The Afghans are a mixture of various races. from the Meditteranean to Centra Asia and China. Over the centuries people from different regions settled in Afghanistan and made it their home land. People came from such culturally divergent countries such as Iran, Middle East, Anatolia, Greece, Macedonia, China, India, Mongolia, Central Russia and settled there. They added diversity to the population but rarely lived in peace.
It is difficult to believe that the history of this small and poor country is dotted with such famous names as Darius the Great, Alexander, Chandragupta Maurya, Ashoka, Kanishka, Menander, Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan, Timur, Mahmud Ghazni, Mahmud Ghori, Babur, Humayun, Akbar, Nadir Shah. It is also interesting to note that those who came to Afghanistan rarely managed to hold on to their victories or keep the land under their possession for long.
Because of its strategic location, some times Afghanistan became a buffer between two hostile nations. It happened during the Mughal and the British rule. Some times it also provided sanctuary to the fleeing rebels or the vanquished rulers from the central plains of India. It happened many times during the Muslim and Mughal rule. At the height of its glory, the British army fought two serious wars in Afghanistan. Both times they suffered heavy causalities. In recent times the Russians fought in Afghanistan for 10 long years and withdrew having exhausted all the available alternatives to bring the mountains under their control.
Afghanisthan was once center of Vedic Culture. The Indo Aryans definitely lived in that region before migrating further either upwards or downwards. For the Aryans Afghanistan was the land of the Gandharvas or the celestial beings. The Gandharvas were depicted in the Vedic scriptures as celestial beings, skillful in music, with magical powers, and beautiful forms. In status they were not equal to the devas, but regarded as higher beings with divine powers, mischievous at times, but mostly friendly and reliable.
In ancient times, the valleys of Afghanistan must have resonated with the sounds of many caravans crisscrossing the country. The Indus valley people conducted their overland trade with Mesopotamia through Afghanistan. Their caravans carried a variety of goods that included rare and precious stones, minerals, food grains, resins, gold, silver and bronze, incense, Pistachios and more.
After the expansion of the Vedic culture and the decline of the Indus valley civilization Afghanistan was invaded and occupied by the Persian army headed by Darius, the Great, (522 to 486 BC). We have little information as to who were ruling Afghanistan at that time. Probably it was part of an Indian kingdom from the Punjab region or was ruled by local chieftains.
When Alexander marched towards India, he passed through the mountainous territories of Afghanistan and had to subdue many native tribes in the region. In the course of multiple battles he fought with them, his army was put to enormous strain and loss. Since his army was not familiar with the territory and his soldiers were not that skilled in mountain warfare, his army was literally exhausted by the time they reached the Indian borders and lost much of their motivation to fight further and march deeper into the subcontinent. The tired and frustrated soldiers insisted Alexander to return to their homeland. On their way back, Alexander had problems once again in the region and had to remain cautious till they crossed the borders of Afghanistan.
Alexander appointed Seleucus I as the viceroy of the Asian territories he conquered, which comprised of a vast area that stretched from the northwestern borders of India to most of Anatolia and parts of Syria-Phoenicia. Selucus I was not able to maintain his hold on the region for long. A few years after he took over the reign, about 303 BC, Chandragupta Maurya, the founder of the mighty Mauryan Empire from eastern India waged a war with Seleucus and defeated him.
As a part of the agreement, Seleucus I gave his daughter in marriage to Chandragupta Maurya and also ceded him Afghanistan and surrounding areas. For a few centuries from then on, Afghanistan remained under the control of the Mauryan Empire and enjoyed some degree of stability. During the Mauryan rule, Buddhism spread into Afghanistan and became a dominant religion there.
The Mauryan emperor who made this possible was Ashoka. He was the son of Bimbisara and the grandson of Chandragupta Maurya. During his reign the Mauryan empire reached its zenith. (See the Map). Perhaps under no other ruler before him or after him, so much of the country owed allegiance to one power.
Ashoka had a special relation with Afghanistan. When he was still a young prince, his father Bimbsara appointed him as the viceroy of this region, with Taxila (Org.SK. Takshasila, currently located in Pakistan near Rawalpindi ) as his headquarters. Taxila was then a great religious and trade center. It was a great seat of Vedic learning, where flourished the study of Vedic scriptures, many arts, crafts and ancient sciences. With the emergence of Buddhism in the region this region started attracting Buddhist scholars too.