1. This regular interchange of ambassadors and correspondence, as well as the extension of the Mauryan Empire till Afghanistan, facilitated regular trade from India to the West as far as Egypt
2. Trade was carried on by the overland route via north-west Afghanistan (Bactria) and also partly by the coastal route along the Persian Gulf and Red Sea.
3. A variety of luxury goods, including ivory, tortoise shell, pearls, indigo and other dyes.
4. aromatic substances like spikenard or nard (a fragrant oil from the Gangetic region) and malabathrum (leaf of cinnamon, used as an aromatic) and rare woods were exported from India.
5. Thus, The rise of Indo-Greek kings in Western India strengthened trade and cultural contacts.

During the reign of Kushanas, there was great creative energy when art and literature flourished.
1. The Greek influence led to an Indo-Greek style of sculpture and art commonly referred to as Gandhara art. Statues of Buddha, sculpted particularly in Taxila
2. The north-western regions, show him in graceful garments, surrounded by cherubs and leaves inspired by the Greek tradition.
3. The red sandstone sculpture with intricate carving produced near Mathura.
4. The Buddhists began to carve out rock caves in the hills of western India, which served as religious centres with chaityas and viharas, stretching from the Ajanta caves to the Kanheri caves in Mumbai.
5. Large statues of Buddha were sculpted in these caves as apart of the Mahayana tradition, and in later centuries, they were further-embellished with murals of extraordinary beauty, as seen in the Ajanta caves.
6. Kanishka was the patron of Buddhist philosophers such as Asvaghosha, Parsva and Vasumitra, as well as the great Buddhist teacher Nagarjuna.
7. Asvaghosha is known for his Buddhacharita and is celebrated as the author of the first Sanskrit play, Sariputraprakarana, in nine acts.
8. The great dramatist Bhasa, whose plays werere-discovered only about a hundred years ago in South India.

1. Two major developments changed the contours of trade between Europe and India towards the beginning of the Common Era.
2. By the end of the last century BCE, Rome emerged as the superpower of the Mediterranean world, displacing the Greek kingdoms, and the republic became an empire in 27 BCE under Emperor Augustus.
3. Rome was the largest and, probably, the wealthiest city in the world commanding huge resources realised through conquests in Europe and North Africa.
4. The wealth of Rome greatly increased the demand for various products from India.
5. Especially the spices and textiles of the Tamil country, resulting in a great expansion of trade.

1. Around the first century CE, the Satavahana kingdom was established in the Deccan area, comprising the modern states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
2. This, however, was not like the centralised empire of the Mauryas, and the provincial governors of the Satavahanas had a considerable degree of autonomy.
3. The second development was the discovery of the pattern of monsoon winds in the Arabian Sea in the first century CE by Hippalus, an Egyptian sailor.
4. A first century CE account in Greek, the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea (Periplus Maris Erythraei), is the most reliable source of information on the ports of the Indian coast and trade.
5. Archaeological findings confirm the information from all these sources.

1. This period, invasion of Ayodhya (Saketa) and further east into the Magadha territory.
2. However, since the Greeks seem to have been beset by internal dissensions, they did not retain any of this territory.
3. They ceded land to Pushyamitra, the Sunga emperor who had usurped the throne after the last Mauryan ruler.
4. Numismatic evidence also proves Demetrius's association with India.
5. He issued bi-lingual square coins with Greek on the obverse and Kharoshti (the local language of north-western Pakistan) on the reverse.