Gandhara

Taxila (, , ), historically known as Takshashila, is a city and UNESCO World Heritage Site in Rawalpindi District in Punjab province of Pakistan. Founded around , it is one of the oldest cities in South Asia. Taxila is located within the Taxila Tehsil on the Pothohar Plateau of Punjab, Pakistan, and it lies approximately northwest of the Islamabad–Rawalpindi metropolitan area and is just south of the Haripura District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Gandhara () was an ancient Indo-Aryan civilisation in the Indian subcontinent located in present-day northwestern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan. The core of the region of Gandhara was the Valley of Peshawar, though the cultural influence of "Greater Gandhara" extended across the Indus River to Taxila and westwards into the Kabul Valley as far as Bamyan, and northwards up to the Karakoram range, including Swat, Bajaur and other valleys.

document written on pieces of the inner layer of birch bark

Shakuni (, , ) is one of the antagonists of the Hindu epic Mahabharata. He was the prince of the kingdom of Gandhara when introduced, later becoming its king after the death of his father, Subala. He was the brother of Gandhari and the maternal uncle of the Kauravas.

thumb|Gautama Buddha in Greco-Buddhist style, 1st–2nd century AD, [[Gandhara (Peshawar basin, modern day Pakistan).]]

Paropamisadae or Parapamisadae () was a satrapy of the Alexandrian Empire in modern Pakistan, which largely coincided with the Achaemenid province of Parupraesanna. It consisted of the districts of Sattagydia (Bannu basin), Gandhara (Kabul, Peshawar, and Taxila), and Oddiyana (Swat Valley). Paruparaesanna is mentioned in the Akkadian language and Elamite language versions of the Behistun Inscription of Darius the Great, whereas in the Old Persian version it is called Gandāra. The entire satrapy was subsequently ceded by Seleucus I Nicator to Chandragupta Maurya after Mauryan Victory in Selucid

aspect of Pakistani history

Pushkalavati was the capital of the ancient region of Gāndhāra, situated in present day's Pakistan. Its ruins are located on the outskirts of the modern city of Charsadda, in Charsadda District, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 35-42 kilometres northeast of Peshawar, at the banks of Jindi River, near the junction of Swat River with Kabul River. The earliest archaeological remains in Bala Hisar mound are from 1400 to 800 BCE. Pushkalavati (in Bala Hisar mound) may have been incorporated as an Achaemenid regional settlement around 520 BCE, and it remained an important city (in Shaikhan Dheri mound) th

ancient kingdom in South Asia

Chakdara (چکدرہ) is a city in the Lower Dir District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It is the second largest city in Dir Lower after Timergara. It serves as a gateway of Malakand Division. It is located in the center of Malakand Division at the entrance of the Lower Dir District, also near the entrance of the Swat District. The Swat Expressway's Chakdara interchange (Pul Chowki) touches this area. Chakdara is about 130 km far from Peshawar, 40km from Mingora and 38 km from Timergara.

Gandāra, or Gadāra in Achaemenid inscriptions (Old Persian cuneiform: 𐎥𐎭𐎠𐎼, , also transliterated as since the nasal "n" before consonants was omitted in the Old Persian script, and simplified as or sometimes ) was one of the easternmost provinces of the Achaemenid Empire in South Asia, following the Achaemenid invasion of the Indus Valley. It appears in various Achaemenid inscriptions such as the Behistun Inscription, or the DNa inscription of Darius the Great.