Re: Mauryan Kingdom
I dont know much aobut history just googled it. The reason for I asked the question because;
Once a Japanese told me that "he believes Buddha and Ashoka was from today’s Pathans origin and he wanted to go to Takht Bhai to learn the language."
The Buddha was not a Pashtun, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again the Pashtuns are an Iranic people and not an Indic people like the Buddha or Asoka Mauraya.
The Buddha was a prince from the Shakya tribe who were Kshatriya (warrior/royal caste) Hindus from southern Nepal, his language was Pali and it became the liturgical language of his religion and the Tipitaka is in this language.
In my opinion the ancestors of the Pashtuns first arrived in this region from presentday Iran at round about 140 BC which was well after Buddhism had been established in this region and after the reign of Asoka Mauraiya.
People start assuming that just because Buddhism was once practiced in Afghanistan it was the ancestors of present day Afghans who practiced it, Gandhara (ancient afghanistan/western pakistan) was an Indic state, it’s inhabitants then are different from it's inhabitants today, they spoke Kohistani and Hindko not Pashto.
Tell your friend that the people of Afghanistan today and the people of this region back then are as different as apples and oranges, he wants to learn Pali not Pashto.