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==Alexander’s Invasion of India==
The invasion of India was a logical step following the Macedonian’s king’s campaigns in Bactria. There had been a major rebellion launched against Alexander by a local warlord <ref>Arrian. Campaigns of Alexander, 12, 56</ref>. After the conqueror suppressed this revolt he turned his attention to war-like tribes in Afghanistan, who had aided the rebellious Bactrians. Alexander attacked tribal confederations in the Hindu Kush valleys of Afghanistan and Pakistan <ref>McCrindle, J. W. The Invasion of India by Alexander the Great as Described by Arrian, Q Curtius, Diodorus, Plutarch, and Justin. Westminster: Archibald Constable & Co, 1893), p 67</ref>. He conquered these tribes, with great loss of life and ravaged their lands and then marched his forces down the Indus River and he entered the powerful kingdom of King Paurava (or Porus to the Greeks). This king had a very large army and many war-elephants, and he took up a defensive position on the River Hydaspes in what is now modern Punjab. The river was swollen by heavy Monsoon rains, but Alexander was able to cross the river and surprise the Indians in the rear. There then followed a terrible battle, which Alexander won, but it came at a terrible human cost. Alexander made Paurava a subordinate ruler and he absorbed much of Punjab into his realms <ref>McCrindle, p 118</ref>. The great conqueror was determined to press on to the Indian heartland, the Gangetic plains, However, the Macedonian king, was forced to overcome war-like tribes in his rear and he captured the almost impregnable mountain fortress of Aornos (326 BC). After securing his rear and flanks, the king decided to invade Northern Indian. His soldiers were becoming restless, they had not seen their homes in years and were fearful of the powerful Nanda and Gangaridai armies, with their many war-elephants. His army mutinied at the Hyphasis River (the modern Beas River) and demanded that Alexander turn back and abandon the campaign. The king attempted to persuade them to continue but he failed and after a stand-off, he relented <ref>Plutarch, 7, 6</ref>. He retreated back into modern Pakistan and began to campaign against the powerful Malian tribe, who lived near modern Multan in Pakistan. After a siege, he subdued the Malians but received a near-fatal wound during the fighting. This wound is believed by many to have led to his death. Despite his severe wound Alexander conquered a large number of tribes and reached the Indian Ocean coast of modern Pakistan. He then returned to Persia via the Great Gedoresian Desert, during which he lost much of his army to thirst and hunger. He divided his conquests into four satrapies and he left behind a considerable army under Peithon <ref>McCrindle, p 115</ref>. After Alexander the Great’s death, his generals fought a series of civil wars, as they tried to carve out independent states out of his Empire</ref> Bosworth, Albert Brian. Conquest and Empire: the reign of Alexander the Great (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1993), p 398</ref>. The Greek armies in India returned to the west to take part in these wars sometime in 316 BC. Chandragupta Maurya of Magadha founded the Maurya Empire, after he overthrew the Nanda Empire in 321 BC. The course of events after this are not certain, because of the fragmented nature of the sources. It appears that Chandragupta invaded the Macedonian territories in the Punjab and Sind. At this time Seleucus was the most powerful general in the eastern territories of the Alexandrine Empire, sought to reconquer the satrapies lost to the founder of the Mauryan dynasty. There followed the Seleucid–Mauryan War fought between 305 and 303 BC. Details of the war are not known but it appears that Chandragupta emerged as the victor. Seleucus ceded most if not all of the Alexandrine conquests in India to the Mauryan Empire and in return he received 500 war elephants<ref> A. B. Bosworth, The Legacy of Alexander, Oxford University Press,. These elephants were used by Seleucus in his great victory at Ipsus (301 BC). Later there were extensive diplomatic and trading contacts established between the Hellenistic and Indian world.
[[File: Gandhara, testa di buddha, I-III sec.jpg|200px|thumb|left| An example of Greco-Buddhist sculpture]]
==The Greeks in India==
There are several Indian sources that indicate that Alexander left a large number of Greek colonists in his newly acquired territories, who are referred to as Yavanas. It appears that there were a large number of Greek settlements in India. They continued to speak Greek and remained a distinct ethnic group in Northern India. The great Buddhist Emperor Asoka issued edicts in Greek <ref>. It is also believed that many Greeks were active in the government of this great Emperor. The descendants of the colonists transplanted by Alexander into India continued to flourish for many years. In 180 BC an army of Greeks returned to India, these were the descendants of the colonies established in Bactria. The Mauryan Empire fell after the death of Asoka and his left a power vacuum in north-west India. A powerful Greek Bactrian king Demeter 1 conquered a large area of Afghanistan <ref>Singh, Upinder A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Pearson Education India, 2008), p 118</ref>. Later kings ruled parts of the Punjab and Gujarat in the second century AD. The greatest Indo-Greco king was Meander I who ruled a large kingdom in what is now Pakistan and the Indian Punjab. After his death little is known about the Indo-Greek kingdoms, the last known was that located in eastern Punjab, that was ruled by a monarch called Strato I (10 BC). However, there were some small Indian Greek statelets that endured in remote areas until the 1st century AD. Alexander’s invasion had resulted, directly and indirectly in the establishment of a Greek presence in North-West India for over 300 years.
[[File: Menander portrait.jpg|200px|thumb|left| A portrait of Meander I Soter c 160 AD]]
==Graeco-Buddhism ==
The Mauryan Emperor Asoka was keen to spread the Buddhist faith and he sent missionaries to the Greeks who lived in his realms and in Bactria. It seems that many descendants of Alexander’s colonists and soldiers became followers of the Buddha and that there are even documented examples of Greek Buddhist monks. Following the collapse of the Mauryan Empire, a unique Greco-Buddhism developed, a combination of Hellenistic and Indian elements <ref>Singh, p 118</ref>. This syncretic religion influenced the development of the Mahayana tradition in Buddhism and its pantheon of deities. The Indo-Greek kingdoms became important centres of Buddhism and they were instrumental in the spread of the religion into Central Asia and ultimately into China. The long-term consequences of Alexander’s invasion were a chain of events that decisively influenced the development of Buddhism and helped the spread of that faith.
