpindi district. The high antiquity of Taxila can be best gathered from the fact that it was famous in the time of Buddha as a University town in India and that Gāndhāra, of which it forms a part, is mentioned in both the Rig-veda and the Atharva-veda, and in the Upanishads and Buddhist literature. In historical times¹ we notice it came under the sway of Cyrus the Great (558—530 B.C.), who is said to have conquered it along with other provinces of Gāndhāra. It is said to have remained in the possession of his successor, Cambyses, who ruled the Persian empire from 530 to 522 B.C. It remained a Persian province for nearly two centuries; and after the downfall of the empire in 331 B.C., it, along with other provinces, came under the sway of Alexander the Great. Herodotus relates that Skylax was first sent by Darius (probably about 510 B.C.) to conduct a fleet of ships from a tributary of the Indus into the Gāndhāra country. Ctesias (415-319 B.C.) resided at the Persian Court for 17 years as physician during the reigns of Darius II and Artaxerxes Memnon, during which time Gāndhāra is said to have remained a Persian province. An interesting relic of Persian influence at Taxila is an inscription in Aramaic character of the fourth or fifth century B.C., which is the only Aramaic record that has yet been found in India.²