Mauryan India

After Alexander went back to Babylon in 324 BC, a man named Chandragupta was able to overthrow the old Aryan kingdom of Nanda and form a big new empire over all of northern India and into Afghanistan. When people asked him how he had done it, he said (according to Greek historians) that he got the idea from Alexander. Chandragupta conquered the Indus valley back from the Greeks and as part of the peace treaty he married the daughter of Seleucus, who had succeeded Alexander, and gave Seleucus 200 elephants.

Chandragupta died in 298 BC and was succeeded by his son Bindusara. Bindusara's son Ashoka made the Mauryan Empire even stronger, ruling some of southern India as well as the north.

But Ashoka's victories at Orissa were so bloody and awful, that (at least according to tradition) after that battle he gave up warfare for the rest of his life. Ashoka converted from traditional Indian Hinduism to the new faith of Buddhism, and he used his power to convince millions of other people to convert to Buddhism too, all over Central Asia.

After Ashoka died in 231 BC, though, his sons and grandsons were not as strong rulers as he was, and the Mauryan Empire gradually fell apart.