CONTACTS BETWEEN THE

SUBCONTINENT AND THE WEST

ANEEQA
 INTRODUCTION TO CONTACTS

DO YOU KNOW WHAT IS MEANT BY CONTACTS ?

Contacts means the act of communicating
with someone , especially regularly or the
state of meeting someone to deal with
something . In the ancient times , there
were some contacts between the
Subcontinent and the west .
 Going Westwards
 The best wool & woollen cloth in the world were exported
to the West from the Indus Region .
 Steel weapons were introduced to the West . In the 5th
century BC , the people of Gandhara learned how to
make fine steel. Making it was so difficult it cost as much
as gold.
 Soldiers from the Punjab and Gandhara , who were famous
of their white clothing & iron tipped arrows , fought in the
Persian Army when it attacked Greece in the early 5th
century BC . They were probably in the Persian forces
which were defeated in the battle at Marathon in 490 BC .
 Going Eastwards
 The idea of using money instead of bartering came to
the subcontinent from Persia and the west . Coins
were often square or in rectangular silver bars . This
helped make trading easier .
 New ideas in carving statues and making buildings
came from Persia . The lions and decorations on the
pillars of Asoka are purely Persian in design .
 Persia and the West taught people of Northwest India
better ways of running the country by means of
trained officials .