The Hindūš province, remained loyal till Alexander's invasion. Circa 400 BC , Ctesias of Cnidus related that the Persian king was receiving numerous gifts from the kings of "India" (Hindūš). Ctesias also reported Indian elephants and Indian mahouts making demonstrations of the elephant's strength at the Achaemenid court. By about 380 BC , the Persian hold on the region was weakening, but the area continued to be a part of the Achaemenid Empire until Alexander's invasion.The hypothesis that the region had already become independent by the end of the reign of Darius I or during the reign of Artaxerxes II (Chattopadhyaya, 1974, pp. 25-26) appears to be contradicted by Ctesias’s reference to gifts received from the kings of India and by the fact that even Darius III still had some Indian units in his army (Briant, 1996, pp. 699, 774). At the time of the arrival of the Alexander's Macedonian army in the Indus Valley, there is no mention of officers of the Persian kings in India; but this does not mean (Dittmann, 1984, p. 185) that the Achaemenids had no power there. Other data indicate that they still exercised control over the area, although in ways that differed from those of Darius I’s time (Briant, 1996, pp. 776-78). Darius III (c. 380 – July 330 BC ) still had Indian units in his army, albeit very few in comparison to his predecessors. In particular he had 15 war elephants at the Battle of Gaugamela for his fight against Alexander the Great.
The Hindūš province, remained loyal till Alexander's invasion. Circa 400 BCE , Ctesias of Cnidus related that the Persian king was receiving numerous gifts from the kings of "India" (Hindūš). Ctesias also reported Indian elephants and Indian mahouts making demonstrations of the elephant's strength at the Achaemenid court. By about 380 BCE , the Persian hold on the region was weakening, but the area continued to be a part of the Achaemenid Empire until Alexander's invasion.The hypothesis that the region had already become independent by the end of the reign of Darius I or during the reign of Artaxerxes II (Chattopadhyaya, 1974, pp. 25-26) appears to be contradicted by Ctesias’s reference to gifts received from the kings of India and by the fact that even Darius III still had some Indian units in his army (Briant, 1996, pp. 699, 774). At the time of the arrival of the Alexander's Macedonian army in the Indus Valley, there is no mention of officers of the Persian kings in India; but this does not mean (Dittmann, 1984, p. 185) that the Achaemenids had no power there. Other data indicate that they still exercised control over the area, although in ways that differed from those of Darius I’s time (Briant, 1996, pp. 776-78). Darius III (c. 380 – July 330 BCE ) still had Indian units in his army, albeit very few in comparison to his predecessors. In particular he had 15 war elephants at the Battle of Gaugamela for his fight against Alexander the Great.
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