
Gandhara, centered around the Peshawar Valley and Swat river valley, extended its cultural influence across the Indus river to Taxila in the Potohar Plateau, westwards into the Kabul and Bamiyan valleys in Afghanistan, and northwards to the Karakoram range. In the 6th century BCE, it emerged as a significant imperial power in northwest South Asia, incorporating the valley of Kashmir and exerting suzerainty over Punjab region states like the Kekayas, Madrakas, Uśīnaras, and Shivis. King Pukkusāti of Gandhāra, reigning around 550 BCE, embarked on expansionist ventures, notably clashing with King Pradyota of Avanti, and emerged successful.
Following these conquests, Cyrus the Great of the Persian Achaemenid Empire, after his victories over Media, Lydia, and Babylonia, invaded Gandhara and annexed it into his empire, specifically targeting the trans-Indus borderlands around Peshawar. Despite this, scholars like Kaikhosru Danjibuoy Sethna suggest that Pukkusāti maintained control over the remainder of Gandhara and the western Punjab, indicating a nuanced control of the region during the Achaemenid conquest.