Peshawar: History
=== Ancient history ===
Peshawar was established as the city of Puruṣapura, on the Gandhara Plains in the broad Peshawar Valley, after the 100 CE. It may have been named after a Hindu raja, who ruled the city, known as Purush. The city likely first existed as a small village in the 5th century BCE, near the ancient Gandhāran capital city of Puṣkalāvatī, near present-day Charsadda.
In the winter of 327–26 BCE, Alexander the Great subdued Gandhāra during his invasion of the Indus Valley, as well as the nearby Swat and Buner valleys. Following Alexander's conquest, the Peshawar Valley came under the suzerainty of Seleucus I Nicator, founder of the Seleucid Empire. A locally made vase fragment that was found in Peshawar depicts a scene from Sophocles' play Antigone.
Following the Seleucid–Mauryan war, the region was ceded to the Mauryan Empire in 303 BCE. Around 300 BCE, the Greek diplomat and historian Megasthenes noted that Puruṣapura was the western terminus of a Mauryan road that connected the city to the empire's capital at Pataliputra, near the city of Patna in the modern-day Indian state of Bihar.
As Mauryan power declined, the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom based in modern Afghanistan declared its independence from the Seleucid Empire, and quickly seized the region around 190 BCE. The city was then captured by Gondophares, founder of the Indo-Parthian Kingdom. Gondophares established the nearby Takht-i-Bahi monastery in 46 CE.
In the first century CE, Puruṣapura came under control of Kujula Kadphises, founder of the Kushan Empire. It was made the empire's winter capital. The Kushan's summer capital at Kapisi (modern Bagram, Afghanistan) was seen as the secondary capital of the empire, while Puruṣapura was considered to be the empire's primary capital. Puruṣapura's population was estimated to be 120,000, which would make it the seventh-most populous city in the world at the time. As a devout Buddhist, the emperor built the grand Kanishka Mahavihara monastery. After his death, the magnificent Kanishka Stupa was built in Peshawar to house Buddhist relics. The golden age of Kushan empire in Peshawar ended in 232 CE with the death of the last great Kushan king, Vasudeva I.
Around 260 CE, the armies of the Sasanian emperor Shapur I launched an attack on Peshawar, and severely damaged Buddhist monuments and monasteries throughout the Valley of Peshawar. Shapur's campaign also resulted in damage to the city's monumental stupa and monastery. The Kushans became subordinate to the Sasanians and their power rapidly dwindled, as the Sasanians blocked lucrative trade routes westward out of the city.
Kushan emperor Kanishka III was able to temporarily reestablish control over the entire Valley of Peshawar after Shapur's invasion, but the city was then captured by the Central Asian Kidarite kingdom in the early 400s CE. …