DescriptionWho controlled Central Asia, Afghanistan, and western Pakistan has changed over time. As the Sasanian Empire grew in strength in the third century AD it expanded its control eastward at the expense of the Kushans. Kushan governors in Afghanistan and Seistan came to acknowledge as overlords the Sasanians rather than the Kushans.The earliest ancient Indian coins were the “bent bar” punchmarked silvers of the Achaemenid Persians occupying Gandhara in northwest Pakistan. By the 3rd century BC coins were in general use in most of India and Ceylon, and in subsequent centuries struck round coins in gold, silver, and copper came into use throughout the subcontinent and beyond to Southeast Asia and Pacific islands to Java and beyond.
